[3][4] She briefly joined a school choir but did not receive formal music lessons but taught herself to sing and from the age of 17 how to play guitar.

[2][3][5] Frankie, as Mellander, completed an architectural design course at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.

[2] In August 2001, together with a fellow college student, Mellander co-designed a shop window display for Empire Homeware, in Paddington as part of Sydney Design Week.

[6] By 2004 she was working for Dale Jones-Evans, an architect and development firm, where she was part of a team that designed and built the "Art Wall" in Surry Hills.

[12] In the documentary Frankie was asked to take him to her favourite places, perform her tracks and to write a song about Berlin – she provided, "The Faint-hearted Ones".

[12] Berlin Song was premiered at the 57th Berlinale in February 2007, which Arte's Nana Rebhan observed, "succeeded in making an atmospheric and poetic film that confirms why it is so good to live in this city.

[13] She explained to Carlisle Rogers of 3D Staging how it was recorded at various venues in Berlin, with numerous local artists, over the previous two years.

[14] Michael Pincott of Rave Magazine observed, "[it is] far removed from vacuous candy-coated pop ditties", with her ability to "craft dense, rich, dramatic folk songs.

[19] During 2016 she formed a pop duo, Keøma, with fellow singer-songwriter Chris Klopfer, which toured Germany in March.