a nu kam

The Suffers' Kam Franklin goes marvelously metal with new solo EP

The Suffers frontwoman and Houston native Kam Franklin is effortlessly cool. Speaking to her at the listening party for her new EP, Nu Metals, she immediately makes one feel as though you've known her for years.

Franklin's magnetic charm is one of the many reasons why The Suffers are increasingly finding themselves playing bigger shows further away from their home base in the Bayou City. They recently toured Europe and just played two shows in Cartagena and Medellín, Columbia, which Franklin calls "life changing." A huge part of the soul collective's success is Franklin's charismatic personality, which undeniably exudes a tremendous warmth, even to massive crowds.

It's that personality and a sonic change of pace that makes her new EP, which drops Friday, February 9, a winning combination.

Recorded in Los Angeles with Houston ex-pat multidisciplinary artist Hevln (pronounced "heaven") aka Lucas Gorham, it contains four cover songs of late-'90s, early-2000s post-grunge bands The Deftones ("(Change) In the House of Flies), A Perfect Circle ("3 Libras"), Korn ("Freak on a Leash") and Godsmack ("Voodoo").

While a discerning music snob might question her choice of material to record, Franklin has nothing but love for the songs of her youth and it shows in the music, which draws on sultry, slinky synths, manipulated vocal effects, and chillwave elements.

Franklin has even teased a new song from Nu Metals.

CultureMap caught up with Franklin to talk her Nu release, and in advance of PAUSE, a special, multimedia show she's performing Friday, February 9 with local jazz and opera singer Lisa E. Harris at Discovery Green at 6:30 pm.

CultureMap: How did this EP come about?

Kam Franklin: I realized I had about two weeks of free time, so on Christmas Day, I wound up buying a cheap flight to Los Angeles and flew out not really knowing what to expect. When I got there, I stayed with a few friends over the course of that time and I hooked up with my friend Lucas Gorham who goes by Hevln, who used to live here and play in a band called Grandfather Child back in the day.

I had this idea about taking late-'90s, early-2000s nu-metal songs and creating this whole new sound and vibe to where I could present the subject matter and the lyrics of the songs to a group of people that might not have necessarily been into that particular genre of music. When you listen to the music, it’s very, very chill.

It’s a very honest description of what’s going on. There’s nothing really hard going on, but at the same time, the music encourages the listener to relax and at the time, that’s what I needed to do more of than anything. I went in there with this goal to to cater to anybody, but to just relax because it’s something I hadn’t done in a really long time.

CM: Why these songs in particular? You’re taking songs from a genre that many might turn a nose up to and making them cool. Were you a fan of these songs?

KF: When these songs came out, I was in middle school, starting high school. I went to two high schools — Carver High School for Applied Technology, Engineering and the Arts and I graduated from Clear Creek High School in League City. That was where I really got exposed to classic rock, modern rock, alternative and what we now call nu-metal. At the time, I was going through a lot emotionally and that’s when I got exposed to The Deftones, A Perfect Circle, Tool, and Korn. While I know some people consider those bands kind of laughable, a lot of the things they were writing about really resonated with me and their fans.

I’m really grateful for that time and experience because even though that time has passed, it still means a lot to me even though I’m mostly known for doing soul music. It’s a genre of music I respect and love. Some might consider it a guilty pleasure but I’m happy I’m in a position where I’m able to shuffle it around to show these songs are more than 94.5 The Buzz rock. They were popular songs for a reason, for the way that they were arranged, the way that the lyrics were written and because of the truth behind the music.

CM: No diss to The Deftones or A Perfect Circle, but some of the hardcore fans of The Suffers might think, what is this?

KF: I’m sure that there people like that but I will say that anyone that knows me or has been following my career at all knows that I’ve done everything from punk to country to hip-hop. I feel like this isn’t a surprise at all and if it is, people haven’t really been paying attention to the fact that I don’t limit myself when it comes to music. I feel like everything I do should be a challenge. This project included.

When I first started doing it my biggest concern was offending the people who were so deeply in love with the original songs, but at the same time, I felt I was deeply in love with these songs, so if I’m not offended, I’m not going to let that bother me. At the same time, this was for me to have fun. It was for me to — for the second time in my life — to use these songs to get through what I was going through at the time.

CM: Can we expect more solo material from you in the future?

KF: Definitely. This is probably the first solo release I was involved with in about 10 years. This is the first one I’ve done properly. So much has been learned over the years.

I’m in the process of recording original music that I plan to release next year because with The Suffers album coming out this year, that will be a lot of work. With my solo stuff coming out, I intend to tour with that, so I want to give myself enough time to relax and be creative.

CM: Can we expect to hear any of the EP live in the future?

KF: Yes, I’m actually working on the live show. I won’t be doing anything for this particular release before summertime. Mainly because I want to make sure I'm as close to the vision I have for it as possible and I don’t want to rush. I’ve been totally guilty of rushing a process in the past and when I do that, it’s never what I want it to be. For me, being in the game for as long as I have in Houston, if I’m not coming with it correctly, I feel like I'm encouraging other artists to come through and be lazy as well. I don’t want to do that.

CM: What’s next for The Suffers?

KF: We are almost done with our [second] album. We are in the final mixing stages right now and we should be sending it off for mastering in the next week or so. So that will be knocked out and done, which I’m super excited about. The album will drop this summer and then we’ll be on the road. We’ll make sure everyone and their mama knows when it’s coming out.

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Kam Franklin’s EP Nu Metals will be available starting Friday, February 9 for download and streaming at all major digital outlets.

Soul collective The Suffers recently returned from a two dates in South America.

Kam Franklin The Suffers at Super Bowl Live

Photo by Emily Jaschke

Soul collective The Suffers recently returned from a two dates in South America.

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Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film