Frank Infante
| Frank Infante | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 15, 1951 New York, United States |
| Genres | Rock, punk rock, pop, new wave, blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, bass, vocals |
| Years active | 1970s-present |
| Labels | EMI, Chrysalis Records, Warner Bros. Records |
| Associated acts | Blondie, New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, Divinyls, Joan Jett, Chequered Past |
| Website | frankinfante |
| Notable instruments | |
| Gibson Les Paul | |
Frank Infante (born November 15, 1951) is an American guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of the new wave band Blondie.
Born in New York, and prior to Blondie, Infante established himself playing guitar in heavy, electric blues groups such as The Elegant End and World War III. In 1975, he joined Sniper. Infante joined Blondie in 1977 as a session player. The group had been formed three years earlier by singer Deborah Harry and guitar player Chris Stein, out of the remnants of Harry's previous group, The Stilettos. Gary Valentine was the band's bassist that August but was replaced by Infante in July 1977.
Chrysalis Records took over Blondie's contract from , and in February 1978, the band released their second album, Plastic Letters. Infante played on the record but was not pictured on the album cover. He continued to play bass for Blondie until Nigel Harrison joined the group later that year, at which point Harrison took over the role of bass player and Infante switched to guitar. Record producer Mike Chapman has said that he considered Infante to be an "amazing guitarist" and the most technically proficient member of Blondie when he began producing Parallel Lines. Both Infante and Harrison stayed with the band until it broke up in 1982, but neither were included when Blondie reformed in the late 1990s. Infante and Harrison sued the other members of the band for reforming the band without them, but the lawsuits were unsuccessful.
Throughout his time with the band, Infante contributed to writing a handful of Blondie's songs, including "Victor", "I Know But I Don't Know", and "Underground Girl" which was a demo from the band's Parallel Lines sessions in 1978.
During Blondie's hiatus in 1981, Infante went on to work on Joan Jett's album Bad Reputation. He also worked on albums by Stiv Bators and Sylvain Sylvain. Shortly afterwards, he toured and recorded with groups including Iggy Pop and Divinyls. 1999 saw the release of Iggy Pop's album Nuggets and later, in 2008, Where The Faces Shine, on both of which he played guitar.
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