NEIL FRANCES was formed practically by accident.
The Los Angeles-based dream pop duo of Aussie DJ/producer Jordan Feller and Southern Californian singer/songwriter Marc Gilfry first linked up in 2016 with hopes to write music for other artists. While they struggled to find artists to sing their tunes, but their fate was sealed when KCRW radio DJ Chris Douridas played one of their SoundCloud demos live on air.
Seven years later, NEIL FRANCES' dreams have come together and expanded on their lively, funky sophomore album, It's All a Bit Fuzzy. While leaning into a dance pop sound, NEIL FRANCES' latest highlights their penchant for collaboration, their love of indie and dance music, and open creative approach.
It's All a Bit Fuzzy was inspired by the feeling after a great night out with friends, and its eclectic mix of layered, infectious tunes begs for multiple replays. All three of their collaborators reflect this feeling, effortlessly expanding NEIL FRANCES' sunset-hued sound. There are two tracks — one chill, one hype mode — with St. Panther, a killer '80s funk throwback with dreamcastmoe, and the dreamy "High" with PawPaw Rod.
Calling in from their studio in Los Angeles, Feller and Gilfry serendipitously embody this mood, tired from a late night of rehearsal for their imminent tour, yet bubbling with excitement to talk about anything music-related. They're the type of people you could find yourself talking to for hours at a party about music, always run into on the dancefloor, and really make you want to maybe even get into the studio yourself.
"The best song is something that reveals itself over and over again to both the listener and the artist," Gilfry muses. "We'll start with something specific, but there will be times where we'll be performing on stage and I'll think about a lyric in a completely different way. Good songs are these little beings, these constantly evolving animals."
Read on to hear from NEIL FRANCES about their new album, their favorite collaborative songwriting method, the artist they're digging right now (with some stellar deep cuts) and much more.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
What were you feeling going into working on It's All a Bit Fuzzy? How did the storyline and vibe come together and evolve as you worked on it?
Marc Gilfry: When we started we thought we were gonna do all collabs. We had just finished our previous album, which was very concept heavy. We told a rough narrative through the lyrics about this insect who was down on his luck and then ascends and transcends. We took that idea and ran with it and made a poem out of the song titles — it was a huge undertaking.
You don't ever really follow your plan to the tee. So, we do have quite a bit of collaborations on this one, and they're all amazing songs, but we continued to write [on our own]. Then I stumbled upon this Spanish digital painter named Angela Bacher on Instagram and she's created all these really cool, fuzzy warm but a-little-bit-sinister characters. I showed Jordan the artwork and we were inspired by it to name the album It's All a Bit Fuzzy.
Then we wrote [the opening] song called "It's All a Bit Fuzzy" and did a whole aesthetic campaign around the idea. So, we kind of reverse-engineered it a little bit. And to be perfectly frank, we didn't have that song written when we created a bunch of merch. It was the very last song that we wrote.
Jordan Feller: I think musically [it's different] as well. We got the chance over the last year or so since we put out the first record to play shows and see what other people are doing and the music that DJs are playing. I come from the electronic space and we've noticed that everything's kind of picked up tempo in that world. I feel electronic music as a whole is always kind of ahead of everything else in a cool way. I'm always influenced by that musically.
I would say this record is potentially more electronic-leaning than the first one and where we initially started from. Who's to say that carries over into what we do next, but [on this album there's] some faster tempos, which is fun to experiment with. I had this threshold that we could never make anything over 120 BPM and I started pushing the tempo a little bit faster. How do we write something that's as fast as what some of these DJs are playing but still has verses and choruses? It's been a fun process to kind of dance around that world.
I'm interested in hearing more about the different sonic elements of the album.
Feller: There are a lot of referential moments on this album. If we're going to do the '90s house-leaning thing, I definitely want someone that's representing the culture that sound came from. So, on "Let's Break It Down," we'd already worked with St. Panther and got them on that record.
In my opinion, if you're gonna do ['90s style house], you've got to use 909 drum sounds and the Korg M1 piano sound, with a rhythmic piano line that maybe you've heard before but you haven't quite heard before. The particular style of the chords have to evoke that sort of minor feeling but at the same time makes you want to party, like melancholy happiness.
