FRANKIIE - Between Dreams (2023) [Hi-Res]

Between Dreams, the second full-length album from Vancouver’s FRANKIIE, is psychedelic in the way that makes the best works of psychedelia timeless, existential, and exciting. The record’s sonic world, which weaves between reverb-soaked dream-pop, vintage classic-rock, bedroom-psych, and beachy shoegaze, presents the dreamy and the real as one continuum between which there are no borders, and where magic abounds all over.

Between Dreams explores our lived experiences in a world constantly shifting and twisting abruptly around us. “What is the dream and what’s reality? What’s normal anymore and does it really matter because you’re just experiencing it all anyways,” says Nashlyn. Francesca says that boundary-free feeling emerged while the band was writing the record during lock down and thereafter. “It was this weird ‘between dreams’ state because nothing was normal, or at least not how it was and we just had to carry on like everyone else,” she says. That led to an attitude where control and power were relinquished to some degree; whatever happened creatively would be explored. “These songs were following a sense of intuition, and not really trying to have them be anything but what instinctively came out. There was no attempt to stick to a certain genre, or take ourselves too seriously”.

The songs for Between Dreams were written mostly at the band’s dark, moldy jam space in east Vancouver, with extra pieces written at home or on writing retreats to rural parts of the province. Some were penned with a rotating cast of collaborators, including previous bassist Vickie Sieczka, new bassist Jody Glenham and drummer Trevor Stöddärt, while others were written with the help of a drum machine they nicknamed ‘Chad.’ (“Chad’s so great, he always shows up on time,” quips Lloyd.)