Interview with Robert Francis
Robert Francis + The End Times Vol. 1
Robert Francis has accomplished many things in his career and there’s no sign of slowing down. In Fact, he’s putting out music at an accelerated pace.
The full length album ‘Amaretto’ was released on May 1, 2020. The album which featured Ry Cooter, Marty Stuart and Terry Evans on Multiple tracks was 11 songs in total.
Francis is back with another full length album, this time with 10 tracks to sooth your music soul. ‘Robert Francis + The End Times Vol. 1’ is scheduled to be released on June 19th via Aeronaut Records.
When the album is released I would recommend spending some time alone with it and quite possibly losing yourself in the spectacular songwriting and musical craft on the record. You’ll be hard pressed to find many albums that are mixed better than this one. A couple of standout tracks I want to mention are ‘Coast’, ‘Down The Line’ and the album closer, ‘House Cat’. They are all unique in their own way and all offer something special to the listener.
I caught up with Robert to talk about the album. I asked him how he came up with the name of the band and record. Francis says, “I met my band maybe a little over two years ago and most of the guys are from here in L.A. I was living in Nashville at the time and they flew out to record with me there on the Amaretto album, which is the record I made before this one. There’s a studio called The End Times on Gallitin Blvd and it’s just this little, old, defunct studio, I’m not sure. I don’t know what’s going on in there but the old sign is still up and then we came to the conclusion to call the band The End Times. Now it seems pretty appropriate and it’s taking on a meaning of its own.”
I told Robert that I loved the organic, live feel of this record. He explains what the process was like in the studio. Francis says, “I usually get everybody in the same room. I hate iso (isolation) booths. I feel like everybody needs to be looking at each other and catching a vibe. Usually, I don’t want to do more than two or three takes. I also give the band very little time to learn the songs. Because I feel like, if you know a song too well, I don’t know, there’s sort of a nervous energy I like that comes from playing. Sort of like, you don’t truly know what you’re doing. So if anybody starts playing too well or not really taking the risks that your supposed to be taking, then I’ll say let’s take a break and come back to it later.”
I could definitely feel that sort of vibe when I started getting through the album. I think it’s a great approach.
We dig deeper in the album and get into some of the biggest highlights in his career. Believe me, there many and Robert is pretty open about everything that he’s seen and accomplished over the years. To hear my entire conversation with Robert, you can click on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
-Tommy Marz
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