As all serious music fans in the Mid-Atlantic know, this week is the official/unofficial start of touring season (“Fall Edition”), so hopefully we’ve all gotten enough sleep throughout the summer to spend 4-7 nights of each of the next 12 weeks or so in the city’s nightclubs, barrooms, listening rooms, and theatres, because they’ve all got some really good shit coming up in the very near future… In fact, this Thursday, September 4th, has nearly half-a-dozen super cool shows across town. However, we will happily be at our very first choice: Frankie Cosmos at Underground Arts. And while we’ve grown accustomed to seeing the NYC indie-rock outfit — led by vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, and sole constant member Greta Kline – play the basement of First Unitarian Church, we’re more than excited to see them play a different basement for the first time.
This Wednesday, one day and date prior to their stop in Eraserhood, Frankie Cosmos kick off a nearly-two-month North American tour behind their sixth full-length, Different Talking, which dropped this June on Sub Pop, their home since 2018’s Vessel. The LP has Kline joined by bandmates Alex Bailey, Katie Von Schleicher, and Hugo Stanley, who arranged the music as a whole and self-tracked the entire thing themselves, without outside producers, a first for Frankie Cosmos. They took on this task over the course of a month-and-a-half spent in a house in upstate New York, which they chronicled in a documentary on YouTube, which you can see below. Last week I got a chance to catch up with Frankie Cosmos’ Greta Kline – who I first spoke with in October of 2023 – to chat about the new album, upcoming tour, and a 2015 EP that’s about to turn 10, which Kline tells me kind of started as a joke, but, over the course of a decade, turned out to just be a kind of music that indie-rock fans would come to be all about…
Izzy Cihak: Last month you played Real Love Summer Fest, which had such a rad lineup (including our buddies Squirrel Flower and Sour Widows). How was that experience, both in terms of getting ready for the upcoming tour and just hanging out with tons of cool people?
Greta Kline: It was a great experience! We loved chilling with the other bands playing. Squirrel Flower was staying in the same place as us, so we got to spend time with them and get to know them more. Ella and I have played together a few times over the years, but this was definitely the most we’ve hung out, and it was really nice. We also were psyched to see and hang with our friend Katy (Dear Nora). We all played cards together. It was just a really intimate and fun festival, with good DIY vibes. It was our first time flying to play somewhere with this album, so it was a learning experience about how to travel with so much equipment. We have two guitars, bass, three keyboards, and drums, which is more than we have ever flown with in the past, but we have worked really hard on bringing this album to life in the live arrangement, so we don’t want to pare down our equipment for the sake of travel. So, there was some carry-on and checked baggage Tetris, which I’m glad we figured out ahead of the big tour.
Izzy: Earlier this summer you released Different Talking, your sixth album. Have you had any favorite reactions to the new music so far? I know you haven’t played it a ton live yet, but you did a big album release show at Union Pool and then this festival.
Greta: My favorite thing has been having friends tell me that they love the album, and that they’ve listened repeatedly. I think it’s really meaningful to have friends who are close listeners and diving deep into the record, and noticing new things “unfold” upon each listen. That is the most exciting feedback to me.
Izzy: You recently released a music video for “One of Each” and “Against the Grain.” What are the origins of those particular tracks, whether sonically, narratively, or both?
Greta: “One of Each” was actually written as an experiment – I wanted to try writing a “pop song” that I would give someone else, I wasn’t thinking of it as a Frankie Cosmos song. But then I really liked it and wanted to keep it. I tested it out at a solo show, and multiple people approached me afterwards to ask what it was, and I was like, I guess it will be on our next record! It was one of the first songs we arranged when we started working on Different Talking in April 2024.
“Against The Grain” was written while I was living in South Brooklyn, I think I was on a big walk, maybe from Sunset Park to Park Slope? I consider it part of a category of songs that I sort of channeled while walking. I can’t totally explain what it’s about, but it reveals itself to me at different times. I also think the ending of it is a huge sonic shift for Frankie Cosmos, it’s very ambient and meditative. Something we started to toy with during Inner World Peace (like with the song “Empty Head”) and continued to push on this record.
Izzy: You’ve released four really cool music videos from the album so far, which all have different directors (including you), so I’m curious if there are certain things that tend to inspire the visual elements of Frankie Cosmos, or if it’s different with every project? I feel like “One of Each/Against the Grain” and “Pressed Flower” have kind of similar vibes, but maybe just because they both sorta remind me of late ’90s/early aughts American indie cinema.
