Upon graduating from Berklee, David began playing in bands around the
Greater Boston metropolitan area. The bass player in one of such bands exposed him to an
ARP Odyssey synthesizer for David to play. The new sounds intrigued him so much that, borrowing the money from his dad, he bought one for himself the next day. Meanwhile, Frank worked as a wedding musician.
The System In 1981, while he was working in
New York City, Frank was called in to do a session for a local studio owner who suggested that he use the time to create a dance song. Frank initially wanted to use his upstairs neighbor and bandmate, a pre-stardom
Madonna. Instead he called up another singer,
Mic Murphy, whom he knew while working as a tour keyboardist with
Kleeer. A marathon recording session resulted in "In Times of Passion". The next day,
the System was signed to
Mirage Records which was a subsidiary of
Atlantic Records. "In Times of Passion" became both a radio and club hit in New York. The interest sparked enough interest for Mirage to give David and Mic an advance for an album. The album,
Sweat, launched club hits "Sweat," "I Won't Let Go" and the iconic "You Are In My System". Robert Palmer's cover of the song became a mainstream rock hit. As keyboard synthesist and arranger David helped out on hit recordings that defined the sound of that era with
Chaka Khan's "
I Feel For You",
Phil Collins' "
Sussudio," and
Mtume's "Juicy Fruit." He worked with
Arif Mardin on three songs on
Scritti Politti's album
Cupid & Psyche 85 and with
Russ Titelman on
Steve Winwood's album
Back in the High Life arranging the live horns on the album as well as the synth horns on the #1 hit "Higher Love". And lastly he was recognized for the System's #1 hit "Don't Disturb This Groove" in which Frank firmly established his prowess as a bass-groove synthesizer innovator and master. Frank and Murphy produced tracks on albums for artists including
Ashford and Simpson,
Phillip Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire,
Jeff Lorber,
Angela Bofill and
Nona Hendryx.
Move to Los Angeles In the early 1990s after the System was disbanded, Frank moved to Los Angeles where he opened his own recording studio called Canyon Reverb. One of the first artists he worked with in LA was RCA recording artist
Omar on his albums
For Pleasure and
This is Not a Love Song. Through his publisher, Frank met songwriter
Steve Kipner, and through friends he met New Zealand songwriter Pam Sheyne. Together they went on to generate several hit songs (
Dream's "
He Loves U Not", "
This Is Me", 98 Degrees' "The Hardest Thing", O-Town's "These Are the Days" as well as
Christina Aguilera's "
Genie in a Bottle"). "Genie" won him an
Ivor Novello Award for international hit of the year. Currently, Frank is signed as a songwriter to
Universal Music Publishing Group and works with songwriters in Los Angeles, New York, and London. Recently, he worked on French pop artist Christine and the Queens' album
Chris doing keyboards, piano synth bass and synthesizer. He also arranged horns on Michael McDonald's most recent album
Wide Open and was credited on "Crying in the Club" by Camila Cabello, which samples "Genie in a Bottle." and as songwriter on "Muddy Feet" by Miley Cyrus on her 2023 album Endless Summer Vacation. ==Discography==