December 30, 2021
Transcription – Francesca Jozette, the Free Range Buddhas
Transcription
Anne Kelly (00:00:17):
This is Art in the Raw conversations with me. I’m your host Anne Kelly. And tonight I’m excited to introduce you to Francesca. Jozette Francesca is the front woman for the band Free Range Buddhas. If this is your first time watching art in the raw, first of all, thank you. I appreciate it. And this is our first time meeting. You might be wondering who I am in a nutshell, I’m someone that’s been in love with art and music, basically my entire life. I’ve now been working in the professional gallery world for about 15 years now, about halfway through 2020, I started art in the raw to keep people connected and inspire. If that sounds like something you’re into consider subscribing all appreciated. But in the meantime, I’m excited to introduce you to Francesca welcome Francesca. Thank
Jozette Francesca (00:01:14):
You so much for having me.
Anne Kelly (00:01:16):
Absolutely. And, and where are you joining us from tonight? I
Jozette Francesca (00:01:20):
Am joining you from my bedroom. <laugh> my personal sanctuary.
Anne Kelly (00:01:25):
Well, thanks for having us. Those who don’t know you are the front woman for a band, The Free Range Buddhas,
Jozette Francesca (00:01:33):
I’m the front woman and the songwriter, at least, uh, the lyrics portion for celebrating five years now, me and my basis, Matt, McClin started this project as a writing duo
Anne Kelly (00:01:45):
And I read somewhere that you’re a long time lyricist songwriter, but you didn’t start playing instruments until I think about four years ago,
Jozette Francesca (00:01:56):
Didn’t really start writing lyrics consistently until maybe about five or six years ago. I had written a couple of things in high school and a little bit here in college, but, um, I was primarily an actress and a performer in the theater arts. That’s what I went to to college for. So I was pursuing that pretty heavily and up until like graduated, uh, with a degree in musical theater and then realized, oh, I don’t really wanna do this <laugh>. So I didn’t know much about writing original music at all through the experience of being thrust into the, the unknown and seeing if I could find a buddy in the real world. Cause I was school to be able to help me with that. Uh, I learned kind of here and there from mentors and books and other sort of material and trial and error <laugh> and collaborations with other artists who had been doing it a lot longer than me. I finally got up the confidence to start showing my original lyrics and songs to other people and, and then started picking up instruments cuz I figured that was gonna be a little easier to, to communicate to others. You know, it gave me a little bit more vocabulary to be, to get across, not just lyrics, but music.
Anne Kelly (00:03:22):
I, I would just imagine that picking up a guitar or UK ukulele, some of the in stringed instruments that you’re playing would probably influence or, or just bring something new to the, the writing process.
Jozette Francesca (00:03:36):
Yeah, absolutely. No. I was singing with accompaniment before in my musical theater days, seeing with the piano a lot. And so I did have a good grasp of melody and kind of the fundamentals of music theory. So I was doing a lot of acapella stuff, singing these melodies that would just kind of come to me through the lyrics where certain accents were in words and uh, how certain cadence would fall lyric forms. So that kind of influenced my melody. But then once I started writing on ukulele, I started there and quickly realized that I wanted to pick up another string instrument, something a little bigger and more dynamic being the guitar that just took my simple melodies to a whole other level.
Anne Kelly (00:04:29):
I’ve definitely heard from other musicians, just picking up the big guitar. That’s maybe a little overwhelming
Jozette Francesca (00:04:36):
At first it can be really overwhelming a ukulele that only has four they’re nylon gut strings. They’re like kind of a plastic feel. They’re really easy on the hands steel strings on a guitar. You have to grow callous and go through kind of a painful process to really get going. So starting on a ukulele that has easier strings to play and only four strings to play is lot less intimidating. And the chord shapes are really simple. Uh, you could hold down a single strain using one finger and that’s, that’s a chord all in a by itself. And the next chord is two fingers, you know, so you can get, uh, you can go going rather quickly. That’s the, the saying write a good country song. You only to know three chords, it’ll behoove you to learn much more chords than that, but, um, you can get started really quickly on a, a smaller, less intimidating instrument. But I realized that it was a little limiting with where the songs were going. I, I wanted a little bit more variety. I wanted a, a longer fretboard, a bigger scale to work with ukulele is great to like pull out every once in a while, but guitar, a big, you know, sexy, uh, <laugh> hollow body guitar. It just like makes you feel cool.
Anne Kelly (00:05:53):
But if you can front the band with a ukulele and still look like a badass yeah. I’ve scene. You do so <laugh> so, so the name of the band, the, the free range Buddhas, where did that come from?
Jozette Francesca (00:06:06):
Well, Matt and I had just started writing and decided that we had a few songs that were ready to be recorded and decided to do an EP. And we were getting ready to go into the studio maybe three days, uh, leading up to studio time. And our engineer was like, Hey, uh, what are you guys calling this project? And we didn’t have a name <laugh> and thought, okay, well, guess we better decide what we’re called also that, and I worked together, we worked at a restaurant Harry’s Roadhouse off of old, old Las Vegas highway. Those three days, I was just like looking at anything and trying to find a name in it, something clever, something creative. I was at my wits end. I was like, why don’t we just call ourselves the gluten free muffins or something you should just of, I like food things.
Jozette Francesca (00:06:59):
And, um, the hostess heard me kind of lamenting in the corner there. Um, I wasn’t very productive those three days. <laugh> just trying to think of a name. And she was like, you know, this customer just came in and ordered a bootable to go. Mm. And he just told like the most dad joke, he’s like, oh, are the, the Buddhas in that bowl free range. And <laugh>, you know, I thought free range Buddhas. I ran to Matt and I said, what about free range Buddhas? Like, great, perfect. Let’s do it. And I honestly thought maybe that would just stick for the EP so that we had something to slap on the record, but just stuck with it. And, uh, people actually have great reactions to that, but I always get compliments or people saying like, oh yeah, I’m gonna remember that. Or that’s hilarious. I love it. You,
Anne Kelly (00:07:49):
You never know when inspiration’s gonna strike.
