Southampton singer- songwriter Jack Francis, who is about to support Damien Dempsey and has played support for Sharon Shannon, told David Hennessy about his debut album, Irish roots and the changing landscape for music and songwriters.
Hailing from Southampton singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jack Francis (33) released his debut album Early Retirement last year to much acclaim.
It was also last year that Jack supported Sharon Shannon for three nights at The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith.
Now Jack is supporting Damien Dempsey on his pre- St Patrick’s Day tour in Liverpool, Glasgow and Leeds.
You’re from Southampton but you have got Irish heritage, haven’t you?
“Yeah, that’s right.
“My mum is from Strandhill, Sligo and my dad was born here in Southampton but he is from an Irish mother as well, from Limerick.
“So I’ve got one English grandparent, no grandparents from Southampton, but we sort of ended up here.”
Does that mean you always had that Irish influence growing up?
“Definitely, yeah.
“Absolutely.
“My mum’s the youngest of 11 children so I have a lot of aunties and cousins.
“I grew up around a lot of music, all different styles really, and genres but yeah, definitely Irish music was played a bit, played a big part, and so did all kinds.
“I was really just exposed to a lot of music at quite a young age.”
When did you know you wanted to be a musician? Did you start very early?
“I didn’t.
“Actually I would say I was a bit of a late bloomer.
“I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was around 13, I think some people do it a lot younger than that.
“But I already loved music at that age and I was already burning through my brother’s CD collection and all kinds of stuff, so then I took the next logical step and decided to start learning guitar myself, and then eventually started writing my own songs.
“That’s been a long, slow process to get to the point I’m at now because nobody’s good at writing songs when they first start, I don’t think but a lot of work and time, dedication, and hopefully you get there.”
You had your first UK headline tour last year, what was that like?
“It was great.
“I’ve done a lot of touring over the last few years but this was the first time I’ve gone out with my name being on the ticket really so it’s definitely a different experience as it comes with a lot more pressure and a lot more anxiety about whether anyone’s going to show up.
“But thankfully they did.
“It went great.
“I wanted to keep it a fairly short run but we did five dates: Up to Manchester and down to Brighton, and finished in Southampton.
“We did London and Birmingham as well.
“It went really well and the audiences were brilliant.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better time really, it went pretty smooth.”
Did you find the crowds different in say Manchester as opposed to your home town in Southampton?
“Oh, at home in Southampton was definitely the rowdiest.
“I think in general it’s the rule of thumb really for musicians, when you kind of get back to where you’re based and where you have a lot of friends, the rules kind of change a little bit and people feel a bit more comfortable to get a bit rowdier but everywhere people were so respectful and just really came to enjoy the music really.
“I had the band with me which is fairly rare, I don’t get to do full band stuff, especially tours, very often so it was great and the audiences were phenomenal.”
The tour was in support of your debut album, Early Retirement.
The title is tongue in cheek really, isn’t it?
Are you poking a bit of fun at yourself with it?
“Yeah, it’s sort of a concept album really, about being a being a musician and songwriter in the modern era.
“There’s a lot spoken about it and it’s not the easiest thing to do in this day and age for various reasons.
“But there’s not a lot of money in the music business anymore and people are kind of struggling to make ends meet.
“And I didn’t see an awful lot of people writing about that.
“People talk about it but I kind of had this collection of songs that I just thought it was quite a natural process for them all to fit together.
“I thought it made for an interesting concept for an album so I’ve kind of built the cover, the artwork and everything sort of around that idea.”
It is something you’ve spoken about and it is a serious issue. With venues closing left, right and centre and young musicians having nowhere to play, how are they meant to work on their craft?
“It’s already happening.
“The landscape is changing and labels have changed how they operate.
“People go into record deals now and start releasing music having never played a gig in their life.
“I mean, that’s totally alien to me but it’s just that’s the way the business is going and I think it’s a shame because the demand isn’t as high either from audiences to go to these venues.
“They’ll kind of queue up and pay God knows how many hundreds of pounds for an Oasis ticket but they won’t pay 10 pounds to go to the local music venue and catch maybe three or four local bands.
