Make Believe - Alex Francis
Hertfordshire has produced some excellent musicians and singer-songwriters and our next LCM featured artist is another. Alex Francis is originally from Hitchin and comes from a very musical family. Our LCM #Trackoftheday is a live version of 'Make Believe' taken from a Reload session filmed last year.
Alex was raised in the sleepy Hertfordshire town, but moved to Brighton to realise his musical dreams in a more creative and exciting environment before relocating to North London last year.
Alex’s emotive melding of rock and soul emerged out of the London grass roots rock scene in 2015 and spurned a completely organic rise to prominence that few singer-songwriters have experienced.
In the last few months Alex has showcased his music at some of London’s most vibrant live music venues including Camden's Jazz Cafe, Hoxton Bar and Kitchen and The King’s Head Member’s Club in Dalston.
Alex opened for Samm Henshaw at his ‘Sound Experiment - Part 1’ EP launch last August at The Lexington and supported Luke Sital Singh at the Brighton Dome last September. He won the support of TimeOut magazine’s ‘Rising Stars’ artist programme at the end of last year, showcasing him at some of his highest profile shows to date. On top of that, Alex has been singing background vocals for James Bay during the Spring & Summer leg of his 'Chaos and the Calm' world tour.
Alex travelled to Nashville to record new material in September, and has recently collaborated with Anders Grahn (Haley Reinhart, Magnus Tingsek, Andrew McMahon) Dan Smith (The Noisettes) Rupert Christie (Lou Reed, Lianne La Havas) and Josh Grant (Samm Henshaw, Gavin DeGraw) on new tracks for his debut EP due for release this Autumn.