TAKE a Canadian and an American, base them in Luxembourg; fill their bellies with garage-punk-pop fire; give ’em a gentle shake. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Francis of Delirium.
Over here at Backseat Mafia we last encountered 19-year-old singer Jana Bachrich and her partner in musical crime Chris Hewett in early September when they took the breaks of a Bandcamp Friday to bring us the one-off drop “Equality Song”, a tune actually funded by the Luxembourgian Ministry of Equality to celebrate the centenary of female enfranchisement, but which still had plenty to say about the state of the male-female power balance today. All proceeds that Friday went to Femmes en Detresse, the Luxembourg domestic abuse charity that provides protection and therapy.
Then, Francis of Delirium did set out their stall pretty plainly that they weren’t gonna be shrinking violets with their debut single release, all of ten months ago: “Quit Fucking Around”.
The duo have announced that their second EP will be entitled Wading and will be out next February; in advance of which they’ve shared the video for lead single “Lakes”.
Their debut EP, All Change, (which includes “Quit Fucking Around”) was a search for identity, in which Jana concluded not just in that obvious familial and friendship connectivity, but her wider passion to forge common bond through performance.
“Lakes” looks at this transaction through a darker lense, asking what happens when both those resources run dry.
“The main idea in “Lakes” is that we are all fed by other people (or other ‘rivers’) to eventually form who we are: one large lake fed by other streams; one community,” she says.
“Left emptied and lost, you begin to lose your sense of self. Your anchor was the people around you, and now you’re tied to nothing, floating around in a space alone.”
It’s a bruised slow burner that reminds us over here at BSM of a couple of lost greats of American alt.rock: Veruca Salt and Magnapop.
This is a question she seeks to answer through the rest of the EP, ruminating on the existence of the self, the extent to which we know ourselves and what it means to rebuild when everything falls apart.
Hang on to your hats and join Jana and Chris for a searing and melodic ride.
Follow Francis of Delirium on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify.
