Bilmuri is the stage name of singer, guitarist and producer John "Johnny" Franck, born June 8, 1990, in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in nearby Westerville, Ohio, where he still lives and records. A former clean vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the metalcore band Attack Attack!, Franck rebuilt himself from a home studio as a solo project that scrambles post-hardcore, country, EDM and absurdist comedy into one of rock's more unclassifiable catalogs, ultimately signing to Columbia Records in 2024 and landing his first Billboard 200 entry with 2026's Kinda Hard.
Franck picked up his first guitar in sixth grade and had been active in music since roughly 2005. His father played in a bluegrass band during Johnny's childhood, an influence Franck later cited directly as the root of Bilmuri's country leanings: "My dad played in a bluegrass band when I was growing up; that's the world that I come from," he told Guitar World. In high school in Westerville, Ohio, he became close friends with future Attack Attack! and Beartooth figure Caleb Shomo, and in 2007 he co-founded Attack Attack! alongside Andrew Whiting, Nick White, Andrew Wetzel and Austin Carlile, who took over as the band's screamed vocalist while Franck sang clean vocals and played rhythm guitar.
Attack Attack! became one of the most divisive bands of the late-2000s metalcore scene, nicknamed "crabcore" for a signature squatting guitar stance a retrospective explainer describes as making the band look like they were "trying to lay an egg while playing guitar." The same retrospective calls the band "the Justin Bieber of metalcore" for the strength of reaction, positive and negative, it provoked: "everyone had an opinion." The band released its Rise Records debut Someday Came Suddenly in 2008 (No. 193 Billboard 200) and the self-titled Attack Attack! in 2010 (No. 27 Billboard 200) before Franck's departure. He left the band on November 10, 2010, citing his relationship with his Christian faith; the exit was announced as amicable. In a farewell statement later resurfaced in retrospectives, Franck explained: "I came to the conclusion that being out on tour really damages my relationship with God and my spiritual life... I just got caught up in all the excitement of everything that was going on with the band growing in success, and I put the band above God, and that's something that was really damaging to me." He went on to run Bible studies and gave testimony at a Liberty University performance with his next band; he has since expressed skepticism toward Christianity. Attack Attack! continued without him before disbanding in 2013, six years after forming.
Between 2011 and roughly 2016, Franck formed the heavier project The March Ahead with Mike Caswell, working again with producer Joey Sturgis, and quietly built Johnny Franck Productions, engineering, mixing and writing for dozens of scene bands, by the studio's own account more than 70 acts in total, including Sirena, Seraphim, SycAmour, Cinsera, Villain of the Story and Boys of Fall. He has said this apprenticeship taught him more about songwriting than fronting Attack Attack! ever did: "I learned so much more just sitting in my mom's basement for 10 years recording metal bands [than I did in Attack Attack!]," he told Kerrang!.
Bilmuri began in 2016 as a solo, deeply personal outlet born out of a period of severe depression and isolation during which Franck has said he had made plans to take his own life. "Music is the friend that never left me," he told Kerrang!. "I was incredibly alone during that period of time. I had a huge life shift, I made decisions where I lost all of my friends. I would get online and talk with the people who listen to our music on Twitter and they made me not feel so alone. It was a big reason I was able to pull myself out of that [dark place]." He gave a near-identical account to Dork at Reading Festival: "The original driving force behind Bilmuri was 'pure depression.' I was in a really bad spot in life, and music was my only outlet. I was very by myself at the time, but releasing those songs made me feel connected to other people."
The debut album Jaguar Shark arrived January 3, 2016, followed the same year by the self-titled Bilmuri on July 15, a nine-track LP press coverage at the time noted was "Franck's first full-length since he was a member in Attack Attack!." The name itself is a scrambled homage to actor Bill Murray, born as a backyard joke: "He said, 'What if we called it Bill Murray?' and I just laughed. That's such a funny band name. But if we have a band named Bill Murray, no one's ever going to be able to find it on the internet if I spell it the same," Franck told Muscle & Fitness. He has said meeting Bill Murray in person and getting him into a Bilmuri music video remains a career goal he has not yet achieved.
