The Frente! Backlash

by jesse grant

It wasn’t long ago that Angie Hart was a sixteen year-old regular at our favourite Fitzroy live-music venue, the Punters Club. That was just prior to one of the bar tenders asking her to join his band, Frente!, at which very moment they began making a bunch of memorable pop songs that’ve pervaded the airwaves over the last few years. Along with bands like Clouds, Falling Joys and the Underground Lovers, Frente! have been giving people a catchy alternative to grunge and techno and it was all pretty peachy until they went and hurt our ears with their song “accidentally Kelly Street” and it doesn’t seem like anyone’s willing to forgive them. Now the band’s leaving for America, where they’re at the top of the charts, leaving us with Silverchair and Ratcat for company. Great.

Vice: The last few years have been crazy for you, right.

Angie:

Yeah, it’s been amazing but I have no idea what I’m doing a lot of the time. It all happened so quickly. I guess “accidentally Kelly Street” mightn’t have been the best idea.

Really, it’s so bad you have to leave the country?

Yeah, well it’s time to go. We just released a cover of “Bizarre Love Triangle”, which was actually intended as a B side but it really took off over there. We’ve just been touring with Everything but the Girl which has been amazing.

Yeah, right on. And your album Marvin The Album did really well here and now it’s killing over there too. That’s awesome.

Yeah that album is really special to me. I did the cover artwork and we spent so long working out the song order—it’s really important to get that right because people really listen to an album as an entire work, you know?

And you worked with Prince’s producer, Michael Koppelman on this album too? Amazing. How did that happen?

Well, like most things in my career, I had an idea and wrote to him and asked him whether he was into it and he said yes. I think it was pretty exotic for him.

You guys are signed to Mushroom. Do they break your balls?

Well, it’s actually worked out well because at the very beginning they didn’t expect much would happen with Frente!, so now they don’t keep much of an eye on us, which means we can do whatever we want.

So they didn’t mind when you posed nude on the cover of Juice last year?

Ha, no, they didn’t mind. It’s a good thing I was already planning on leaving the country though.

And, lastly, when you do choose to wear clothes, what’s your favourite trend of right now?

God, I guess I wear a lot of enormous clothes. I think I might actually really want to be a boy so I wear skater clothes all the time. I like board shorts and t-shirts that look like nighties and creepers on my feet and a cap on my head. I like to be comfortable.