Robert Francis is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, United States. He works in folk, rock and singer-songwriter styles.

Early life and influences

Born in Los Angeles in 1987, Francis grows up in a musical household. His father is a classical music producer and owns a large collection of sheet music in the United States. Francis recalls being surrounded by music late into the night in his father’s office. His mother grows up in Mexico and comes from a large family of sisters; she encourages him to learn guitar after he has already studied piano for several years so that he can play the ranchera songs she sings with her sisters.

At the age of nine, family friend Ry Cooder gives him his first National slide guitar. Around the same time, he becomes interested in Wim Wenders’ 1984 film Paris, Texas, for which Cooder composes the soundtrack. That film helps shape his early wish to travel and make music. By eleventh grade, he decides school is not for him and leaves.

Songwriting and recording

Francis spends more than a year living in a turbulent period before a relationship gives him the material to start writing songs. He says that once he learns how to capture feelings of loss, he begins writing songs that mean something to him. This becomes the basis for his early recording work.

Releases

He records One By One at a friend’s studio and releases it on Aeronaut Records in 2007. Although it does not sell widely, it receives favourable critical attention and draws comparisons with Townes Van Zandt. That response leads to a deal with Atlantic Records, which releases Before Nightfall. He writes Before Nightfall during the summer of 2008 and records it in March 2009.

Francis describes the songs on Before Nightfall as uplifting and wants listeners to feel that their own lives will be okay when they hear them.