Being the only woman can be hard, but for the lead singer of Frankenixon, Evelyn Finch, it’s been quite the experience. The band’s mix of sexes leads to some interesting arguments and an eclectic fan following.
The band began in 2000, when guitarist Joe Kiplinger and Finch got together at college in southwestern Iowa. The bass player came later; Joe’s friend Ben Bailer was the third bassist to be a part of the band. Their drummer, Weston Dailey, joined the group around the same time as Bailer. Once the band was born and they began playing on stage, they needed a name.
“Our guitar player thought the name Frankenixon was hilarious because he was talking about presidents as monsters,” recalls Finch. “We laughed and so we named ourselves that, and then we released some records and could no longer change the name.”
Finch, the pianist and songwriter of the band, has written songs mostly about her life, of love, loss and regret. However, she has recently been writing songs about her dissatisfaction with the music industry and its generic sound. “Usually I write after something momentous or bad happens, unfortunately,” says Finch.
While the three men grew up in Iowa, again Finch is the odd one out, as she grew up in Detroit. Now-a-days the group lives together. While, according to Finch, this can cause the occasional gender war, for the most part they have a peaceful coexistence.
The band members hope to be able to support themselves playing their music. They would like to have a larger fan base so as to pursue music as a career. And they have accumulated quite a fan base so far, usually people between the ages of 30 and 40. Finch has also noticed that young women, especially girls ages 13-15, have taken a liking to her.
“I think girls in this area of the country need something to look forward to instead of becoming a house wife,” says Finch.
The band members describe their sound as progressive pop, similar to XTC. Taking time signatures from pop and changing them gives their sound a slight edge. Angered by how the music industry has handled music recently, Frankenixon tries to make its sound as different from today’s pop as possible.
Recently, a tiny label in Des Moines, Iowa, picked up Finch’s solo project. While she is devoting time to this project, right now she is very focused on working with her group. “Whatever falls into my lap I’ll pursue,” says Finch, “but this band is my baby and I’ve invested a lot of time into it.”
The band currently has two full-length albums and a sampler out, which can be found on its website, www.frankennixon.com. The follow-up to an E.P., the band’s full-length album, Depth Perception, was released this past October. Frankenixon has toured across the country, on the East Coast and around the Midwest in Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska. In a few tours from now, the band will make its way across to the West Coast.
