03 | It’s Never Too Late To Begin Your Journey with EDM Producer Fran

Through The Creative Door

In this episode, Alexis engages in an honest and inspiring conversation with Fran, a Perth EDM producer, songwriter and newly found filmmaker, exploring the journey of artistic evolution and how it’s never too late to learn a new skill.

They delve into Fran's personal creative havens, from her transformation of a space into a music studio to her shift towards bringing joy through music. Fran shares pivotal moments, including her proudest musical accomplishments and a transformative awakening that redirected her creative focus from alleviating suffering to spreading joy.

The conversation highlights the essence of collaboration and the joy and importance of shared creativity, touching upon the tools artists use and the invaluable patience required in pursuing their passion. Fran's insights underscore the importance of cherishing the creative process and finding fulfilment in what truly drives artistic expression.

If you’d like to see more, you can follow Fran on instagram @gottalovefran

This episode was recorded on 16 October 2023 on the lands of the Wajuk Peoples. We hope that this episode inspires you as a creative person and as a human being.

Thanks for listening, catch you on the next episode.

Psst! We are always on the lookout for creative people to share their story and inspire others. Have you got someone in mind who would love to have a chat? Get in contact with us via Instagram @throughthecreativedoor

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CREDITS

Created and Hosted by Alexis Naylor

Music by Alexis Naylor & Ruby Miguel

Edited and Produced by Ruby Miguel

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00:08 - Alexis (Host)

Hi, my name is Alexis Naylor and I am your host here at Through the Creative Door. On behalf of myself and my guests, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on which this podcast is recorded and produced. We pay our respects to all First Nations people and acknowledge Elders, past and present. On this podcast, I will be chatting to an array of creative guests, getting a glimpse into their worlds and having some honest and inspiring conversations along the way. Welcome to Through the Creative Door.

00:48 - Alexis (Host)

Thank you so much, Fran, for coming and having a chat with me. I am so chuffed to have you grace me with your presence to be able to do the Through the Creative Door. For those who obviously can't see because they're listening on this on a podcast, you gave me a little sneak peek of two of your creative spaces today in your beautiful home, one which is around this phenomenal grand piano and the other being where you create all your beautiful EDM music in another space. I guess my first question would be which, obviously, being in your home, I get to see those two beautiful spaces, but I'm curious what does a creative space mean to you?

01:30 - Fran (Guest)

Well, I feel really blessed with this space here because this room technically is the library slash piano room. So I feel really blessed that there's this particular space. I think I would really struggle to try and create in a space that also had a television in it. It's hard to explain, but it would be very difficult, even with the same other instruments and everything in here, just having a TV room. It wouldn't work.

02:06 - Alexis (Host)

I can empathise with that. I've always gone or lent to having a space where I have my creative instruments, in a room or in a space that doesn't have a TV or is less of a lounge room.

02:23 - Fran (Guest)

The second space that I showed you, not this room with the piano in it. That's relatively new as a set up space. I only had the studio desk put in when I would have been in the last six weeks or so. Yeah, before that it was more an office than a studio. So now it's more a studio than an office.

02:52 - Alexis (Host)

So, before you set up that very new set up, where was your creative space? Or did you have a creative space, a different space that wasn't at home, when you were doing your sort of electronic music and creating?

03:09 - Fran (Guest)

I still had a keyboard that I could attach to my computer and it was still in the same room, but it didn't have the same vibe. The way it would work would be I just had a regular desk that wasn't designed for a keyboard and I had the keyboard on a stand to the right. So I'd be turning away from the computer to work on the keyboard if I was doing that. So it just it wasn't and it wasn't, so it wasn't as pleasurable a space to be in. So, I like the way that that little space is set up to be a lot more pleasurable, I guess.

03:57 - Alexis (Host)

I don't know about you, but I definitely think it helps having a grounded, supportive space to sit into the creativity.

04:10 - Fran (Guest)

Yeah, I agree, I agree entirely.

