Performing With Confidence with Angelique Francis

[00:00:00] Rosalyn: Welcome to refolkus my guest today is Angelique Francis, our interview was recorded prior to the JUNO awards and I’m happy to say that last week we got to watch Angelique win the JUNO for Blues Album of the Year. We want to wish her and her band a huge congratulations, here’s our conversation

Hello and welcome to Refocus. Today we have the immensely talented an Angelique Francis joining us. An Angelique is a versatile and exceptionally gifted musician. This multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre singer, songwriter, and composer has wowed audiences across the globe with her electrifying performances, instrumental abilities, and powerful textured vocals.

She's known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres, including folk blues, soul roots, gospel, and Americana. Anjali has shared the stage in open for well-known musicians, such as Gary Clark, Jr. Eric Gales Kemo, Jim Vivino, Beth Hart, Tom Cochran, Burton Cummings, and many more. . She has been awarded with two big Blues awards, was nominated for a 2022 Ontario Folk Music Award and is nominated for a 2023 Canadian Folk Music Award, and most recently has received a Juno nomination for Best Blues album of the year.

Angelique, welcome to Refocus. How are you?

[00:01:00] Angelique: Hi, I am great today. How are you?

[00:01:02] Rosalyn: I'm doing well. I'm so excited that you are here. I have had the pleasure of seeing you perform a bunch of times, they truly are as your bios as electrifying. Performances, everyone's on their feet, you know, it's always been a packed room, so I never get to chat with you.

So I created an entire podcast. So I get to sit down and talk to an Francis for a bit. Thank you so much for being here.

[00:01:26] Angelique: Thank you so much for having me with everything that you do. it's wonderful to be here and finally get a chance to talk on this level.

[00:01:33] Rosalyn: we mentioned in the bio that, you were nominated for the Ontario Folk Music Award. You also performed there. you did the opening performance and I haven't seen a group of industry folks up on their feet like that in a, in a long time you had everyone dancing in the aisles.

It was such an incredible way to start the celebration. So Thank you so much for that.

[00:01:53] Angelique: Oh no. Thank you for having us . I am. I'm really glad that everyone enjoyed the show and had a great time.

[00:02:00] Rosalyn: Yeah. what is amazing about your show that I don't know if, if people would know from, from just maybe reading a bio or, or seeing a photo, is that you perform with your family,

[00:02:13] Angelique: I do.

[00:02:14] Rosalyn: Can you tell us a little bit about, the members of your.

[00:02:17] Angelique: Yeah. So, my band. Is known as Orange Lake Francis, or the Orange Lake Francis Band. And you'll commonly see us as a four piece or up to a six piece. Um, And the members of my band include family members. My dad, Kieran Francis on drums. My sisters Ncia Francis on alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, tenor saxophone and backing vocals.

And my sister Kira Francis on trombone and keys and backing vocal. And then we also have some other musicians such as Dave Williamson on Lead electric guitar and Ed Lister on trumpet and keys. So I'm, I'm very fortunate to have my family with me and it's like, home is always on the road,

[00:02:56] Rosalyn: you play so many instruments as well. The last time I saw you perform, I was trying to count. I couldn't, count them all in one hand. , you, you played so many different instruments. How many instruments do you play?

[00:03:07] Angelique: Quite a few . But the ones that I bring up on stage during our shows most often are the upright bass, the electric bass, the acoustic guitar the electric guitar, sometimes keys, blues, harmonica, pretty much all about we can fit in the car with all the horn instruments and drum kit

[00:03:23] Rosalyn: Tambourine, I feel like you had like a

[00:03:25] Angelique: Yeah, I, I often lead the band with a foot tambourine. And we, we dance a lot and kick our feet up in the air and do a different kind of showmanship with the tambourines on our feet as well.

[00:03:37] Rosalyn: So what was it like growing up in this musical household?

[00:03:41] Angelique: Um, It was amazing. I mean, it's very much part of my personal identity. And after dinners every night we would jam together, write songs, use it as a medium to express ourselves and, process. Everything that we experience in the world and also use it as a means to communicate with others. I feel like music definitely helped shape who I am because it connected me with so many other people and allowed me to gain confidence in such a unique way.

And with my family. We love exploring many, many different kind of genres, and having this wonderful space to be able to do it with is just such a privilege.

