Summer may be nearing its completion, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll still be looking to get your groove on. That so? Well then, look no further than Franc Moody.
Made up of multi-disciplinarians Ned Franc and Jon Moody, the act is well known for their funk-infused sonic hedonism. Merging a more naturalistic approach with electronic and experimental tendencies, there is an all-consuming joy and energy to the work of the duo. Currently working on a new album following the vastly successful Into the Ether (2022) and Dream in Colour (2020), the duo are poised to bolster their acclaim, set to augment an already glowing discography by pushing their stylistic boundaries and continuing to innovate their undeniable sound.
Notorious for their riotously fun live shows, which see the band expand to six members, the band have been busy this year with touring, frequenting scores of European and American cities, as well as having a strong festival runout, playing at the likes of Lollapalooza and Wilderness. They’ll be heading back out to the states in September for some very special shows across the Atlantic, but before they do, you can catch Franc and Moody in full party spirit at Corona Sunset Festival on Saturday 2nd September at Hatfield Park – grab a ticket here.
We had the pleasure of talking to Franc and Moody about their rise, refining their sonic ethos, why they love working together, and what to expect from their upcoming performances.
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Read the exclusive interview…
How did you begin making music together?
Jon: We started a warehouse collective, the idea of which was the build studios, record albums. It ran its course, but we recognised that we wanted to start writing together, and had the bond of the music. We’d put on a lot of parties together and wanted to conjure up that spirit of the party into a new project of something more contemporary; taking a 50s dance floor being influenced by Daft Punk and Jamiroquai. We moulded those two worlds together.
How did you find that little pocket, the sound palette, that you’ve succeeded in creating within?
Jon: It may be as simple as I brought a synth. The world of synthesis opened up. The other key thing as that we were always working with live drummers, recording on tape, very old school ethos. But when we started working together, we were working in a smaller room and we couldn’t fit a drum kit in there, so we started programming our drums and using samples. This led to our sound having this contemporary edge. We started exploring different formats and templates, rather than just using similar song structures, opening ourselves up to more possibilities.
You create across a cross pollination of styles, how have you worked to combine them so succinctly into what feels like one direct sound?
Ned: When we first stated it was a lot of trial and error. We were still wedded to using some of the older techniques. We had to work out our niche. Our management said that we should do an instrumental EP, which we pushed back on at first. Actually, it was really good in terms of exploring the sound, and replacing vocal melodies with instrumental melodies. When we felt that we really stumble across our ’sound’ was when we wrote “Dopamine”.
Jon: It was about making the building blocks of our sound, the groove template, and then decorating the melodies on top. It all spawned from that.
Ned: At the core, we always thought it was about trying to retain our analog roots, the blues and soul feel, but with a quantised backdrop; marrying those two together.
Jon: There’s something really exciting about when computers meet human error.
How would you describe your essence as an act? What are you as artists?
Ned: We like to offer an escape for people. They can kick back and listen to some Franc Moody. We want it to be energetic and immersive and undeniable. We want to project that energy in a positive, committal form. We’ve always got one eye on how it would sound live. If we can visualise the muddy festival then we know we are heading in the right direction.
What is your creative process?
Ned: It happens in various ways. Jon might have a bass line or a beat or some chords, or vice versa. We’d take those skeleton sketches and build it from there. It’s also about having one eye on how it’s going to feel and sound live, and where it’ll sit in the set; whether there are trigger points within the song that sound nicely live.
Jon: We are deep in writing mode for the next album, trying to explore different writing points. We want to spark creativity from different places and not make it too much of a neat formula, and try and find other corners of the sound that I haven’t got to yet. We don’t want to get into a mindset of – ‘oh people are fans of these songs, let’s make more songs that sound the same’. We want to branch into unknown waters, take risks.
Looking back to 2020 and Dream In Colour, how do you feel reflecting on that as a body of work?
Ned: It’s an interesting one, we started touring to promote that album when COVID came. We managed to do our Shepherds Bush show and that was it. So it’s a little bittersweet. We’ve been quite prolific in a way, we’ve got a lot of music out there. We definitely look back in Dream In Colour as a little snapshot of us at that point in time, and I feel very proud about that.
Jon: There are certain things. When you are in the process of writing and recording a song, you get so wrapped up in it, you’ve heard it a million times. Then when it’s released you’ve probably not heard it for a couple of months, and you always hear a few things. It doesn’t really make that much difference, the core idea is always going to shine through, but little mix tweaks… we can be quite self critical. But that’s the beautiful thing about going on the road and playing the tracks live – you can change those things.
You’re working on a new album, does that process of starting anew on a blank canvas revitalise you creatively and personally?
Ned: When you are writing an album, you spend such a long time writing it, and the process of releasing it can be long. You might finish an album and it won’t come out to a year later. Then the songs post release need to be in the live set, so you are touring them for a long time after that. So yeah, in a way it is lovely to start again with no rules.
Jon: It’s very freeing in the early stages of the process. We know we have to pick and choose at some point, and go through the laborious task of getting them over the line. But when you are in the stage of getting the tool kit together, it’s a lot of fun. You feel good.
Have you always done the whole process yourself, from picking up the first instrument to the last tweak in the master?
Ned: Yeah pretty much. It’s very in house.
Jon: We collaborated on one tune of the last record, but, apart from that, yeah. We are kind of control freaks [laughs]… in some ways. But it’s also that we have spent a lot of time writing and recording together, perfecting our formula, but we are very open to other methods.
Ned: It feels good as it is in the moment. One thing we have started to do now is get the other members of the band for the live show in to record parts, we’ve got some sessions with them so I guess we’ll see how that goes.
What is it about working together that works so seamlessly? What’s they key ingredient?
Jon: I think it’s like a Venn diagram. There’s Ned’s songwriting sensibilities and love of soul music, meets my world of dance and synthesis, and the sweet spot in the middle were our tastes align. It’s about knowing how much of Franc and how much of Moody to put in the middle basically.
Let’s talk Corona Sunsets Festival! How do you feel ahead of the show?
Jon: It’s a bit of a full circle moment for us as one of our first festival shows was the Corona stage at Boardmasters. It’s lovely to be asked to play these things, it’s a real honour and a privilege, especially with our pals Easy Life and Mahalia. It’s a really tasty line up, full of people we rate as people and as musicians. It feels really nice.
What can festivals goers expect from your performance?
Ned: It’s going to be the usual Franc Moody high energy journey. We leave everything on the stage, we go for it. We are on tour at the moment so should be in pretty good nick.
What’s the one thing you’ve got to do to survive a festival?
Jon: Stay hydrated. You’ve got to commit. You can’t be mucking about, fanning around, or not going to see the shows and hanging out with your mates. You’ve got to go in 100%.
What else have you got coming this year?
Ned: We’ve had a few festivals this summer and have got a few more to come – in September we are back in America playing a bunch of festivals. Then really, it’s just writing.
Jon: America is going to be huge, we are doing Life Is Beautiful in Vegas, then we go to one of our dream bucket list places called Red Rocks in Denver. Anyone reading this, just google it. It’s legendary. We are gassed about that. Also trying to get an album together with any luck!