I've heard it many times myself when people meet me in another capacity: "You can't be the artist I see on social media." To which I reply: "Oh, yes that is me." Leaving them in disbelief, still. Usually because they are meeting me for online business. I wear many hats and not in all my roles, I can go to meetings or offices dressed like a pop star. Pop stars want to stand out, so do I, but I do know when to tone it down and blend in, too. And in all honesty, I actually was pretty surprised when someone still reacted to me this way, recently, because I actually felt like all my looks had merged very well together in recent years. So my pop star persona is not all that farfetched from the rest of me.
Anyway, a few months ago, also on other business (marketing and design, to be exact) I met up with Frank. We found out we both have a passion for music and he told me he'd recently shot a new video, under his stage name Kingtonic, that was being edited as we spoke. The video is done now and he send me the link. While watching it I caught myself thinking the same as others do of me. For the first 30 seconds of the video, I'm just getting used to seeing Frank in a completely outrageous jacket, and in his pop singers role. Even though he already is a very outgoing guy with a ton of energy, it was a bit awkward watching him professionally turn couch potatoes into party animals in the video. I knew it was his thing when he handed me a flyer for his Funk & Soul show.
The single leads a new album with the same name “Crash The Party” and it represents Kingtonic and Frank really well. Expect a mix of 70s, 80s and 90s soul funk and disco pop party music. It’s his third album and follows up debut album “Sodalicious” and his sophomore album “‘Cruisin’ for a Thrill”, both were well received.
Other than being a marketing guru and designer, Frank is also an instrumentalist and played most of the instruments on his new album, as well as sang most of the vocals. To keep an authentic feel, he mainly worked from his home studio using older techniques to avoid the overproduced sound you get from American productions. This, btw, was a trend among Dutch artists for a long time, who would prefer this sound over the American sound.
“Crash The Party”, the song, features samples, but they are rearranged as such so you could never tell. Instead, it sounds like rare instruments are used. As you can tell, you have a lot of creativity to explore while you get to know Kingtonic and it also goes to show, you can never judge a book by its cover.
