Martin Frawley The Wannabe

"Workin' all day, trying to forget about the old me." Like most of us,Martin Frawley is busy trying to work himself out. He lives alongside thelong shadow of his late dad, musician and songwriter MauriceFrawley, a cultural icon of the Australian underground and collabora- tor of Paul Kelly, Tex Perkins and Mick Thomas. Most of Martin's 20s were spent writing and playing songs inlocally beloved Melbourne band Twerps - a collection of pals whowere on the forefront of the city's jangle pop renaissance. A fewalbums, US tours and band rotations under it's belt, Twerps split up in2018 and Martin turned his compass towards a solo project. His firstalbum, Undone at 31 (2019), was a bit of a reckoning; a wild ridethrough the wreckage of both a band and longterm romantic breakup. His new album The Wannabe is a personal, cheeky and, at times,self-depreiciating collection of songs unpacking the reality of findinghis way as an adult without his dad around, and ultimately fallingback in love with life, music and someone new. Martin and his band - friends Dan Luscombe (The Drones), StephHughes (Boomgates, Dick Diver), Nik Imfeld (Tyrannaman) and DanKelly - had heaps of fun recording The Wannabe in Melbourne. Thetitle track is a particularly spicy take on an entertainment industry thatseems to give more shits about marketing than music. The album is abit of an emotional tour, from anger and derision, through to comedy,through to deep and honest love. It's positive with a lot of sadness.Not unlike Martin himself. As well as the guitar, Martin had some fun playing the piano on thisrecord. The technical term is 'multiinstrumentalist' but Martin's more ofa musical explorer of sorts. No one is exactly sure how these thingswork - if Martin was born into music or if it was born into him, but itdoesn't really matter. Music is what he loves. It's what he does. It's notabout the industry or about success - not anymore. It's about thefreedom of creating songs on his own terms, and trying to let go ofthe feeling he has something to prove: to his dad, to his critics, andto himself. And while he's not sure he'll ever fully shake that feeling, he'sat least relaxing and having a bit of fun doing it. Like his dad, Martin has a reputation as a 'musician's musician'. Hehosts a pretty sporadic podcast Dive For Your Memory, where he hasfast and loose chats with musicians while doing a deep dive intotheir musical inspirations and canon. He and his fiancé Lauren alsomake wine under the label El'More Wines, named after the farm andsmall town where his dad grew up. It's all come a bit full circle, really.