Heavenly Recordings

North-East London singer, songwriter and producer Fran Lobo presents her long-awaited debut album Burning It Feels Like. The record was written and produced by Lobo, engineered by Andy Ramsay of Stereolab and mixing was completed by regular studio partner Jimmy Robertson.

Of Goan and Maharashtrian descent, Fran spent a lot of her childhood absorbing the sounds around her: her mum’s pop, Bollywood and R&B obsessions, her dad’s love of rock and country, her brother’s metal and nu-metal, alongside her own adoration for Spice Girls and TV shows like Girls Aloud-spawning Popstars: The Rivals. The result is that Fran’s own work is collagist and kaleidoscopic in nature, often taking unexpected twists into unfamiliar places, with songs sometimes imploding in on themselves. “Within every track, it became a theme of turning everything on its head; having an outro you wouldn’t expect, flipping the words a bit – this cut-paste collage where nothing is safe,” she explains. In part, this is rooted in a desire to convey the feelings of being deep in someone’s mind, jumping around unpredictably in feelings and overthinking and anxiety.

This style is enhanced by Fran’s collaborative approach to her work; she is part of Deep Throat Choir, has worked as a choral conductor, and many of her good friends like Lucinda Chua, Sam Beste, CJ Calderwood, Jemma Freeman, Laura Misch and Coby Sey appear on the album, building up an array of sounds with them.

Visceral, beguiling and dense with yearning, sometimes she glimmers like flames and sometimes she lets us fester in the ashes with her. An unflinching debut, Fran Lobo will have you feeling that burning too.