Music
London was where he had his first gigs; at the Cole Shed in Kilburn where he was a regular featured artist. In addition to performing acoustic shows around the UK capital, Francis started working with Alex White, a notable music composer and session pianist (Joan Armatrading), on a variety of soundtracks for advertising, film and TV work.
Since then, Francis has developed a broad international fan-base through use of social media platforms, including becoming one of the first world artists to raise finance for album recordings through online crowd sourcing.
Francis released "Circles & Squares" his debut album produced by Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corrine Bailey Rae, Ronnie Wood), and mastered by Bob Ludwig. The album took over a year to produce and was recorded in London and New York. The album was followed up with live performances throughout Europe, highlights include headlines at the O2 IndigO2 and Netherlands's Summer Festival "Concert at Sea".
Francis released the self-titled EP, a collection of 5 songs. The recording was also fan-funded through the online music platform Pledge Music. The single "Burn" was released in Spain by UK X-Factor Finalist Ruth Lorenzo, and a subsequent music video was released.
In December 2012, Francis released the one-off single, "Higher Ground" - a song about perspective and time being a conduit to healing. Francis has a five piece band and has played consistently around the UK and Europe, most notably headlining performances at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, the O2 Arena Indigo2, the 100 Club, Scala, and more.
Read more about this topic: Francis Rodino
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)