Rounding out our revisit of ACL Fest 2022, here is an interview I was able to snag with the electronic pop duo Neil Frances. These guys are such a fun act, and I’ve been lucky to catch them twice this year. Here’s how my conversation with them went!
D: Thanks so much for being here. So, ACL is a huge festival, how do you guys feel being here? Is this your first time playing this festival?
MG: First time, yeah. I was actually telling someone earlier; my first time at ACL I was actually working…I think it was the Honda tent. I was printing bandanas with my friend Matt. And I just remember thinking, “Wow, this is a great fest”. Stevie Wonder headlined, I think. It was incredible.
D: Do you remember what year that was?
MG: I don’t quite remember, it must have been around 2014.
D: That’s a pretty short time period to go from working the festival to playing the festival! And of course, you guys played Hoodoo a few weeks ago, and sort of headlined that, too, which is really cool. * Have you guys done any other festivals in this touring leg that you’ve really enjoyed?
MG: Yeah, we recently played this festival called Portola, it was the first time they’ve done it in San Francisco. That was super cool, probably my favorite festival experience ever. It was this super industrial vibe, it was on the port with these giant cranes and ships.
D: That does sound really cool. Do you guys transition your sets at all from when you play solo shows versus a festival gig? What do those changes look like?
MG: Well, when we have a headlining set, we tend to have a ton more time so we play lots of songs, which is great, I love headlining. But, like our 45-minute set that we played today, it’s pretty fast-paced.
D: Banger after banger.
JF: It’s so punchy. You don’t have time to do all of the extra stuff, we do a little bit of that with these sets, but it’s nice to say “Okay, you have 45 minutes, so just play the super big ones and then get off”.
D: Sure. I did notice a difference between Hoodoo and this performance. It was just a little more compact, which is cool. So, how did you two come together to create Neil Frances?
JF: So, before Neil Frances, I had a DJ project and Mark had another band project. And we’d worked kind of remotely. I did a remix for his band, and then when I came out to L.A., I produced a song for him and his band. And then I moved to L.A. when Mark was living in New York, but he moved back to L.A. the same week that I moved, so it was kind of serendipitous timing. A mutual friend let me know that Mark was back, and so I was in a similar artistic situation to what he was doing, so I sent him some demos and we started eventually working together, and that was the start of everything, really.
MG: Yeah, we were both kind of burnt out and looking for something new right around the same time.
D: Really cool that you were able to come together. I’ve gotta say, we loved your album There Is No Neil Frances over at KTXT. What do you think is next for you in terms of your sound? Do you want to evolve it in any way?
JF: Absolutely, we’ve been opening up the doors for collaborators as much as possible and keeping our options open there. It’s a lot of fun working with other artists. It keeps both of us fresh. I’d say we’re going, at the moment, to a more electronic space for a second. I don’t really know.
MG: We say that, but then we’ll put out something that’s, like, slow jazz. But yeah, I think recently we’ve been more inspired by some faster paced electronic music. I think we both really have similar tastes. So I think our tastes have kind of been evolving alongside each other for the most part. Granted, there are some things that I like that you [Jordan] aren’t necessarily a huge fan of, and vice versa.
D: Right, and I’m sure touring has a lot to do with that, watching the audiences responding to the faster songs and everything.
JF: Right, and not even necessarily our stuff, but watching other artists play, and seeing certain artists from festival to festival, and seeing how their sets change or how they don’t. It’s just really cool.
D: You mentioned collaborators – who do you think would be a dream artist to collaborate with.
JF: We’ve been really lucky that a lot of our dream artists to collaborate with, that we’ve mentioned even in past interviews, we’re now working with. There’s this guy, dreamcastmoe, that we love a lot, that we’re about to release a single with. And we’ve both been huge fans of his for a long time.
MG: We’d also love to go and explore the UK space a little. Another guy that we’ve seen playing at other festivals is Slowthai, and I just think he’s the coolest dude on earth.
D: Oh, Slowthai is so awesome.
MG: We were backstage with him, and he was very very chill. He was there with his girlfriend and his crew and stuff, and I didn’t even think to do, like, the “Hey, man, I’m this that and the other”, he was just that chill.
D: Yeah, he’s a great rapper. Cool, so I just have one last question that I ask every artist in interviews. If you could re-do the soundtrack to one movie, which would it be?
JF: Oh, god, re-do it. Would that mean that you’re not a fan of the original?
MG: Is that what you’re asking?
D: Well, not necessarily, but just a film that you’d like to associate your music with.
MG: Okay, I’ve got one for you, I’d love to do a Quentin Tarantino film, like a Resovoir Dogs kind of thing. Like a gangster thing.
JF: Yeah, or I don’t know, like a 2001 Space Odyssey. Something that’s really visually stunning. I think the challenge to create something that futuristic and ambient would be cool.
D: That’s so funny. I was interviewing L’Imperatrice yesterday, and they said Quentin Tarantino, too. I think you guys have some overlap in the genres you pull from, so that’s really cool.
JF: Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s awesome.
D: Well, thanks again for doing this interview! You guys are awesome.
JF: Of course, thank you!
* Read our coverage of Hoodoo Mural fest here.
Listen to Neil Frances here!
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