FREAK PHONE
1. Today’s interview will be all about Portland, Maine’s alliterative “ass shakers for impatient people” architects Freak Phone. Welcome! Would you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band?
Hi! I’m Rosie I sing and write lyrics in Freak Phone.
2. When and how did the band form, and did you have a “mission statement” or vision at the outset?
We started playing together in the winter of 2025. Preston Haynes (guitarist) and I met at an open mic at the Apohdion Theater in Portland. Preston was performing a lovable Jonathan Richman-esque original song and I was performing angry spoken word poetry. The rhythm section Jess Smith and Ethan Collins came as a set pair, I had seen Jess play drums in her other band Tiger Bomb, a garage rock outfit also from Portland. Darryl and Preston are childhood friends who had been playing in a surf rock band together. Once we got the line up it felt like we were cooking with gas, we all felt it and were like “it’s on.” We want to make straightforward rock n roll that reminds you of finding The Ramones, The Descendants or AC/DC or whatever it was when you were a kid. We want to make music that makes you forget to act cool at shows.
3. Your demo was released in April 2025. Tell us about the writing and recording process for that.
We had, and still have, an incredible amount of momentum between the five of us. We were jamming every week once February 2025 hit. Once you’re on to a good thing it’s hard to keep the lid on. We write songs collaboratively. Often one of us will come in with the bones of a song or a hook and will volley it to the rest of us; we respect each other a lot as musicians and are always hyped on each other’s ideas. We got to record in Darryl’s basement. Darryl mixed the whole thing and has really been the engine of the whole operation.
4. The EP Fresh Set was just released. What was the writing and recording process like for this one?
By last fall we were overflowing with new songs that we had road tested by playing live. We recorded at Monaco Studios in Falmouth over a weekend. Sam Monaco is very involved with the music scene in Portland and a big supporter of new musicians on the scene. It was my (Rosie’s) first time in a recording studio; we were recorded by Ethan Fowler and Emmett Benezra. Our Darryl mixed the whole thing in his basement studio, Will Killingsworth mastered it.
5. Can you walk us through the EP track by track?
“Firecracker Girl” - Darryl came to practice with an electric riff, I wrote the lyrics to make it a shout-along anthem for the bad ass women in our local scene.
“Milltown” - The gritty blues-influenced music was conceived by Ethan (bass). I wrote the lyrics about living in Biddeford. Like so many other mill towns in Maine, it’s steeped in working class history; it’s about generational trauma and living in the void of industry and capital without a clear future.
“Swamp Love” - Music was written by Preston, we all immediately loved it for its unselfconscious references to classic rock. It reminded me of listening to WBLM cruising around small town Maine with my friends as a kid. I wrote the lyrics to be an ode to New Orleans, a place I’ve only visited once, but I think represents a hot sticky hedonism that you rarely get to experience in real life.
“Class Unity” - I wrote the melody to be a Crass rip off. The rest of the band helped me to flesh it out. We’re all obsessed with modern Oi like Beton Arme and wanted to do some gang vocals; we also love the fast-paced brashness of bands like Split System.
“Attention Economy” - The outline for the song was written in the early days of Freak Phone by Darryl. We’re not a hardcore band but we love hardcore. I think the song highlights Darryl and Preston’s background in the HC scene. The lyrics are basically about having a toxic relationship with life, it’s about life kicking the shit out of you but being so in love with intrigue and adventure that you can’t stay down.
“Love Trip” - Bass forward, also spearheaded by Ethan, I really don’t know how I would categorize this song other than spiraling, dark and danceable. I wrote the lyrics about the interpersonal psychedelia of a codependent relationship. The reference to “Love Buzz” by Shocking Blue was a decision I made in the studio and I’m really happy with how it came out.
6. What are your thoughts on people using the term “female-fronted” to describe a band?
It’s an honor. All my heroes are women. We’re also female backed with Jess on drums. Gender pretty much never comes up internally as a band. The guys are real allies who all recognize the sexism that still exists in many punk scenes. It’s wild that it’s still kind of a novelty to be a woman in the punk scene. We may have gotten some initial attention because of Jess and I being women and aggressive performers but we’re confident in our song writing and our work ethic. Also we’re babes and we rock—who doesn’t love that?
7. What was it that got you into punk in the first place? Who were your “gateway bands”? Take us down your musical iceberg if you would.
My dad was a punk in Portland in the 80s. For my 11th birthday, I got a CD Walkman and the Best of Blondie. The Ramones came shortly after.
8. Were the pronouncements of “rock is dead” premature? What do things look like from your vantage point?
I started the band after seeing Les Lullies and Loosey in NYC, before that show it really was like the rock n roll revival scene was hiding in plain sight (from my vantage point up in Maine). It’s around if you know where to look. It’s alive, there’s just no money in it any more. People are just doing it for the love of the game, which I think makes it even better. It’s such a thrill to meet new bands who are making direct references in their music to the shit we geek out on from 70’s power pop to junk shop glam to ZZ Top. Josephine Network, Jean Mignon and Gripper out of Philly come to mind.
9. Let’s go with a classic here. Ignoring the logistics of how you’d do it, if you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring five records with you, which ones would you bring and why?
We made it even harder by dividing the five up between us; this breaks our hearts too much:
Rosie: New York Dolls by the New York Dolls
Jess: Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age
Ethan: Let There be Rock - AC/DC
Preston: Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Darryl: Innervisions by Stevie Wonder and Something Else by the Kinks by the Kinks stuffed into the same jacket
10. Any last words for the readers, shout-outs, or plugs?
We’ll be hitting a couple other cities in the Northeast at the end of October, come say hi! We’re psyched to get back in the studio ASAP. Instagram is the best way to see what we’re up to!