“It’s been a bit of a shift in society and what people are valuing and what they’re not, you have to work around that really.
“I think there’s definitely a problem though.”
Yeah, it’s like everyone wants to crowd in and see Oasis at Wembley but there was a time when they were playing Leeds Irish Centre or Water Rats in London..
“Absolutely, they played at the Joiners in Southampton too on their first UK tour which is local staple, still going thankfully.
“I mean, that’s where everybody starts.
“Everybody starts somewhere but a lot of people don’t jump on board until things are already really successful.
“People seem to get with the programme once bands are already really well established rather than trying to find something new for themselves.
“But music isn’t at the forefront of everybody’s lives.
“It’s entertainment and it’s something that people enjoy but they don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of time.
“It just takes more time now to find stuff that you like and relate to, which is a shame but it is out there.
“If people look for it, it is out there.”
It’s probably a little bit similar in the way that you’ve just done your album but as far as a lot of artists are concerned, the album doesn’t exist anymore.
It’s all streaming and singles and so the ‘discovery’ of an album is less of a thing..
“Yeah, it’s totally true.
“The culture of the industry now is to do singles instead, to just do multiple singles instead of releasing an album.
“Most songwriters grew up loving music, the reason we wanted to start is to make albums, to make records because that’s what we grew up with but the landscape’s changed so now, albums are very costly and people’s attention spans have changed with time and social media and all of that.
“It’s like you need to engage people within 10 seconds, otherwise you’ve lost them and so for people to sit and listen to a whole album now- just a general person- is quite rare, I would say.
“Music fans still do it but not everyone is that engaged.”
I want to talk about your song, Failure.
I imagine it’s very much the story of a struggling musician really.
Have you felt like a lot of things that you refer to in that song?
“Oh, definitely at times.
“That’s not a constant feeling but I’ve definitely felt that way and, I’d say, pretty much anyone who does this feels that way at times.
“Sometimes it can feel like you’re just throwing a drop in the ocean and it’s hard to build a following.
“Sometimes you just feel like you’re not getting anywhere but then you’ve got to keep doing it.
“I don’t know how to do anything else but I think it’s important to observe those feelings and put them out there.
“Once that song was written, really the whole album came together and I think that song was sort of right on the nose in terms of the themes of the record.
“It kind of just sums up the whole album really but it is tongue in cheek.
“It’s not entirely serious but there are moments that you definitely feel that way, I think.”
Do you think people respond to the honesty of that song?
“Yeah, it’s definitely positive.
“I’ve had an overwhelming response to that song, especially from other musicians and songwriters.
“They just completely latched onto it and people that I know really liked it which is lovely because I didn’t see a lot of people writing about it, writing about those feelings, because everything nowadays is about perception.
“It’s about the image you’re curating for yourself on social media and how to make things look great as opposed to the reality, and I think that song is a dose of reality, a healthy dose of reality.
“I think that does engage people.
“It does speak to some people.”
Do you think people also don’t understand that not being Oasis or Taylor Swift doesn’t mean you’re failing as a musician?
“Yeah, it’s ups and downs.
“It’s huge highs, huge lows and that’s the nature of the job.
“It comes with massive rushes of endorphins and adrenaline, and it comes with a lot of rejection.
“You kind of experience extremes at both ends of the scale, and that is the nature of it.
“You try and level yourself out when you when you have a bad moment or when you have a great moment, I think it’s important to try and level it out a little bit.
“You’ve got to enjoy the good stuff and you’ve got to not let the bad stuff hit you too hard.”
We’ve spoken about your debut headline tour, another highlight for you so far has to be Glastonbury, right? What was it like to be part of that?
“It was great.
“I had a great time.
“I’d never been to the festival before and I kind of always said publicly that ‘I’m not going until I am playing’.
“Last year was the year thankfully so it was great.
“I played a couple of times.
“I had some great shows.
“People were brilliant.
“I had people come along to the to the headline tour recently who saw me at Glastonbury, who hadn’t seen me before so it reaches a new audience and it reaches new people being there as well.