[00:04:22] Rosalyn: So in your bio you listed a bunch of genres that you identify with and, and you've been nominated for Folk Award, blues award and you're writing your own original music, you know, which in some ways kind of transcends all of that or encompasses all of that. what were some of the influences on, on your music growing up?

what were you listening to? What are you listening to now?

[00:04:44] Angelique: Well, I love to explore . I'm very much in the belief that there is no such thing as bad music. There's just, people have their different preferences and I love performing and writing in roots music styles because I feel like. There are so many roots and connections between the different genres, especially in North American music.

And so, with blues and folk and soul, there's, there's interconnectivity. My most recent album, long River, is an exploration of those many different kinds of roots based music. Of course, there's a lot of roots in the blues, but there's also, folk soul, r and b Rock and, and the different ways that they connect together. So because I love many different genres and I play so many different instruments and there are so many different aspects to what I do, I have many different influences for different aspects of my musicality. So, for um, Upright bass.

I love Willie Dixon or miles Mosley for acoustic guitar. I love influences like Indie Re or, skip James for Piano. I love Aretha Franklin. Oscar Peterson. There's, there's so many different things. Harmonica Sunny Boy Williamson. And of course I love listening to different kinds of modern music too.

But I, I really, I really enjoy just the roots of different things that I grew up listening to. So there's just such a wide palette and there's so much more to explore.

[00:06:13] Rosalyn: do you, um, Identify with a particular genre or is there any point to have , is there a point to genres? I'm getting real deep now. , what is the, yeah, there's some, there's some reason to identify with a, certain genre in particular.

And I'm coming at it from running a folk organization, but it's kind of interesting when what you do is so unique but also draws on all these various things. Do you think that there's a point to labeling it

[00:06:39] Angelique: as for me, identifying with a singular genre, I can't, there's so many, there's so many amazing things. There's so many different stories that I would like to tell, and I think each genre has such a unique way of, highlighting that and framing that. I do think there's a point to genres, I wouldn't necessarily want it to be that way. I think most of the things with genre, I, I, I think a lot of roots based music, a lot of folk music, a lot of blues music was in one category before. And. Eventually as time went by, as the years went by, there were different genres and different niches that came about.

I think that was done for marketing purposes. If people wanted to find a similar kind of music by marketing it in a certain way, they would be able to find similar music rather than it all kind of blending together. I, I find that For me, there are so many different things that I write. I've been writing longer than I've been performing, and I, I start performing very young.

But I mean, if music is a reflection of an artist's personal experience and their thoughts and their feelings, there's so much more to explore there than what they choose to show people. I, I, Country songs. I write reggae, I write r and b, but I may not necessarily showcase that because there's a personal aspect to music.

There's an art, and there's also a business side of things, and I want to show people a certain narrative. I want to have certain kind of messages. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but sometimes it's really powerful because people. Come to your music because they identify with a certain kind of message that you're putting out.

And with Long River, with my, my most recent album, I wanted to. Inspire as many people as possible. you know, I got into music because I wanted to spread joy. I wanted people to forget about their pain by dancing and, and connecting with people. And, you know, sometimes music can be more of a personal reflection and there are things you don't wanna share with other people.

So I think, it's really interesting that. A lot of different sides to things. People may not be showing you, everything when they're putting out music. It could be for, to tell a meeting or it could be a product. But behind that, all there is an art form and there is beautiful creation in that.

[00:08:58] Rosalyn: And what's your approach to, to that art form? how do you approach songwriting?

[00:09:03] Angelique: Well, I think a wonderful thing about creating music and songwriting is that there's no one right way. I find that maybe some of the biggest obstacles that people face when writing songs is preventing themselves from. Allowing those ideas to flow. there's no such thing as a bad idea.

And oftentimes songs that I may think. May not be, performance worthy or, or uh, something that would be a really silly idea. That silly idea inspires me to do something else based on that idea, and it becomes something really beautiful. So I write songs in many different ways. Sometimes ideas just come to me from things that I experience in my life.

Sometimes I write songs to be like stories. Sometimes I write songs. To engage audiences with live performance. I want, the shows that I give out to be more of like a communal music making experience where people feel like they're involved in the things that are happening there. It's very different from something that you might experience on a cd.

But I think the wonderful thing about live performance is that each. Show is unique because of the people that are in the room at that night and feeding off of the energy of the audience. Sometimes there are ways that songs can evolve over time because of that kind of interaction and influence that you have from, from fans and, and people in the community.

