by Daniel Colussi | Having come up through the ranks as drummer for several of the more notable indie bands of the last five years (Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Crystal Stilts), Frankie Rose has ditched the drum kit and asserted herself as a bona fide front lady. Any doubts as to her ability are quickly put to rest upon hearing her lushly epic second album, Interstellar. It’s a beautiful statement of intent: her voice floats through thick walls of synth, creating a sound that seem to stretch out deep into the cosmos but stays grounded by an 80s dance/pop spirit (drummers everywhere should feel ennobled). I had a quick chat with Frankie while she and her band drove through Texas hunting for Czech pastries. Enjoy!

Where are you guys driving right now? We are doing the drive from Dallas to Austin right now. We’re in search of Kolaches. I don’t know what that is, but its a Czech pastry that apparently you can only find in Texas and the Czech Republic! Then we’ll go get some Tex-Mex before we hit the venue.

You’re a drummer who’s stepped out from behind the kit and is now fronting the band. How does it feel to be in the same club as James Brown, Iggy Pop, J Mascis and Phil Collins? And Phil Collins! My mom loves Phil Collins! Well, I wrote songs for Vivian Girls but you’d never know because I never sang. It was just a natural progression for me to move to the front. It was great to work on songs in other bands, but eventually it just stopped feeling satisfying. I mean, I never wanted to be a front person.

Interstellar, the new album, has been getting really good press. Yeah, it’s been really awesome. I did not have any idea about how it would be received, honestly. When I turned it in to the label, I felt like, “this could go horribly wrong!” I had no idea if I had something good or bad on my hands. I just knew it was different.

It’s got a big, bold sound. Is that the result of working with Le Chev as producer? Well he’s one of my very close friends and I initially didn’t start working on the album with him. I started recording at the same place I recorded the first one. I knew I wanted a different sounding album, but I was sort of ending up with the same sounds, the same things. So I asked Le Chev to do it, knowing that he’s a dance producer and really would make decisions that I would not make, which is what I wanted. I had a big picture in mind but I wasn’t exactly sure how it would be manifested. So I ended up with a much bigger sounding album, which was great.

Was it like a collaboration between you and Le Chev? Did he take it directions that you wouldn’t have yourself? It was little production stuff; how the vocals were brought up in the mix, choosing sounds – things like this. It was collaborative in a way that I’m really comfortable with.

And it feels good playing these songs live? It’s been a real work in progress, honestly, because the album’s so huge sounding, and I have four people backing me so this whole tour has been about learning what works and what doesn’t. It’s a little more rock ‘n roll than the album. But so far the response at shows has been great. There’s a lot of fat synths on the album. A few people played keys on the album. I did the same thing that I did on the first album, which is bring whatever it takes to get the right take. A few different people came in to play on the album and I don’t even remember if half of them are what ended up being on the album. It’s hard to say who played what actually!

The album comes off as big canvas. It’s quite epic at points, but it also sounds somewhat timeless, out of time. I hope so. That was definitely one of my goals. I wanted to make something that was, um, timeless is a good way of putting it. Otherworldly and cinematic were big points for me that I wanted to hit. I did reference things for sure, sort of 80s. I wanted to make something that was more pop and dancey and when I think of that I think of 80s pop music. And those are the lot of choices I made for the drum sounds. Hopefully it’s not too referential.

Did you go into the recording know that the album would be called Interstellar? No. That was actually after I started working with Le Chev. It started sounding sort of space age and streamlined. I mean, we ended up using way more synth than I even intended to, honestly. I wanted more guitars and a really specific guitar sound that I just really couldn’t get. I think I would need Robert Smith and all his producers in the room in order to get the guitar sound that I wanted. So we ended up using synths a lot more than I expected and it all started coming together in concept. I think we were talking about Daft Punk songs I and was like, “Oh man, is there an album called Interstellar?” And there wasn’t, surprisingly. It’s really weird to me.

I think my favourite song on the album is A Pair Of Wings. It really melts me. About 80 percent of it is from my first band that I ever played with. And I think it was the first time I ever played in a band with anyone. Really, you wouldn’t even recognize that it was the same song. It was played on the ukelele; there was this massive bridge that took about four minutes. But it’s the most sentimental song on the album for sure. I always loved the hook and I loved the words; they’re really earnest. I though it would be nice to make it a little bit choral and make it sort of cinematic and epic. I switched it up a lot!

This is kind of weird, but since you’re a Latina, I wanted to ask you about the connection between Latin Americans and Morrissey. Why is Morrissey so popular among Mexicans? Yeah, I know there’s a documentary about it. It’s kind of this weird phenomenon of Mexicans being totally obsessed with Morrissey and The Smiths. But I know it’s true, because my mom loves Morrissey. Growing up, my mom always loved it.

Frankie Rose and Dive play the Biltmore Tuesday April 24th.

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Zulu Records veteran and tunage aficionado Daniel Colussi is the Music Editor of Scout Magazine.