“I’d rather have people dancing. I’ll fucking play a Katy Perry song to get people dancing or I’ll play a Flying Lotus song if that’s what they want to hear,” he says. “I could give a shit. I like everything, I just want people to be happy.”
Francis will bring this attitude to the Melbourne Big Day Out this Friday. The last few years have taken him to some of the world’s biggest festivals, including Coachella and TomorrowWorld. Although it’s a big contrast from the club environments where he built his reputation, Francis is not dismayed by the festival setting whatsoever.
“I love doing it, it’s so much fun. I think festivals are the best,” he enthuses. “There’s just so many people there and everyone is so into it and it’s always just so much fun. A lot of people will walk over and be like ‘I don’t know who this is but I’ll go check it out,’ and then I gain a new fan, if they liked it. If not, then I don’t,” he laughs.
In addition to his consistent single releases- including collaborations with the likes of A-Trak, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Diplo himself – Francis has spent the majority of past three years touring all over the world. He explains that he doesn’t stick with one static setlist on tour.
“I don’t ever play a pre-recorded set, like some people have to because there’s lighting triggers and whatnot. For mine I’m always DJing on [DJ software] Serato and I’m always trying to do new track listings.”
This might sound like a lot of effort but there’s a simple reason behind Francis’ preference for changing things up all the time. “The thing is it would just get boring after a while,” he explains. “I actually enjoy DJing because I enjoy when I have mixes that I do on the fly that sound really good. I get really happy and it gets me more into.”
In fact, despite the success of Francis’ songs Bootleg Fireworks, Que Que and the aforementioned Masta Blasta, his live show doesn’t necessarily include any of his original material. “There’s some times where I’ll forget to even play some of my songs because I’m into it so much that I don’t even remember to play it!”
Francis clearly endeavours to make people have as much fun as possible, sometimes sacrificing his taste or suppressing his technical skill in the process. This doesn’t mean that he isn’t confident in his talents as a DJ. “I know that I’m really good at what I do. I know that I’m really good at DJing and I know that I’m good at making people laugh,” he assures. “The main thing I’m trying to do is make people dance. I want to make sure everyone’s having fun, that’s why I like playing on Serato instead of playing on a pre-recorded set or on Ableton. You’re kind of limited [with] that. If people aren’t having fun with the music that you’re playing then you’re not going to have fun and then everyone’s going to be pissed off.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