[00:10:28] Rosalyn: It's so intentional. it's incredible to, Hear about all, all that process and I can only imagine what those archives of country, reggae, all the, all the ones that don't, don't make the cut into maybe the, the live performance or the cd. It's so exciting to, to know that, that process has been, Gone through and that you have those reserves there because yeah, you never know when, something's gonna inspire something else and, you're, a young artist too, so, it's exciting to, to watch your career and, and, imagine where it's going.

So is it a very different process then when you're the album then versus, preparing for, for a live show? Are you drawing from more material when you're doing that?

[00:11:12] Angelique: I think they're connected in a lot of ways. I think the hardest part about putting together an album is choosing which song goes on it, , and how it'll fit together. I have. Thousands of completed songs. And of course, during the process of making an album, you'll get inspiration to write another song and then you'll try to figure out like how you can make things come together.

But the way that I shave my album is I kind of wanted it to sort of emulate a little bit a live performance since it was a album that we did over the. A lot of the ways that people were able to experience connection with other people was over the virtual world, through virtual concerts or through listening to music that can help them through that time.

And so there was a lot of reflection between that and what I've done in shows. But of course, shows also help inspire what kind of songs go onto the album because based on like The different reactions that people have to it. I may choose to include a song that people have a greater like affinity to.

And then of course concerts are a wonderful way to test out songs. Sometimes um, it's a training ground for figuring out what different audiences like. And I've definitely had songs that grew. But there are a lot of songs that we perform that are unreleased , and so I am really excited to be able to record more of those songs and release them as singles in the oncoming months.

[00:12:40] Rosalyn: when you have a song that you've written, who do you take it to first?

[00:12:43] Angelique: My family.

They're really good critics

[00:12:47] Rosalyn: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:48] Angelique: because, they'll tell me the truth. They'll tell me whether they like it. They don't like it. But they're also really good cheerleaders for me. I think that sometimes when I'm in my own head writing a song, I may be like, oh, this isn't good, and I'll, I'll overthink it, but then I'll perform it for them and they'll be. Giving me a reaction that I didn't expect that they, they really love the song. They, they see where the connections are and I'm like, oh, oh my gosh, I, I wasn't gonna do anything with this. Uh, And so it's really great to get feedback from, people. My co writing partner and drummer and Father Kieran Francis also really helps inspire me.

Has been the one that has showed me all those genres when I grew up. And really helped teach me about the songwriting process. And we bounce ideas off of each other to figure out some of the more you know, variety of areas. Like we try to be as diverse as possible. We try to, Do a lot of different things in our music rather than staying on one kind of artistic path.

And so I think having the ability to have that is wonderful.

[00:13:54] Rosalyn: During the pandemic you were mentioning that, you know, all the things are online and I'm assuming that must have been tough for someone who's like, such a incredible live performer. Were you doing a lot of stuff, like a lot of virtual concerts?

[00:14:09] Angelique: Yes. Fortunately all the Francis Family Band members live in the house. So , we got to continue practicing and doing shows together as a four piece. We were able to do quite a few shows virtual shows and physical festivals in the summer. Because of the open air uh, we were able to do a lot of outdoor festivals.

Some of the virtual concerts that we did was. Calgary Folk Fest. We did something for the German National Radio broadcaster Ottawa Jazz Fest. There were, there were quite a few. And, and of course there were also those, go into the venue pre-recorded, then live stream it. Uh, We did some for the National Arts Center which were really great.

But I think it definitely was different. Even when I was able to perform in a space with people in the audience, they were oftentimes not allowed to dance. Um, They weren't allowed

[00:15:04] Rosalyn: that would've been very difficult. Oh my

[00:15:06] Angelique: Yeah, . But, there are other ways of dancing. You know, we encourage them to shrug their shoulders and clap along, and you could see that people were really appreciative that they were able to still engage despite those restrictions.

[00:15:20] Rosalyn: How do you summon that energy to perform? I've heard a lot of folks talk about the difficulty of, of doing those online performances because you're not, getting that feedback from the audience. How, how were you able to summon that, that energy, to do those virtual performance?

[00:15:36] Angelique: Yeah, some of the performances were a little bit weird. , like . I mean some of them were surprisingly really good. The Calgary Folk Fest, they had put it up so that they encouraged everyone to show their cameras and people were having barbecues and family cookouts, and so they would spotlight.