Jozette Francesca (00:07:52):
Yeah. A lot of people ask us if we’re Buddhist and we’re like, well, yes and no, <laugh>, we’re, we’re on the, the range side of Buddhism, <laugh>
Anne Kelly (00:08:01):
You and Matt started the band together. It was just the two of you, as I understand it. Um,
Jozette Francesca (00:08:07):
We found each other at the restaurant. Didn’t realize that we were both musicians and I had started playing with another band in town called Buku, uh, they’re not around anymore, but was singing for them. Uh, they were an original band, but I wasn’t writing at that time with them. I was just kind of, uh, their vocalist and we really needed a bass player and Matt played the bass and I asked him to, uh, come try out and see if he could dig the music and, uh, see if he wanted to join BKU. And afterwards he was like, um, I’m not really feeling that, but I really like your voice and, uh, you know, your energy and we’re obviously friends, why don’t we start working together? And so we started getting together after work, um, couple nights a week and writing. And, you know, as I said, we were like, well, we’ve got some material that seems like we can go and record, but we need other musicians to come record this stuff.
Jozette Francesca (00:09:12):
So we ended up hiring studios, musicians, and that’s, who’s on the EP right now. The, the self-titled free range, Buddhist EP. And for a while, those, uh, a couple of those players that stuck with us and did a couple of live shows, but then that kind of fizzled out and they all were heavily sought after they as finest. And so they of their own bands and other projects that they were working with, but it was always me and Matt still very dedicated to this project. And we were continuing to write, and we did have a couple of other people come in after that, till about the middle of 2019, we started playing a lot of live shows with drummer, Dave Scher and tar, and they were great. It was a, a really cool version of the band, kind of more cheap trick, sort of like eighties, more heavy rock version of the band.
Jozette Francesca (00:10:09):
But then Dave moved to New York and Rob decided to go on to his own original project. So it was back to me and Matt again, writing songs. And so I work at a music store with amazingness that I never thought would have the time to play with me. And I kinda started sewing the seed, seeing if they would want to get together and just jam. And, uh, we did, and this is like the panel ultimate version of the Buddhas, Jake Montiel and Justin Silla are my guitarists. They’re very much a, a core to this band now as well. It’s a foursome. And, um, me and Matt are just thrilled. Like we, we are delighted to have them on board and super committed to the project about how long has that been the middle of 2019. And we had started really getting together and rehearsing and started developing, you know, we have all the, as I said, we kept me and Matt kept writing throughout the different evolution, the band.
Jozette Francesca (00:11:18):
So over that amount of time, we accumulated a full length album. So we were getting together a lot in 2019, showing these boys, the material and developing the songs and getting ready to go into the studio. And we had played a couple of shows together and then 2020 hit and, and kind of dropped the bomb on, on everything. But we were able to be consistent, uh, more consistent. It seems than other people have had the opportunity to be because we work together. So we were kinda like in each other’s bubble, uh, we were quarantined together kind of, oh, we were able to keep on writing and we were able to record start the recording process
Anne Kelly (00:12:03):
While timing, in terms of being midway through 2019 and not knowing everything that was gonna happen, you know, maybe just enough time to get kind of everything established because had it been even later 2019, it seems like maybe people could have just gone their own ways.
Jozette Francesca (00:12:20):
You know, everyone was kind of in a transition at that time, also with their, their personal lives. A lot of changes were happening, happening in all of our lives. And, and also 2020 was just on, on the way. And so we were in this space where like, we had a lot of energy and didn’t know what to do with it. And then we were kind of forced to hunker down and really figure out what, what to do with it. We were given a lot of time hindsight, 2020 was actually a little bit of a blessing because we had some time to really figure things out and flesh I out ideas and get to know each other a little better. You know, we, weren’t just working towards life shows and you’re working towards forming live. Sometimes you’re just like, okay, we wanna get this down tight enough for, for the show. And then you don’t spend as much time kind of finessing the details. So it gave us time. We didn’t have like big deadlines to, to work towards, or just like just on the horizon. We had some time to kinda feel things out and, uh, figure out what works and what doesn’t work, experiment a little. So it was actually really good timing. Well,
Anne Kelly (00:13:35):
More towards the bigger picture. Sometimes
Jozette Francesca (00:13:36):
Thing decisions are made in haste when you’re just trying to get the, the next gig. Sometimes the best decisions are made in haste because you got some fire under the bud and you just gotta decide, but sometimes some things do fall to the wayside because you just can’t give enough energy towards developing a certain idea sonically. And so we were given a lot of time to kind of think, okay, well, what do we want to do here? How do we accomplish
Anne Kelly (00:14:05):
That? How would you describe the music? There’s kind of a timeless quality to it, but, uh, in this moment, quality and, and I kind of love that, that mixture of thanks, all those things.
Jozette Francesca (00:14:16):
That’s actually something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and trying to, uh, pin down in a time when there’s like so many sub genres and different ways that you can describe your music. It, it actually makes it harder sometimes to be just like rock and roll country, gospel, you know, R and B, and you were in that lane, but now there’s so many different sub genres. How, how many hashtags can I put on my band camp page? Describe what we do. So the umbrella term is yeah, kind of classic and timeless in the, the way of what a lot of people would consider, like classic rock, you know, anything from like 1960 to like 1980 as a band, we all really love that era of rock, rock and roll. Naturally. We’re all pretty influenced by that specifically kind of more of the psychedelic version of rock and roll, but also I really like, you know, good country music and good pop music.
