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Fanny Broberg

Grapevine caught up with Fanny Broberg of The Franklys just before they headed off to The Isle of Wight Festival as part of their UK tour which will see them play in Ipswich, Chelmsford and Norwich this week.

How did the four of you get together?

Well, me and Jen, we’ve known each other for a very long time, like since six years old, something like that and we moved over to London 2008 I think. We were playing together and pretty much met Zoe & Nicole in London through mutual friends. Nicole had a party somewhere and we decided to go for a jam… that was pretty much it, nothing too interesting!

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Which of you is the songwriter, or is there more than one?

Actually it’s the four of us. Usually what happens is that we get together and jam, one of us usually comes up with an idea, a riff or something like that, then we all build on it. Everyone feels that it is important that everyone has an input to the creative side of things, everyone wants to feel that they are part of the creative process. Everyone does the music together and then Jen usually puts lyrics on top of whatever we’ve come up with.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard of The Franklys?

Ah hmmmm… I would say probabaly… kinda garage, in your face, punk-pop… ?

Talk to me about the single Bad News and what I think is a slightly odd video.

(Laughs) Oh, you think? Well, the video is shot in this amazing place called Fort Amherst where they have re-enactment groups doing war and stuff like that. So our good friends are doing that and Nicole, who likes doing music videos and stuff – she was the one doing “Puppet” she thought let’s get these guys into a music video, that will look awesome! Soilders, re-enactment, old school looking and then the animal masks… everything seems a bit random, but that’s an inspiration from another film which I cannot remember right now! It’s pretty much how we wanted to reflect the song, being just a bit dark, a little bit y’know… weird I guess.

So far you have released two singles and two Eps, are there any plans for an album?

Yeah. Definitely, we are currently writing and exploring our sound. We have material ready, we just want to work on a few more options and maybe try something a little bit new in terms of sounds. We are hoping to have something out there maybe next year.

In the meantime you are doing an awful lot of touring, aren’t you?

Yeah. So we’ve released this “Bad News” EP and we decided to do a big European tour this summer, mainly focused on the UK. We are also going to France and Germany. Then later in the year we are hoping to do Spain and Norway as well.

I’m so jealous, you are playing The Isle of Wight Festival aren’t you?

Yeah! I’m almost jealous of myself! It is f***ing the best festival! I was there four years ago and it was just… so well organised. It is big but it feels small, you can get to everywhere, amazing bands. I think I saw The Strokes and Blondie which were my highlights. I can’t wait to play – it’s a big honour to be asked to play. We are all very excited but at the same time we are a little bit nervous about camping, because we haven’t done that in a while!

Let’s hope the weather holds up.

Ah – a festival is never a festival without some rain!

What is the best, and perhaps the worst part of touring do you think?

Well, the best part obviously is playing. It is so amazing to see new cities, new venues and to play in front of different people and different crowds. Usually when we go out playing we have so much fun together. It’s a time when you can really relax – that’s what playing in a band is all about, just to go out and play. The worst part is to carry all our gear!

You mean you don’t have a band of roadies working for you?

No, no! We carry everything ourselves. It is absolutely amazing to go touring. Usually we try to fly to different places but this year we a going to travel around in a van. Our good friend is driving us and it is a super cool psychedelic looking van – you will recognise us on the road, that’s for sure!

Do you prefer the small venues of the big festivals?

You know what? I prefer the smaller venues but bigger stages. Does that make any sense? I like to have some room on stage to dance around. It is nice have some space, when we play the smaller venues it is really awesome but at the same time you bump into the others – the other day Jennifer accidently stepped on my foot really hard.

A completely different question then – how many guitars have you got?

Me personally? I’ve just sold my first one actually and bought a new on so actually I have two, believe it or not.

Is it more difficult, do you think, for women to make it in the music industry?

It is difficult, it is a very male dominated industry. If you see a big festival line up it is mostly men. I feel there are a lot more women getting more exposed. Women are getting more support now, they are trying to make it more equal, which is great. There have been times when people have come up and said “Oh, you guys are awesome… for girls” and it’s like what’s that mean?

So whose music do you listen to?

Well, my personal taste is versatile, I like to listen to Queens of the Stone Age, The Hives, that kinda stuff but I like 80s classics, 80s rock, heavy big sounds.

Fanny Broberg, it has been a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to talk to Grapevine, we’ll see you at the Cult Café in Ipswich on 19th June.

[shareprints gallery_id=”95964″ gallery_type=”squares” gallery_position=”pos_center” gallery_width=”width_100″ image_size=”medium” image_padding=”5″ theme=”light” image_hover=”false” lightbox_type=”slide” titles=”true” captions=”true” descriptions=”true” comments=”true” sharing=”false”]Click here to see The Franklys full tour list.

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