"Gimme" is probably one of my favorites on the record. We try to always push ourselves out of writing cute indie jams which is a bit of a comfort zone. I love that we pushed that song to 134 BPM. I found a technique that I'd never used before where I would slow the song down, record [Marc's] vocals and then speed the song and vocals back up at the same time.
The pitch up effect of staying in tune with the song kind of sounds like Detroit Grand Pubah's "Sandwiches." It's a standard effect, don't get me wrong, a bunch of people have done this.
On "She's Just the Type of Girl" with dreamcastmoe, I felt some funky Rick James energy.
Feller: Davon [a.k.a. dreamcastmoe] showed me the [original] song from a band by the name of Circuitry out of Washington D.C. from the 1980s. It's a big sample; I've never sampled as much of someone else's music. I didn't want to get in the way of the creative process with dreamcastmoe. We were playing records [for each other] and I was like, "Man, this is so sick. I can't believe I've never heard it before." We just riffed on it and thankfully Electro Wayne, whose uncle wrote the music, let us basically get on his uncle's song.
Can you speak to working with St. Panther and the message of LGBTQ+ support on "Let's Break It Down"?
Feller: When we finally got the chance to connect, I had a laugh because they left me on read when I reached out over Instagram three years ago, which Danny came up with some excuse for. I had a few beats that I played to Danny and they more or less went down the same path that Marc and I do where we sort of freestyle ideas back and forth. "Head Straight" came together really quickly.
I also had "Let's Break it Down" for a while, which got sort of buried in tempo a couple of times. By pure happenstance, I did the speed up thing again, and it went into the same key as Madonna's "Vogue." A little part of it was influenced by my relationship with my brother. When he came out, I wanted him to feel comfortable to do so, [for him to know] it's a safe space. And like I said, if we're going to do the '90s house, I don't just want to jump into the pool and jump out. I'll go all the way with not only sounds representing that era of music, but somebody from that community that can speak to it legitimately. It was another very quick session [with St. Panther].
Gilfry: To add to that, I love being in the safe space of a club. I think we feel a lot more liberated when everyone can be themselves and feel accepted and open. We wanted to kind of write an homage to that experience of being in a place where people are liberated and happy to be themselves.
You mentioned in the album's press release that "Gimme" was inspired by San Francisco's Portola Festival last year. Paint that picture for me.
Feller: We saw Peggy Gou into Floating Points and Four Tet. I was tapping out their tempos and they were like 138 BPM but it was still accessible. It made me want to write a song up here. When we play mid-tempo songs live, sometimes if the people don't know the songs, they kind of stand there, which is strange for me coming from the DJ space. Why don't we give people body music that's going to move you in a physical way even if you don't know it? That was a cool experiment to see if we could still apply traditional songwriting techniques to what could otherwise be a pretty linear-sounding electro house or techno banger.
We ended up adding a lot of live drums [on "Gimme."] I sent the original song with just an 808 drum kit on it to a buddy of mine. He's like, "Dude, this is sick, but you should lean in and try to make it sound live." Three or four songs on the record have [our drummer] Rhythm on it to give it a little bit more life than just an electronic drum kit. "Gimme" is a really good cross section of everything that we do, from electronic stuff to drum machines to guitars, bass guitars; kitchen sink and all.
Gilfry: There's another song on the album, "Some Kind of Static," which paints the picture of us being at Portola last year. We had a great group of friends we were rolling around with that I'm talking about in the song. Sissy is Sophia, Jordan's girlfriend. We call her Sissy because we joke about Jordan being daddy, and she and I are sisters. It's a little demented inside joke. The alien in the song is my wife Mariel. She was wearing this reflective puffy jacket that every time we took a picture it would suck up all the flash.
Feller: I always say this, but years ago, Marc and I read Nile Rodgers' book where he goes on about DHM (Deep Hidden Meaning). Chic's "Freak Out" was originally "F— Off" because Studio 54 wouldn't let them in. We kind of write by that theory.
How does your songwriting process usually go?