Jozette Francesca (00:15:28):
So we all have a heavy influence from just the thing that we grew up listening to. I listened to a lot of R and B growing up. I feel like everybody, every millennial who’s grown up in the nineties and early two thousands, uh, listened to a lot of like alternative rock and, and pop punk. And, um, so those, you can kind of hear a little bit of those influences throughout being a, a female artist and vocalists love Alanis more and pool and Cheryl Crow, those singer songwriters. So I think some of that is also kind of sprinkled throughout just as far as writing and, and lyrics
Anne Kelly (00:16:09):
There’s yeah. Always been that kind of division of this is this genre and this is that, but yeah, realistically all of us, even those of us who just like to listen to music, we have R rarely is it that somebody just says, I only listen to country. Usually it’s like, well, there’s a little of this and a little of that. And I also love jazz. So yeah. Right, exactly. That makes sense. I, as someone playing music, why not? Right. Let, let everything influence
Jozette Francesca (00:16:37):
You totally agree with that. However, being in this new Spotify streaming age, I’m finding it more and more expected of you as an artist, to be more specific about what you are, because it’s supposed to be easier for your audience to be able to find you or for you to create an audience and be able to like, this is the boring stuff, but like the business end of being in a band <laugh> and trying to make music for a living is you gotta think about marketing and all that stuff that, that I personally hate thinking about. I’d much rather just worry about the artistic side, but I’m finding it’s recommended that you’d be more specific. I basically have taken everything that I’ve described and tried to just put it to people in a way that’s digestible, which is yes, we have like a classic vibe. We harken back to a lot of the, the music that maybe your parents listen to, or that you listen to, if you have older parents like I do, but also there’s that modern thing about it because we’re all
Anne Kelly (00:17:46):
Millennials, I’ve read your, your description of the band on Spotify. And I don’t know who wrote it, maybe you, but whoever wrote it did a great job. Oh, well, thank you. <laugh>. And, and I came from it from the perspective of having seen you play live connected with you about doing this and then going to Spotify. And as part of my research of, okay, what, what, how have they described themselves on Spotify? And, and, and so that kinda brings me back to just 20, 21, the just different ways that that music is disseminated. And the, the first time I believe anyways, that I’ve seen you play was at one of the so far sound shows. However, looking at other shows you’ve maybe played in Santa Fe, we’ve both been in Santa Fe for a moment. I feel like there’s, it’s very likely, I must have seen you play somewhere else, but for those who aren’t familiar with so far sounds they create these kind of intimate concert opportunities where people are not to say sitting in chairs, but, but yes, we’re sitting in chairs and we’re listening to the music and it isn’t being in the middle of a bar and you’re ordering hot wings and the bartenders yelling, but it’s set up in such a way that you get to focus on the music
Jozette Francesca (00:19:04):
Due to COVID or the underground DIY scene here in Santa Fe, kind of, not yet to resurface for COVID. There was kind of a bubbling, uh, bustling underground DIY scene. And, uh, I feel like so far is kind of a hybrid between the mainstream shows, you know, where it’s, uh, public knowledge that it’s going on and you can just kind of like find it on, you know, your stroll downtown. It’s a little easy, easier to access. DIY is kind of like, oh yeah. So, and so told me about the show and I saw a flyer on a streetlight and here we are. But, um, the great thing about that kind of show though, was that you come and there’s, there’s one thing to pay attention to, you know, you’re not there to eat and, and, uh, really, you know, talk to the people you’re with, you’re here to attend a show mm-hmm <affirmative> and give the, the performers your attention so far is taking kind of that concept that I think has grown out of from performers and audience goers alike, who really want to appreciate the music and not necessarily just the social aspect of going to a show it’s taking that idea, but then it’s also doing something really, really cool where they also have made it kind of like a speakeasy thing.
Jozette Francesca (00:20:37):
So it’s like a secret show. You don’t know who’s playing until you get there. The audience doesn’t even know, I think where the venue is until maybe like the day before and, and neither do the performers, actually, they don’t know who they’re playing with. So it’s kind of really fun. I don’t think that there’s anything, uh, like it out there. It’s great. Because as an audience member, you’re going to see likely people that you have never seen before for. So it’s exposing you something to really something really new and yeah. And it’s creating an environment where it’s kind of more intimate. Uh, you can feel like the band is kind of more approachable other the times it’s at someone’s house or a gallery or something kind of, Unconvention not a bar. And so it’s really nice. It’s, it’s, it’s really creative. And I, I really like what they’re doing and I, I like that. Um, it’s just kind of new to Santa Fe. I think it’s only maybe, uh, been here maybe like a year and a half or so. It’s just kind of started and hopefully it keeps on going
Anne Kelly (00:21:45):
Our mutual friend, Debbie brought it to Santa Fe from, from London. Yeah. And maybe actually around the same time it might have actually, it was sometime in 2019. So mm-hmm, <affirmative> kinda like rearrange Buddha that Buddhas, they were kind of getting their ground and, and roots in Santa Fe before the shutdown. Debbie
Jozette Francesca (00:22:06):
And I have a mutual, uh, friend as well. She told her about, we rang Buddhas and the Buddhas were still teaching Jake and Justin our material. So we weren’t really ready to take on any sort of live performance just yet. And so she asked me if I would wanna do just a solo performance for, I think it was her second show. And, uh, and I think she had a few more after that and then COVID happened. And so she’s just kind of started getting everything up and running again. And now that the Buddhas are definitely full-fledged ready to perform and play, she was like, well, I definitely will wanna give you guys another opportunity to play as the full band. So we were, we were really happy to, to do that,
Anne Kelly (00:22:55):
Talking about your, your background and musical theater, it, it seems like perhaps the so far shows are to an extent, a little more like that. They’re there to see the show and, and it’s that focus. I haven’t
Jozette Francesca (00:23:08):
Done anything theater in about well about seven years or so. So I have kind of gotten used to playing in that situation where it was, it was a little more detached. Your audience can change within an hour. You you’ll see different faces. You know, your second set, you might see a couple of faces actually to turned your way and really paying attention, but then other people are kind of, you can tell they’re listening, but like maybe not so intensely, they’re like eating or talking to their friends and, or, uh, there’s a drunk girl in the corner, not paying attention at all crying. <laugh>, you know, you kinda get used to that chaos Buddhas. I performed with that other band Fu P that I mentioned, and we were playing bars then, and then I was singing with a, a cover band called underground cadence. And so we had a lot of regular gigs at like casinos and, uh, places like the cowgirl and like Evangelos and that sort of thing.
