Franché Coma – An Xperience Interview

Franché Coma- An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: Thanks for talking to me.

FC: No problem. You’re welcome anytime.

RRX: My boss here, Art Fredette, sent me some of your new tunes and I’m really liking what I’m hearing so far. Looks like you just released “Science Craze” on August 2. We’ve got that in rotation here at RadioRadioX. We’re all loving that one!

FC: Yeah, “Science Craze,” like you said, came out already. “Monsters and the Mob” will come out on August 30. “Never Enough” will come out on October 4. Then after that, hopefully, you’ll see an EP or an LP. We’ll see.

RRX: Yeah, I was gonna ask. I’m really loving the sound. It really stays true to punk rock. I don’t know what you call it but it stays true to that sound that I love. I’m glad it still exists and that you’re still doing it.

FC: Oh, that’s great. Good to hear.

RRX: Obviously, you played guitar many moons ago with the Misfits and now you got your band FC Inc. I was curious, what did you do in between all that time?

FC: Raise four kids.

You know? I have four kids, three of them a year apart. My wife and I … our parents are older, put it that way. So I didn’t have the luxury of people watching my kids. I worked days and when I got home, she went to work at night and I watched the kids. So that’s what took place, until the kids who were at that age … I guess middle school or high school, and then I had my daughter. Was it the right thing to do? I don’t know, but it was the right thing to raise my kids. Was it the right thing to put the guitar down? Probably not. But there was only so much time in the day, you know what I mean? And here I am. What could I do? I now can do what I should have done.

RRX: Yeah, I hear that, man. I’m actually a grandfather myself now, I’m a young grandfather. I’m only 46 years old. So, unlike you, our parents were around to help babysit and now that’s us.

FC: I have five grandkids now. In fact, one of them is having a birthday and will turn seven today. It’s all good now, I can do whatever I want because it’s just my wife and I here. When the guys ask about practice, I have a studio here in the house and that’s where we rehearse. I’m available seven days a week, 24 hours a day whenever the guys can do it. I’m here.

RRX: Well, happy birthday to your grandkid.

FC: Thank you.

RRX: With your band FC Inc. are you going on tour to support the music when it’s all out and ready?

FC: Here’s the deal. We were ready to start playing roughly around June, give or take. Pretty much everyone I’m speaking to is giving me carte blanche if you will … the people in New York, the people in New Jersey, everybody I’ve been speaking with they said, “You put the lineup together.” That was the hard part. So I’m going out and seeing bands because I don’t wanna put a band on, just to put a band there. Some of the stuff I’ve seen didn’t exactly fit with us. It was a little bit tough, but I think we’re working that out now. To answer your question, yes. I didn’t wanna have to reach out right away to a booking agent but that’s gonna take a lot of the burden off my back if I do.

RRX: Absolutely.

FC: How much can you do in the course of the day? I’m not tooting my own horn because everybody plays their part. But it’s just another world … booking agents, that’s what they do. They’re in contact with the right people and they know who to put you with.

It’s probably gonna get to that point because we need to be out there and our goal was to be out there in June. So it looks like by the end of September, we gotta start being out there. That’s 110%. No two ways about it.

RRX: Well, when you do get out there, definitely consider the Capital Region.

FC: People like yourself that I’ve ran into that are willing to help and recommend the best places for us to play … after this interview, if we could chat a minute …

RRX: That would be cool for sure. So just getting back to the new music, what’s driving you to do the project that you’re doing now?

FC: The biggest problem was finding the right musicians. Just in the past couple of years I finally got together with the right bunch of guys. There’s five of us in the band and we all click. It all works together and that’s half the battle. We’re not ones to argue.

If there’s something we think can be different, okay, let’s try it that way. Instead of making a big debate and getting into arguments. That’s the biggest thing. The stuff that happens when you were in high school or as I call it elementary school, still goes on with grown men in bands, believe me. It’s unbelievable. So right now, everything’s good. We’re all on the same page and if there’s any disagreements, it’s not a big deal. We just figure it out and work through it.

RRX: I do. It sounds like you got yourself a good band. Tell us about the guys that you got.

FC: The other guitar player, Patrick, happens to be one of my sons. We tease him and call him Mitch Miller because he’s like the band leader. He’s a very talented musician and has played a lot of different instruments throughout his life. We don’t wanna let his head get too big, but we run everything by him because he’s good with it, and not that we’re not. But … sometimes the younger generation has better ideas.

RRX: Sometimes they do.

FC: The bassist’s name is Mike, we call him Moni. He’s been around a long time, a real good bass player. I gotta hit him on the back of the head and make sure everybody hears me saying that he’s a real good bass player because he said one time I just said he was OK, which I deny saying. I don’t remember saying that. And then the singer Tony … the lyrics right now have all been his, he’s like a real good poet. He’s real good with it. Our drummer right now is John Steele, he was playing with Voice of Doom. He’s a really good drummer, real good drummer.

RRX: So the name FC Inc. says it all, your AKA initials Franché Coma.

FC: But you know what happened? I didn’t even think of the name. I told everybody it’s a joint decision. I really don’t wanna go out there as Franché or whatever because you already got Danzig and Doyle. I’m friends with these people. I’ve been friends with Doyle our whole lives. I said now I’m gonna be the third Misfit. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. I’m like, “Why don’t you guys just pick a name?” I didn’t even come up with the name, they did. I said, “I don’t really care. I care about the music.” If it works, it works. If the music is good people are coming!

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