Saturday morning finds Rob Funkhouser and Clockwork Janz hard at work sanding rust off an old griddle using salt and oil. Janz is wearing black plastic gloves that are too small and keep tearing. But it’s all part of the process.
“Salt and elbow grease,” Janz said.
Funkhouser and Janz are building the Frank n Steam. It’s a mobile, solar-powered music machine that also cooks hot dogs. Frank’s “maiden voyage” will take place at Tube Factory’s First Friday celebration on March 6.
The spirit of the project is perhaps best summed up by Janz: “This is a place for everybody to come and get a hot dog and for people to just be silly,” they said, “And embrace the fact that there is some common humanality in sharing a hot dog.”
The Frank n Steam was inspired by a steam-powered musical instrument called the calliope. In the late 1800s, calliopes were installed on steamboats and train cars, funneling extra steam or air through the instrument to make music.
After some research and conversations with local experts on steam, the team realized that trying to make a proper calliope for this project would be “a recipe for death,” according to Janz. As if that weren’t enough of a reason to pivot, it would also require lots of specialized parts and a huge amount of maintenance.
So, the pair shifted to solar energy instead. That would allow them to focus on music-making instead of safety concerns and maintenance.
The duo met in 2020. Since then, they’ve collaborated on food- and music-based art. Funkhouser and Janz previously worked together on a series called “Sound Suppers” at State Street Pub, where attendees would enjoy a multicourse meal with an original composition by Funkhouser to accompany each course.
“A lot of our work in general is focused on accessible food and getting people excited and interested in food,” Janz said.
With that in mind, they chose hot dogs as the food item for this project. The “universally loved and fiscally accessible food, often eaten at times of celebration” is simple enough that they can multitask between cooking and playing music. The hot dogs will be sourced everywhere from Costco to local farmers market vendors.
As an additional measure for accessibility, the team will have a “take a doggie, leave a doggie” program.
“It’s sort of like a ‘take a penny, leave a penny’ situation,” Funkhouser explained. “If you have extra money on you to make sure the next person gets a hot dog, we’ll just make sure no one leaves hungry.”
After March 6, the Frank n Steam duo are open for bookings and even collaborations with other musicians, although they won’t be doing Frank n Steam full time.
“Think of Frank as the Loch Ness Monster,” Funkhouser said. “You’re gonna see them just once in a while, so catch them when you can.”
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Emily Worrell is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach her at emily.worrell@mirrorindy.org.
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