04:13 - Alexis (Host)

I love that. I feel really fortunate that I actually met you through recommendation actually from Western Oz, from Will and Sandy, and then, yeah, we've had a chance to work together, I hope the start of many collaborations. But I'm curious what, obviously your career is going to be long-standing, but at this point in time, is there a body of work or a collaboration or one track that you're the most proud of at this point?

04:57 - Fran (Guest)

It changes all the time as to which one I like the most. There are two tracks that I really really love, and one track is actually become part of the film score for the film that I'm now doing and that's called Rainbow. And it's funny because in the film score it's actually just the music part, so the vocals are removed, but it's the actual song that I like the best about that particular song, and I'm wondering what to do about it when that movie comes out. Do I release the actual song or just the instrumental, or how does all that work? And it's a bit of a surprise, I haven't released it. And the other song that I'm really liking at the moment is a song that I've written fairly recently called my Mechanical Heart, and I really like. What a great name. Yeah, it's just a really different song. So, yeah, I like it.

06:01 - Alexis (Host)

Oh, I'm excited to hear these. I haven't heard them.

06:05 - Alexis (Host)

I guess, on the flip side of things that you're proud of and we've had a bit of a chat off the recording about life and things but has there been something that's challenged you in a way that it's affected your creativity, and do you think there's a big lesson or a major lesson that you've learnt from that?

06:34 - Fran (Guest)

Yeah, I think it's been more the other way around. So I've been working at music for six years. So it's been about six years since I decided to start to learn to produce, and I think that what happened was I had not a midlife crisis. I'd call it a midlife awakening. That's what happened.

07:00 - Alexis (Host)

How beautiful.

07:01 - Fran (Guest)

I love that. So I had become very physically ill and things were not looking very good for me physically at the time and also with work, which I still love. I was spending a huge amount of time and I guess the purpose of my work, as I saw it and still do, was to relieve the suffering of the people that I was assisting. That was and is my day job, to do that. And what happened was when I was doing that, all the time I became more and more astute at noticing suffering and suddenly I was seeing suffering everywhere, to the point that it got, that was almost all I was seeing, you know. And I had this thought what if I could? Instead of relieving suffering, I was bringing joy. What about that? And that was part of the music journey.

08:06 - Fran (Guest)

And then I said to myself well, what really makes me happy? You know when, in my whole life, what made me happiest? And I just went back in my mind to thinking about when I was a little kid and I used to sort of just sort of run around singing these little songs to myself, these funny little songs, which I probably continued to do until at some point you get a bit pre-teen or teenage and you get all awkward and embarrassed and then you stop all of that and never did it again. So I thought, well, maybe because I love that so much, maybe that's what I want to develop. And what has happened as a byproduct of that which I think is wonderful is that now I see joy. Now I see all these little blissful glimmers all over the place, much more so than seeing suffering. It's like my focus is now on joy, if that makes sense.

09:08 - Alexis (Host)

It's so interesting because when I initially worded these questions, I never really knew how the answers would come. And yeah, that's just such a beautiful way in which it's a challenge has also like which I think art does turns into these beautiful flowers for us, yeah, and we get to. Yeah, bloom and share.

09:31 - Fran (Guest)

I have to say I was so surprised and pleased when I heard that you'd come to me by recommendation. Yes, really stunned because I think our collab I've done more since, but at that time your collab with me was the very first collab that I've ever really I've done collabs, but the first one that I've ever been the primary Producer in a song and it was super exciting. And I was so excited when you suggested to me to do it and I go, oh, I'm not sure what I can do and then I sent you a piece of music that I thought might we could work with and you said, yeah, that'd be great. That was. It was such an exciting project. I'm really looking forward to it finishing coming out.

10:22 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, I can't wait for it to come out and for everyone to hear it. It's um, it's interesting they say that because I decided a few years ago that I wanted to do more and more collaborations with lots of different people, and there's something about the joy of sharing those experiences with somebody else. I mean, for me, I work with lots of different people in my creative space, from dances to different producers and things like that but there's something really nice about the collab experience. It's pretty, pretty special to be able to create this little flower. Yeah, I want to the world together. It's really nice.

11:10 - Fran (Guest)

Super, super happy without went.