For nearly the entire 2016 to 2024 stretch, Bilmuri operated as a fully independent, self-released project under Franck's own imprint, Johnny Franck Productions, LLC, with Franck handling recording, mixing, mastering and writing largely by himself out of his Westerville home studio. By his own count he released between 13 and 16 albums independently before signing to a major label, often multiple in a single year: Letter(s) (2016), Frame (released on his own birthday, June 8, 2017), Banana (2017), Solid Chub (2018, his first release on CD), Taco (2018), Wet Milk (2019, noted by reviewers as a turning point toward more accessible songwriting), the *DiceMuri* split with No Dice, the *Pasteurized Milk* EP, Rich Sips (2019), the collaborative Muri and Friends EP (2020), Eggy Pocket (2020, featuring Jon Mess of Dance Gavin Dance and Dayseeker), the live album Bilmuri Presents: The Hog Crankers Ball (2021) and 400lb Back Squat (2021, featuring Jonathan Young).
Rich Sips carries one of the era's defining novelties: "Thicc Thiccly (The Return of the Crab)," released in November 2019, reunited Franck with former Attack Attack! bandmate Caleb Shomo as a parody of the pair's own 2008 debut single "Stick Stickly." The cameo doesn't arrive until the very end of the track, leading Loudwire to describe the song as "somewhat of a rickroll." In 2020, Franck also lent a featured guest vocal to Dance Gavin Dance's "Into the Sunset," from their album Afterburner.
The COVID-era touring shutdown of 2020 and 2021 pushed Franck seriously into powerlifting, an at-home P90X regimen escalating into a 405-pound squat and 315-pound bench, an achievement he later commemorated directly in the title of 400lb Back Squat.
Released October 14, 2022, Goblin Hours was a guitar-solo-heavy, virtuosic record Franck later called his "big ego" album, one that underperformed against his own expectations and prompted a deliberate creative reset toward simplicity. The album is discussed at length, alongside earlier cuts like "ABSOLUTELYCRANKINMYFINHOG," on The Punk Rock MBA Podcast, where the record is framed as a turning point in Franck's songwriting philosophy heading into what would become American Motor Sports.
In June 2024, Franck signed with Columbia Records, a Sony Music Entertainment division, a deal timed to the release of his major-label debut American Motor Sports on June 28, 2024. Per liner-note credits, Columbia releases Bilmuri's music "under exclusive license from Johnny Franck Productions, LLC," indicating Franck's own imprint retained a licensing arrangement rather than surrendering his masters outright. Coverage at the time noted the signing placed Bilmuri on the same label roster as AC/DC, Beyoncé and Bring Me the Horizon, and that Columbia began enforcing copyright almost immediately after the deal closed. Bilmuri is managed by DBLBLK and booked by Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
American Motor Sports was written from a pool of roughly 200 to 300 demoed songs whittled down to ten, and produced the singles "Better Hell," "Blindsided," "Emptyhanded" (featuring country artist Dylan Marlowe) and "All Gas" (featuring Mitchell Tenpenny), plus "2016 Cavaliers (Ohio)" featuring Knox. One retrospective calls the album "a beautiful collection of emo EDM Gore," and a YouTube deep-dive summarized it as "by far, the most polished and complete piece of work to date," a claim it credited for landing Bilmuri its subsequent Sleep Token support slot. A deluxe reissue, American Motor Sports (420cc Edition), followed on October 18, 2024, expanded to 14 tracks and released on vinyl; the "420cc" in the title nods to the Predator 420cc engine model referenced in the album's recurring lawn-mower visual motif. The album itself did not chart, but it reshaped Bilmuri's audience: monthly Spotify listeners reportedly jumped from around 500,000 to nearly 800,000 in the weeks following release, and by mid-2025 kworb tracking showed Bilmuri's 81-track catalog had accumulated more than 282 million total streams, at roughly 284,000 streams per day.
May 25 and 26, 2024 brought Bilmuri's first major international showcase, a performance at Babymetal's inaugural self-curated festival FOX_FEST at Saitama Super Arena in Japan, alongside Electric Callboy and Polyphia, played without a bassist and with guest saxophonist Yucco Miller standing in for regular member Gabi Rose.