Greta: I think music videos in general are just really fun, and provide a totally different world in which a song can be taken in. I like to give directors (almost always friends!) creative control and see what the song evokes for them. “Bitch Heart” was directed by my best friend Eliza Lu Doyle who has made a music video for every Frankie album since Next Thing. “Pressed Flower” was directed by my friend Adam Kolodny, and is the only video of the bunch that I sort of presented to the director with a basic idea, which was concocted with Tracey Ullman in mind as the star. Adam took this kind of vague idea and turned it into a more neat narrative, and filmed the whole thing in one day which was so impressive. “One of Each/Against The Grain” was my first time working with Matthew Volz, an artist I’ve admired for years. It was his idea to make it a double music video, which was awesome. It’s so cool how each of the directors really brought their own styles to these videos, and I really loved how they all turned out. Sometimes I have a strong visual urge for Frankie Cosmos, but sometimes I don’t, and I can just go with the flow of collaboration.
Izzy: What do you feel like are the biggest differences from how you approach making (writing, recording, or even performing) music these days, compared to Frankie Cosmos’ earliest days, back when you were doing Zentropy? I realize that’s a massive question, but realizing it’s been more than a decade seems kind of crazy to me…
Greta: Yeah, it’s wild that it’s been like 12 years since recording Zentropy… in some ways I am the same, and in many ways I am different. I still very much write from the heart and express myself directly through song, as a form of therapy. I also still work with my band (although different members) in the same format, which is that I write the songs/make demos alone, and then I work with musicians I trust, and let them write their own parts on their instruments/contribute to the arrangement of the song. I definitely approach performing differently, because when I started performing it felt very much like an accident that I was finding myself on stage. I was nervous, and I think I really just saw myself as a writer, not a performer. Now, I actually really appreciate being on stage, and love creating live music, and consider it a much more significant part of my process and life. I also think I approach recording differently, because I just have years of experience now, and so the distance between what I want to sound like and what I sound like has gotten smaller.
Izzy: Your Fit Me In EP will actually turn 10 this year, so I’m curious how you feel about that particular collection these days, a decade on?
Greta: I still really like all those songs. We just decided to start playing “Young” live again, which is fun. I think that, sonically, that EP is the least timeless thing I have ever made. It was referential to popular music at the time, and it felt like I was just ahead of the curve of “indie bedroom artists” dabbling in “pop music.” I thought I was being hilarious at the time, putting my songs in that sonic world. Now, the joke doesn’t really land, haha.
Izzy: You’re about to kick off a pretty massive run of live dates, both in North America and overseas. Are there any venues or cities that you’re especially excited to return to?
Greta: I’m really excited to play in Seattle again, we haven’t been to the PNW since before Covid. Our record label (Sub Pop) is Seattle-based, so it will be nice to be in their city.
Izzy: What can be expected of the live show this time around? I last saw you in 2023, but it already feels like it’s been too long. You’re actually here the same night as HAIM, Swans’ final tour, and Rilo Kiley’s reunion tour, but I’m definitely choosing and championing your show as the show to be at that night!
Greta: Damn, yeah, I just learned that Rilo Kiley and Mac DeMarco are both playing in Philly the same night as us. I wouldn’t put it past anyone to choose whatever show they want to be at that night, haha. But I’ll just say that both of those shows are big and sold out, and ours is going to be a small, intimate show (and one that you can still get a ticket to)! We’re going to be on tour with some incredible openers and it’s going to be a special and beautiful night of performances. We’re going to be playing about 50% songs from the new album, and 50% songs from the FC oeuvre, and we’re going to sound the best we ever have, because we are touring with our own sound person, Eli Crews, who also mixed Different Talking!
Izzy: Like you said, you’re going to be on tour with a lot of really amazing acts. fantasy of a broken heart and Moontype will be in Philly, and then Chris Cohen, Emily Yacina, and Babehoven (who I know and love) handle support for dates to follow. What are your thoughts on your tourmates and their sounds? Last time we chatted you were on the road with Good Morning, who I’ve also covered, who you said were, “literally angels on Earth.”
Greta: I’m excited to spend time with all the opening acts (musically, and personally). We’re already friends with many of them, and looking forward to getting to know everyone. Touring together can be a bit like summer camp, and I’m sure we will make memories to last a lifetime. And I stand by what I said about Good Morning, touring with them changed my life. Emily (Yacina) actually joined us in the van for some of that tour, too, and she is also an angel.
Izzy: Do you have any favorite things about touring and being on the road with the band in addition to just playing the shows themselves?
Greta: Playing games (mostly cards and dice), developing weird inside jokes, strengthening our bond as musicians, being silly on stage, making each other laugh, and feeling in community with everyone that makes live music continue to happen!
Izzy: Your currently announced live dates run through the end of November, but what are you planning for after that, whether related to Frankie Cosmos or just relaxation? How are you hoping to spend the tail end of 2025 and the first bit of 2026?
Greta: When I get back from tour, I’m actually going straight to work at my mom’s store (tw: nepotism), where I do gift wrapping for all of December. We’re working on some potential tour dates for 2026. We are also moving into a new rehearsal space in between these tour legs, which will give us space to record ourselves on a more consistent basis. So, I think we’re all looking forward to working on some new music in 2026.
*Get your tickets here.