People who are dancing in the audience. And so if you dance more, then you get the opportunity to be spotlighted. We did a few blues in the schools events where, students were just Dancing like crazy and those were really satisfying. But I think the energy definitely was weird because a lot of the times we feed off of the energy that the audience gives back to us.

So luckily we had each other type each other up,

and all the feedback that we received was great. So it was a little. Of a mystery at times, and he goes like, do they like it, do they not? All I see is initials on a Zoom screen in a square. So , I'm not really sure, but there are a lot of positives to it.

I'm glad that we were able to do that. There were a lot of people. Around the world in, in Europe and, different continents that we're able to experience our shows because of this virtual opportunity. And I know that we gained a lot of fans from that and when we visit those parts of the world, that we'll have people there who know our music.

So, it wasn't all bad. And it was also wonderful that we were still able to create music during that.

[00:16:59] Rosalyn: When you're putting together Your live show? Is that a really collaborative process with, the group? you know, you have choreography and it's a real show. Right? And so, how much of that is like a collaborative process?

[00:17:12] Angelique: It is a very collaborative process, but it's also collaborative with the audience as well. So we will draft an outline based off of location. So audience type, is it, is it a family show? Is it an older audience? Are there certain songs that an older audience. Appreciate more have we gone to this area And people here have really loved gospel blues, will, put in different things like that.

Depending on the tech and equipment that's available to us. Like if we take a plane, there's certain instruments we can't bring with us. So how are we gonna shape this? Of course we play a lot of different instruments, so we have to be very aware of each other. How we are going to switch instruments in between songs in a way that's really convenient to us without too many pauses in between songs.

So sometimes it's, it's, it's about convenience and the different ways that we can raise and lower the energy level. If we're going to do a slow song, then we wanna do a fast song after that, we wanna start with a bang. We wanna end with a bang. sometimes depending on how an audience interacts, we'll take out a song or throw in a song to, better serve the kind of energy that they're showing us at the time.

[00:18:24] Rosalyn: Is there a lot of communication that's happening in the moment then? Like between band members on stage?

[00:18:30] Angelique: Yeah. quite a bit.

[00:18:32] Rosalyn: do you feel like you're at that like, telepathy point? You mean you're, you're performing with your family? So, sometimes, family members naturally have that, right? That like, I can just look at you and I know what you're, thinking just by the look on your face, you know? or do you have it, like, more mapped out than that,

[00:18:47] Angelique: Well, different songs have different kinds of things. We have certain kinds of signals that we give to each other. Of course, you know, oftentimes you'll face a situation where there is less time in a set that you thought that you have. So, , there's a lot of, last minute changes that may happen because of technical difficulties.

And so we have different kind of signals that we give to each other, different kind of signals that we have for. Leading the direction of the songs. I love that I get to play bass for a lot of the songs and especially with the upright bass. Because even though I may not have the hands to give them certain kinds of signals, they can hear the kind of signals within my instrument.

And so I get to lead the rhythm section, which in turn helps them shape what they do in their.

[00:19:31] Rosalyn: what instrument did you. When you were growing up, Because bass is really big. I'm guessing you didn't start on the, on the upright base, but you're, just so, so excellent at it.

[00:19:40] Angelique: Thank you so much.

Well, when I started expressing my interest to be a performing musician professionally as a child my parents wanted me to have a lot of different options. They wanted me to be a really well-rounded musician so that I could go into. any aspect of the industry, just in case I didn't wanna perform later on.

Uh, So they were very supportive, but they did have a few rules. So the first would be that I had to maintain an A average throughout school. But with that, they gave me the resources to learn many different instruments. and they said, you have to learn an instrument because this is a really important skill to being able to tell people exactly what you want when you're writing songs, when you're playing shows, there's so many avenues and it's really good for the brain.

So they said the first instrument you have to play is piano. The second instrument you have to play is guitar. And then after that you can choose any instrument you want. And that's definitely something me and my sisters took advantage of.

[00:20:36] Rosalyn: So, were you all in that same path then? Did you all start with piano and guitar?

[00:20:41] Angelique: Yeah. For most of us, we, we started with piano and guitar.

[00:20:44] Rosalyn: you all kind of have that bass musical language, right?

[00:20:47] Angelique: Yeah.

[00:20:48] Rosalyn: you know, music is such a, language in its way. And each instrument has its own, idiosyncratic ways about it.

