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CHASE FRANK -- Guitar, Vocals, Writing -- Biography Chase Frank is a Singer-Songwriter,. She just finished recording her 4th album, this time with a Producer,
and none other than Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta, Free Moral Agents).
Her style is thick with both compassion and sarcasm. If you like tales of woe with your rock and roll you'll love Chase
Frank -- think Nick Cave & Tom Waits meets indie girl. She grew up on Motown vinyl & J.C. Superstar. Her
guitar hero is Nels Cline (now with Wilco). She strives to sing like the great female black voices she grew up listening
to: Nina, Billie, The Shirelles, Aretha and others. Her compositions skillfully blend her fascination with harmonies
& retro guitar tones with the honesty of early blues, heavily modernized.
As mentioned, Frank just finished
recording her 4th full length with Producer / Keyboardist Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta, Free Moral Agents). The collaborators
were many--Engineer Stephen Ceresia of Sunday House Studios (Bastrop, TX) at the helm, vocalist Ahmad Jamal Butler (long distance
band-mate since ('06), drummer Wayne Duncan & Cellist/Bassist Steve Bernal make the album soar and dip.
Her earlier psych sound with lyrics about dark matter has grown into a less autobiographical focus with "Smile Trials"
-- a brilliantly executed mix of pop melody, dark psych with revelatory lyric including the song We Humans, she sings:
"We humans are messy we never come clean,
we whoop, we holler we don't know when to quit
can't
stand the truth, denial all day,
we try and we try, but it just won't go away"
With literary stories
of Smile Trials in the USA, Frank takes on the voice of a different character in each song. A friend tries to coax a
girl to stop turning tricks (Happy Go Lightly), a straight man turns into a night life junkie (Johnny Masterall) and a girl
begs for human contact in the age of the internet & false bravado (Space Invasion), and for fans, her most requested song--A
girl professes her love for the man that accepts her as she is (Sweet Apple).
Each song is shrouded poetically
with a bed of talent swarming around Chase's stormy voice. The new album? Sounds of the times. Smile
Trials. US Tour Aug 8-23. Stops in Norman, Portland, Denver, Kansas, Boise, Seattle, LA, San Francisco!
CHASE FRANK has played shows with Nels Cline (Wilco),Free Moral Agents, Banyan, Minmae, The Happy Hollows, Thee More Shallows
(Anticon), The Boxing Lesson, Megafauna, The Pity Party, Rademacher, The Good The Bad (Denmark), I Got You On Tape, Mia Doi
Todd, and many more!
JOHN
ASHLEY - drums /live bio forthcoming
AHMAD (A.J) BUTLER- vocals (Smile
Trials / Winter Is My Summer) - Biography Ahmad "A.J."
Butler resides in Los Angeles, CA and he wouldn't have it any other way. His experience as an MC has taken him around
the block, but his natural skill exceeds when he sings. He has MC'd with DJ Almight Nectar, Dvine1, and rumor has
it he'll be singing on the next Free Moral Agents record. His most recent studio effort--vocals on Smile Trials--makes
the album dip and swoon. He first joined Chase Frank on a whim, riding along for a West Coast tour in 06 and never looked
back. He then joined her next tour, this time on vocals / percussion & drums and they've been collaborating since.
Smile Trials wouldn't be the record it is without AJ. His vocal style is soulful, his knowledge of great R&B
voices, in his bones. AJ executes his performances with feeling and grace. A.J. Butler is working on his first
solo album set for release early 2012.
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