Raised in Wales and now based in Moscow, singer-songwriter Francis Allen has unveiled his debut single under the alias Foreign Television. ‘Island’ is a dreamy combination of inspiring guitar riffs, interspersed piano melodies and washy vocal harmonies, gently teasing out the song’s contemplative lyrics. I had a chat to Francis to find out more about the Moscow music scene, what listeners can expect from his upcoming album and why the best advice he’s been given involves practising guitar on the loo.
Words by Annie Rew Shaw
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
Annie) Hey Francis! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?
Francis) Hi! My name is Francis Allen. I’m from Wales. I play guitar and some piano and bass, and I record music as Foreign Television. The music is a mix of alternative, indie, dream pop, and shoegaze, or at least that’s what I’m told by other people when they listen to it.
What’s behind the name Foreign Television?
It was really hard to come up with a name. It took ages. I’d come up with a lot of bad ones and then I nearly settled on Dinamo Mowlam – that’s how things were going at the time. After a while, I had the TV on and it was all in Russian (I was in Moscow, so fair play to them!) and the name just came from doing that, watching foreign television.
Congrats on your new single ‘Island’, it’s a really beautiful track. What’s the inspiration behind it?
Thanks very much! Like most of my songs it started as a riff on the guitar and then I built it up from there. I recorded the main part of it in a day and then didn’t do anything with it for about 18 months. This year I decided it was time to get the album finished, which meant writing proper lyrics for the tracks I had recorded and had been listening to for so long. As for the lyrics, there are a lot of different themes packed into this song that come up again throughout the album. I suppose they’re just the things that were on my mind at the time that seemed worth singing about.
What can listeners expect from your new album?
There are 10 quite different songs. A few upbeat, poppy ones, some that are more atmospheric and ambient, and then a couple that are driven by a noisy, distorted guitar sound. I wrote about 20 tunes and eventually whittled it down to the best 10. All of my favourite songs generally have strong, memorable melodies, so I made sure that only the most melodic made it to the album. The vocals are more prominent on this album than on anything else I’ve done before.
It took longer than I wanted to get it finished, but now that it’s done, I’m glad that I didn’t rush through anything and that it all ended up as it is. I’m really proud of it and I think listeners will be into it too.
You’re based in Moscow. What’s the music scene like over there?
It’s a huge city, so I’m sure you could find any type of music here, as long as you knew where to look for it. If I was to do my Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” routine and ask about the most popular music at the moment, I think the answer would be rap. It’s got more political and rebellious over the past few years, even some of the mainstream rap, which makes things interesting.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a musician?
Two things come to mind. When I started recording music I had a friend who would listen to my demos and tell me what he thought of them. I was unsure about using the same guitar sound for two different tracks I wanted to put on the same album. He told me not to think of the album and to just “do what works for the song”. He was half-joking when he said it – I don’t think he felt very comfortable giving advice but it still pops into my head sometimes when I’m recording.
When I was learning to play guitar as a teenager, my teacher told me that time spent on the toilet it is “dead time” that could be spent practising. So bring your guitar with you when nature calls and you will definitely become a guitar legend!