So it was neat that you guys have instruments in common.

[00:20:56] Angelique: Yeah, it makes it really uh, convenient to just add different things to our shows and switch up the instruments.

[00:21:02] Rosalyn: That's so incredible. So are you when you're learning, are you taking like private lessons? Like, is everyone kind of going through the same process as you're growing up of how you're learning music?

[00:21:11] Angelique: Well, everyone's different and there's different opportunities available at different stages in, in life, in the community and stuff like that. For me, a lot of the instruments that I learned were. First self-taught. The internet is so beautiful. There's, there's an avenue out there for everyone.

There's a many different kinds of playing styles that maybe instructors in my area weren't teaching. So there was a lot of like classical upright bass, but there wasn't a lot in terms of like jazz and bluegrass and blue styles. But as I got older, there were more opportunities to study those sorts of things.

For the upright base, I was really fortunate that my high school had a base unfortunately they didn't have anyone to teach it, so they were like, yeah, you can have it, but , no one's gonna teach you. But there were so many different opportunities for me to learn and grow with my classmates. And it was such an incredible music program because they basically allowed you to do anything you wanted.

Like you would come towards them with an idea, like, I wanna, Form this band. I wanna do this initiative, I wanna do this concert. And they would say, okay, here's what we're gonna do to fundraise it. Here's what we're gonna do to make it happen. And it was so wonderful to just give students the opportunity to do that.

And then also during the summer months, even when we didn't have school, they would let me bring the double base around the country and in the states to play shows.

And then of course I studied at Carlton University, a Bachelor of Music. And I did like I could study any, any instrument I want, any genre, I want songwriting composition because they had the singer songwriter program.

So I did

Blues harmonica classical and jazz based improvisation on upright bass movie film composition. Like it was, there's a lot of different avenue.

[00:22:57] Rosalyn: Oh, that's so cool. That was my next question is, what you were studying at Carlton? So it was the singer songwriter program.

[00:23:03] Angelique: Yes.

[00:23:04] Rosalyn: that seems like a, like a unique offering. I don't know of like a lot of universities that have that kind of avenue that you can take, I always think of like classical composition, but it's so neat that you got connected with that singer songwriter program.

Is that something that you had your sights on, or how did, how did you discover that?

[00:23:23] Angelique: Yeah. Um, I. I was really happy to be able to find out about the singer songwriter program. I'm not sure what it's like now. I graduated in 2019, but at the time it was the only program of this kind in Canada. And I really liked that the program allowed you to study many different. Aspects of music.

So you weren't limited to your genre alone. You could also interact with students from the different streams. So I think Carlton had a cel extreme classical stream jazz musical theater pop vocals and singer songwriter. And so with that, I took advantage of just shaping the different.

Things that I could do. So you could do songwriting, you could do composition, you could do audio engineering, you could do ethnomusicology. And then of course, it gave you the ability to communicate with people from different fields because you studied their theory and their practices. And I think it just really helped make me more rounded.

[00:24:24] Rosalyn: were there some collaborations that you did during that time that were particularly notable or, or that surprised you in any way?

[00:24:32] Angelique: Yeah, I think every day having the opportunity to work with students with different ideas and also the professors there were wonderful as well especially within the Ottawa music community. And then they also had artisan residence people coming every year. So, Kelly Lee Evans was one of the artisan residents and it was wonderful to learn about music business with her as well.

[00:24:55] Rosalyn: are you self-managed? Like is your group self-managed or do you work with a manager agent, that sort of thing?

[00:25:01] Angelique: Well, we're almost completely independent, so we do everything ourselves. During the pandemic we were set to record in a studio and, you know, put together the album. But unfortunately, because of pandemic restrictions, we had to record in our home studio, which we did for our first album. And I'm actually really glad we did that because we learned so many different things about ourselves and different ways to writing songs.

But yet, Completely recorded, mixed, mastered at home. Um, My dad is my agent. We do all the music videos ourselves. we basically do everything ourselves. But we do have the wonderful Brian Slack for Blues Quebec based. Performances. And then this year we got the opportunity to work with a publicist Eric who has been doing wonderful work with our album Long River.

[00:25:51] Rosalyn: so was Long River then. that entire album was self-produced.

