There’s plenty of great music coming out of the Nordics right now, and while it’s mostly the more electronic sounds that are getting the attention, that’s far from the full truth. The region of Dalarna in Sweden seems to be delivering excellent acts at quite a high rate, you’ve probably heard of The Tallest Man on Earth, right? Together with Idiot Wind, Francis is one of the most promising acts from that certain region right now even if they’ve been around as a band for a while.
Last year Francis released their debut full-length Lekomberg, We Were Kin via Strangers Candy/Playground and on Monday (February 27 that is) they’re releasing a follow-up EP called This Must Be Blood. While Lekomberg, We Were Kin mostly consisted of older songs This Must Be Blood is all new, something that is very apparent while listening. The band is moving away from the more folky inspirations of Lekomberg for a more confident and poppy indie sound, while still retaining their own unique identity. Vocalist Petra Mases’ bittersweet vocals adds an extra dimension to the already strong songs as well.
We’ve got the full EP available for your listening pleasure below, a couple of days ahead of release, plus a short interview with Petra Mases about the origins of the band and their music.
Interview: Petra Mases of Francis
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us a bit, how about you start with a short introduction for any readers who might not be familiar with you?
We are four childhood friends who try to make the best of what we have. Our music is made by wood and clay, and other bits and pieces lying around. The work is for us, as playful as it is fatally serious. So we dance, sing and play with our audience but we do it with honesty.
How do you feel you’ve evolved as a band since the release of Lekomberg, We Were Kin?
Our debut album is really several years old. Most of the songs were made a long time ago. So physically and mentally, we’ve aged. But when you put something in a song; a feeling, thought or a relationship, you need to give it a proper ending.
We also tried to approach our songs in a different way this time. Maybe because, basically, they were made in the studio. But I think we really needed a new way to handle these new songs. Which for us became a more healthy road.
What are your plans for the future?
We’re a really happy band for the moment, and the energy, I think, will lead us into stuff we didn’t expect. The established scheme is to do a tour in central Europe in March, and another tour in May.
But we’re also making new songs as we try to get by and thinking about when to get them recorded.
You’re from the Dalarna region in Sweden, has that influenced your music? If so, how? Do you feel a special kinship to other artists from the region?
Dalarna has surely influenced us, the Swedish folk scene has a very strong connection to our home and it was kind of impossible not to get dragged in to it. And with that comes a great desire to revolt against that. A great deal of music coming from Dalarna are therefore all kinds of punk and metal, which where our starting ground to make music as kids.
We lived in different cities as we grew older, but something made us move back. We’re still getting influenced by the landscapes, people and darkness, and the lyrics are often colored by it.
There’s a lot of music made in our region, and some of it are wonderful and inspiring, and some of it… Well, the matter of taste works like it does round the globe I guess.
There’s lots of great music coming out of Sweden in general right now, and ideas as to why that is?
Some good always comes out of the bad. What I mean is that, there are lots and lots of bands in Sweden so it would really be a shame if there weren’t anything enjoyable coming out of it.
Maybe because we don’t have anything better to do. The darkness is sometimes overwhelming, there aren’t that many people to interact with and everyone needs a spiracle. Music, in Sweden, is a fairly easy way to make it okay to talk about emotions, in a country suffering with low self-esteem. It’s been that way for an eternity here, but as the wallets grew bigger, the music scene also got its chance to expand.
Thanks for talking with us, and good luck in the future!
Francis are currently heading out on a short European tour with gigs in Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium scheduled, check out the dates below. Also make sure to like them on Facebook.
Francis tour dates:
02.29 – Stockholm, Sweden – Lilla Hotellbaren
03.02 – Gävle, Sweden – Kafé Vinyl (with Simian Ghost)
03.05 – Hamburg, Germany – Knust
03.06 – Dresden, Germany – Thalia Kino
03.07 – Berlin, Germany – Comet Club (with Tom Brosseau & Damien Jurado
03.08 – Offenbach, Germany – Hafen 2
03.09 – Deventer, Netherlands – Burgerweeshuis
03.10 – Antwerp, Belgium – Klappei
03.11 – Den Bosch, Netherlands – fabrIQ
03.12 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
