Interview with Robert Francis

On Saturday I spoke on the phone with Robert Francis, a singer-songwriter from California who has the Free Single of the Week on iTunes. Robert is currently promoting his second album, Before Nightfall, available through Atlantic Records on Tuesday.

Congratulations on having the Single of the Week on iTunes! How does it feel to be getting that kind of national attention?

Pretty cool. ‘Til now my first record only circulated in one community of listeners and now it’s been thrown out in the open, and it’s interesting to see all the different opinions, but I think it’s great.

Your new album Before Nightfall is coming out on Tuesday, can you tell me about the process that went into making it?

When I was recording my first record I did it in my parent’s house and friend’s living room. I spent a lot of time recording different instruments. With this record I really wanted to do something live and immediate, so I got the band in the room and we basically did the record in the same vein as we do it live. We finished it about three weeks, pretty quickly, so we could capture all the immediacy and intimacy from a live setting.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?

Always. It was probably the last song I wrote on the record. It still hits me every time I listen to it, and I’ve heard these songs a lot of times.

I see you’re touring a lot in California and places that are not Boston. Have you played any shows here before? Do you have any plans to play one in the near future?

I played at the Paradise once. I love Boston. A lot of my favorite movie are set in Boston, and I’m excited to come back. We’re gonna play this last minute show, a suicide prevention show at the House of Blues, and then we’re coming back with Brett Dennen in November.

You’re going to London and Paris next month. Is this your first time playing shows in Europe? Have you ever been there before?

No, it’s not my first time playing shows in Europe. It will be my first time in Paris, and that’s gonna be a really fun time for the band of all of us because we’ll get to let loose and party somewhere else for a change.

I understand that you are 21, is that right?

22

Do you have any advice for college kids who would rather be playing music than sitting through a chemistry lecture?

I think my only advice would be that if you honestly believe in yourself, and your heart is telling you to do something you should follow it, and if you follow your heart and your instinct there’s no way you can really go wrong. That’s all I ever did, and even when it hasn’t worked out I’ve been happy because I know that I’ve been myself, and that’s all anyone could ever ask for.