[00:25:55] Angelique: Yes,

[00:25:56] Rosalyn: Which is nominated for the Juno. So lemme just remind folks that this is . That's so incredible. That's really, really inspiring that you and your family, were able to, to do all that. That's a lot, that's a lot to like, be excelling at at, at the live performance and.

that you guys are interested in, in the music industry side of things and have enough music industry chops to be like representing yourself and, doing all that work. But then to also have like the technical production side of it too, and then to have that work that you did be recognized - nationally by several many now awards. How does that feel?

[00:26:40] Angelique: It feels amazing, and I also feel really lucky. I, I feel so lucky that my family just happened to want to do a career in the same field that I. Have done and that we wanted to work together. I am really grateful for my father, co-producer Kirin Francis for his expertise as well. He used to work in high tech.

And so there was a lot of technical knowledge behind that. And we were really excited to also receive one of the Maple Blues nominations. For producer, engineer of the year, and to be amongst so many incredible artists this year, it just, it felt really great. . And I'm really glad that my sisters have also wanted to join with me.

The Orange Lake Francis Band looked very different a few years ago, but as they each reached an age where they decided that they were interested, they would join us on stage. And then slowly more Francis family members started to join us. So I think my youngest sister inside of the band, Kira, joined us at age.

[00:27:44] Rosalyn: Wow, it's so exciting because your family is so talented, I'm just like, I cannot wait for this quintet to happen. I shouldn't even say that cuz there's that a lot of pressure. Like, do you feel like your youngest sister is there like a lot of pressure for her to, to join the group?

I just heaped all that pressure on . I didn't, I'm probably not the only one though.

[00:28:06] Angelique: No, not at all. she's welcome to join us if she wants to. She's shown some interest, but if she decides that she wants to do something else later on, I mean, we're happy to support her in any field. . And I do think that, you know, there's so many benefits too. Like even if they don't decide to be in music later on, there's so much that music has done for all of us academically.

Developmentally helping with coordination, helping with discipline, helping us meet other people, become more personable. There's so many different ways that it connects. And also there's so many different skills that we can have. . I think that because we are able to work together, we're able to teach each other different things and take our weaknesses and build them into strengths.

through music I was able to learn different coding languages. I was able to get a career in voice acting because of my music production. Knowledge. Because of the different musicology studies that I did. I'm very good at writing and I used to be a contractor at Carlton University doing different kinds of writing.

And so I think there's so many different avenues from film composition to history to theory to being a teacher, to Working different contracts with people. There's so many different avenues that they can learn from music and even if they don't decide to go into it direct performance stream, there are just so many opportunities for them to build their future with

[00:29:35] Rosalyn: and I had this like vision of your little sister being like, I wanna be a doctor. And then your family would be like, no, not until you finish your music lessons. or something like

[00:29:46] Angelique: No, not at all.

[00:29:49] Rosalyn: So now that you are. Starting to tour again and, and playing more, live shows. What's that transition like for you and how have you maintained your health and stayed healthy on the road?

[00:30:02] Angelique: The transition for me has been wonderful. I think that we were all just so eager to get back to it, to get back to Meeting people, seeing amazing acts and longtime friends that we haven't seen in a long time. And also making new friends. I think that, you know, one of the ways I stayed healthy prior to the pandemic was really, I find so much joy in sharing stories and learning other stories through the opportunities that music gives me.

Meeting with people is a privilege that I think. have been able to experience more because of music. Before outside of music, I was quite introverted because music kind of gave me that opportunity to. Get to know myself and, and get to connect with oth other people. There's various things that I do to stay healthy on the road.

Of course, coming right outside of the pandemic, we weren't really out of it, but you know, that kind of state where you're not sure what things were going to be like, especially at the start of 2022 where things were reaching another height. There are certain things Precautionary measures that we put in place to make sure that we stayed healthy and we were able to continue doing those shows. So, of course, like, the basic things will, will always bring vitamins on the road. Vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc. The girls hate the zinc. It's

[00:31:23] Rosalyn: You gotta gotta get

your zinc though,

[00:31:25] Angelique: swallow

[00:31:25] Rosalyn: gotta zinc up.

[00:31:26] Angelique: And then of course there's the different things that we do to stay physically healthy. Things can be quite taxing on your body if you don't take care of them properly. And you know, oftentimes you don't get a lot of opportunity to do things in the moment. So preparation is also really great. There's different things that we do.

From like doing various stretches so that we can make sure we stay flexible. We don't wanna hurt our backs or our knees lifting up heavy equipment. And there's various things that I do for each aspect of my musicianship, like for each instrument. So for base there was a time in high school where I actually broke my upright base.

