Brakes are off for The Frakes

The Frakes, before the arrival of bassist Charlie

MUSIC EXTRA:

OLDHAM teenage indie hopefuls The Frakes are putting the finishing touches to a three track EP they hope will springboard them to success in 2016.

The Frakes — guitar vocalist Ben Warwick, rhythm guitarist Jacob Simpson, drummer Luke O’Reilly and new bassist Charlie Whittaker — have been working hard on original material over the summer.

The result is three as-yet unnamed tracks which the band are all excited about and will hope to get into Adam Briffa’s Futureworks studio before Christmas to record.

Front-man Warwick told the Chronicle: “We’ve got the three songs we’re happy with, it’s just the lyrics that need a bit of tampering.

“There’s a bit of a psychedelic sound to the songs. There’s minor chords in there and a lot of reverb, but all three tracks are very different. We’ll play a few gigs as soon as the EP is done, then we can see what the people think and take it from there.”

Now boasting extra member Whittaker — recommended by the Velocetas’ Harry Lavin — the Frakes are looking for 2016 to be a breakthrough year, given that 2015 has been stop-start since the band’s formation in summer 2013.

The band has belted out some great cover versions at packed-out recent gigs, but their original material is going to get most of their attention into next year.

“We plan to keep writing more and to keep generating The Frakes around town so that people know who we are,” said Warwick. “If we can finally get the right sound and tone then we’ll stick to that. It’s just finding that at the moment.

“Me and Jacob have been thoroughly into the mod scene in the past, but we have sort of drifted from that a little this year. We are trying out new sounds, but in terms of influences, we love Blossoms at the moment. We like their sound, but we have mixed it up a bit with some early 60s-type stuff.”

“We can play covers in a pub or whatever, but we’ll be turning the focus back onto ourselves more in 2016, and hopefully making that progress we’re after.”