In Conversation: JW Francis

Photo by Sara Laufer.

Like Lou Reed and Jonathan Richman before him, JW Francis exudes a New York cool anchored in superior song craftsmanship. His new record, WANDERKID, is a musical ode to the escapism friendship, love and music provide, soundtracked by the jangling chords of lo-fi guitars and irresistible melodies. Prior to its release, Francis sat down with The Eisenberg Review to chat about the album, sharing a label with David Lynch, his recent trek across the Appalachian Trail and his fascination with dreams.

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What does the “JW” stand for? Can you tell me, or will you have to kill me?

Joseph Woseph.

Joseph Woseph… okay, I’ll take it.

There’s a million answers to that question, but its Joseph Woseph when I’m feeling silly.

Okay, we’re feelin’ silly here on The Eisenberg Review. Congratulations on the forthcoming WANDERKID, which is going to be released on October 1. What’s it like to share a label with David Lynch?

Dude! That is the question I don’t get a lot, which perplexes me, because it’s why I signed the deal.

Are you serious?

Yeah, a big part of it, because I was like, well, wow, if these people got David Lynch, who am I to say no?

That’s pretty dope.

Every time we meet together, I like “So, for this record, I’m thinking about getting David on for a solo,” and they don’t really go for it, but…

Well, hopefully there’s success on the third record.

Right?!

I know the record, just from listening to the lyrics, is a lot about escape and the escapism that a love of music and relationships provide. What are you hoping audiences glean from the songs? Are you hoping they can escape their lives for a little bit while they’re listening to the record or is there something more there?

There’s something more there, because as much as the whole record is about escaping and getting out. For me it was about quitting my job, not living with my best friend Joe Fusco—which was kind of the theme of the last album, which was like I love my life and I love living with my best friend—this was like, alright, what do you do when you’ve got everything you want, but its not enough. So you blow it up and you go somewhere else. But yeah, I’m kind of hesitant to tell people ”Hey everybody look at this album, you can use it to escape from the world,” because the world is so scary. People have enough escape already. I feel like people already put up all these walls. We’re already timidly going back into society with these new walls around us and personal boundaries, which are good. A lot of people have put a lot more focus on their wellbeing and self care, which is great. But, at the same time, now that we’re going back into learning how to interact with other people, I’m hoping this album can be a communal escape, not to escape from other people, but to go somewhere else with someone else. Like the song “John, Take Me With You.” Let’s all go together to this gut punch indie rock land… *laughs*

And hopefully a brighter future… I love it. The release of this new album comes on the heels of what is a pretty cool way to spend pandemic time. You just finished hiking the Appalachian Trail, which is something that I’ve always wanted to do in my life. Did you learn anything new about yourself through that experience.

I learned everything new about myself.

Like what?

There’s a lot of things I said I’d never do and I never really took stock of that and why. One example is I’ve never driven. I don’t know how to drive and it actually comes up on the album a couple of times…

Well, the last song on the record is called “Car.”

Yeah, that’s about me being afraid of cars and I don’t know how to drive and whatever. That’s something I’ve had my whole life. I’ve never been behind the wheel of a car. It’s always just been something like “I’m never going to do that, I’ll never have to do that, I’ll just try and always make friends with people who drive." But, I realized I realized, why? Why am I doing that?

I’ll probably get a little flack for this, but I was vegetarian for 8 years before I got on trial and then I got on trail and though about it for the first time in a long time. And then I started eating meat again because thats what my head and my body told me to do.

I realized I was holding back in a lot of ways, holding back parts of myself because it was easier that way. When you’re out on trail and you realize that all you need is water and food and something over your head, then everything becomes way lower stakes. All this stuff that we’re doing is just kind of extra to the baseline of being alive.

I feel that. We’ve constructed a society and way of being that seemingly removes us from all of the things that we’ve evolved to need other the course of human existence until very recently. Food, water, shelter, being out in nature, that hunter gatherer existence that we as a species evolved to, we’ve closed ourselves off from all of that. That’s why people like you, going out and spending a lot of time in nature, just hiking in general, makes us happier people, and it does help us realize that all this craziness that’s going on, a lot of it is manufactured. There is a simpler way.

Yeah, a lot of it is expectations of you that are thrown upon you and that you end up throwing upon yourself. And that’s the thing about going out there in the woods. No one expects anything of you. No one expects you to email them back, no one expects you to act a certain way. As soon as you get your water and your food and your shelter, you can do whatever you want and all the rest is really just extra. All the other problems are kind of imaginary.

Certainly, with the exception of the pandemic…

Which is very real.

