An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Robert Francis – HuffPost 11.5.09
Mike Ragogna: Your new album, Before Nightfall, seems to capture some of the same desperateness as Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town because your characters’ lives and relationships are challenged by the times. Are all these adventures based on a certain relationship or a few different ones?
Robert Francis: I think this record is pretty much based around one relationship, though I’ve gone through a few stages in my life where I’ve had many different girlfriends. But this one was the end-all-be-all that shaped why I think about things in such a different way, that’s how I started formulating the songs.
MR: You use “darkness” as your theme throughout. Was that due to the nature of the relationship, or was it more about fighting personal demons?
RF: I definitely was bailing her out a lot, there’s so much ground that it covers. A lot of the darkness is literal and metaphorical, but it mainly had to do with memories and how I remember things during that time when I was sort of abusing a lot of substances like alcohol. The way my mind gathers these memories is sort of in black and white. I remember how the night, that darkness, actually felt, waking up, and the way that the light would fall across different objects. So, a lot of it is about the feeling of that darkness.
MR: In the song “Darkness,” you have the line “No one’s gonna find you if you ever get lost this time…” which captures how dangerous it is to fall into society’s cracks. And most of your songs have at least one or two lines that dig this deeply. With your material coming from personal experience, it seems like feel you’ve had an intense life.
RF: Yeah. Definitely, I was thinking about it the other day. It feels like I’m so young still, but I’ve been through a lot already.
MR: “Junebug” also is a powerful yet addictive song with still more very original perspectives on life. It’s also pretty hooky, and your falsetto kills. Is this your single?
RF: I think iTunes is featuring it as the single. I think Atlantic wants to get the album out there first as a body of work before they do the label thing with a single. But I think when they decide to go there, yeah, that’ll be it.
MR: You can hear snippets of a few classic artists on Before Nightfall. Who are some of your influences?
RF: There are so many musicians that I love but those that really inspired me where the greats–Dylan, Neil Young, and Townes Van Zandt. The way those guys made records is real rare. There are no fillers, all the songs are heartfelt. You could take any of their songs and they’re great.
MR: Who else?
RF: Other people that I love? John and Beverly Martyn, Karen Dalton, Glen Gray, Alexander Spence. I loved The Band, of course. They made records, and that’s what I want to do.
MR: You got your National guitar from Ry Cooder. What was it like having him as a family friend?
RF: It was pretty incredible. I read an interview with him the other day on how he’d sit in a room with the Reverend Gary Davis. You could give him a dime and sit in a room with him and watch him play. I remember reading that you had to be there with that person, it’s not something you can just see “live” or watch on TV.
MR: Like being within the presence of the teacher itself to pick up on subtleties, unconscious communication, all that.
RF: Yeah, it was the same thing with me, sitting there with Ry, being that close to him and watching him play throughout my childhood. It’s that energy and magic you can’t get otherwise. It isn’t having that “sound,” since that can only go so far. You kind of get removed from space and time, and I would just be able to sit there and soak it in. It was something I was extremely lucky to have done. He plays like no one I’ve ever heard, and he definitely gave me a real firm understanding of what “soul” really is and how it can be expressed at a really young age. I never got confused or got in on the technical part of guitar playing; I was always searching for that “soul,” and that’s what I got from Ry.
MR: So feeling is the most important element of your writing process?
RF: Yeah. What’ll happen is that something will come over me like a feeling of elation or sadness, whatever it is, and that will spring some sort of melody or idea. I’ll probably end up writing the chorus before I write the rest of the song, and figuring out the verses lyrically is how I find a way to pinpoint what I’m singing about in the chorus.
MR: Speaking of Ry Cooder, he supplied the music for Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, and you’ve said it affected you profoundly.
RF: When I saw that movie when I was young, it was one of the most inspiring (films) I’d ever seen. I knew right then that I had to pursue my dreams, and I think it made sense–how people need to be searching for something, though it’s never really clear what that is. I wanted to figure out exactly what it was that I was searching for. So that’s how I began to play music, to envision what I’m doing now, to get this dream together and follow it.
MR: And eventually, you traded a college education for your first record, right?
RF: Pretty much. I was trying to get through school, and couldn’t do it. I just dropped out and hit the road pretty quickly with my sister’s band playing bass. Then I made my first record.
MR: Did your family have your back when you made the decision to pursue music?
RF: Without the support of my sisters and my parents, I wouldn’t even come close to be doing what I do now. If they hadn’t been as supportive and raised me the way they did, life would be very different from the way it is.
MR: How would you describe your first album, One By One?
RF: The first record’s real innocent, and so much has changed since then, though it was just three years ago. Everything’s changed in my outlook on life, on human beings, and relationships. Even my voice has changed a lot since then.
MR: Was it centered around the same cast as Before Nightfall?
RF: Yeah, it was the beginning of that same relationship.
MR: So trusting in yourself paid off since your first album was well received.
RF: Right, it got great reviews.
MR: Then you hooked-up with Atlantic. How did that come about?
RF: After One By One came out, there was probably more interest coming from labels than fans, press, or anything else. I think there were about five record deals on the table, and I was going to go with one of them. But my manger called this A&R guy at Atlantic, Sam Riback, and he got it to him and asked if there was anything that we were missing, like was there a label we should be going to, general opinions. Sam heard the record and fell in love with it. He got it more than anyone else did. The label then pursued me, and I got to know them after a while.
MR: How did you land Dave Sardy as your producer?
RF: I was trying to produce the record myself, and the label supported me. They gave me money to build a studio in the desert, so the band and I went out and demoed these new songs. But when I handed-in the recordings, well, looking back at it, I did need a producer. I heard Sardy always wanted to do the record. I met him in London about two years ago when I was playing a show there for One By One. He was doing the new Oasis record at Abbey Road (Studios). His reputation as a producer was that he’s pretty intense, he’d tell you if something’s not right. And I wasn’t interested in a producer who wanted to make it all comfortable and cozy, I wanted to be around one that was as serious as I was about making it. So, I met with him and began recording the record about a week after that.
MR: And you set-up in the studio like it was your home.
RF: Yeah, we really made it like that. I brought a whole lot of furniture from my house, and we did it in the same way we’d do it in my living room, real intimate and personal. It definitely was a lot of fun.
MR: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
RF: I hope to have at least four or five more records, to try to keep creating as much as I possibly can, and for the records to be as successful as they can be. There’s nothing that I enjoy more than just playing songs for my fans and for people who enjoy the music. I’d just like to see that go as far as it could. I have no real plans on intentionally burning out or stopping, this is just what I love to do, and I’ve always loved doing it. Hopefully, it will take me to a place where I can settle down on a little piece of ranch property and get some old cars, sort of relax one day…