"Creativity is the key" - interview with Francis of Delirium

The story of how your band started sounds a bit like a movie.

When I was 15, I started writing songs and playing them live. Francis of Delirium came a few years later. I was part of an after-school program where we learned to play covers of songs by Queens of the Stone Age and Pearl Jam, and then performed them in public. I saw on a friend’s Snapchat story that they’d been playing in bars around the city, and I thought that would be a cool thing to do.

Chris Hewitt, who ran the after-school program, had a studio set up in his basement. After rehearsals, we’d start jamming together and recording. It just sort of developed from there.

You’re from Canada, but you started the band in Luxembourg with Chris, who grew up in Seattle in the ’90s. How much has that influenced your sound, which is clearly inspired by the American alternative guitar scene of the ’90s?

Chris was around in Seattle at a time when Candlebox and all the grunge bands were popping out. That was really cool to me because I was a huge Pearl Jam and Nirvana fan, so in a way, that’s where our tastes came together.

My mom played a lot of Nirvana and stuff when I was growing up, and I’d spend hours watching live videos of Pearl Jam and Nirvana on YouTube. That music became the foundation we could build on, both in terms of our sound and our references. It was kind of the first music that felt like I’d discovered it for myself.

Before your debut album Lighthouse came out in 2024, you’d already released three EPs and few singles. Was that format important to you as a way of introducing yourselves to the world?

The first EP I released as Francis of Delirium was purely for a Battle of the Bands competition. That was also kind of the reason I started Francis of Delirium in the first place. I asked Chris if he wanted to play in my band, and then I wrote the five songs for the first EP so we’d have a setlist to perform at the festival. 

Everything we recorded was done in the basement studio Chris had set up. He had the drums next to the washing machine, and there was sort of a studio setup, but the drums were actually in the laundry room, along with the vocal mic. So I’d have to hit record on the computer and then run out into the laundry room to get to the start of the song in time.

A bit like Joy Division - I heard they recorded the drums for Unknown Pleasures on the roof of the studio.

That makes sense, because you can get a really dry drum sound by recording outside. I also heard that Tame Impala recorded drums outside. I think it’s a good way to go, as long as you’re not going to piss anyone off.

Did you run into any problems with that?

Yeah, you couldn’t really do that in Luxembourg. We filmed a music video outside, and within about five minutes, the cops showed up and the neighbors were upset. So we did have to record during the day and avoid playing the acoustic drums as much as possible.

Despite being recorded at home, your albums don’t sound like home recordings at all. For your debut, Lighthouse, you brought in Catherine Marks (boygenius, Wolf Alice, The Killers) to work on the mixes, while Nicolas Vernhes, known for his work with Deerhunter and Silver Jews, helped you out on your second album. How do you remember working with him?

It was amazing. He’s based in California, and I was in Brussels when we were mixing the album, so it was a new experience for me. Normally, when I get mixes from someone in the UK, they arrive in the morning, so I can listen to them with fresh ears and then give my feedback. 

But this time, we were also under a bit of time pressure because we needed to get the songs ready for vinyl. Since he was in California, I’d receive the mixes at the end of my day. That messes with your head a little because your ears are tired and you’ve been listening to music all day. I felt much more uncertain about giving the final thumbs-up to a mix simply because my ears weren’t as fresh.

But I think he did a great job. I’ve been able to listen to the album again now, because I hadn’t listened to it since we finished mixing. It sounds good, and I like how it turned out. Nicolas did a really lovely job, and he was such a pleasure to work with. It’s so nice to work with people who are genuinely excited about the songs and really care about them.

You’ve been recording and playing live extensively since the very beginning. In 2022, you went on your first US tour supporting The Districts. You’ve also opened for some major acts, including Kings of Leon, Alanis Morissette and The 1975.

I love opening for other bands. I love the challenge of walking into a room where nobody gives a shit about you and thinking, Let’s see if we can be in conversation by the end of our 30 minutes. I also think a 30-minute slot is a really nice length because you can give so much of yourself in that time without having to stretch it out over an hour and a half or something. You can just fully commit and put all your energy into one big burst. And then, if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I enjoy that process.

I really like the direction your music has taken on your second album, Run Run Pure Beauty. Alongside the guitars, you’ve introduced classical instruments, which make a striking appearance right from the opening track, Aliens. I’ve heard you played the violin and French horn yourself.