11:12 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, I'm so excited. Yeah, go wait for everyone to hear it. Yeah, we're going to be released. It's so good. I suppose that this next question is going to be interesting because, depending on which room it might have, maybe it's a different answer. I don't know. But do you have anything, do you have any objects or a thing that you can't create without?

11:44 - Fran (Guest)

Yes, now I have and it's a technical piece, but I'll tell you about it now I have a thing called a Kaotica eyeball that I've popped over the top of my mic and that.

12:01 - Alexis (Host)

For those listening, explain it a little bit more.

12:04 - Fran (Guest)

I know what you're talking about well normally what would happen if you were in a big studio, you'd go into a vocal booth and you'd have this sort of little soundproofy kind of room that you would sing in, and I don't have that luxury, so it's almost like a little vocal booth for your microphone. So instead of putting all of everything into a booth, I've got a microphone that's Got its own little foamed booth around it. And that works fairly well, so yeah.

12:35 - Alexis (Host)

I tend to see and I know for some of my producer friends around the world. They advocate for them. They all use them as well and they love them. So you're in a good group.

12:52 - Fran (Guest)

Yeah, well, I've heard, I've heard some of the producers I know have been on tour and, you know, had the tour bus and all that and they've been able to make songs, sing songs in while on a tour bus using one of those, which is pretty amazing.

13:08 - Alexis (Host)

Yeah, oh, they're amazing, they're so good.

13:11 - Fran (Guest)

They're not cheap, though, for a piece of foam.

13:13 - Alexis (Host)

No, to be fair, in our industry, when is any of the toys and the things that we buy cheap? They're not so cheap. Never, never. It's interesting I was thinking about this the other day about the long list of quote-unquote toys that we buy ourselves to create, which sometimes I think we just we, you know at a certain point in our careers we can only afford a certain thing, and then you sort of go up and up from there, and other times I just think the library of toys that we get just gets bigger and bigger. Always put it in the same perspective, I think, as, like a tradie, it's like at the start of their career they only have X amount of tools and then by the end they have this big trailer for ladders and all sorts of things.

14:08 - Fran (Guest)

It's true, but you get an expert tradie and they can probably get by with pretty much any tool.

14:16 - Alexis (Host)

That's true, but it's pretty nice to have all the bits and pieces to play with. Oh, it's pretty fun to create.

14:23 - Fran (Guest)

It's wonderful. Yeah, I think it's great.

14:26 - Alexis (Host)

I'm curious. I mean I know that you know we all take lots of different nuggets of advice and bits of information that sits with us through our careers. But if you could give any creative one nugget, one bit of wisdom or advice, what would that be?

14:50 - Fran (Guest)

Well, I think that doing something you really love gives you an enormous amount of pleasure and it's worthwhile, really worthwhile. I also think you've got to be incredibly patient with it. You know, here I am six years in.

15:06 - Alexis (Host)

Six years, the start of a very long career. Yeah, but never too late to start.

15:13 v

Yeah, but I think people think it's going to be very quick. It's not quick, it takes a lot of time. How long for you now?

15:21 - Alexis (Host)

Over three decades. I've been doing music. My whole life.

15:26 - Fran (Guest)

From the womb clearly.

15:28 - Alexis (Host)

Well, my mum's Filipino, so music's in their blood. That is very, very good advice. I think that makes it a long time between wins if you don't enjoy where you are and the process of just creating right?

15:51 - Fran (Guest)

Yeah, that's what I love the most actually, and that's probably why everything falls down for me, because I'm not into any of the marketing, I'm not particularly into live performance, I'm not into anything like that, but the actual creating I love.

16:06 - Alexis (Host)

Last but not least, I have one more question. If you could hear anyone come onto this podcast and answer these questions, who would it be and why?

16:18 - Fran (Guest)

I'd be curious what Bjork would say. You know, I think her answers would be really, really interesting, and Aurora. I would love to hear what Aurora has to say. That would be very, very interesting as well.

16:38 - Alexis (Host)

Yes, Fran, thank you so much for chatting with me and letting us come into your little creative spaces. Yeah, thanks, so much.

16:52 - Fran (Guest)

Thanks for having me.