It it. Yeah, . I was so afraid. It was like my first month of playing it and I leaned it up against a wall and it fell over and the neck cracked up, . So of course my dad saved me and we glued it back together. We went to Home Depot and we stapled the thing back together. But because of that, we weren't professional instrument maintenance people. the action was extremely high and I almost got tendonitis. So , through that experience, I really learned the importance of stretching. And there are certain kind of muscle exercises that I did with weights so that I can grow those muscles so they don't strain themselves. Of course, you know, with vocals you have to stay hydrated.

You have to do warm. sometimes I drink tea, like peppermint tea with lemon and honey. And if I'm drinking water, I always make sure that it's room temperature. There are different things, rituals that we do to help ourselves mentally. I think something that's really great about the setup that we have is. As I said before, home is always on the road, and even if we're stressed, we know that we have the support of each other to lean back on. We. Have different things that we do before each show. Different like checklists that we go through to make sure, like peace of mind if anything goes wrong. Here are some backup things that we can do and before each show, we hype each other up and give each other encouragement for. picking up our energy levels, making sure that we always give the best show possible because even if an audience isn't as interactive in the beginning, we hope that our energy will help inspire them to have a great time and, hopefully give them experience they haven't had.

[00:33:53] Rosalyn: I'm interested in the checklist. can you gimme an example of something that's on your, on your checklist that you would go through before? Before live performance?

[00:34:00] Angelique: Yeah. So I have different checklists for different situations. I think some of the checklist, if, if we're going like less. Do I have my harmonics on the rack and do I have, our microphone set up? There are other things like making sure that each member. Knows what the order of the songs are because, set list can change.

Here are certain things that we're changing to bring more engagement in the certain part, but there's also like checking in with every member, making sure they're okay. if they, they need anything. I think really the greatest part about what we do is being able to rely on each other and being there for each other and just making sure.

They understand that we're always there to support them.

[00:34:41] Rosalyn: that's really neat to think about. Yeah. Even just some people, I'm sure. do that mentally. It's interesting to think about doing it like with a physical checklist, but the idea of just going through these steps so that you can feel a little bit maybe like freer or something like that on stage.

You're not worrying in the back of your, mind like, did I do this thing? Did I, tune this? . That's really cool that you kind of mitigate some of that stuff in like a real way,

[00:35:04] Angelique: thank you. Yeah, I definitely think it does give me some freedom because if I make a checklist and I make sure everything's on that list, and I did everything on that list, and I'm like, okay, there's nothing else to worry about now, but giving a great show.

[00:35:17] Rosalyn: That's fantastic. Do you have any parting words or advice that you would give to musicians who are, who are still kind of honing their, stagecraft

[00:35:28] Angelique: Yeah. I would say, Try a lot of new things. Don't be afraid to try an idea that might be a little bit more out there, because there's a lot of people out there and everyone has different things that they identify with. So I think that the greatest thing is to allow yourself to make mistakes because you learn from those mistakes.

You become a better person, you grow. And if I didn't have the opportunity, Have that experience to try the things. I would never figure out what worked. I wouldn't be able to grow my confidence and I wouldn't be able to learn about the things that become like a, a primary part of my identity now. So it's, don't be afraid to try new things is basically what I want everyone to take away from it.

And don't be afraid to make mistakes because you'll become a better person.

[00:36:19] Rosalyn: what else is happening for you that you're looking forward?

Well, there's a lot of great

[00:36:23] Angelique: shows coming up this year. and there's a lot of announcements for festivals that will be coming up in the oncoming weeks and months. for information about my shows or upcoming music releases and things like that, you can visit my website, a angelique francis.net, as well as all the social medias and, things that I'm excited for.

I recently, uh, came out with a music video for my Song Ashamed, which is also off the Long River album. There will be other music videos coming out for Long River, in the next few weeks and months. The next one to be released next month will be Long River, the title track of the album. So I'm really excited for that to come out.

[00:37:03] Rosalyn: Well, we're excited too, and we'll link to all of those in the show notes as well, so you can, check the show notes to find out more about, Angelique Francis and be sure to follow her, online and on all of the social media.

Anja Lake, thank you so much for joining us and I wish you the best of luck.

[00:37:19] Angelique: Thank you so much and thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciated our conversation. It's been so wonderful.