I took violin lessons for a few years when I was five, so I’m a pretty terrible violin player. I had to put Auto-Tune on the violin part I played for the album, and I recorded about seven takes. It sounds like it was played by the finest orchestra in Budapest.

It’s interesting that, even though you played classical instruments as a child, you’ve managed to hold on to that creativity and curiosity in your music.

Because creativity is the key. After playing the violin, I hated it. I quit when I was nine and basically thought, I don’t want to do this anymore. I stopped playing music for a while. Later, I wanted to play the trombone, but someone suggested the French horn instead. I realized how much it featured in film music, in the Lord of the Rings score and things like that. And then I kind of fell in love with it.

When I moved to Luxembourg, I got a private teacher so I could learn more about what I was doing. She gave me one-on-one lessons, and she was just so cool. She was really all about exploring and encouraged me to try writing my own pieces for the French horn. She’s a very inspiring and creative person. I think her approach to playing music is more spiritual. I mean, she’s very disciplined, but she wasn’t trying to force discipline on me.

I particularly like the extended instrumental passages put there and then into the songs on the album, like the one in Open Up Your Mouth to Love. The compositions feel much more mature this time around.

That’s interesting that you say that. When I handed in the album, I felt like I could have had way more instrumental sections on it. I was craving more of those longer passages where I’m not singing. Those are some of my favorite parts of the album, like that section in Open Up Your Mouth to Love where everything starts to build. So that’s really nice to hear. I appreciate that a lot.

Looking at your career so far, it seems to have followed a very traditional path, unlike today, when so many artists are discovered through TikTok. You started out playing small clubs and releasing EPs and singles, gradually moving up to the next level with each step.

We’re in a different position from a lot of other bands because there’s a level of cultural support in Luxembourg that’s simply not available to pretty much anyone else in the world. Obviously, there’s similar support in France and Canada. We can get government funding to go on tour and play shows, and we simply wouldn’t have been able to tour as much as we have otherwise, because it’s so expensive.

So we’re in a really fortunate position to be able to go out and do that. If you’re signed to a label, you need that one song on TikTok. Otherwise, you’re going to get dropped, and your chances of going out and doing it all again just disappear. And, like you said, we’ve been able to build things gradually and keep playing shows.

You play all over the world, but you still live in Luxembourg. Is there something special about the place?

Luxembourg’s location means we’ve been able to get out and play shows without having to travel too far. We can just jump in a van and hit the road for a week. If someone asks us to join them on tour as a support act, we’re able to say yes and go do it.

I don’t know if there are many bands of our size that have been able to do that as consistently as we have, thanks to our circumstances. Unless, of course, you have a lot of your own money to spend. I think it’s really hard to build a career step by step otherwise.

These days, it seems like everything revolves around singles. Is the album format still important to you?

I pretty much only listen to albums because I really like the context surrounding a piece of art. I like the world artists build around an album, the artwork, the videos that come together to tell a complete story. It’s hard for me to connect with something if it’s just a single. I want a whole world I can step into. And that’s something I want to create with my own music, too.

I’ve heard you’re responsible for the artwork for your releases, which has a very distinctive style and seems to evolve alongside your music.

Yeah, exactly. I need the artwork to be connected to the songs. Otherwise, it just doesn’t feel complete to me. Francis of Delirium feels like a 50/50 split between visual art and music. That’s how I see it.

You’re also changing as a songwriter. There are a lot of observations on the new album drawn from the places you’ve visited and your interactions with other people.

Yeah, maybe it’s part of growing up a little, shifting the focus away from yourself and starting to look outward more. With all the travelling I was doing, I also felt a kind of detachment from the world around me because I was constantly moving from place to place.

I didn’t feel like I was part of the places I visited, but more like something that had simply been dropped into them. That made me observe my surroundings a bit more. I also keep a sketchbook, and I’d been doing a lot more drawing, particularly of people, which might have contributed to the more observational perspective on this album.

Do you feel part of the music scene in Luxembourg? Is there such a thing?

There’s a small scene of bands. I think the scene was much bigger about ten years ago, but it’s gradually died down a bit. I’d really love to see more bands coming out of Luxembourg, with young people taking the initiative and just going for it.

Maybe some teenagers will follow in your footsteps.

I’d love that. If people see my band and it inspires them to start their own band, that’s amazing.