00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this morning
00:06to speak to Alex Francis. Now, Alex is sitting in Tuscany at the moment with the sun blazing in
00:11behind him, a lucky swine, but you're heading back to the UK fairly soon for dates, including
00:16Worthing on September 11th, I think you said. And it's an interesting approach, isn't it? You're
00:22focusing, after all the fun of the festivals in the summer, you're focusing on a stretch of coast
00:27between Portsmouth and Brighton, aren't you? So why is that the goal for the moment?
00:33That's great. Yeah. Well, I mean, in short, really, we've had a really good response in
00:38terms of the festival buildings that I've had down in that region. And it's a chance to get
00:43back across people sort of as soon as possible. It's, you know, an industry right now where,
00:48you know, if you can pick up somebody's enthusiasm, it's like, you know, it's like a sort of hot
00:53stone of energy that you have to kind of hold on to. And, you know, that's really dictating
00:59a lot of the kind of strategy behind where I've played this summer, and where it's been
01:05particularly, you know, a particularly enjoyable experience in terms of reaching new people,
01:09connecting with new people on festival sites, and then saying, well, hey, I'm going to come
01:12back to, you know, to where you are. And would you like to come and see, you know, a more,
01:17you know, dare I say, kind of embellished version of what you just saw on the festival stage?
01:21So it sounds like the festivals went well, then?
01:24Absolutely. Yeah, it's been an incredible summer. Yeah, it's, you know, we've, the great thing
01:29about the kind of festival window of the UK kind of touring cycle is that people, you know,
01:39are very open to the idea of finding something new. They'll normally, they'll probably get hooked
01:42in by a, you know, household name headliner on something. And then I tend to find that,
01:48you know, everything, you know, we end up on a stage that is, you know, sort of, you know,
01:54termed as like a discovery stage. And people will be really into the idea of I'm going to,
01:59you know, I'm going to come away from this weekend that I'm at, you know, finding something new that
02:04I love. And it's within that kind of, within that air, like I say, where you, you get a kind
02:09of opportunity to, you know, potentially garner a new fan right there and then. And so, you know,
02:14the great thing about it is that, you know, September, and then as we move forward into
02:18the rest of the year and into early part of next, that's kind of now where we're going to be
02:23looking for that next springboard off of, you know, off of what happens in the summer and go,
02:28hey, you were there. Now I'm going to be here near you. And can we kind of, you know,
02:32if I can geographically make that work.
02:34You are sensing a momentum and you're building on that.
02:37Some new music then, including the new single, which has got an interesting story behind it.
02:45It has. It's kind of a, yeah, it's called Before You Break A Heart. And it is a,
02:49it's a kind of musing on a friend of mine who, you know, was, was in that kind of that,
03:00that world of, that world of dating apps, which is a world that I, you know, I've got my,
03:05my loyal partner, Hannah and I, we, we have been together for nearly 10 years and we kind of,
03:10we, we come from, dare I say, a generation that wasn't kind of, that the apps and all these dating
03:16apps weren't so established when we got together. And so I have a few friends who have kind of
03:21navigated their way through these apps over the years. One in particular that inspired this new song.
03:26And what it really is, is myself with the influence of a few others in my kind of circle,
03:34making sure that he was thinking about it from both sides, because I think it's very easy with the,
03:40the nature of, you know, of these apps, how you can kind of, how best to say, sort of swan around and
03:50kind of, you know, think that you're kind of doing yourself such a justice by getting so much
03:54attention and possibly having to, you know, neglecting, dare I say, the, the other side of
04:01how you're making somebody feel. And, you know, we, when I wrote it with, you know, Mark and Patrick,
04:06who are my, my producers, we, we weren't trying to, you know, it's not a song that's trying to sort
04:11of slap anybody in the wrist. It's more like a song that's, that's just trying to say, see it from
04:16both sides, because. Do you think he's, he's appreciated, it's directed at him then?
04:21I think he, I think he has taken heed. I think, I think he is, yeah, I do. And I'm, I'm full of
04:28faith and I'm proud of him for that. And I, and I hope it stays that way. But, you know, now it
04:33exists in the, in the ether of, you know, of online and everywhere. I hope that other people can,
04:38you know, listen to it and, and sort of resonate with what it's saying, you know?
04:41Fantastic. Brilliant. You can be our moral counsellor in all this.
04:46Brilliant. I accidentally entered that plane, yep.
04:49Well, really nice to speak to you. Good luck with building that South Coast momentum. Lovely
04:53to talk to you and enjoy the remainder of your time, you lucky thing in Tuscany. Have fun.
04:58Thank you. I will try.
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