“It carries a weight, I think, if you’ve managed to get on the bill there.
“It’s not easy and it’s a brilliant experience.
“There’s nothing quite like it.
“I’ve never seen any festival like it. It’s insane.”
You haven’t done your own solo tour in Ireland yet but you have played over there..
“Yeah, I’ve been over a couple of times (last year).
“I was supporting my friend Beans on Toast who is a singer- songwriter, alternative folk singer songwriter.
“I played in Dublin and Belfast and down in Tipperary with him.
“I was over a couple of months before that with Ferris & Sylvester.
“We played the Grand Social in Dublin.
“That was great too.
“I love being over there.
“I love playing over there and I really hope I can do a lot more over there because I get a lovely response from people.
“They understand music.
“They know it, they love it and they respect it so it’s a privilege to play over there.”
It sounds like you feel people connect with what you do over there..
“Yeah, I think so.
“I feel that.
“I do feel that when I’m there, I love it.”
Do you feel at home there?
“Absolutely.
“I’ve grown up going over there.
“I never really went to Dublin when I was young because that’s not where my family were but now, as I’ve got older, I’ve ended up going there a lot and I love it there.
“I’ve got around the country a little bit more as I’ve got older.
“I do feel at home there.
“I feel probably more at home there than I ever have in England, weirdly enough but I’m sort of in between where I’m a bit too Irish to be English and a bit too English to be Irish.
“That’s my upbringing here but I do definitely feel at home there.
“I feel in touch with the people and the way people are over there.
“It’s a slightly slower pace of life than it is in England.
“It’s not as uptight as it is here and I love that.”
Who are your Irish musical inspirations?
“From the Irish side, I’d say Luke Kelly.
“He’s one of the greatest singers ever, I think.
“As a singer I always try and think about delivering songs and people who were really able to take a song and make it their own and deliver it in a way that the greats of all time have done, people like Elvis and Marvin Gaye and people like that. I think Luke Kelly is up there with any of them, absolutely.
“He’s definitely an influence.”
How did supporting Sharon Shannon come your way?
“My manager, David James has known Sharon for quite a few years.
“I think they go way back.
“Dave has worked with quite a lot of Irish artists like Sinéad O’Connor and Damien Dempsey, and I think worked with Sharon for a while as well.
“That’s how I kind of was introduced and they asked if I wanted to do it and I was, ‘Absolutely. It sounds great’.
“It was a privilege.
“It’s not an opportunity that comes up very often.
“I’m always interested in doing different kinds of gigs.”
How would you classify your own sound yourself?
You get labelled as folk and I think Americana comes in there too.
Are you happy with those labels or is there something else you would like to be called?
“I wouldn’t necessarily call myself anything else.
“I think it’s a difficult one because I’m a songwriter and the songs can change or shift, stylistically.
“I’ve always tried to do what is right for the song but that does lean into my influences which are folk music and soul music and country music kind of blended together.
“I think that is kind of where I sit.
“I would call it soulful folk music, I guess.
“It sits in a strange place but I’m happy with that.
“I don’t think it’s easily categorised but that’s okay by me.”
What’s next? Is it a case of starting work on the second album in some early form, collecting material for it?
“Yeah, I’m writing. I’m writing quite a lot at the moment.
“I think the plan for the next year is to do some more shows and hopefully some more festivals and to start on the next bunch of music, I’m not sure what that’s going to be yet. I’m not sure of it.
“We’re going to jump straight into an album.
“Albums are very costly and take up quite a lot of time, so I’m not sure that will be what we do but I’ll definitely be recording some music and be getting some new stuff out there (this) year, for sure.
“I don’t know what form that’s going to take yet as to whether it’s an album or an EP or singles, but there’ll be music.”
Jack Francis supports Damien Dempsey at Liverpool Arts Club on Tuesday 11 March, Saint Luke’s in Glasgow on Wednesday 12 March and Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on Friday 14 March.
He also supports Proud Mary at The 100 Club in London on 5 April.
Jack Francis tours England in May.
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