Jozette Francesca (00:24:10):
So like bars, I had kind of gotten used to, to that, just having to deal with the fact that, okay, well, this is what we signed up for. I’m prepared to, you know, give your best performance that you can. So when I had that more intimate audiences kind of like, oh, wow, oh, I haven’t, I haven’t done this in a while. Kinda have to get my seas back. Actually. Now they’re really paying attention <laugh> so I was actually a little nervous for that performance because it’s just been a while since I actually had the attention of the audience.
Anne Kelly (00:24:43):
No, that that totally makes. And in that kind of year of, of shutdown, lot of bands I’ve known have, have played through other online venues, uh, streaming shows. So people just kind of had to start exploring other ways to perform was great to be able to get the mute music out, but from what I’ve heard from other musicians, it’s also kind of odd to be maybe they had a venue where they could go up on a stage and their band was part of their pod. So they could just go play the show, but not having an audience that, that changes the whole vibe. Right.
Jozette Francesca (00:25:22):
It does. And even though it described a kind of chaotic scene earlier, when, you know, playing in the bars, you still do feel an energy transfer that happens between you and the audience. Even if they’re not always paying such close attention, they’re still there and they’re still giving you something, you know, and they’re receiving what you are giving them and when they’re missing entirely or they’re there, but you are just in front of a computer and you can just see yourself and you, you, uh, you suspect they’re on the other side listening, but you can’t really see them. It’s very, very strange to have to adapt to that situation. And I’ve seen a lot of people give terrific performances, but not something that I’m a huge fan of. Not really my thing. So I hope that that is not something we have back to is more a product of necessity, but not the new norm.
Anne Kelly (00:26:21):
If you go into a recording studio to record an album, you’re going into the studio and that there’s not a live audience, or if you’re in many different scenarios, maybe you’re just recording your set separately and the drummers, maybe in a different city and the keyboard, if this somewhere else, and then it all gets mixed together. And that’s as, as someone that’s not a musician, that’s just hearing about that. It’s, it’s kind of mind blowing to think about that. Many of the albums, we listen to go down like that.
Jozette Francesca (00:26:58):
And for a lot of people, it’s always surprising to me, but they do pro refer to go back and forth, sending files to their fellow musicians and then to the engineer. And you know, I’m gonna do my guitar part at home and I’ll just send it to you and you send me what you’ve got and I’ll write. But I, I think the vast majority of musicians don’t really prefer to work that way. Even though there isn’t an audience, you are, you become the audience and the performer, when you’re in a recording situation, it’s more about the collaborative process of making something of making the piece of art together that, that fuels that energy. And so you bouncing off of each other at that point. A lot of people don’t really develop their songs entirely until they’re in the studio. So there’s still more development to go, even if you’ve got the bare bones and a lot of the foundation down and in the studio.
Jozette Francesca (00:28:02):
And sometimes things change entirely. Or sometimes you’re just, you have the tools now finally, to, to just add that extra bit of development that needed to happen, but couldn’t necessarily until you were together in the studio. So it’s still very much a creative process. And so that’s what brings the energy. And when you’re in a, a live performance, you are taking what you’ve created and, and showing it to people and, and giving and receiving energy, but can see how it’s kind of strange to someone who’s like, well, but there isn’t an audience in the studio. Um, but you really do to have lot of energy generated. I don’t know if that is really able to be maintained when you are working separately and just kind of sending files to each other. Maybe it would work now with zoom <laugh> and, uh, Google Hangouts and that sort of thing. Uh, it’s a little better, but definitely prefer to be in person with one another.
Anne Kelly (00:29:07):
I would imagine, I, I definitely had a weird moment with, with a friend of mine. Who’s a musician where he explained that whole process. And I was like, wait, wait, is this, is this like a new pandemic thing? And he was like, no, no, no, they’ve been doing this. Yeah, forever. But if you’re not in the no, why, why are you thinking about that? So, so it’s funny to listen to music with that kind of in your mind of maybe these five musicians were in different places mm-hmm <affirmative> while playing these tracks that we’re listening to together.
Jozette Francesca (00:29:41):
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, no, it, it is really interesting to think about a lot can be accomplished in the studio. A lot of magic can be worked in post-production sometimes what you’re listening to was a live take, but then, you know, you didn’t get like a symbol crush wire and you really, really want that. So you grab it from somewhere else. That was a different day in a totally in a different song. Sometimes you just kinda like edit it in. And that’s all part of the artistic process. Some people are purists and they, they just wanna capture exactly what happened. Other people are kind of like of the mind that it’s all going towards creating this one piece. And this, this is what the studio is for. It gives you a whole nother set of tools to paint with. People have been doing it for a really long time.
Jozette Francesca (00:30:31):
I am any band that has gone that route. I feel like that’s like there there’s 10th album. They’ve already grown accustomed to collaborating with one another and been in the studio so many times together before and been on tour with each other, lived together as artists, and then life has taken them to the opposite ends of the world. And they’re able to accomplish that because of the, the work that they’ve done together in the bond that they’ve created prior to that, or a lot of people are hired to write for individual artists. There are artists out there who, um, don’t write their own songs. They have a team full of people who choose and produce songs for them, and they hire different session players. And they don’t always have to be an in the same room together or, or even have listened to the material prior to their session, or even met the artist. You know, that’s been happening for, for ages. Your friend’s really right
Anne Kelly (00:31:32):
About that. My background is photography. So there’s kind of that similar thing with photography and different theories and ideas of photo is this thing that happened in this exact moment in time. But in 2021, there’s all of these different versions of photography. And oftentimes a photograph is 10,000 photographs merged together to create this composition that comes from someone’s mind. Right. But there’s this, maybe if you’re not involved in the making world, oh, a photograph is supposed to, you’re supposed to pick up a camera and take the picture. And that is it. And so I think that’s why just this whole idea of these different ways of producing music fascinates me so much.
