Frank Mertens (or Frank Sorgatz, as he was born) is the shiest of the three guys in Alphaville. He is blond and has green/brown eyes and looks often from under his fringe. Press conferences makes him nervous, and as soon as the three took on their first PR journey they decided that Frank should avoid interviews - that should become his "thing." But for some reason he gave OKEJ a short interview.

Frank told us, amongst other things, that he was born on the 26 October 1961 and that he during school dreamed about becoming a psychologist. But that idea is out of his mind now.

"I studied psychology for a year and a half and anything more boring is hard to imagine." He says and shakes his head. "I will never pick up a psychology book again, never."

The interest for music has always been in the backround. Frank listens a lot to experimental forms of music and his favorite is "Soft Verdict".

"That's just a person who does everything," Frank says. "That's what's so fascinating."

He often uses his spare time to go to the movies, and he reads a lot. Thomas Mann and Ambrose Bierce are among his favorites. But he doesn't do sports.

"I hate sport," he says emphatically. "The only form of 'sport' I can think of is playing piano. I have started taking piano lessons by the way, and I practice hard, as soon as we have a moment free.

How does he see the progress with Alphaville?

"It is fun to be able to go around the world without paying," he says with a gleam in his eyes. "Actually it all started as a coincidence," he continues, serously. "Bernard and I played at home for fun, but none of us had imagined that it would come to this. When you read about 'idols' in the papers it all sounds great. Then you realize how much work is behind it. That we have only begun to understand now. It is not just the fact that we have to write music, we must record the albums and later do the PR-journeys. We have barely been home this year and that starts to become a little unpleasant. But sure it is fun as well.

What do you look forward to? "Free time, vacation. To develop the music and see what happens next. The music will change, that I am sure of. But of course it will remain within the popstyle. That's what we like. The simple.

You don't like to do interviews. why?

"I am shy," Frank says. "And I don't like to talk. I prefer to look and listen. Marian and Bernhard talk quite enough."

"It was interesting to see a bit of Sweden," Frank adds after a short break. "I have never been here before, but I will try to come here alone some day. Now we don't have time to look around. Everything is so stressful."

What's next on the schedule?

"We are going to continue the PR journeys, going over to America, and in April-May we are going to record a new album. Everything just goes around. Later we are starting to tour, and I am looking forward to that. To meeting the public eye to eye."