Robert Francis + The End Times Release "Boy Like That" and Announce 'Vol. 1' Album
Above: album cover art for ‘Vol. 1’
ROBERT FRANCIS + THE END TIMES
RELEASE “BOY LIKE THAT”
LEAD SINGLE FROM FORTHCOMING ‘VOL. 1’
THE NEW FULL-LENGTH ALUBM
OUT JUNE 19 VIA AERONAUT RECORDS
NASHVILLE, TN (May 8, 2020) – Prolific Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Robert Francis just released “Boy Like That,” the lead single from Robert Francis + The End Times’ new album, Vol. 1, via Aeronaut Records. Pre-order is available now (here) ahead of the album’s June 19 release.
It was during a cross-country drive from Nashville to Los Angeles that Francis began crafting the rock & roll anthems that fill Vol. 1, a 10-song collection full of guitar solos, bombastic percussion, harmonies and the amplified chemistry of his End Times bandmates. "Boy Like That" rides a cool, unhurried groove, with Francis delivering the song from the perspective of an ex-girlfriend. Robert Francis + The End Times' Vol. 1 is an album built for highway driving. It's a soundtrack for the road, filled with songs that evoke the rush of open windows and the glow of sun beaming through the windshield.
"I'd been doing a lot of listening to the records I grew up with, from the Replacements to the Gin Blossoms," Francis says of the album's rock-inspired sound. "I was going down memory lane and falling in love with that kind of music all over again, without letting my insecurities get in the way. I wasn't wondering if the new songs sounded too country, too rock, or too Americana. I was just embracing this form of heart-on-sleeve, nostalgia-driven rock & roll."
Vol. 1 may have been written in isolation, but its 10 songs — full of guitar solos, bombastic percussion, harmonies, and the amplified chemistry of his End Times bandmates — are the work of a fully-formed band. Accompanied by guitarist Drew Phillips, bassist Shane Smith, drummer Brad Cummings, harmony vocalist Cori Elliott, and multiple guests, Francis booked several weeks of recording time at Total Annihilation, a punk-rock studio in L.A.'s Lincoln Heights neighborhood. There, he produced the bulk of the album himself, with all the musicians playing together in the same room. Several months later, while visiting Nashville to perform at the Americana Music Festival, the band cut two additional tracks with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff) at the iconic Bomb Shelter studio.
Track listing for Vol. 1:
“Somewhere Trains”
“Paradise”
“Boy Like That”
“Coast”
“Copy Comic”
“Built To Last”
“Down The Line”
“What It’s Like”
“Loose Conditions”
“House Cat”
The announcement of Vol. 1 arrives on the heels of his recent surprise Amaretto album release (May 1, Aeronaut Records). The Americana-leaning Amaretto was unveiled on American Songwriter and features trailblazing musicians Ry Cooder, Marty Stuart and Terry Evans on multiple tracks. The 11-song album delivers flavors from the full-spectrum of alt-country and Americana. Heart-tugging ballads with soaring harmonies and infectious phrasing are found in tunes like “How Long”—a song penned after the passing of Francis’ father—to uptempo burners like “Country Bar” which delivers blazing mandolin picking by Stuart and precision riff delivery from Cooder.
Above: Robert Francis; Credit: Cori Elliott
About Robert Francis:
Robert Francis was just 19 years old when he kickstarted his career with 2007's One By One, an album whose lushly-layered folk songs — all of them written, produced, and performed by the L.A. native, who played nearly every instrument himself — pointed to a songwriter whose evocative songwriting belied his young age. More than a dozen years later, Francis remains every bit the roots-music mainstay that his debut promised. He's a prolific performer. An international chart-topper. A road warrior who writes songs inspired not only by his own life, but also the lives of those he's encountered along the way.
Raised in Los Angeles as the youngest member of a music-filled household, Robert Francis benefited from a diverse musical climate thanks to his pianist/producer father, his songwriting sister Juliette Commagere, and his Mexican mother, who sang native ranchera songs around the house.
Family friend and acclaimed stringmaster Ry Cooder gave Francis his first guitar at age nine; seven years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante accepted Francis as his only guitar pupil. The unique education paid off as Francis released One by One, a richly layered album, filled with lush orchestrations and heaps of instruments. It also served as Francis' launching pad, netting him a modest audience as well as a major-label contract with Atlantic Records. When it came time to record a second album, however, the songwriter chose to scale things back. He assembled a small band and recorded Before Nightfall in one week, with Oasis producer Dave Sardy lending his help to the project. His third studio long-player, Strangers in the First Place, arrived in 2012, followed in 2014 by the Aeronaut-issued Heaven as Robert Francis & the Night Tide. Ever prolific, he kept the albums coming. Most recently was the 2016 full-length, Fire Engine Red and 2017’s Indian Summer.