Unafraid to bare her scars in a public forum, Frankie Clarke, vocalist for Frankie And The Studs, has always written songs that provide hope and empowerment for women.
Without directly preaching the point or singling out a particular target, Clarke enables her music to resonate with a wide audience while also providing a source of inspiration and encouragement that life can be better if you choose it to be.
With new single “(Not Your) Victim” Frankie And The Studs explore the theme of taking back control of your destiny in a confronting manner without overtly exploiting the situation through graphic content that could potentially overshadow the delicate subject matter.
“I wrote the song two years ago and I wrote it about a tumultuous relationship that I was in,” Clarke explained, “but I also had in the back of my mind… I wrote it at the height of the Me2 movement when a lot of women were coming out and speaking up so I think that was subconsciously in the back of my mind as well. The song is supposed to be a female empowerment song, like, I’m not your victim. It’s taking back our power as women”.
While the song is based on personal experiences, Clarke also hopes the message in “(Not Your) Victim” will resonate on a much broader scale.
“That’s something that I love about music,” she continued, “is being able to connect to people that you’ve never met before and one experience can be shared by many different people. That’s what I’ve always loved as a music fan. I love listening to music where I can feel like I went through that situation and can relate to it. As a songwriter, I also love that people can connect to my music as well.”
Although the song paints a bleak picture of a woman attempting to escape the turmoil in her life, Clarke says the message is not all doom and gloom.
“I would say it is more a message of hope,” she nodded. “I think that at the time I wrote it I was in despair (laughs), but also the process of writing the song and putting it out and putting up the video was all a cathartic experience. I think with music that’s something we can learn too; that it helps us process our emotions and our feelings and I feel like it is hopeful because now I’ve overcome those things and now I have something to be proud of. I’ve created something out of that pain.”
In the full interview, Frankie discusses the film clip and key moments in it, new music and the potential of an album in the near future, musical inspiration, her look and the importance of it to her music, empowerment of women, their new Australian label and more.
