designboom listens: frankey on the songs that shape his creative world

designboom listens: THE music behind the creative process

What is the 2AM studio track a designer secretly knows every word to? What does an architect put on when a project refuses to move? And if someone stood in front of an artist’s work wearing headphones, what should be playing? designboom listens is our new series on creative practice, told through the music that runs underneath it.

First up is Frankey, the Amsterdam-based artist and designer whose work finds the extraordinary in the everyday. His picks run from Aretha Franklin’s ‘Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’ and James Brown’s ‘People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul’ to Little Simz, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes, with Duke Ellington and John Coltrane slowing things down in between.

The range suits a practice that has never settled into one category. Trained in industrial design at Delft University of Technology, Frankey moves between art, design and engineering, making sculptures, objects, installations and interventions as the idea demands. He takes something familiar and turns it: a bridge support reshaped into a rhinoceros, a seafront villa with pink bubblegum bursting out of the windows.

Read on for the artist’s answers to our questionnaire, and listen to the full playlist below.

Frankey portrait by Arie de Leeuw via @streetartfrankey | all images courtesy of Frankey

Frankey’s playlist, from Aretha Franklin to Major Lazer

What song best captures your creative practice?
Frankey (F): Aretha Franklin — Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.

What is the very first track you play to clear the air and get inspired when starting a new project?
F: James Brown — People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul.

Frankey’s studio, with works across sculpture, objects, installations, interventions and inventions

Is there a song that instantly takes you back to a specific memory or place from your past?
F: De La Soul — Me Myself and Eye.

What song is stuck in your head right now?
F: Little Simz — Gorilla.

the artist holding 3 Feet High and Rising by De La Soul

What is your ultimate 2 AM studio track, the one you secretly know every word to?
F: Nat King Cole — Let There Be Love.

What song do you put on when you’re stuck and need a breakthrough?
F: Jay-Z — Public Service Announcement.

his work often begins with something recognizable before shifting its meaning

What track is dominating your speakers this week, and is it influencing what you are making right now?
F: Busta Rhymes feat. D’Angelo — This Woman.

What song helps you slow down and focus on the tiny, quiet details?
F: Duke Ellington & John Coltrane — In a Sentimental Mood.

If people were wearing headphones while experiencing your latest work, what one song should be playing?
F: Branford Marsalis Quartet — Mo’ Better Blues.

What is your favorite album cover art?
F: Extince — Kermis — I made it