Top image: still, ‘Love in the old days’ / Daddy

You may know James Franco for numerous things, acting, directing, writing, causing global political havoc, and recreating Kanye West videos, but did you know that he also has his own conceptual art school band, Daddy?

Together with high school friend and producer Tim O’Keefe, Daddy have already released two albums, yet have somehow remained relatively under the radar. This week comes the news that Franco has inked a deal with Kobalt to release a full-length album and film entitled Let Me Get What I Want, a project inspired by the work of The Smiths.

Try and wrap your head around this one, the lyrics for each track are taken from Franco’s poem collection Poems Inspired By Smiths Songs, turning music into poetry, and back again, full circle. Here’s where The Smiths’ legendary bassist Andy Rourke enters the equation, in a moment of recruitment genius Franco contacted Rourke and enlisted him on bass duties.

And the conceptual mayhem doesn’t end just yet, each song will be accompanied by a music video, each one filmed and scripted by students from Franco’s mother’s high school film class in Palo Alto. When viewed as a whole the videos create a seamless narrative loop connected by three characters from Franco’s poems – Tom, Sterling and Erica. Oh so meta.

For such a head scratching concept the musical aspect still takes centre stage, hauntingly soft vocals certify Franco with yet another notch on his bedpost, whilst jangly guitars form a dreamy backdrop.  The first release from the new album, ‘This Charming Man’  may share it’s name with it’s Smiths predecessor but it has a very different feel to it, swirling in a lo-fi haze it flits between layers woven by post-punk drones.

We caught up with Smiths’ legend Andy Rourke to try and unravel it all.

Alex James Taylor: How did you first meet James Franco?
Andy Rourke: It was put together through my manager, she put me in touch with James and Tim’s PR people because they’d shown an interest in having me work with them. So that was all set up and then we went for dinner one night and all three of us got on really well and there was mutual admiration. James was very charismatic, funny, charming, handsome, like my attributes really [laughs]. We got on like a house on fire. Then I started working with Tim, laying down all the basslines and it went from there. I’m really excited for people to hear it now.

James is a huge Smiths fan, so it was really great to hear him speak about the band with such passion, he’s so fully committed to everything he does, it’s a fantastic quality to have.

AJT: I’m guessing you were a fan of his work?
AR: Of course, even my mum knows who James Franco is [laughs]. I’ve seen a few of his films before.

AJT: And such a polymath, I never realised he had a good singing voice. 
AR: He is, I think there’s more than one of him [laughs].

AJT: Was it odd playing songs that were based on, and have a similar sound to, songs by The Smiths?
AR: It was a bit strange, but to be honest I think that the only thing Smiths-y about the tracks is the titles. I mean ok, there’s a nudge to that sound, but I a lot of it is quite electronic, maybe I put a bit of The Smiths in it with my style of bass, which is what i think they were looking for. It was good fun, it was different and interesting.

AJT: You’ve got a few other projects on the go right now, including your electronic project Jetlag. 
AR: The way my career has panned out, things sort of come and go in spits and spurts, a year might go by where i don’t do anything, but then six months afterwards i’m juggling three different projects. That’s how it’s always worked, I’m used to it now.

AJT: And you’re based in New York now, right? What made you move there?
AR: I just needed a change basically. I’d lived in Manchester all my life apart from two years in London at the height of The Smiths, because we were doing so much travelling and all the interviews and stuff. So yeah, New York was the first place in America that The Smiths visited on tour, we did a gig in a venue called the Danceteria on New Year’s Eve in 1983, and I fell in love with the place then. I’ve been here six or seven years now.

AJT: It’s a far cry from the Manchester streets, do you miss it?
AR: I miss my friends and family, not so much the city really [laughs]. New York has this incredibly magical feel about it, I’m can’t living anywhere else right now.

The album and film are due in 2016, follow Daddy on Facebook for updates.