Gilfry: It's such a crapshoot. There's plenty of songs where Jordan's yelling out the lyrics to me as I'm singing. There're other songs where I've got a whole pre-written 20 verses and choruses and I bring that in. Or we'll be in the middle of writing something and I'll be referencing a dream that I've written in my notes.
Are you always writing things down as you get inspiration?
Gilfry: I write a lot of haikus because I think it's a good discipline to be forced to stay within a syllabic kind of structure. It's good for practice. Not to get too arty farty, but I like the Jack Kerouac method of keeping constant notes on everything and then sitting down once you're ready to write you have it all and you compile and finesse. I'm trying to write all day, every day, everywhere. And I've got a ton of voice notes and voice memos for that reason too.
I like that. When you're working on music, do you find that you're more creative when you're together, like fun stuff happens when you're bouncing off of each other?
Gilfry: I'm more creative with him. I don't think he's more creative with me. He tries to kick me out, like "You're done. Thanks. See you tomorrow." I'll come in here by myself and will spend eight hours and I'll have nothing.
Feller: The fastest, most efficient method of writing for us — this isn't always the way that we do it — is me presenting something that I'm really excited about and we'll put a microphone in front of Marc, first listen. We stay open to anything, yes to everything and spit out ideas. Give me everything. Then I organize all the stuff into what I think are the best bits and then we come in and we both finesse it into a finished state.
Gilfry: The first listen, first take thing is really important to me. Jordan will start showing me something and I'll be like, "Wait, wait, don't play it!" There's something about hearing something unfold in real time and working off of that and singing whatever comes to mind. It's hard to get that after the first listen.
When did you make the decision to make music together as NEIL FRANCES instead of songwrite for other artists?
Gilfry: We actually never did. We sent a couple of songs to a few vocalists and that didn't end up panning out. We showed what we had done to a few of our close confidants and they're like, "Hey, this is really good, you should just put this out."
Our mutual booking agent at the time — I was in another band and Jordan was DJing — shared our SoundCloud link of demos with the KCRW DJ Chris Douridas. Chris ripped it off of SoundCloud and played it on the radio. And then we were like, This is worth pursuing.
Feller: We did a School Night during the pandemic with Chris and told him the story. He didn't even remember. I told him, "Dude, you're literally the reason that we're a band. We tell this story all the time."
Given that this album was originally going to be all collabs, what are some of your dream collabs that haven't happened yet?
Gilfry: I can never think of anyone when I get this question. I always say Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I would love to work with them, I'm a total fanboy of UML and Ruban [Nielson]. If we weren't doing this, that would be the exact kind of music I would want to be making.
Feller: Kylie Minogue.
Gilfry: Geez, that would be amazing. Robin. Cleo Sol.
Feller: Little Simz. I'm really a big fan of everything that's happening in the UK at the moment where all of a sudden, UK drill and UK rap music is as big as it is. There's something about that hard East London vocal tone. And that new soul stuff that's happening over there with Inflo producing all of Little Simz and Cleo Sol. The Jungle guys are a part of that whole crew as well. That whole set is doing cool music that I'd like to have the opportunity to work with for sure.
Who are some other artists also making funky music that you're really vibing to right now?
Gilfry: Jungle is really putting out some great music, especially the new stuff. I'm a huge fan of his band Cruza out of Florida. They're kind of lo-fi R&B. Just really vibey, downtempo with interesting mixes and production approach. Going back to the indie rock world, I love Hether out of Orange County. He's a classically trained jazz guitarist writing these really cool indie tunes now.
Feller: PawPaw Rod's new one is really good. There's this crew out of Bristol that I'm loving called 1905 [thathas a release on] Former City Records of these party breaks that work great in a club and in your car. Parallel Dance Ensemble's this crew out of New Zealand with this Danish producer [Roblin Hannibal] who do basically like a new-school ESG…and Tom Tom Club. deem spencer's new record's great, Marc's been a fan of him for a while.
This is a deep cut, but there's this Italian model from the '80s that Giorgio Moroder produced named Vivien Vee. She has a song called "Destiny," which if it was released now would be the most forward-thinking pop tune. Blue Hawaii's stuff is really cool. Also, St. Panther.
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