FEATURE: Spotlight: Frances Forever

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Frances Forever

___________

IT is no surprise that there…

is a lot of excitement around Frances Forever. Real name Frances Garrett, they are best known for the song, Space Girl. With a new E.P., paranoia party, out, they are gaining a lot of attention and love. Make sure that you check out the E.P. I am a fan of Frances Forever and am interested to see where they head next. Before wrapping things up and letting you do some investigating, there are a couple of interviews I want to drop in. They were conducted, primarily, around the success of Space Girl – I am sure that more interviews will come online soon. NME caught up with the Boston-born nineteen-year-old Frances Forever:

“Frances Forever always knew that ‘Space Girl’ was going to reach more people than anything they’d done before. After growing up in children’s choirs and surrounded by the music of Taylor Swift and The Beach Boys, their 2018 debut EP ‘Pockets’ was a lo-fi collection of bedroom pop gems that dealt with rage, lust and heartache as the then 19-year-old tried to find their own sound.

Inspired by an old episode of Star Trek (they scribbled down the title while watching the show) and full of astrology terminology, the woozy indie rock daydream of ‘Space Girl’ is a cosmic love song that sees Frances Forever step away from those lo-fi beginnings; the 21-year-old from Boston now sounds as confident as they come. “I had a feeling it was going to be bigger than the other stuff I had written just because I liked it so much,” they tell NME. Their partner also joked that the simple but joyful dance routine they’d created for the track would blow up on TikTok. Neither of them were really expecting just how viral a moment it would become though.

52 million streams on a song is totally wild. Why do you think ‘Space Girl’ has connected like it has?

“A mixture of luck and it being a catchy song. I wrote it with my band instead of writing it alone in my bedroom, so that’s why I think people jam to it so much. It’s really fun to play and I can’t wait to play it live. I want people to mosh to it. The dance really made it trend on TikTok thanks to the magic of the algorithm but it’s still connecting because of the lack of representation for gay music. There’s hardly any songs about same sex or sapphic relationships and I wanted to change that. There’s a real hunger for songs like that. I get so many DMs from people about what the song means to them and impacting people in their daily lives is incredibly special and something I never thought I’d be able to do.”

Has the reaction to ‘Space Girl’ changed your ambitions for Frances Forever?

“Absolutely. Over quarantine I was really struggling with writer’s block and finishing projects. The EP that’s coming out has been in the works for a couple of years but I’ve just been sitting on it, asking ‘do people really want this from me?’. Once that song took off and I got signed, it definitely helped my motivation. The only downside to my success is making sure I’m still authentic in my own music. With so many people listening, it’s important not to cater to everyone who just likes ‘Space Girl’ because I can do a lot more than that one song and I have other aspects of my personality than just being gay.”

Lyrically, what do you tackle on the EP?

“I write a lot about mental health or things I’m struggling with. Rather than Taylor Swift poetry and metaphors I’m just like, ‘here we go, this is what I feel’. ‘Eat The Rich’ was inspired by all the minimum wage jobs I’ve worked where the bosses weren’t very nice. It’s me ranting and being passive aggressive through song while ‘Condolences To Myself’ is about past relationships where I had low self-esteem and was just letting people walk all over me. It’s basically me cussing them out.

The title track is pretty much what the whole EP is about though, where you’re trying to find your place in the world and feeling like you don’t fit in. I hope other people realise that they’re not alone in feeling like that.”

Does it feel like the indie scene has got a lot more diverse in recent years?

“Definitely. It’s been really cool to see a lot more representation. Willow is doing great things in rock, Phoebe Bridgers has really blown up and Clairo’s been doing cool bits with Jack Antonoff. There’s been that shift because it got boring. There’s only so much of one type of perspective you can listen to, and I think everyone’s trying to find the things that are relatable to them and their experiences. Some parts of TikTok are just 2013 Tumblr, so whatever these alt kids are listening to can be easily shared around and given a huge platform. I remember King Princess and Girl In Red were some of the first people I really heard talking openly about gay love and it made me want to write my own”.

I love the music Frances Forever is putting out. I know that they are going to be a huge success. I have covered a few young Pop artists who are providing something unique and new. There is a lot of competition out there. With an excellent E.P. out in the world, there is no stopping the incredible American. Whilst Space Girl (the title is in all lowercase on the E.P. and partly uppercase for the YouTube video; I am keeping it as it appears on YouTube) is a standout of paranoia party, there are many other highlights – eat the rich is possibly my favourite song. That said, one cannot ignore the success of Space Girl and how it has connected with people. In their interview, NOTION asked Frances Forever about their success and what it is like being a D.I.Y. artist:

“When creating “Space Girl”, did you know it would become your breakout song?

I think I definitely knew it was special, like from my other songs. The way that we wrote it, my friend Cash brought me the guitar chord progression, and then I brought it to my band and we all wrote it in a live aspect. I was like, ‘I’ve never done anything like this’. I think it was really organic, how it all came together. I kinda knew it was a really special song, but I didn’t know it was gonna be this big. I don’t think anyone could have really predicted that. But I definitely had some type of feeling while writing it.

How does it feel to have so many people enjoy something you’ve made?

It’s honestly incredible. Because the only thing that I really wanted when making music is to leave an impact on people. I’ve gotten so many like messages from people saying like, ‘This is me and my girlfriend’s song. I’m space girl, she’s Earth girl’ or something like that. And just people resonating with it. I didn’t realise like how much people would relate to it, I guess. Also seeing fan art for “Space Girl” and like covers of it. It’s amazing to see what people can do with something that I made. I think that’s probably the most special thing that I’ve gotten out of all this.

Everything you’ve done has been completely DIY up until now. Does it feel scary or exciting to be sharing control of your art?

It’s very different. I think working with deadlines – I’ve never done that before, but I definitely like it. When it’s just me on my own, I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t have to put this out anytime soon’. I would just put it off because I would want to work on it more. But now, having somebody say, ‘We have to finish the mix, finish the master, let’s get it go on’, I’m like, okay, like this is happening. I think working with Mom + Pop [the record label Frances is signed to], it’s very important to them that I have a lot of creative direction. So if I need more time, I can ask. I think that’s super important to keep my own identity and my own sanity in this whole thing [laughs].

Which artists were instrumental in shaping your sound? Has it changed over the years?

Taylor Swift was definitely my first inspiration to start writing songs. She’s amazing. More recently, Clairo, Rex Orange County, Sidney Gish, who’s from Boston like me. Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, obviously. Those types of artists I really take a lot from lyrically and production-wise”.

I am going to round off in a second. Make sure you follow Frances Forever. They will be keen to hit the road and showcase the amazing material on paranoia party. In a year that has seen many terrific E.P.’s, I think that Frances Forever’s ranks alongside the very best. I do worry that, especially for teenage artists, there is a lot of pressure on them in such a competitive industry. That doesn’t seem to be phasing Frances Forever. They have such a strong attitude and a fanbase that is loving and supportive. With paranoia party out in the world, things are looking incredibly positive and bright for an arresting and inspiring young artist. Even though there are a lot of new artists one can choose from, if you overlook Frances Forever , then you are most definitely…