Jozette Francesca (00:32:19):
There are definitely people who like the way things are done or have always been done and, and have only give value to those things. Um, and aren’t really down to evolve <laugh> and, uh, uh, see things are, are constantly in flu and a progression and in evolution. And it’s just as valuable as something that came before. It it’s just another, we’re constantly influenced by the things that came before it, you know, we’re constantly just grabbing from, from that, you know, trying to, but also trying to create something new in the process. So how do you create something totally new, but also is familiar to people in uni in a universal truth. It’s an obstacle now it’s all music, it’s all guidance. People like to think that there are rules and there aren’t, there really aren’t or at least rules are made to be broken. Right. I
Anne Kelly (00:33:17):
Agree. I have done a little bit of research. I, you played one of the ghost light sessions at the lens during the pandemic, which must have been kind of amazing. So many artists have wanted to play at the lens and to play at the lens without an audience. I would imagine of all of the places to play without an audience that would be the place to play without an
Jozette Francesca (00:33:39):
Audience. That was a wonderful experience, but it was also, we kind of joked. We were like, okay, we finally get to play the lens and it’s to an empty house. So <laugh>, and, and we weren’t even facing the house. You know, we had our backs to the audience, but yeah, you know, I grew up here in Santa Fe, always to the lens and really admiring it as a staple for our cultural community here. And I, uh, I worked at the lens for a time when I moved back to Santa Fe also, uh, on the technical side and just kind of admiring the stage and seeing, uh, French shows come through there on the other side of like the spotlight wishing one day <laugh>, I’ll actually be on stage and have the spotlight on me. It was, it was a big moment to be able to walk out on that stage and actually be the, the act performing on it. Um, even though it was to, um, an empty audience, um, well that, that’s not totally true cuz the lighting guy that was there and of course the videographers that they were our audience and they were rather encouraging. It was great. I really hope to eventually have the opportunity to turn those stools around and, and face the full house one day <laugh>
Anne Kelly (00:34:59):
Online as well. So anybody who’s listening can, can go and listen to that. I was talking to somebody a few nights ago that works at Thelen and they said they are actually still editing and uploading performances.
Jozette Francesca (00:35:13):
I have to give those guys a, a round of applause because they’re really dedicated crew. They volunteered all of that time. They were not getting paid for any of that. They just hated to see that that Sage was empty and that, uh, so many musicians were hit really hard and not just, not just struggling financially, but emotionally and mentally from the sudden prop of everything. So they give formers and artists an opportunity to, to keep going. It was all just volunteer time and especially having to edit afterwards, like not just showing up and being there, you know, unlocking the doors, letting them in and getting the stage ready. But like all the hours put in, in post production, those guys are heroes. They
Anne Kelly (00:36:04):
Really are. And it’s been, uh, just an amazing series to follow. Yeah.
Jozette Francesca (00:36:09):
Yeah. I love watching it. It’s wonderful. And what a cool concept, you know, ghost light sessions, you’re there with the ghost light on stage and, and it’s an opportunity to really showcase maybe, uh, a lot of people at the community at large isn’t necessarily aware of too. So yeah, they’re doing a good thing.
Anne Kelly (00:36:28):
Kinda similar to so far where mm-hmm <affirmative> yeah. You’re, I’ve, I’ve definitely found some, some new artists in under both projects that I’ve would not have been aware of otherwise. So I think that’s really cool. You’ve created with the band, at least one music video for one of your songs. I believe it was toss me out. Yes, yes. And that is just a really fun music video. Thank
Jozette Francesca (00:36:55):
You.
Anne Kelly (00:36:56):
Did you collaborate with people outside of the band on that or, or how did that all come together?
Jozette Francesca (00:37:03):
Yeah, we knew that we wanted to make a music video for the single that we released be on our forthcoming album. I had kind of thought of a different approach to it, have a, a heavier song kind of on the angsty side, although it’s, it’s really fun. I didn’t want the subject matter to really be serious for the video. I wanted it to be a little more lighthearted, a little more tongue and cheek sort of feeling. And just the fact that we were making a music video just thrilled me and growing up and MTV still had a music video, wanted to, to create something that would maybe once upon a time would’ve been aired on something like MTV or V one, or I was really thinking about that going into it. And I took my kind of general plot to a director or he doesn’t call himself a director. Uh, cuz we, I guess we technically directed it together, but our videographer, Andy prim and he’s also a performer himself. And uh, he’s also, uh, not just a performer of music share a, the theatrical background, just really easy to take my ideas to him and to just bounce off of each other. So him and I developed the concept together, but not without chirps from the, the rest of the band here and there adding a bunch of fun stuff to, and so it was really a collaborative process.
Anne Kelly (00:38:37):
It’s a really fun video and I feel like it matches your music as well for that song in particular, there is this kind of angsty quality to it, but it’s also still kind of light. Like it’s not so angsty that yeah, it drags you down. It still has that poppy, but fun. And then at the end of the video, there’s a little comedic relief. Those guys in your trash can. That was awesome.
Jozette Francesca (00:39:03):
I watched the video to find out what we’re talking about.
Anne Kelly (00:39:05):
See, you have to watch it. The band has a YouTube channel. We do. Yeah. And so that’s where the video could be found as well as other performance. Yes.
Jozette Francesca (00:39:16):
Yeah. There’s a, a few lives, uh, videos up there. There’s ghost light and there’s that music video. And then there’s some really cool life performances too. We started a little series kind of our response to the COVID circumstances. Mm-hmm <affirmative> of not performing live, but also not really wanting to, into the realm of life streaming and all the stuff that has to be thought about with coordinating that sort of a thing. So we decided to compromise and do what, what we call bud acoustic sessions. And so that’s prerecorded acoustic takes on our favorite songs. So they’re all cover songs, but they’re stripped down and throw our own flavor on them. They take place in our guitarist, Justin’s living room. It’s pretty fun. It’s, you know, songs from a couch. And so it feels like you’re kind of inside our house with us while we jam to our favorite music. So that’s up there on the YouTube channel as well
Anne Kelly (00:40:16):
In 2021, there’s all these different ways to disseminate music back when you, you know, you had to go to the record store and buy the album or before that, there, there wasn’t even a reported view in it version of music, you would have to go see it live. And now there’s so many the options, digital music, a lot of modern bands are still producing records and even releasing cassette tapes. Yeah,
Jozette Francesca (00:40:45):
Yeah.
