Interview with Frankie Cosmos

Live from the sidewalk outside Golden Tea House.

Frankie Cosmos plays Golden Tea House.
Diane Bayeux

Live from the sidewalk outside Golden Tea House

New York band Frankie Cosmos doesn’t come to Philadelphia regularly, more like every other month. But when they do, they hit some thrift stores, eat some cheesesteaks and play the Golden Tea House, the small venue in West Philadelphia whose small stage seems more like a living room in which your friends decide to perform for you in the middle of the night.

This fits well with Frankie Cosmos, a band formed out of love, with Aaron Maine (drums) the boyfriend of Greta Kline (vocals and guitar) and the brother of David Maine (bass) and Gabby Smith (keyboard and vocals), the soulmate of Greta met through bands. The four of them were dispersed in the crowd, shaking their heads to opening bands The spirit of the beehive, Mitski and Sheer Mag.

I sat with Greta, Gabby and David, on the sidewalk in front of the house to talk to them about cities, music, being an artist and being a woman, and friendship with an underlying concept of appreciation for each other. They might live in different parts of New York, with Greta and Aaron in the Village, David in Westchester and Gabby in Brooklyn, but they are profoundly connected, answering in unison and rarely contradicting each other without sweetness.

How long have you been playing music?

Greta Kline: All together, two years as a band. Probably all of us since we were kids.

Are there any bands that influenced you and that you follow closely?

Greta: Gabby had a band that influenced me when I was younger, Eskimeaux. Aaron Maine also had a band when I first starting music. Other than that — Pile, Krill.

Gabby Smith: We all feel attached to Old Table.

David Maine: Jonathan Richman in the Modern Lovers is how I learned to play bass.

Greta: David left a CD stuck in the music player, which has been there for two and a half years now, which is how he got into Jonathan Richman.

How is it to live in the Village?

Greta: It does not influence so much because the music scene does not especially have the best interest in us with businesses asking 30 people and tickets to be able to play. Except some times at the Bowery Ballroom, we play at house shows not in the neighborhood. Manhattan is not at the top of its game.

Does living in New York influence your lyrics?

Greta: Not just living in, New York is where I am from. I have lived there my entire life, for 20 years, so it’s like the only place that I know how to walk around and figure out a place.

Gabby: I feel like living in the city gives you this really weird sense of solitude because you are surrounded by a billion of people who you don’t know as opposed to the experience in the suburbs where you know where everyone lives. It’s a solitary music experience.

Greta: Many people living in New York make music so it’s a lot harder to feel that you stand out. You’re not the cool kid in school just because you have a band. It’s also a thousand shows going on every night. We’re getting to that point when the venues tell us that we can’t play more than two times a month, because we don’t have as much draw. There are different rules making it weird, music-wise. I like New York though because of the access to all the music with no restrictions on age, which doesn’t exist in all places and I feel lucky to have been introduced to the rock scene when I was younger that Gabby was kind of part of already.

Did you grow up in an artistic background?

Greta: I guess. My parents are artists. My brother is an artist. My parents lived next to an area called Museum Mile. Once I was old enough to roam around New York, I had a brother to take me to shows. I felt that I was encouraged to make music.

How did your band name come about?

Greta: Aaron made it up. Aaron started calling me Frank because Frank O’Hara, the poet, which I showed him when we started dating and he thought the cosmos was a very interesting theme. I nicknamed him Ronnie Mystery so he called me Frankie Cosmos. I don’t know why it became the band name but it was just the two of us before so I might start calling the band Frankie Cosmos and the Emptiness. I’m Frankie Cosmos and the band is the Emptiness, the opposite of a band. The emptiness is part of the Zen concept, which is full of jokes I think. We have not spoken of the emptiness yet.

Do you like being in a band with your boyfriend?

Greta: Double sword. I love having him on tour. I think he’s a really genius musician. I’m in his band too (Porches). For our band, he’s very important too. He comes up with the arrangements, helps with a lot of the parts. I feel lucky to have him in the band. There are no downsides except that we are both in each other’s bands so we are both stressed out all the time because we have the double amount of shows. How it is for you David to be with your brother?

David: It’s great because we don’t hang out otherwise, too busy with music stuff. It’s very special to do with your family. Greta is like my sister.

Gabby: I feel like a lot of bands are thrown together, their band is a lot like a business. You find your bandmates on Craiglist and pay them to be in your band. I feel like we were meticulously selected.

Greta: This took years to put together. It started at a huge place of love but it also fell and it worked out perfectly. It’s all based on friendship. I would never be in a band with someone that I wouldn’t want to hang out with every second or go on tour with.

How does it feel to be a 20-year-old female musician?

Greta: We talk about this every day, a lot. It can be hard to be a woman making music. I feel like there are a couple of the same problems. What’s cool with this band is that it overcomes the potential of people thinking that it will suck. They regret this thought. It’s nice to have a lot of male fans because a lot of our music talks and deals with that problem, the fact of feeling squashed as a female in the world. It’s nice to get the message out, to feel that people are listening but I feel like we’re also very lucky because we have a lot of female friends that make music and we get to make shows like this, with a bunch of ladies. It feels safe.

Describe your love life in 10 words or less:

Gabby: Very stable, dogs. I feel like my love life is my whole life.

Greta: Steady, art, living together, good kisser and you can put that for him too, he feels the exact same way, add relevant to mine.

David: Dynamic, sporadic, disappointing, really educational, irrelevant.