The Muster Point Project’s Indie Pop New Single ‘Don’t Give Me Anything’ Delivers a Sonic Journey Through Ambition’s Pitfalls
The new indie pop single “Don’t Give Me Anything” from The Muster Point Project (TMPP) is a song about owning up to the pitfalls of ambition. A doggedly persistent drum beat backs up energetic guitar riffs that complement keyboards whose melodies drive us through the sounds of different eras, from 1960s rock to the best of ’80s and mid-aughts indie pop.
TMPP is the creation of singer-songwriter Kevin Franco who, in 40 years of playing music, has cultivated diverse musical influences and a hunger for experimentation with instruments including mandolin, horns, sikus and quena, as well as guitar and percussive instruments. When a certain specialized sound is required, Franco often enlists other professional musicians, and “Don’t Give Me Anything” features Sterling Laws (Liz Phair, Lo Moon, War on Drugs, Olivia Rodrigo) on percussion, Robin Hatch, formerly of the Rural Alberta Advantage (Our Lady Peace, Porno For Pyros) on keys, and Odighizuwa Patience with backing vocals, while Franco covers the guitar, bass, mandolin, vibraslap, vocals and lyrics. The song was produced by Darryll McFadyen, who has worked with Belle and Sebastian, Simple Minds, Trevor Horn, and others.
The single, from an album titled It Was Here He Received His Only Formal Education, to come in November 2024, mines Franco’s experiences working in the formidable tech industry and the conflicting set of egos he encountered in building a business that ultimately did not succeed. It wasn’t for lack of trying, and it wasn’t without its bright spots: as a pioneer in transmedia publishing, Franco worked with novelists, musicians, actors, and social media influencers to create story experiences under the brand of One Child, winning awards from the Digital Book Awards along the way.
In the song, four perspectives—which Franco calls the Lawyer, the Accountant, the Investor, and the Entrepreneur—add up to the “general sentiment put forth in the song name and final lyric, ‘I just wanna be alone,’” Franco says.
“It also sums up my feelings as the one who failed so painfully hard while fully understanding the risks before proceeding, it’s mine to own.”
While accepting personal responsibility is important for Franco, the story also critiques glossy showmanship and the randomness of “success” in the corporate world: “Big words, you think you’re the tops / You even fool some with your malaprops / Well you think you’re clever ‘cause you pull in some dough / You’re just the same old clown that we’ve all known.” The music video uses clips from a 1963 public domain film in which a crew of teens wearing monkey masks ride bikes through town, while a lone monkey-teen trails behind them on foot. Lyrically, “Don’t Give Me Anything” ends in a raw state of disillusionment, and musically it wraps up with a high-key tornado of sound, going along with the video’s concluding psychedelic flashes of light.
Hi Kevin, care to introduce yourself?
I’m a Calgary-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, a few years ago I formed The Muster Point Project as a vehicle for my music. In the industrial parts of my city, many businesses have ‘Muster Point’ signs for evacuations in the case of emergencies – co-opting this into my band name gives the impression that many businesses are (unknowingly, maybe even unwillingly) fans, I always chuckle at the thought of that. True fans and those in search of brevity just say TMPP.
Tell us about the process of recording “Don’t Give Me Anything”?
Most of my songs come together pretty quickly, usually in one sitting I can get the basics down and then spend the following weeks refining, tweaking, and getting it to a place that I like. This song, however, took months! Perhaps because it hits so close to home. I really wanted and tried to be removed from the content of the song, my songs are all influenced from personal experience but they are fictional accounts. This one was different, it was based on my experience in trying to build a technology company from the ground up and failing, hard. Originally titled ‘Don’t Give HIM Anything’ right up until about a week before release – I really fought the idea that it was about me, but it was.
Part of the lengthy production was that some of the parts needed to be re-recorded as my mandolin was a bit out of tune from all the takes I had done and a section of my baseline was messed up in the file. Normally this would not be an issue, but I was in Chile for a couple of months and did not have access to a mandolin, bass, or a studio. I asked a friend of mine to help with recording the bass part, he’s a much better player than me, but after a few back and forths with the producer I didn’t want to lean on my friend any harder, so I ended up doing the new bass line, incorporating all the changes when I returned to Canada. The mandolin? Well, let’s just say a change in strings resulted in a broken bridge, a poor sounding rental, and ultimately an expensive repair. In the end, the way we mixed the chorus, buried the mandolin anyway. This track holds the record for the most edits between myself and my producer.
What’s the music scene like in Calgary, AB?
We have a section of 9th Avenue stretching from the East Village (downtown) into the neighbouring community of Inglewood, it’s called The Music Mile, with many terrific venues (traditional and unconventional). Last week my daughter and I went to Gravity, a coffee shop who had a band called Keltewe playing, the room was absolutely packed. Calgary is also the home of Stagehand a wonderful app that connects musicians to venues and vice versa, this has been a real boon in creating many live performances throughout the city, including the airport. As a fan of music, there’s always a band or singer/songwriter to check out. As a musician, I’m still fairly new to the scene but Alberta Music has been very helpful in connecting me to other artists in the community.
Who was the first and most recent Canadian artist to blow you away?
I’m going to date myself here, but I remember being absolutely blown away by seeing Streetheart and Triumph in concerts at The Corral in Calgary. I’m not sure if I knew they were Canadian bands at the time, they were just huge bands at the time and happened to be Canadian. Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve on bass, Kenny Shields on vocals… Streetheart was a great band to see live. A Triumph concert was next level, it was the first time in my life I had ever seen a laser, I still can’t believe the songs they created and performed live with only 3 band members.
As far as new Canadian artists, there’s a lot of great artists to choose from. I think I’m most impressed with Julianna Riolino both in terms of her songwriting and songs but also her tenacity and work ethic – she’s always active – touring, promoting shows, and just plain doing it – very impressive. Her song, Lone Ranger, is so well written, it blows me away every time I hear it.
Side note on Canadian artists, I wished I’d discovered the Sam Roberts Band sooner than I had.
What are your plans for Spring and Summer?
I have some personal travel planned and am still writing new material for my upcoming album entitled, “It Was Here He Received His Only Formal Education” to be released in November. Ten songs have been completed already and I’ve got designs on another two songs at least.
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