Frankel - "Anonymity is the New Fame"

July 9, 2009

At a small house, somewhat tucked away in the trees and hillside, at the very end of one of the winding roads up behind the reservoir, I met up with Frankel, the musical pseudonym for Michael Orendy's songwriting. It was getting on to a point in the evening where the low sun drenched the living room and stretched the shadows, but the heat still lingered.

There was an upright in the corner and a couple acoustic guitars and no real plan, except to play a few songs off his new album, Anonymity is the New Fame, released by Autumn Tone Records two weeks earlier. He sat down with a guitar, started tinkering out a little folky blues song called "Weary Mind," gently meandering its way into the opening, "Sometimes, I don't want to be myself at all," and suddenly you're hooked, following the imagery soaked storytelling as it swims between comfort and uneasiness, disillusion and acceptance. His voice is magnetic, but it's the deliberate, careful delivery that makes these songs so immediate and enthralling.

Frankel gets the award for favorite home so far, although I'm a bit biased towards most things mid-century modern. He played three songs that day, all on guitar. Stripped away from the instrumentation of the album, to the heart of the songwriting, there's an endearing soulfulness and introspection that you can't help but be drawn to.

Find out more about Frankel at: myspace.com/frankel

Camera: Elliot Glass
Sound: Elliot Glass
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