The bigger platform arrived through Sleep Token. Bilmuri opened Sleep Token's arena tour across North America in spring 2024 and Europe and the UK that November and December, including back-to-back sold-out nights at London's O2 Arena on November 29 and December 3, shows press billed as "Sleep Token's biggest headline show[s] to date." Franck later credited the run as pivotal to Bilmuri's UK breakout, estimating "70 per cent of the crowd" at subsequent headline shows had discovered Bilmuri through Sleep Token. That momentum carried into April 2025, when Bilmuri headlined a sold-out UK tour capped by an upgraded show at London's 2,000-capacity Kentish Town Forum, which Franck called "the best day of my life."
In August 2025, Bilmuri played Reading & Leeds Festival on the Festival Republic Stage, bringing out South Arcade's Harmony Cavelle for "Better Hell (Thicc boi)." Kerrang!'s review of the set asked, "How many hogs can you crank in one tent? Loads, apparently." That October, Bilmuri joined Bad Omens' "Do You Feel Love" arena tour as support, a booking Franck described to Dork as a "full circle moment," since he had recorded Bad Omens frontman Noah Sebastian's earlier pop-punk band when Sebastian was 15 years old.
Ohio singer-songwriter Ally Nicholas opened Bilmuri's "American Motor Sports Tour: Second Lap," including a February 18, 2025 date in Pittsburgh, part of a support run that continued Franck's pattern of touring alongside developing alt and indie-rock acts.
Bilmuri's touring lineup shifted at the end of 2025: guitarist Reese Maslen stepped away from the band in late December 2025 after a former partner publicly accused him of emotional abuse, racism, misogyny and coercive control. Maslen announced his own departure on December 26, 2025, stating, "Effective immediately, I am stepping away from Bilmuri," and framing it as a personal step "to focus on my self-improvement." Bilmuri as a project did not issue a separate statement on the allegations at the time. Via the band's "Muri Naysh" fan app, two new touring members, bassist Aino Muriashi and pedal-steel and auxiliary player Joe Compton, were announced alongside confirmation of Maslen's exit and the *Kinda Hard* 2026 touring plans. By April 20, 2026, reporting confirmed Maslen had returned to the band "despite controversy," with coverage noting simply that "it appears he has since been welcomed back" into the touring lineup ahead of the *Kinda Hard* cycle; public reporting has not clarified whether Muriashi and Compton remained in the lineup alongside his return.
Bilmuri's 2026 era began with the single "More Than Hate" on June 27, 2025, which preceded the Bad Omens support tour and charted at No. 14 on the US Hard Rock chart, followed by "Hard2Tell" (US Hard Rock No. 21). A cover of Rosa Walton and Hallie Coggins's "I Really Want to Stay at Your House," the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners end-credits ballad, was released for Spotify Singles and The Game Awards, reflecting Franck's stated affection for anime as a creative influence.
On February 6, 2026, Bilmuri released "Twice" (US Hard Rock No. 21) alongside the full announcement of the album Kinda Hard and its 13-track tracklist. The album's centerpiece collaboration, "Always Let You Down" with A Day To Remember, became Bilmuri's biggest chart hit to date, reaching No. 5 on the US Hard Rock Digital chart and No. 3 on US Hard Rock overall; Kerrang! called it a "direct 50/50 blend" spanning "20 years of metalcore" between Franck and ADTR's Jeremy McKinnon. A second collaborative single, "Where To Find Me" with Novelists, reached US Hard Rock No. 20.
Kinda Hard arrived April 10, 2026, and became Bilmuri's first-ever charting album: US Billboard 200 No. 108, Scottish Albums Chart No. 71, UK Sales Chart No. 50 and UK Rock & Metal Chart No. 10. The 13-track record, released "under exclusive license from Johnny Franck Productions, LLC," runs from opener "Kinda Hard" through "Twice," "Worst Part of You," "Rock Bottom," "More Than Hate," "Hard2Tell," "Where to Find Me," "ST4RF1SH SPR34DR," "Shyt Fyst," "Always Let You Down," "Back, Then" and "Honest" to closer "Waves," which Franck has described as a deliberate "melancholic, chilled-out" mirror of American Motor Sports's own closing tonal shift. A Kerrang! review of the album describes it blending "offbeat humor, exaggerated track titles with genre mashups and the underlying themes of relationships, burnout, and self-reflection" while still feeling "grounded in real emotion," and awarded it 4/5. Sputnikmusic was more measured, calling it "solid enough chub" at 3.5/5 while noting it "takes few risks," and The Soundboard similarly found it lacked "the same freshness" as its predecessor despite being "as listenable as it gets." The album cycle continued into a 21-date U.S. "KINDA HARD TOUR" that spring, with support from The Home Team and GANG!.
