Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994), also known by the stage name Frankie Cosmos, is an American musician and singer. She is known for her independent releases, inspired by

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

's poetry, DIY ethics of

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...

and the early 2000s New York City's

anti-folk Anti-folk (sometimes spelled antifolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in New York City, founded by the musician, author and comedian Lach, as a reaction to the commercialization of folk music. It is characterized by its DIY ethos, ...

scene. She is the daughter of actors

Kevin Kline Kevin Delaney Kline (born October 24, 1947) is an American actor. In a career spanning over five decades, he has become a prominent leading man across both Kevin Kline on screen and stage, stage and screen. List of awards and nominations recei ...

and

Phoebe Cates Phoebe Belle Cates Kline (born July 16, 1963) is an American businesswoman and retired actress and model. She appeared in the films '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), '' Gremlins'' (1984), '' Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990), '' Drop D ...

. Her former stage name "Frankie Cosmos" is now the name of her

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

Early life

Kline was born on March 21, 1994, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the daughter of

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

-winning actor

and actress

. Her father is of

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

and Irish descent and her mother has

Russian-Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

and

Chinese-Filipino Chinese Filipinos (sometimes referred as Filipino Chinese or Chinoy/Tsinoy in the Philippines) are Filipinos of Chinese descent with ancestry mainly from Fujian, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are one ...

ancestry. She has one older brother,

Owen Kline Owen Joseph Kline (born October 14, 1991) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his directorial debut ''Funny Pages (film), Funny Pages'' (2022) and his performance as Frank Berkman in ''The Squid and the Whale'' (2005). Earl ...

, who is an actor and filmmaker. Kline was introduced to music by her family. She settled on guitar as her primary instrument of choice at seventh grade, after playing the piano and briefly the drums. Home-schooled for most of high school, she spent time by attending underground rock shows in New York and getting involved in the Westchester music scene. Kline attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Gallatin School of Individualized Study The Gallatin School of Individualized Study is a liberal arts school within New York University. Students at Gallatin design an interdisciplinary concentration based on their specific interests and career goals. Most courses can be taken at any ...

for two years, and studied English and/or poetry. Kline found the school to be unaccommodating of her touring schedule, and dropped out. Kline and her brother Owen both appeared in the films ''

The Anniversary Party ''The Anniversary Party'' is a 2001 American comedy drama film written, directed, produced by, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, both making their respective feature directorial debuts. It is Phoebe Cates's final film appearance ...

'' (2001) and ''

The Squid and the Whale ''The Squid and the Whale'' is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divo ...

'' (2005).

Career

Kline started performing and recording independently under the alias Ingrid Superstar. She released a number of

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

recordings mainly under her

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

account. In early 2010s, she was also introduced to the music community of

Purchase College Purchasing is the procurement process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary gre ...

, which introduced her to

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Double Double Whammy Double Double Whammy is an independent record label founded by Dave Benton and Mike Caridi in October 2011 whilst studying at SUNY Purchase, a liberal arts college in New York state. History Double Double Whammy was founded by Dave Benton and Mi ...

record label. In late 2011, she started to perform under the alias Frankie Cosmos, a name coined by her now ex-boyfriend Aaron Maine of the band Porches. Maine played drums for Frankie Cosmos and Kline played bass for Porches at one point in time. In 2014, Kline released her debut studio album as Frankie Cosmos, ''Zentropy'', with her backing band. Kline released the EP '' Fit Me In'' on November 13, 2015, on Bayonet Records. Kline released her second studio album, '' Next Thing'', on April 1, 2016, on Bayonet Records. On April 12, 2017, Frankie Cosmos announced a slew of tour dates and that they recently had signed to Sub Pop records. They stated around this time that they are working on a new album. On June 9, 2017, Kline opened for IAN SWEET and Girlpool at Warsaw in Brooklyn as part of her new project Lexie. Joined by Warehouse members Alex Bailey and Doug Bleichner, their first release is on Bandcamp and it is called "Record Time!". In January 2018, Kline released the lead single "Jesse" from the album '' Vessel''. The album was released on March 30, 2018, through Sub Pop records. On March 13, 2019, Kline released "Haunted Items", featuring just herself on vocals and piano. The band Frankie Cosmos released their fourth studio album, ''Close It Quietly'' on September 6, 2019. Two of Kline's songs, "Fool" and "The End", were both showcased during two episodes on the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

series ''

Hilda Hilda is one of several feminine given names derived from the name ''Hild'', formed from Old Norse , meaning 'battle'. Hild, a Nordic-German Bellona, was a Valkyrie who conveyed fallen warriors to Valhalla. Warfare was often called Hild's Game. ...