Anne Kelly (00:40:46):
Yeah. And, and then in this whole NFT world, I don’t know if you’ve how close you’ve been following the whole NFT world, but I think most of what people think of in terms of, in of NFTs non fungible tokens.
Jozette Francesca (00:41:02):
Oh yes.
Anne Kelly (00:41:03):
They’re thinking art, but, but it works for music too.
Jozette Francesca (00:41:08):
So someone was telling me about this, uh, just the other day, actually. So I’m relatively new to the whole concept and I, I haven’t really blurred it too much myself and I don’t know exactly if I have a developed opinion about it just yet. I’m a little on the fence, uh, about that sort of concept. I think it’s kind of cool. You give someone exclusive access to something like streaming a song or a song that isn’t released. It’s only released to a certain audience. I don’t know. You can correct me if I’m mistaken, but in the more visual arts world, is it that you, can you create something that only exists virtually? Um, you’re not really, uh, recreating it or reproducing it later. Like you can’t, you don’t sell prints of it necessarily. Or like the, the hard copy, <laugh> the original work. It’s just like kind of temporary, which is, which is interesting kind of a tangible person. I, I like having something
Anne Kelly (00:42:11):
And, and I’m, I’m less, very on it in terms of, of music, but yes, with, with visual art to it, uh, like you said, I’m a tangible, like I like if it’s a visual image, I kind of wanna hold the piece of paper in my hand. Yeah. But, but what is really cool about it and is there’s this royalty aspect to it. So if, if traded later, the artist gets the royalties every time, again, say with visual art, something goes for auction, the art, you, you know, the original artist is not getting the royalty to it. Just the person who owns it. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so there’s there’s, and, and it’s, that’s a ever evolving thing right now. So there’s a lot of interest, I think, opportunities in terms of music and videos. It’s fascinating. Music
Jozette Francesca (00:43:02):
Has been kind of doing, I guess, a vision of that though for a long time now, uh, with copyright and royalties for, uh, I mentioned earlier, like a lot of artists don’t write their own songs and their recording artists. And so there are songwriters though, whose main job is to write songs and then either sell them or license them. And, uh, so if you are, if you write a song and you sell it, you, you get a lump fee <affirmative> and you never get any sort of a royalty ever again. But if you license that song and that artist, they go up to number one on the billboard charts and people go out and buy their album and they stream their music. And that song ends up playing on a commercial or in a, the song writer also gets a piece of the pie that does exist in music.
Jozette Francesca (00:44:02):
I’ve never, I ever thought about visual arts, you know, like you, yeah. You sell a painting to a gallery, you know, uh, through a gallery and then that person maybe sells it to, to somebody else. And you like, that’s the end of the story. Like you don’t ever see another dime from your work. I’m glad that visual artists do have some sort of, uh, version of, of royalties available to them. I’m interested to see where it goes. You know, it seems like it’s in a very primitive phase right now. And, and maybe, uh, we’ll see it change into something different or, or who knows. I don’t know. I’m interested.
Anne Kelly (00:44:39):
No, no. It’ll be interesting to watch. And they, and they’ve technically been around for a moment, but it was this Christie’s auction recently where a piece sold for millions that all of a sudden the world took notice. And then people just started minting them left and right. But technically for example, you could make a music video and, and sell it as an NFT. Hmm. And I guess maybe for me, the idea of NFTs and music is maybe a little more digestible initially, just because a lot of music is disseminated now as a digital file.
Jozette Francesca (00:45:19):
Yeah. There is a lot of frustration from artists with streaming, not really making the big bucks off of your Spotify plays unless you have 12,000 and listeners a day or something, you know, you are making, I think it’s like a penny or maybe less than a penny. Honestly, I don’t even know how much you make off of a, a streaming off of Spotify. Specifically, if you’re selling your music on another platform, say for like 99 cents or a dollar 99 or something that person can download that music and then still burn that CD and like give it to their friends or, or whatever. But it is a little frustrating sometimes to kind of try to catch all of the, the profit that can possibly be made and figure out how to really reel that in. But see, seems like that might be, this might be a solution competing with the digital streaming access that there is today, because at a certain point you do, if you’re trying to do this for a living, you don’t wanna just give your stuff away. Do you want to make something from it so that you can continue to make more? Maybe
Anne Kelly (00:46:30):
You’re playing the music for the love of playing the music. Yeah. But if you can make a living off of it, that gives you more time to actually focus on it. Right. Yeah. And so we’ll see where NFTs go. It’ll be interesting to watch.
Jozette Francesca (00:46:45):
I will be watching it myself, very interested. And so
Anne Kelly (00:46:48):
That said, you have music on Spotify and you can follow artists on Spotify. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, as, as someone that’s not a musician with music on Spotify, I’m never quite sure, like, that’s always an option. Oh, I can follow this artist on Spotify. And as somebody who has a YouTube channel, I now know, okay, follow the channel. It’s helpful. And, and I would assume it’s probably similar on Spotify, but I
Jozette Francesca (00:47:13):
Don’t know. I know how it works. If you follow someone on Spotify, I mean, you can follow your friends. You don’t have to follow just an artist and you can see what they’re listening to, and that will help whoever they happen to be listening to. If you show interest in that, that helps that artist. So it’s still spreading awareness, exposing people to music that maybe they wouldn’t seek out on their own accord. It’s kind of like suggestions. Maybe you don’t have to seek out, but they just kind of pop up and you can choose to, to follow them or not. And you follow an artist. I think you are more likely to see dates from them, maybe what playlists they’re being included on and see who they’re listening to and get notified about their, their activity. Like there are a couple of playlists on our page and I can add, I think, infinite, infinite, and amount of playlists you can share with people. So when I share a playlist, I think that our followers kind of get a little, uh, D you know, or if it’s not in notification form, it just kind of comes up in their like daily suggestions. And so it’s a cool way for you to keep people in it and keep reminding people that you’re here.
