Meet Patrick Frances
Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Frances.
Hi Patrick, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
After working on music for nearly seven years in NJ, I drove cross-country in 2018 to continue pursuing a solo music career in LA. I started working at the Groundwork Coffee shipping warehouse in NOHO and recording a new album in my West Hollywood apartment. I spent nearly three years writing and recording music that ended up becoming the album ‘Desert Tapes’ that I released last year. By the time of its release, I had moved from West Hollywood to Los Feliz and was funding my album with a job that required me to fly out of state weekly. Most of the album was written in the deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and West Texas and then recorded in my apartment back in LA.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think the life of any struggling artist is smooth, and that is probably for the best. It can be very daunting when you sacrifice years of your 20’s pursuing an artistic path that has no guarantees of ever working out. You hustle to pay your bills and keep the space to create alive. You can have stretches of time where you are working a job you kinda hate to support this creative pursuit, and months go by where it feels like you can’t even write a song to save your life. But the feeling of pushing through those rough patches and watching a new song come to life out of nowhere is purely euphoric. That moment all of the struggle feels worth it again, and the voice of doubt that has been harassing you crumbles away. Right when you are half-convinced that you suck and are probably throwing your life away for something mediocre, your best song can come to life. It can actually be a good place to be creatively because you are backed into a corner and your decision to pursue music feels like it’s on the line in your own head. Surprising yourself in that moment creatively makes the agony of how delusional you can feel trying to be an artist seem a little more tolerable.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I can best describe the music I make as alternative rap, with some alternative pop aspects sprinkled here and there. I have always found that writing lyrics helps me understand myself, and when you are honest and vulnerable in that process it can really bring clarity to what you are going through in life. Sometimes you write a lyric that feels right, and you don’t exactly know what you meant by it but it feels true. Then months later, you see so clearly what you were trying to say now that you have some distance and perspective on where you were at when you wrote it. I’m just trying to make music that is honest and I hope those that some people listen and feel like we are exploring the gray areas of life together.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I can’t say I have found a mentor, but there are people that come into your life at certain times that can teach you something that sticks with you forever. I’m honestly not great at networking and it is something I should work on. I love the process of making music and sharing it, but self-promotion can feel awkward and disingenuous at times. Probably some self-sabotage happening there if I look closer at it, but in the era of self-promotion I find myself averse to it. Being an artist now is also being a social media coordinator and wearing so many hats that I personally do not enjoy. I’m trying to find a way to frame that part of it in a way that makes me more comfortable sharing on social media. However, when I hear someone say the word “content” seriously I get nauseous, lol. My advice would be try and make genuine connections with people you collaborate with and pay attention to how you feel when you work with others. If that feeling is easy and natural and you feel challenged in the best ways, then I would say you have found someone great to grow with creatively.