'', the series finale of which she also made the original song "Uncrossed Path" for. Her song "Sappho" was also featured in '' Heartstopper'' for its queer nature. Throughout the first few months of quarantine (during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

), Kline did weekly Instagram livestream performances. On August 2, 2022 the band announced their new album, ''Inner World Peace'' via Subpop. On February 22, 2024, she released the single "Guess What to Do" / "Calling It a Night" in collaboration with Cody Fitzgerald of Stolen Jars as haha same.

Backing bands

"Frankie Cosmos"

* Luke Pyenson – drums, vocals * Alex Bailey – bass guitar, keyboards * Lauren Martin – keyboards, synthesizers, harmonies

Members of earlier backing bands

* Ronnie Mystery (Aaron Maine) – drums, vocals * Gabby Teardrop (Gabrielle Smith) - keyboards, synthesizers, harmonies * David Mystery (David Maine) – bass guitar, keyboards

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Zentropy'' (2014) * '' Next Thing'' (2016) * '' Vessel'' (2018) * '' Close It Quietly'' (2019) * '' Inner World Peace'' (2022)

EPs

* ''Fit Me In'' (2015) * '' Haunted Items'' (2019) (series of four digital EPs)

Singles

* ''Owen'' (2014) * ''Birthday Song'' (2014) * ''Sinister'' (2016) * ''Is It Possible/Sleep Song'' (2016) * ''On The Lips'' (2016) * ''Jesse'' (2018) * ''Being Alive'' (2018) * ''Apathy'' (2018) * ''Windows'' (2019) * ''Rings On A Tree'' (2019) * ''Wannago'' (2019) * ''Slide'', split release with Lomelda (2021) * ''One Year Stand'' (2022) * ''Aftershook'' (2022) * ''F.O.O.F.'' (2022) * ''Empty Head'' (2022)

Music videos

* "Joe Joe (Boys Are Dogs)" (2012; dir. BJ Rubin) * "Art School" (2014; dir. Sophia Bennett Holmes) * "embody" (2014) * "Korean Food" (2016; dir. Greta Kline) * "Is It Possible / Sleep Song" (2016) * "Young" (2016; dir. Eliza Doyle) * "Being Alive" (2018; dir. Daniel Martin) * "Jesse" (2018; dir. Loroto and Frankie Cosmos) * "Apathy" (2018; dir. Tom Scharpling) * "Duet" (2018; dir. Eliza Doyle) * "Windows" (2019; dir. Eliza Doyle and Greta Kline) * "Wannago" (2019; dir. Robert Kolodny) * "Pressed Flower" (2025; dir. Adam Kolodny)

Filmography

* ''

'' (2001) * ''

'' (2005) * ''

'' (2018) * '' Heartstopper'' (2022)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kline, Greta 1994 births 21st-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American women singers American women guitarists American women singer-songwriters American folk guitarists American folk singers American indie pop musicians American indie rock musicians 21st-century American multi-instrumentalists American musicians of Chinese descent American musicians of Filipino descent American people of Asian-Jewish descent American people of German-Jewish descent American people of Irish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent American rock bass guitarists American rock songwriters American women bass guitarists Guitarists from New York City Jewish women singers Jewish anti-folk musicians Jewish American rock musicians

Greta Kline Greta Simone Kline (born March 21, 1994), also known by the stage name Frankie Cosmos, is an American musician and singer. She is known for her independent releases, inspired by Frank O'Hara's poetry, DIY ethics of K Records and the early 2000 ...

Living people New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study alumni Singer-songwriters from New York (state) 21st-century American bass guitarists Sub Pop artists 21st-century American Jews