If Frankie Rose’s name doesn’t seem immediately recognisable, readers will no doubt be familiar with the bands this prolific musician has been in over the years: Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls, to name a few. 2010 saw Frankie embark on a solo mission with her backing band, the Outs, and the same year, their self-titled debut, Frankie Rose and the Outs, was released.

2012 sees Frankie taking a different route altogether and releasing her first ever solo album under her name only. The album is Interstellar, and takes a very different direction from the music made by Frankie’s previous incarnations. It’s almost a hark-back to the 80s, and has an unashamedly pop sound. the girls are chatted to Frankie in Brooklyn to find out more about her new record.

What made you decide to leave the Outs behind, and embark on a completely solo career?
Actually, the record (with the Outs) was made in a similar fashion; the ladies from the Outs were just my live touring band, so it was never really a collaborative effort. I usually just bring in different musicians to do the job and do the record, it was more of a name change than anything!

What are you enjoying the most about being a solo artist?
Well, this is my second record as a solo artist, and it’s just a lot easier. I usually have a vision before starting to make a record, and it’s a lot easier to achieve it when you don’t have to decision make as a group. It was helpful to work with different people, like my producer, because you make decisions you wouldn’t normally make.

And what, if anything, do you hate about it?
Not really! But there is a lot of responsibility. I’m responsible for the live band, so if something goes wrong, the responsibility lies solely with me. It can be stressful, but I prefer this stress to the stress of collaborative efforts.

The new album sounds very different to your previous output: what influenced the change of direction?
I couldn’t make the same record twice, and I knew I wanted to make a bigger, cleaner, cinematic sounding record. That was what I had in my mind when recording, so I found the right producer, and went from there. He was a dance producer, so what he did was really different than what I do, it was an unlikely pairing!

Did you take a different approach to your other albums?
Not really, all my demos are kind of similar, and I’m still using the same songwriting process. I knew I wasn’t going to be using any guitar, in fact, there’s hardly any guitar on the record, it’s mostly synth. Actually, it’s really synth-based, so it’s really different from the last record.

Do you think it’s still difficult being a woman artist in a male-dominated music industry?
I think it’s getting better, because there are more female artists, but there are also more female journalists and more women behind the scenes. It’s more difficult to gender music when there are a lot more women doing it. It’s definitely getting better though, I’ve seen it myself. It used to be a lot worse, you’d get compared to other female musicians all the time, and if you had more than one girl in the band, you automatically got called a “girl group”. It’s ghettoising music, and it isn’t a smart way of looking at a band. Making it about gender, to me, is ridiculous!

What women musicians have been your biggest influence to date?
There are a lot, and it’s ever changing: there are so many people I look up to. I love people who make totally original music, like Elizabeth Fraser and Kate Bush. I love women who do their own thing, and are committed to making totally original music, not like anyone else’s.

What new artists are you listening to at the moment? Are there any names we should be looking out for?
There are a few! Light Asylum from Brooklyn, and Talk Normal, also out of Brooklyn, who recently toured with Wire. This is always a really hard question!

Now that the album’s almost been released, what are you planning to do next?
Write another one!

Any plans to come to the UK?
I’ll be there in July, playing Bestival. A summer gig’ll be nice. Last time we were in the UK, it was the middle of winter when you guys had those huge snowstorms, and we had to do gigs without soundchecks because we were driving for seven hours at a time. So yeah, hopefully a gig in the summer will be fun.

“Interstellar” will be released in the UK on 19 March.

Caitlin Gwynn