What doesn’t Frankie Muniz do? He starred in family favorites such as television show “Malcolm in the Middle,” got up to shenanigans with Amanda Bynes in the Nickelodeon movie “Big Fat Liar” and swooped in to save Hilary Duff in his action flick, “Agent Cody Banks.” He gave that up for a fast-paced life of racing, which led to severe injuries. Now, he’s in a band.
For Towson’s Welcome Back Concert, the Campus Activities Board brought his band, You Hang Up, to campus. The Phoenix, Ariz.-based band is composed of brothers Aaron and Chris Brown on guitar and vocals respectively, along with Henry Ebarb, who is a first-time bass player.
Muniz said he learned to love the drums from “Mmmbop” band Hanson, who You Hang Up will open for this September.
“I didn’t actually learn from him, like he didn’t sit down and hold me from behind,” Muniz said. “[But] I was a really big Hanson fan when I was a kid. I wanted to be like them.”
Muniz said it was difficult to locate a talented band that produced a real sound, rather than a directionless garage project.
“It’s one of those things that you say, ‘Oh, I want to be a drummer in a band, but how do you join a band that’s just not making a bunch of noise in a garage?’ And when [Brown] came to me with and was like, ‘Hey, you want to jam?’ and I listened to the music, it sounded real,” he said.
According to Aaron Brown, the project really took off when Muniz joined the group.
“The guy who was going to be playing drums for me moved to Nashville, and I was about ready to call it quits,” Aaron Brown said. “I already had the name You Hang Up for whatever project it was going to be, and it wasn’t going to be any more than a studio project [until Muniz joined].”
Aaron Brown also said Muniz adds a great amount of focus and creativity to the new songs despite his lack of formal training.
“He has a musical ear, he gives us input,” Aaron Brown said. “Seventy-five percent of the songs that you hear tonight were written since he joined.”
Muniz, who was a professional racecar driver before joining You Hang Up, also described his experiences in crashing and severely injuring himself in a race. Muniz said he broke 18 bones, suffered a compression fracture in his back and wore a cast for nine months as he recovered. He said, however, it does not affect his drumming.
“I can’t hold a piece of paper [with my injured hand], but it doesn’t affect drumming,” Muniz said. “I can do pull-ups, sometimes when I’m holding a steering wheel it hurts, but I don’t really think about it.”
Despite being unsigned and independent, the band said they feel satisfied and anticipatory in regards to the band’s future.
“We have a two-hour conversation at the end of every practice and we change our game plan every single practice,” Muniz said. “We’re still trying to learn and set goals.”
One of the band’s goals is to record and release a full-length CD in Nashville in order to share songs written since the band’s EP and Muniz’s arrival. Aaron Brown said how disappointed fans were that the band did not have a full length CD available yet.
“We played in New Jersey … got a great response, and they loved our EP, but [fans] were a little bummed their favorite songs weren’t on there,” Brown said. “But that’s just because we wrote them two weeks ago.”
Muniz and the band acknowledged the possibility of having a reputation as a “celebrity band,” because some fans may attend shows simply to see a former television star.
“Any fan that comes and hears us and likes the music, I don’t care why or how they came … and the biggest response we’ve gotten is that people who come to see ‘Malcolm in the Middle’s’ band, leave shocked with how real the music is.” Muniz said. “I mean, I don’t like being an actor band, because we’re so not. I mean I was an actor, but I’m a drummer. Sometimes, you can’t even see me [on stage].”
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