Now, where were we?
Oh, that’s right: we were chatting with the one and only Francis Reader, frontman for the Trashcan Sinatras. If you tuned in last week (and you really should have, you know), then you’re already aware that the conversation between Frank and myself was one that was a little freewheeling in its form, but the end result seems to be well appreciated by fans of the band…and, indeed, by members of the band. Our own David Medsker spoke with Paul Livingston a few days later – look for that interview on Bullz-Eye.com in the very near future – and remarked that I really seemed to have caught Mr. Reader in a talkative mood. Well, all I can tell you is that the decision to make it less of an interview and more of a conversation seems to have worked in my favor, and I’m glad that it seems to be going over well. Now, mind you, I did hear from one friend of mine who, after praising the piece, noted that it perhaps wasn’t the kind of interview that the band’s manager would want, given that there was zero mention of the band’s latest album, In the Music.
What luck, then, that there’s quite a bit of chat about the record in the second and final part of our conversation.
Popdose: So what’s Davy Hughes’ status with the band? Did he drop out? Did he just not want to participate anymore?
Frank Reader: Well, Davy’s still involved, but he’s…you know, he’s got a family, and it’s just not the kind of thing, really, where you can give your all your time to it when you’ve got a family and kids to support. Neither me or Paul or Steven or John have got kids, and although three of us are married, John’s married to another musician, and me and Paul are married to very understanding, beautiful women. (Laughs) For Davy, it was just a case where we had to work out a different way of having him involved, and that was…what we kind of do now is that we keep in touch, obviously, and every now and again, he’ll say, “You know, I managed to get ten minutes’ peace from the kids…” (Laughs) “…and I sat down and did a bit of writing, and here it is. If there’s anything you can do with it, do something with it.” So he contributed to In the Music in that way. And it’s great, because it feels good to have him involved, because he’s a touchstone in my life. He was there in the very beginning, although he didn’t play on Cake. He was actually playing with us once or twice before we made an album – when we were just doing covers, he was around then – so it’s good to have involved. It’s kind of “once a Trashcan, always a Trashcan” with him, you know? (Laughs) And the keyboard player we have, Stevie, has been with us off and on since ‘95, so he’s more permanent now, too.
I have a hard time remembering exactly what the Internet looked like when I first started toying around with it in 1996. I actually remember doing very little surfing; the only thing I did was look for the email addresses of the fan lists for my favorite bands. There was the Magical Armchair (Ben Folds Five’s list), the extremely dedicated crew behind Firedancer (a Duran Duran site), and what was easily the most insufferable group of jackanapes ever assembled, the Jellyfish fan list. But then I found the list that would ultimately change my life: the fans of the Trash Can Sinatras. The people on this list were unlike any of the other band lists. They were funny. They were polite (though there was one listee, a college girl from Arizona, that heckled me nonstop). They were generous (people would routinely buy things for other listees, and people were rarely stiffed). They were simply good people. In fact, it was there that I met one Will Harris, who would ultimately become not only one of my closest friends but a co-worker; my first act as Senior Editor for Bullz-Eye was to bring in Will as freelance writer. He’s now a full-time assistant editor, and has done more for the site than I ever will.