Franck describes Bilmuri's sound variously as "post-hardcore, pop punk, indie pop, electronic, emo, and country," and has coined his own tongue-in-cheek genre tag, "Y'all-ternative," a term also picked up by outlets covering the broader crossover between country and alternative rock. Live listings alternate between tagging the act "Dethcore/ambient/post-jazz" and "Alternative Rock, Progressive Metalcore" depending on the bill, a fittingly contradictory shorthand for a catalog built on deliberate genre collision.
Song titles are a signature comedic device, absurd and all-caps, sitting alongside sincere songs about heartbreak and self-worth: "ABSOLUTELYCRANKINMYMF'INHOG," "FLUORIDEINTHEHARDSELTZERWATER," "LORDFARQUADZILLA" and "ST4RF1SH SPR34DR" sit next to "Better Hell" and "Blindsided." The bit extends visually: the music video for "Better Hell" is, per one review, "just Franck riding a lawn mower and staring at the camera for 3 minutes," while the "Emptyhanded" video with Dylan Marlowe shows "the fellas taking turns mowing a friend's lawn," a motif tied directly to the American Motor Sports title and its lawn-mower-engine artwork. Live, the band's catchphrase is "hog cranking," now used by press and fans alike to describe Bilmuri sets.
The country-metalcore fusion is deliberate and technical rather than novelty. Touring guitarist Reese Maslen, who came "strictly from the metal world," had to learn Nashville-style chicken-picking to play Bilmuri's country-inflected riffs, and both guitarists perform live in DADGAD tuning. Franck brought in Mississippi session musician Eric Woolard specifically to add "really traditional country" guitar to "Better Hell," telling Guitar World: "The country guys are some of the best in the world, but they don't get as much credit as the prog guys. Shining a light on how cool country guitar can be was important to me." The late-2025 addition of a dedicated pedal-steel and auxiliary player to the touring lineup formalized the country half of the sound as a permanent live fixture rather than a studio-only flourish.
Franck presents as unpretentious and self-deprecating, repeatedly downplaying the "artist" label: "I don't call myself an artist, I just make shit and put it out into the world. Then whatever happens, happens," he told Dork. Despite arena tours, a major-label deal and a first Billboard chart entry, he has described actively guarding against ego: "It's mind-blowing for sure. I'm just trying to enjoy each day and not become a douchebag is the goal. Not become egotistical... I'm grateful that I have it," he told HIVE Magazine.
He is married; a Kerrang! photography credit from April 2025 lists Emily Franck as tour photographer, consistent with fan-noted appearances of a wife named Emily reportedly together with Franck for around eight years as of 2024. He keeps his personal and family life largely offline, with fans noting occasional livestream glimpses of his father and brother but little else.
Fitness remains a defining personal outlet. What began as an at-home P90X regimen escalated into serious powerlifting during COVID lockdowns, partly inspired by fellow Ohioan fitness influencer Sam Sulek, culminating in a 405-pound squat and 315-pound bench. He now frames training as essential to touring life: "The best part of my day is going to the gym... it's essential for my mental health and staying healthy on tour," and treats sessions as a deliberate escape from constant music immersion: "I go monk mode, no headphones, I'm just living in the moment... The gym feels like a way to cleanse my hearing palette."
Franck is an outspoken anime fan, a connection reinforced by his 2025 cover of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners ballad "I Really Want to Stay at Your House." During UK touring he developed a running bit around his fondness for English breakfast food, prompting crowds to chant "BEANS ON TOAST!" back at him nightly. On his own longevity, he has said he expects to "be writing music the same way when I'm 50 years old," describing songwriting as "the greatest adventure" rather than a job to slow from. Bandmates describe him as a generous collaborator who leans on the musicians around him: "The music would be nowhere near as good if I wasn't around these guys... this project growing to the degree it has is a direct result of me bringing in people who are better than me," he told Guitar World.
