Frankie Muniz has gone from “The Middle” to trying to race to the front and now he’s behind the drums.

WENN (via IMDB) is reporting that former Malcolm in the Middle star Muniz has joined Phoenix rock band You Hang Up as the band’s drummer. According to the band’s MySpace page, Muniz — who left acting a couple of years ago to go into auto racing — is very serious about the project.

After a few online and text messages between Frankie Muniz (drums) and (lead singer) Aaron (Brown) regarding the music, the band met up with Frankie to talk about connecting the vision of You Hang Up with Frankie’s long time passion for drumming and music. Frankie moved to Arizona in 2008 to take a break from acting and pursue a professional career in racing, but has now become a permanent fixture of You Hang Up.

Brown formed the band in 2007 with his brother Chris (guitars), and released the album Release Me that year. However, with the addition of Muniz and bass player Henry Ebarb, You Hang Up will likely be touring and working on new music.

(On a side note, I had been joking around that I’d thought Muniz had disappeared and changed his name to Sean Payton, and had started coaching the Saints. You gotta admit, there’s a resemblance.)