The FMs Take a “Sonic Odyssey” into Early Synth Territory
Matte Namer on The FMs upcoming release, PINK + BLACK, and the tragic, unexpected death of the band’s co-founder Frankie Rex.
Before forming queer synth-rock band The FMs, friends Matte Namer and Frankie Maddox Rex grew up in different parts of New York City — the former in Greenwich Village, the latter fifteen miles away in College Point, Queens.
Their lives were separated by more than mere distance.
“We had very different upbringings,” Namer recalls. “Very different kinds of families that we came from, a different socioeconomic status that we were part of.”
And, while Rex attended an all-girls Catholic High School, Namer went to Stuyvesant High, a public college-prep school in lower Manhattan. “So, thinking back on it,” says Namer, “it’s really beautiful that we did develop such a strong bond and friendship, that we were able to come together and bond over music.”
Namer and Rex also found common ground in their respective journeys coming out as transgender. In 2016, they started The FMs, writing songs together, with Namer on vocals, guitar, bass, and synths, and Rex on vocals and guitar. A year later the band released Machinacene Epoch, described as “an irreverent mix of 90s psychedelic-industrial grunge and dance pop.”
They soon began work on their second album, recording tracks at a studio on an old ferry boat moored in the industrial canal that separates Brooklyn and Queens. Frankie Rex would not live to see the work released.
In May 2022, Rex died from a fentanyl overdose, a shocking blow that initially led Namer to consider disbanding The FMs. Yet, she also didn’t feel the band’s journey had reached its end.
“From the moment Frankie passed away, I felt a big responsibility, a big weight on my shoulders,” Namer says. “Obviously, I was grieving, but just [feeling] the responsibility then to make sure that I was honoring their legacy, and the things that they had given the world, which was this beautiful musical gift.”
Namer devoted herself to finishing the LP, bringing to fruition her hundreds of hours of tinkering in the band’s studio.
The resulting double album, PINK + BLACK, represents what the band calls “a sonic odyssey” into the early synth territory of artists like Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, and Pink Floyd, “but grounded in the songwriting and edge of ’90s rock bands à la Nirvana.”
On tracks like the driving lead single “Transformation Dreams,” and the shadowy bop “Blackout,” the band grapples with themes of gender, identity, hope, love, and mortality. And Rex’s powerfully emotive vocals, recorded between 2017 and 2020, often lead the way.
“The album was completely finished and Frankie helped me with the sequencing of it and everything, before they passed,” Namer says. “The only thing that changed was on the song ‘Transformation Dreams,’ which had always felt like a song with a lot of potential to me. But the original chorus that we had for it, I felt, was really pulling that song down and wasn’t the best chorus for it.”
Namer took the opportunity to change the meaning of the song.
“It became a dialogue between Frankie and I, like a conversation taking place in present tense, after they had already passed, a conversation across the mortal realms. And I think that song, for me in a lot of ways, is a really important part of my own grieving process.”
While that process continues for Namer, she’s excited and relieved to finally be releasing PINK + BLACK to the world. “I’m really just thrilled to get to share this album with folks,” Namer says.
Also, at last, Namer feels ready to make new music. “For at least a year or so after Frankie died, I didn’t even really pick up a guitar. I just needed a break from that. And when I got the creative bug again, I kind of got it with a fury.”
Adding two new members to the band, Namer is hard at work on new music that she describes as “eclectic,” with a New Wave, lo-fi vibe.
On May 11, The FMs will honor Frankie’s legacy, and celebrate the release of PINK + BLACK, with the first annual Frankie Fest, a rock music festival in Coney Island, featuring queer artists, and co-organized by the band’s frequent collaborator Miss Cherry Delight.
The show, proceeds from which will benefit the Chosen Family Law Center, will mark the band’s first live performance in four years, and the first ever without Frankie Rex.
“We’re hosting it on the anniversary of their death,” says Namer of the festival’s date, noting that, when Rex passed away, “we didn’t have a funeral,” only a small informal gathering held for friends.
“A traditional funeral, especially a religious one, was completely asynchronous to something that felt correct,” says Namer. “So this just seemed like the obvious way to celebrate them and to celebrate their memory.”
PINK + BLACK is available on May 10 wherever you buy or stream music. Visit www.thefmsmusic.com.
Frankie Fest is Saturday, May 11 at Coney Island U.S.A., 1208 Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $20. Visit www.coneyisland.com/event/frankiefest.
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