Fran is the recording project of Chicago’s Maria Jacobson. Set for release on Fire Talk Records later this year, Fran’s debut full-length album A Private Picture is a record concerned with the truth of things. Using personal experiences as vehicles, the songs drill down past the layers and distortions in search of a human core, hoping to not only learn about oneself but to communicate with others too. What, Fran asks, are we beneath the social constructions and suffocating expectations of life?
Lead single ‘Company’ gives a taste what to expect, drawing on an uncomfortable moment and responding with a cutting ferocity. “Trump had just been elected, and I was meeting friends for trivia at a strange bar at like 7pm,” Jacobson remembers. “I got there a little early so I was waiting at the bar when a drunk man sidled up to me. He proceeded to put his arm around me and at a certain point, he told me ‘you should be more confident!'”
The situation was as embarrassing as it was infuriating, something only accentuated by the complex mixture of fear and politeness that rendered her passive. With ‘Company’, Fran returns to the scene with the advantage of distance, reclaiming agency from the very moment that stripped it, and thereby rewriting the unwritten codes of the patriarchy.
“I remember an episode of Sex and the City where Miranda kept getting catcalled by these construction workers,” Jacobson continues. “Finally one day she said something like “Ok let’s do it! Let’s have sex!’ And the worker said, “woah lady, jeez, back off, I’m married.’ ‘Company’ is born of a similar response, adjusting the imbalanced expectations of men and women to meet aggression and assault head on, returning fire with the intensity at which it is received.
The song comes complete with a video by Reilly Drew which mines deeper into the themes of the track. “I wanted to explore the traditionally male-dominated spaces and dig into the absurdity of that entitlement,” Jacobson explained to Paste Magazine. “And it is ridiculous at this point because the tide is changing so much. I think everyone is tired of all-male bills, condescending sound guys and unsafe, aggressive music spaces.”
A Private Picture is out on Fire Talk Records on the 15th November and you can pre-order it now from the Fran Bandcamp page.
Photo by Reilly Drew