I was especially excited because Harper King, one of my favourite photographers, was touring with them, doing merch and snapping photos. I walked in through the back alley entrance of the venue, two slices of pizza in hand, and immediately asked the first person I saw—who happened to be Dylan Sizemore, the band’s lead singer and guitarist—“Where’s Harper?!” He chuckled and pointed vaguely around the venue: “She’s around here somewhere.”

Photographer Harper King behind the merch table at Frankie and the Witch Fingers.

I stood off to the side, chewing my pizza, when Harper emerged from the venue’s shadows. I went full goblin mode, rushing over with my mouth still full of ‘za. We spent the next little while hanging at the merch booth, taking pictures of each other and basking in the joy of finally meeting IRL.

Soon after, drummer Nick Aguilar returned from a Chinese food run and brought me backstage to meet the rest of the band. The last time I’d been in this green room was for No Fate, a local deathmatch wrestling production—and let me tell you, it smelled a lot better this time around. Hoping to break the ice, I pulled out the dice that I always carry in my bag. “A game of threes, anyone?”

I love playing dice on tour and have found that most other bands do too; the Frankie crew (Dylan, Nick, Pickle, Jon, and Josh) were no exception! A few games were played and all won by Josh except one victory by yours truly. Now that we were all bonding over gambling it felt like a great time to start the interview.

“I love making stuff with my friends,” Dylan tells me with a childlike grin when I asked what their favourite part of being in Frankie and the Witch Fingers was. “I’ve always wanted to be in a band that plays loud and aggressive music… and now I can do that!” Pickle chimed in excitedly. “Yeah, I like that I get to be myself musically,” Nick added. The smiles all around made it clear—they genuinely love being in this band together.

“Our live show and the raw energy we share with the crowd feels like a whirlwind of electricity,” said Josh, summing it all up. This band is about friendship, good vibes, and playing loud as hell.

Dylan spoke about the power of intimate shows: “I never felt that at a big concert. I’ve always attended and played small house shows—where there’s no boundary between you and the band. You’re just in it with them.”

“For me personally,” Pickle said with passion, “as a woman in society, we’re made to feel like we should be quiet and small, like we shouldn’t upset anyone or take up space. So when I’m on stage—or even in our practice space—I get to be loud. I get to take up space. And in doing that, I get to feel fully myself.”

And in that moment, I became a full-fledged Pickle fangirl.

“I’m a Cronenberg fangirl,” Dylan jumped in.

“NARDWUAR!” Nick exclaimed. “I sent him an email but he couldn’t come.” Nick makes a sad face and we all laugh – Nardwaur if you’re reading this I’m manifesting a FATWF x Nardwaur interview in the future! 

Pickle, meanwhile, fangirls over artists—which definitely comes in handy when it comes to their sick album art and merch. “We worked with Will Sweeney on a cover and I was like, ‘OMG, he replied to our email!’” The art for their new album Trash Classic is by Jordan Warren, and their merch table was a dream—something for everyone, and affordable too. As a visual artist myself, I deeply appreciate a band that cares about making cool shit and collaborating with creatives they admire.

Tying it all back together, Dylan told me the secret sauce behind Trash Classic is touring with your friends, discovering new bands, and “being inspired by whatever we’re fangirling over at that time.” You can hear all of that in the music—it’s vibrant, electrifying, and full of life.

When it was time for the show, I made my way to the front and braced myself against the stage, fully prepared to get a few ribs bruised. The couple beside me were craning to read the set list. “They’re playing every song I want to hear!” one of them shouted. I glanced down and saw a bunch of my own favourites, too. This was going to be good.

At 10 p.m. sharp, they hit the stage. The crowd instantly erupted—beer sprayed through the air, crowd surfers zoomed past my head (and my camera), and I held my ground as long as I could until someone nailed me in my fresh leg tattoo. That was my cue. I bailed on the pit and joined Harper side-stage to shoot from safer ground. We darted from side to side and up to the balcony, giggling and exchanging giddy looks as the band lit up the room.

Chaotic, joyful energy coursed through the venue from start to finish. The crowd never stopped moshing. For the encore—“Bonehead”—Dylan came out without his guitar, amping up the crowd even more before closing things out with a bang.

What a show. My friends hadn’t led me astray. The Frankie crew did not disappoint. They’re on tour through the rest of the year—don’t sleep on it.

Set List:

COCAINE DREAM
FUTUREPHOBIC
ELECTRICIDE
CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS
FUCK SAKE
DEAD SILENCE
EGGS LAID BRAIN
BRAIN TELEPHONE
REALIZATION
DRACULA DRUG
COPS AND ROBBERS
EMPIRE
BONEHEAD