ABOUT

BRIEF BIOG

Born to a Dutch father and German mother and growing up in Wolverhampton, Frances is the youngest of ten children. The family all played orchestral instruments and fooled around singing anything and everything while washing up.
Frances wrote little classical and jazz pieces as a child but never imagined it possible for them to be played for real.
In her teens she played keyboards & sang backing vocals with a punk band, borrowing a keyboard from a reggae band called Weapon of Peace who she'd also jam with.
Not wanting a life as a classical musician, and sadly believing this meant her musical life was pretty much over, Frances studied English & Drama at London University. After a short but very happy career in the film business she met and married producer/director Bill Butt, moved to the country and "had babies while the rest of the world seemed to be dancing in fields".
Settling finally in Bristol, Frances started writing music again, first for corporates then for TV. Ten years of soundtracks, mostly for wildlife films, followed, one of which resulted in the jazz suite Calls Of The Wild (see sound clips & shop pages).
After writing her first song (Sometimes) in 1999 she collaborated with Jimmy Galvin (see Lushlife EP) and the Pindrop Band before releasing her self-penned first album I Wonder in 2005.



WHY BOSSA NOVA?

I've hardly scratched the surface of Brazilian music.  Nowadays, thanks to people wonderful Gilles Peterson, events like WOMAD, the internet and cheaper travel, we can hear so much more of it in Europe. All kinds of wonderful sounds come from Brazil but bossa nova still really captures my mood.  It combines understated but funky rhythm with surprising, beautiful harmonic progression and gorgeous melodies. Some of the lyrics have been accused of being rather 'moon and June' and the bossa nova aesthetic was admittedly 'love-flower-sea' - not exactly hard-hitting stuff.   But it's the sound I love, especially coupled with the sound of Portuguese - the most sensuous sung language in the world. If you think bossa nova is extinct, check out wonderful artists like Joyce and Vinicius Cantuaria who are still developing the sound and repertoire.
When I was about seven years old I first heard the 'Getz/Gilberto' album and was totally smitten with that smoochy rich sound. I never imagined then that I'd be singing those songs today but it's such great fun. People at gigs were asking me for recordings of the Brazilian stuff and that's how The Girl From Wolverhampton came about. My own material is so deeply influenced by bossa nova I felt I should acknowledge the roots. - Frances