Anne Kelly (00:48:32):
Or I would imagine when you drop some new music yes.
Jozette Francesca (00:48:35):
When you’re releasing new material, absolutely. That’s 100% helpful. You, you tell your followers and then hopefully they’ll tell their friends. It’s very
Anne Kelly (00:48:45):
Helpful. It’s cool in terms of, okay. Maybe somebody’s not even following you do, but they’re following a fan. If you’re music, a algorithms can be very helpful, but sometimes it’s just nicer. When your friend <laugh> says, Hey, check out this record. I just bought at the record store.
Jozette Francesca (00:49:03):
Yeah. And sometimes, you know, algorithms don’t always get it, right. Like a trusted friend who’s taste. I already know. I really appreciate is recommending something that I’m more likely to listen to that person, for sure.
Anne Kelly (00:49:19):
Exactly. About five years ago, I bought a pirate costume through Amazon for Halloween, and they’re still trying to sell me 50 different pirate costume. I’m like Amazon, I, I just wanted that one pirate costume. I’m not actually actively collecting pirate costumes, but, but I am entertained <laugh>
Jozette Francesca (00:49:43):
I dunno. You might have to go as a pirate every year. Just a different one. <laugh> a pirate every day. If you want to,
Anne Kelly (00:49:49):
There you go. We do live in Santa Fe, Santa Fe, pretty, pretty free like that. Yeah.
Jozette Francesca (00:49:54):
<laugh>, they’re pretty supportive of that choice. <laugh> if you want to.
Anne Kelly (00:49:59):
So, so kinda going back a little bit, you talked a little bit about the music, your music that is having this aspect of it could be from any time period. So what that makes me wonder is if you could time travel, is there a time period you would travel to, to go see a specific live show?
Jozette Francesca (00:50:23):
Well, there are a lot of wonderful live shows that I would love to attend. That’s hard. I really want feel like this is the, the generic answer. I’m gonna say it anyway, cuz it’s true. I would’ve loved to have gone to Woodstock the OG 1969, all three days just camped out there and seeing every single performance until I like could not keep my eyelids open anymore. But in general, any concert between the year 1965 to 1975, I think those are the golden years of rock and roll. And so I would say if I happened to just not put in my longitude and latitude or whatever coordinates, right. And the, the time machine just like dropped me in the middle of any of the timeframe. I would’ve been happy to attend any show that I could find. And I’m certain, I’d probably be absolutely thrilled and have the most magical experience possible. <laugh>
Anne Kelly (00:51:38):
So you wouldn’t be super disappointed if, if the time machine just
Jozette Francesca (00:51:42):
<laugh> anywhere in that time, I’d be happy. So I saw
Anne Kelly (00:51:45):
On your Instagram page to draw a bit you’ve drawn on you’ve drawn on some musical instruments as well. So I’m, I’m particularly curious about the musical instruments. Is that something you’re still doing
Jozette Francesca (00:51:59):
Really pursued art too seriously, but I’ve always drawn and painted and, and doodle since I was really young. So I had a, a guitar at the shop because we’re also a, a repair shop as well. So from time to time, we’ll get in a guitar that we need to give service to, but is kind of past the point of no return. We just kind of gotta throw it in its guitar graveyard. And I always kind of hate doing that. All the instruments have, you know, their own personality and getting really special, retiring is one thing, but then like stripping it of all its parts and just kind of discarding of it always seems really uncurious. So it’s like, no, give, give it to me and I’ll go and, and repurpose it and maybe hopefully breathe some new life into it. And so I’ve done it a couple of times. It’s not something that I really aim to, to do necessarily as any part of like a collection, but whenever inspiration strike, um, it’s really nice to have that as a different campus and try to think, okay, well, what is this guitar? What is their, what is their new life <laugh> look like? So yeah, it’s fun. Well,
Anne Kelly (00:53:23):
You’re the manager right at the Candyman music shop. So I, I, I could see that it’s sad a guitar comes in and it, or whatever musical instrument and it cannot be repaired and they have
Jozette Francesca (00:53:37):
A whole life before they get to that point, young about kind of energy transference earlier audience and performer. But like also your instrument becomes an extension of you as well. And so I feel like every guitar has their own speak. They’ve had, they could tell so many stories that they’ve lived their own life. And so I feel like that kind of needs to be honored.
Anne Kelly (00:54:01):
<laugh> take it to this other artistic realm.
Jozette Francesca (00:54:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let it continue to, to make art <laugh> um, even though this is a little more permanent
Anne Kelly (00:54:10):
<laugh>, it’s where maybe there are things you collect like musical instruments that are collected for a certain reason because they’re part of your practice, but then there’s sometimes other things that are maybe a little more unexpected and random not associated with that. But I always think that’s interesting. What, what people decide to collect, whether whether physical or not, that’s
Jozette Francesca (00:54:35):
A hard one. I have a, an art collector. You, if I could turn my, my camera around, you would look at the art on my wall or you can, you could kind of see, I have some stuff back there. I like to collect from local artists, friends. I’ve been given a few pieces from homeless people who are just trying to make a few bucks and I don’t really collect anything else. I grew up in a house where it was filled with lots of little, uh NickNack. My mom is obsessed with owls. Now she’s onto elephants. I’ve kind of been on the fence about really having too, too many things going on of like one thing, you know, like we have a whole room full of just owls and it’s really cool, but not really my thing. So anything that I could put on my walls as a story and is a reflection of somebody else is something that I collect. And
Anne Kelly (00:55:30):
How about music? What, what is your ideal method of listening to music?
