Tom Francis

New Zealand born, Australia residing singer/songwriter Tom Francis has spent much of 2014 performing on street corners and at intimate house concerts. “I'm often asked why I play on the street. For me there's an honesty and romance to one musician and an instrument. I also enjoy pulling people in when they aren't expecting it...” It's this same musical purity and honestly that has shaped Francis's superb new record From Up There. The singer, who's been lauded as 'David Gray meets Damien Rice...' has created a beautifully soulful work. From Up There is deliberately simple in it's composition and it's production. It is music in it's purest form, hypnotic rhythms, warm lilting keyboards and Francis's voice weaving stories that take you in and out of light.

Francis's 2011 record, Wishing Wells, has a similar feel in that the focus was to capture the emotional power and coherency of a live performance, only this time he had beautiful drum work and an Aria nominated producer/engineer to capture the magic, of which there was plenty. “For me, the real magic in music can only be captured live, and once we had the live takes the songs needed very little else...”
The new album is hope, loss, love and everything a great record should be, this is music for change aimed straight at the heart - as the rich, harmony layered chorus from the song 'Side by Side' rings out - 'As long as we stand Side by Side, everything's gonna be alright...' Propelled by the desire to make songs with meaning for a world where a lot of music has lost its depth, Tom, armed with his latest record, is beating a path to the hearts of real music lovers, and as the chorus from the single off his recent release resounds – He is gonna 'Rise...'