Arts and Entertainment recently caught up with Kyle Woolard, lead singer of Charlottesville-based folk-rock group The Anatomy of Frank. The band will play The Southern on Oct. 16, much to the community’s excitement. Woolard traces the band’s intriguing journey from creation to their current state of fame.
Arts & Entertainment: For our readers who may not be familiar, can you give us a little background information on The Anatomy of Frank?
Kyle Woolard: I … started playing music with Erik while we were both taking a music production course with Ted Coffey at U.Va. I took about six months to find the rest of the members, because I had to be sure they were serious about touring. … Being in a band is the dream of many, but it's quite a bit more involved than most people are prepared for. But the right guys have found their way into the band, and we've been touring and recording ever since. … We've got our dream lineup now.
AE: You’re touring this fall to promote your first full-length album, “Pangaea,” which has a fantastic rhythm and energy to it. Where do you get inspiration?
KW: The songs for “Pangaea” came from so many different places. … I had come up with the idea to write an album for every continent in high school, but I didn't quite have a collection of songs about any one place; that's why “Pangaea” is what it is. It now feels very young to me, as if we were trying to discover who we were. Luckily, the songs do follow a very clear progression over the course of the album. As for inspiration, the idea for a song can come from anywhere or nowhere at all. Some songs are about people we've met, some are about islands up in the Arctic, some are about the town where I grew up.
AE: As you just noted, you hope to write and record an album about each continent — even Antarctica. What brought you all to set this goal for yourselves?
KW: In the 11th grade, I got inexplicably obsessed with Sri Lanka and India. I had no idea why I did, or how to scratch the itch, but it was absolutely maddening for me. It manifested itself in strange ways; I started eating a lot of mangoes and craving thunderstorms, because they made me feel like I was there. … Then, in 12th grade, it was Antarctica. That one was pretty lost on most people, and I really couldn't explain it much further than saying, "It's a whole continent, and no one even thinks about it!" … Music is the only way I could find to express complex feelings (like the urge to be lonely, or the desire to suffer through a cold winter) without worrying too much about wording.
AE: You’ve already written the “Antarctica” album, but haven’t recorded it, correct? Can you tell us about the creative process you went through when writing it?
KW: You've done your research. (Although there is one live take of an Antarctica song, Мирный, hiding on the Internet.) … I lived in Brown [College at U.Va.] through my first and second year, and the Antarctica craving grew pretty strong during that time. … I needed to be somewhere dark, cold and alone for a while. So I stayed in my room in Peters and didn't turn any lights on, and didn't use any hot water. It was simultaneously depressing and gratifying, and I wrote all day, every day. It was a very unique experience, and I can't properly express what it was like, but that's what the music is for I guess. … I still really love brutal weather and dark winters, and I'm very excited to record on Antarctica.
AE: You all are no strangers to life on the road by now, having toured all over Europe and North America; how does it feel performing in Charlottesville?
KW: We count our Charlottesville shows among the best that we've played, and we always look forward to them with special excitement and, for me at least, a good bit of nervousness. Our fans are wonderful, and the energy is always through the roof. October 16 is particularly exciting because we get to bring another great Icelandic artist to Charlottesville. His name is Svavar Knútur, and he's huge in Europe, and is one of our favorite musicians in the world.
AE: Where is The Anatomy of Frank headed in the future?
KW: We have a lot of plans, obviously. We're going to release our “North America” album at some point in the near future, and then it's off to other continents. But if you "like" The Anatomy of Frank on Facebook, you may find something a bit wild happening tonight (Thursday, Oct. 9) on Grounds. We only ask that you keep it quiet. Stay tuned!
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