Bilmuri is not a band with a stable, rotating lineup in the traditional sense. It is the name Johnny Franck uses for a project on which he writes, produces and performs the bulk of the recorded material himself, bringing in touring musicians such as Reese Maslen, Aino Muriashi and Joe Compton for live shows.
Johnny Franck, who performs as Bilmuri, co-founded Attack Attack! in 2007 and served as its clean vocalist and rhythm guitarist through the release of two albums, Someday Came Suddenly (2008) and the self-titled Attack Attack! (2010), before departing the band in November 2010.
It is a scrambled homage to actor Bill Murray, coined as a joke with a friend who suggested naming the project "Bill Murray" outright; Franck respelled it so the project would be findable online.
It is Bilmuri's own catchphrase for its live shows, now used by fans and press to describe the energy of a set; the phrase and the recurring lawn-mower imagery on American Motor Sports are connected running visual and verbal jokes central to the band's brand.
Yes. Bilmuri signed with Columbia Records in June 2024, timed to the release of American Motor Sports; releases are issued under exclusive license from Franck's own imprint, Johnny Franck Productions, LLC.
| Release | Type | Year | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaguar Shark | Studio album | 2016 | Self-released | Debut Bilmuri release |
| Bilmuri | Studio album | 2016 | Self-released | Self-titled, nine tracks |
| Letter(s) | Studio album | 2016 | Johnny Franck Productions | |
| Frame | Studio album | 2017 | Johnny Franck Productions | Released on Franck's birthday |
| Banana | Studio album | 2017 | Johnny Franck Productions | |
| Solid Chub | Studio album | 2018 | Johnny Franck Productions | First on CD format |
| Taco | Studio album | 2018 | Johnny Franck Productions | |
| Wet Milk | Studio album | 2019 | Johnny Franck Productions | Turn toward accessible songwriting |
| Rich Sips | Studio album | 2019 | Johnny Franck Productions | Features "Thicc Thiccly" with Caleb Shomo |
| Muri and Friends | Collaborative EP | 2020 | Johnny Franck Productions | |
| Eggy Pocket | Studio album | 2020 | Johnny Franck Productions | Features Jon Mess, Dayseeker |
| Bilmuri Presents: The Hog Crankers Ball | Live album | 2021 | Johnny Franck Productions | |
| 400lb Back Squat | Studio album | 2021 | Johnny Franck Productions | Features Jonathan Young |
| Goblin Hours | Studio album | 2022 | Johnny Franck Productions | Franck's self-described "ego" record |
| American Motor Sports | Studio album | 2024 | Columbia Records | Major-label debut; breakout record |
| American Motor Sports (420cc Edition) | Deluxe reissue | 2024 | Columbia | 14 tracks, expanded vinyl release |
| Kinda Hard | Studio album | 2026 | Columbia | First-ever charting Bilmuri album |
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Co-founds Attack Attack! in Westerville, Ohio |
| 2010 | Departs Attack Attack! after two albums; band disbands in 2013 |
| 2011–2016 | Runs The March Ahead and Johnny Franck Productions, produces 70-plus bands |
| 2016 | Launches Bilmuri as a solo outlet during a period of severe depression; releases Jaguar Shark and self-titled Bilmuri |
| 2019 | Reunites with Caleb Shomo on "Thicc Thiccly" from Rich Sips |
| 2020–2021 | Powerlifting becomes a major personal focus during COVID touring shutdown |
| 2022 | Releases Goblin Hours, later called an "ego" misstep |
| 2024 | Plays FOX_FEST with Babymetal in Japan; releases American Motor Sports; signs to Columbia Records; supports Sleep Token across North America, Europe and the UK |
| 2025 | Sold-out Kentish Town Forum headline show; Reading & Leeds; Bad Omens support tour; Reese Maslen departs amid personal-conduct allegations |
| 2026 | Releases Kinda Hard, Bilmuri's first charting album; Maslen returns to the touring lineup; 21-date Kinda Hard Tour |
For the broader alt/pop-adjacent touring ecosystem Bilmuri has crossed paths with on support bills, see the entry on Ally Nicholas, who opened dates on Bilmuri's American Motor Sports Tour: Second Lap in early 2025.