4-Way Hits with the TOM TOM CLUB

There are very few bands that have had more of an impact on dance music than Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. Both groups have been sampled and resampled and have given us prototypes of what danceable grooves should sound like. A good band needs to be based around a good drummer. With example, Chris Frantz, co-founder and one half of the rhythm section in both of these monumental bands is certainly an important guy. He along with his wife Tina Waymouth helped to form Talking Heads back in art school with David Byrne and later went on to create Tom Tom Club, a band who's dedication to music for music sake becomes more apparent with every listen. Mike Dextro, limited to five questions, chats with Frantz about where he's been, where hes going, and what he finds exciting about music.

DEXTRO: Your music has been popping up in DJ mixes for decades. Do you have any DJs or new electronic producers that you follow or feel are particularly important right now?

FRANTZ: The DJs, artists and producers in the electronic field that we've actually met or been in contact with would be Arthur Baker ( we go way back with Arthur ) Chicks On Speed (they covered "Wordy Rappinghood" and we've done a few shows together in Holland and New York City) James Murphy ( he told us the first record he bought was TALKING HEADS '77) Peaches ( LOVE her) Too Many DJs (they are so great and they love Tom Tom Club), Larry Tee(he gave us our introduction to the new electro), and most recently Planning To Rock (Janine does some pretty way out stuff and we dig it.) DJ Bill Coleman in NYC is an old friend of ours and has helped us in many ways. All of these people are important to us and to music.

DEXTRO: How is creating danceable music and the act of dancing important to you?

FRANTZ: Well, you know, Rock and Roll used to be made for dancing and that was one of the reasons it was so exciting and why we loved it so much. Same with Soul Music and R 'n B. You know the other day I was in the super market and Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" came on the sound system and I could barely contain myself! Tina and I had some of our first nights out together at an early discotheque in Providence called The Gallery. We would really get down, you know, back in '73. We bonded while watching Soul Train on my little black and white TV. So when we started making music together this kind of thing was our source of inspiration and it still is.

DEXTRO: Are there any artists that you have worked with or have associated with, that you would like to mention as particularly influential?

FRANTZ: Here's a short list:

Brian Eno
Arthur Baker
Don Cherry
Bernie Worrell
Toots Hibbert
Sly and Robbie
Wally Badarou
The B-52s
The Ramones
Debbie Harry
Kid Ginseng

DEXTRO: Many people are aware that both Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club formed as ideas while attending art school in Rhode Island. How much art other than music are you involved in now? How is your love of art relevant to your music?

FRANTZ: We have loved art and music ever since we can remember. Visual art. Musical art. It's really the same impulse that drives you to create either, only a different medium. We both studied painting at RISD. Some day we will get back to that. One good thing about painting is you can do it all by yourself. One good thing about being in a band is your're not all alone with your thoughts. Both endeavors have their good points.

DEXTRO: I've heard you talk about the importance of fun, and music's ability to transport people out of depression and into a place of happiness. Would you care to talk about that again for our readers?

FRANTZ: Isn't fun the best thing to have? It's even better than money! We have always loved the feeling of being transported to a better, more grooving state of being. Music does this for us. Whether it's James Brown, Fela Kuti, K.C. and The Sunshine Band or LCD Soundsystem, Reggae or Soca; this is the music that lifts us and makes us feel stronger. Quite simply, with good music to dance to, the world becomes a better place.

We will be avalanched with that ‘grooving state of being’ in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park Pool on June 26th, what with the band fresh from Massive Attack – hosted Meltdown Music Festival in London, UK, and Mike Dextro will be backstage to witness the festivities. The Tom Tom Club are keeping themselves busy these days – off to Boston to perform at the Bank of America Pavilion the very next day, and rumor has it there is a possibility of a new Tom Tom Club album. Not too busy, however, according to what Tina Weimouth told Boston’s JimSullivanInk.com – they are, after all, family people first these days… Their new music taps into the grooves of underground electronica, as it has tapped into theirs through the decades and centuries to come.