- Hi, I'm Michael Gadlin.
- And I'm Kate Perdoni.
- Welcome back to Arts District on Rocky Mountain PBS.
- Music duo, Frenship has deep roots here in Colorado,
one of the band's members, James, grew up near Morrison,
and he headed to the West Coast,
where he met a friend named Brett.
- The band racked up tens of millions of streams
with this hit song, "Capsize".
They've gained a massive following,
and now an international touring act.
- Arts district producers, Jennie Castor and Jeffrey Dallet
spent a day with Frenship on the last day
of their North American tour,
which ended right here with a homecoming in Denver.
(crowd cheering)
- That's Brett and I'm James, and we're Frenship.
♪I'm living with I told you so. ♪
♪These feelings get a little bit old ♪
♪On the cusp of getting it right. ♪
We, a long time ago, like four or five years ago,
met working at Lululemon, um I was coming off
a failed DJ career, and he was coming off
a singer-songwriter career that was maybe not failed,
but in a similar--
- It was a very illustrious career
- It was flourishing, yeah.
I needed some money, so I got a job
a couple blocks from my apartment in Brentwood,
then he came about a month after.
And we didn't really wanna work together at first.
We were both kinda fried on music.
We went out a lot honestly, together.
- As friends do.
- As friends do, kinda tore Santa Monica up.
I listened to his stuff
and was like oh, he's got a nice voice.
- I listened to his stuff
and was like oh, he's got nice artwork.
- The first song we made together was that song Kids.
♪ Kids these days die way too young ♪
Then we needed a name, and the going mantra at the time
was there's big ships, there's little ships,
but the best ship is Frenship, so.
♪ We will never grow up, never grow up ♪
- We signed a publishing deal to leave our jobs
at Lululemon, and then that money was gone.
So we were just broke. - Yeah.
And I think in those moments of like fight or flight,
you fight like, that's our instinct.
It was a very kinda tumultuous time,
and we had four songs, let's just
put 'em out, and move on.
- We took a thousand dollars,
we paid for basically a two months campaign.
So for that song Carpet and the song Capsize,
to run, you know, just PR for it, and see what would happen.
♪ Capsize, I'm first in the water ♪
♪ To close to the bottom.
♪ I'm right back where I started, said I'm back ♪
- Two days later, there's a website called Hype Machine.
- It's like the go to list for the industry,
And then it charted and it stuck at number one.
(soft music)
- Spotify found it on there.
Tossed it in New Music Friday, we freaked out,
and he comes barreling out of the hotel,
look we made New Music Friday.
- Oh my God, oh my God
- Exactly, yeah, it was like we made it.
♪ Oh my God, oh my God
♪ Three words that have never come easy, ♪
(computer dinging)
♪ Cause you're more than they ever could be, ♪
♪ Oh my God, oh my God
- I'm from a place called Ken Caryl Valley,
so it's just kinda south of Morrison.
This song is about this town, it's called Morrison.
Here we go.
I'm influenced by this place a lot.
♪ Go back to the valley and into my soul ♪
I think we make music that fits that landscape,
Colorado's pretty consistently in my mind.
♪ Back to the valley
(rhythmic clapping)
- [Crowd] And into my soul
♪ Oh, oh, I gotta get home
You know, growing up skiing every weekend
and just seeing open space and breathing fresh air,
and yeah, I think it probably heavily influences
what we, at least sonically, try to do.
I mean, I grew up listening to John Mellencamp, B52's,
there's Phil Collins in there, Peter Gabriel.
I just want one jump, just one.
- If you could try and simplify who we are and what we do,
and why we do it, it's playing 'em live.
- I think that's where we make the most sense too, is live.
I think you'll finally understand us, fully,
once you show up to our show.
One, two, three
(rock music)
♪Only face I know is the face I see ♪
- It's pretty rocky live, it has indie rock vibes live,
it's electronic, there's some like hip-hoppy stuff goin' on,
it's really high energy.
I think we've a damn good show now,
and we've worked really hard on it,
and I think we can convert most people that show up.
- I think it's really fun to see
that dude who shows up like this...
evolve into like this by the end of the show.
(rock music)
We were playing in Boise
and this guy came up to me, big like motorcycle gang dude,
wearing his leather, - He is, the biker guy.
whatever, all of his patches and everything.
He's like you guys are incredible.
And he's like my bike loves a good ride,
so I wanna know where you guys are goin' next.
♪ I can feel your heart beating ♪
- At this stage, we do it all still.
♪ Try to give you rhyme or reason ♪
- We literally show up, put our gloves on,
like our work gloves, and start.
- So, then I'll have to double stuff up quite a bit.
- The whole light show.
- That right.
♪ You're the closest thing to home for me ♪
♪ Since my Colorado days
♪ You're the closest thing
- Someday, we will never do it.
(laughs)
but for now, we do.
- It means so much that we are finishing
this tour in my hometown.
Denver, you will always be my home.
So Denver, you mean the world to us,
we are so honored you are here tonight.
♪ Been nice to know ya,
♪ But don't come between,
♪ Mi amore
♪ It's killin' me
♪ Nice to know ya
- My favorite sentiment while playing live
is being able to see everyone's interpretation of our song.
(rock music)
- It's hopefully like, tearing down a lot
of those boundaries between people
and you get to see those boundaries gone.
(rock music)
- I think performing makes it all make sense.
It kinda of just like finishes the circle for us.
(rock music)
- Our team shared a full day with Frenship,
and there's much, much more to find out on our website
at rmpbs.org/artsdistrict.