Oh yes, which I was going to use as a segue to ask about your upcoming tour. You’re going to be headed out in early October in what my guess is your first live performances in a couple of years, including your first ever run of headlining shows in the UK. What have you missed and not missed about being on tour and performing?

I missed everything about it. I loved the wave of excitement that comes right before. I love even the crash afterwards. The whole experience, I really am there for it. It’s where I belong. I’ve been hurting for that. I’m 27, this is my prime time to be performing. I’m at my peak! So I’m just really itching to be back out there.

I can’t really speak to what I don’t miss yet because it’s all sunshine and rainbows right now. Part of the trail was me conditioning myself to love touring, because I hear so many people complaining about how taxing it is to always be traveling. I was just walking 20 miles a day and sleeping on the ground, so I think being in a car and sleeping in a bed is going to be amazing. If I’m close to running water that’s all I need… *laughs*

Those dingy venue bathrooms won’t be quite as bad, huh?

I’ve filtered water that’s brown, so this is fine… *laughs*

Photo by Ryan Sherwood.

It’s amazing what context and perspective can bring to anything. I’m curious as to what inspires your creative process. Why and how do you make music?

It used to be kind of a forced thing, in the sense that I would sit down with a guitar everyday after school in middle school and high school and write down words. I’ve always liked writing songs as I think that I do. Always. Anytime we had to do a school fundraiser or whatever, I would be like I’ll write a song for anybody if they donate. I’ve just always been able to do that really easily. And then I really stopped and realized, I don’t even need to pick up a guitar and sit down and do it, I can just pick them out of thin air. So, my process now is letting the songs come to me. They’ll just be there in the back of the brain. I’ll sing a little *do do do* in my voice memos in my phone and then whenever I have a moment to sit down with a guitar and a laptop—cause that’s really how I do it these days—I’ll just look at my voice memos and try to figure out what the heck I was singing and usual its a pretty good song. It kinda evolves into whatever. It’s more fun that way than being like I have to sit down and I need to do this song. I have this wealth of material that comes from some back part of my brian and then I get to just figure that out and build it from there.

That’s beautiful. I think oftentimes a lot of the best and most honest songs come just from the experience of living life. You need source material. You can’t force it.

Yeah, source material and you need to have your antenna set to receiving, because that’s all it really is: listening for whatever’s out there. It’s all out there.

What don’t you typically get asked about that you love to talk about?

My dreams, actually. Before I got out on trail, I had a whole radio show about dreams and I’d ask artist about their dreams because it was never something I got asked about.

Let’s do it! What is it that fascinates you about your dreams?

Well, it’s like a third of our lives, so there’s that. We still don’t really know for evolutionary purposes why we do this, so inherently it’s like a mystery. I guess the best explanation that people have come up with that it helps us not only form memories, but kind of navigate our lives. So I’ve really taken it as a compass kind of deal. I get a lot of dreams that I’ll stop and listen to because its me talking to myself. I do that all the time, but generally it’s about logistics and the day to day. The dreams are me way zoomed out looking at me.

One I had on trail that I really liked and really guided me was me on an escalator going down with a bunch of people and there was a glass window I could see through. On the other side, there was a child version of me at 5 years old or something. I’m going down the elevator really slowly and that song by Sigur Rós, the most famous one ["Svefn-g-englar") was playing. It’s so beautiful and I’m crying and I’m looking at the child version of myself waving at me super happy. I woke up with the realization that my inner child is obviously very happy with what I’m doing right now, adventuring in the woods. This is the right thing to do.

That is so beautiful and fitting, especially because the cover of that Sigur Rós record does have like an angel fetus or glowing embryo on it or something. That’s quite profound.

So, I’m looking forward to the next record after this one with inspirations from your dreams and time on trail. I want to close by asking the one question I ask nearly everyone: what’re three records that you’d recommend to the audience and why?

Three records that I’d recommend to the audience are…

Laraaji’s Vision Songs, Vol. 1. It is a real practical record. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across these records that you use to study or so whatever. It’s just a record that I can walk anywhere with or just cook with or live with, really. OG bedroom producer, super interesting dude with a crazy life story.

youbet is an artist in New York City that has an album Compare & Despair. Probably my favorite record of 2020. Came out in January of that year. It was the last show I got to see pre-COVID and I just got to go see them a couple days ago, so it was my first show since the lockdowns. It’s just so good. I can’t speak highly enough of it. It’s just a great record.

And then, another one that I’d recommend… Katie Von Schleicher. She produced that youbet record and she makes them herself. The one she released last year: [Consummation]. Beautiful, beautiful album. I really, really like it and just love everything she touches. I look up to her.