Jozette Francesca (00:55:37):
Um, I could say that I have started recently in the last couple of years collecting, uh, vinyl records, something that I guess not everybody does anymore more and more people are, are starting to do nowadays. I’ve always had a record player in my house growing up. So I’ve kind of inherited a lot of my mom’s collection mm-hmm <affirmative> and then, uh, wasn’t really able to listen to that necessarily, cuz I didn’t have a way to, and then bought my own inexpensive record player. And so I’m, I have her stuff and I have a couple of things passed down to me from my dad who doesn’t have a record player any longer wanna just discard of his couple of things have come my way from an uncle who is also a musician in Austin. Yeah. I guess I do collect, uh, records and, and now I’ve started to kind of beef up my selection with more of my, uh, my own favorite records. And there are things that I own in digital form, but it is really cool having ’em on vinyl.
Anne Kelly (00:56:41):
I think that’s a interesting collectors thing you can say, okay, I could listen to this on Spotify, but I’m gonna go down the street to the record store and I’m gonna pick up the physical version
Jozette Francesca (00:56:53):
Of that. I mean, it is great that it’s physical, there’s something completely different, you know, having to, it takes more effort to, to listen into record than it does to just like hook up your phone to your Bluetooth paper and like find it on Spotify. You know, there’s kind of more of a, a ritual involved sifting through the records and actually choosing one and taking it out of the sleeve and placing it so carefully on the turntable and applying the need in the right spot. And then, you know, you hear that like little crackle and, and visually just, you know, seeing it turn and uh, it’s kind of hypnotic, there is that whole physical experience that unlike any other thing and definitely part of the whole experience of listening to it, but like actually really listening to vinyl is extremely different than listening to something that is mastered for MP3 and compressed, uh, to be played digitally. You lose a lot of frequencies and the roundness, the authenticity of actual final mastering of the material that way. And, and that’s captured on vinyl and tape. And that’s why I think a lot of people are, are going back to that. And that’s kind of harkening back to our life talking about snobs <laugh> there are a lot of audio file snobs out there and I can reason with them I can definitely understand about because I can hear the difference in, in phonically. Uh, the difference in the sound quality much better.
Anne Kelly (00:58:31):
Yeah. That whole being an audio file thing is some people cannot tell the difference at all. Some people it’s really clear to them. And then on top of that, there’s the, the artwork, the album artwork
Jozette Francesca (00:58:44):
I recently got in pepper, lonely hearts club band. And it comes with like all these cool cutouts and they’re not paper dolls, but they’re like, they’re kind of like that, you know, the just like fun stuff, you know, and all the lyrics are on the inside and yeah, it’s just, you know, you can kind of get that with digital. If the artist goes the extra mile to provide something special by their digital album, but it’s just so nice to actually hold it in your hand and, or put it up on, on your wall. Like I have a, I have a big poster of George Harrison on my wall right next to me. And that came out of my original 1975 issue of that album that my dad gave me, you know, like I can’t get that from Spotify. Do you
Anne Kelly (00:59:31):
Have favorite records?
Jozette Francesca (00:59:33):
There are a few, uh, band on the run. Paul McCartney and wings for sure is in the top. Can’t say top however many cuz there’s probably too, <laugh> too many to, to include David Crosby’s solo album. Um, if I could only remember, my name is one that I really, really love and um, was only turned onto, uh, a couple years ago, but have grown to cherish it and it’s climbed up to, to the top of the food chain. <laugh> um, if you haven’t listened to it and you really like, uh, psychedelic folk music, listen to that album, grateful deads American beauty is, is up there as well. And all things must pass George Harrison a obviously, um, yeah. Uh, the list can go on and on <laugh>
Anne Kelly (01:00:28):
Like, do you have, do you have another hour because yeah. All out
Jozette Francesca (01:00:31):
Here for you <laugh> hear them one by one. Oh the white album Beatles, obviously
Anne Kelly (01:00:39):
So many good ones. Super appreciate your joining us, letting us into your room. Anything we didn’t talk about that you wanna mention any plugs, the
Jozette Francesca (01:00:52):
Playing the uh, the frog showcase, which is on the Plaza. We’ve never played the Santa Fe Plaza before. So we’re really honored to be included in that that’s only a couple days after we go into the studio, this brogdale studio we’re included on the, the showcase night because that’s where we’re recording our album. Once that’s done, there’s a big push to get that mixed and mastered and all the artwork done and get the, uh, physical C is scheduled to be pressed.
Anne Kelly (01:01:25):
And where will people be able to find the album we’re
Jozette Francesca (01:01:28):
Gonna do CDs? Uh, cuz people still seem to listen to those <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative> um, although sometimes it’s only in their car, but that’s cool. We wanna be on that road trip with you thinking about doing vinyl, but that might be the second round of pressing. Um, so those are the physical ways that you can listen to our, our album, but then we’ll also be up on band camp, um, Spotify. And we’ll probably also include it on YouTube. We’ll do a couple of lyric videos for each song, and then hopefully we’ll be developing more videos to go along like action filmed videos to go along
Anne Kelly (01:02:07):
The music videos. Yeah,
Jozette Francesca (01:02:08):
We do have a website it’s just free range, buddhas.com. So we’ll definitely post it there. End music video. I’m working on getting merchandise up there too. So we have t-shirts as well. That will be available definitely by the time we release the album.
Anne Kelly (01:02:26):
Excellent. And what’s the Instagram
Jozette Francesca (01:02:28):
It’s at free range. Buddhist
Anne Kelly (01:02:30):
Check ’em out there. Look forward to all of those things. Thank
Jozette Francesca (01:02:35):
You so much for inviting me on. It’s been a wonderful time to you. This is my first podcast
Anne Kelly (01:02:40):
Ever. I’m honored. Thanks for coming on and thank you for watching art in LA raw conversations with creative people. I hope you enjoyed meeting Francesca of the free range Buddhas. If you haven’t already check out her music and if you’ve enjoyed tonight’s conversation and you are not, not subscribe to the channel consider doing so, it lets me know that you are enjoying the content that I am producing along with my talented guests. If you have any questions drop ’em in the comments below. If you enjoy the video, throw us a little like, and I’ll look forward to seeing you next week. Have a good night. Y’all.
