JW Francis On His Latest Album, “SUNSHINE”

JW Francis creates feel-good indie music, whose songwriting is often inspired by the events that conspire directly around him. Francis released his sophomore album, “SUNSHINE,” in October of 2024. The album followed the initial inspiration from Francis’ experience walking a trail for well over 100 days. His debut album, “WANDERKID,” was released in 2021, and the first track, “John, Take Me With You,” has accumulated nearly five million streams. Fans are drawn to Francis’ groovy beats, poetic storytelling lyrics, and radiant positive energy on and off the stage. 

We sat down with JW Francis ahead of his show at Public Records. 

Can you give an elevator pitch to someone who doesn't know you? 

I'm JW Francis. I'm a musician who lives on the road. I do about a hundred shows a year. I walked the Appalachian Trail and the Canadian Mississippi River and do all kinds of, yeah, I don't even know.

I know that you have done a lot of traveling. How do you feel each place that you've been has influenced your music and inspired what you do?

I feel like just moving around so much, you get to see all the different kinds of sides of humanity. I feel like I don't really change. I mean, I do. I'm just trying to be a light and there's darkness and lightness everywhere. I feel like people are not as different as you think is what I'm trying to say. 

Well that goes on the inspiration of your latest album, SUNSHINE, in 2024. Which of those songs were inspired by your time outside on the trail? Did those songs come after you had been traveling or was it an idea that you had beforehand? 

It did mostly come after. It was mostly inspired by the events of walking for 123 days and being called Sunshine because that was my trail name. 

Who started calling you that?

Actually day one, this guy was, you get a trail name when you walk the trail, and so then you introduce yourself as that. So I was just Sunshine. It was great because when you wake up with people in the morning, they're like, “Good morning Sunshine.” So yeah, it was after, and it was really inspired by what happened out there.

What was that creative process? Did you come back and then did you start writing or were you writing on the trail?

I was kind of writing on the trail, but I didn't have a guitar with me. So it was just little voice memos. But then afterwards I bought a guitar at a pawn shop and started playing. 

The opening track on the album, “Orbit,” I interpreted as the start of a new chapter. Is that song supposed to signify this new chapter of your life when you started this album? What was the inspiration behind that song?

That song actually came last. That was actually well after the trail, kind of meeting someone that I fell so deeply in love with. Just how you can let love change your life. It can just make you see everything in a different world.

Is that the reason why you chose that to start off your album, to be this changing point?

Yeah, yeah. I guess the trail made me realize that one of the favorite things about myself is I can let anything change my life and love included.

Well, two songs I was really intrigued by are “More Hurt for the Hurt Pile” and “Mississippi.” Those two I found to have a very engaging composition, and a bit of a similar sound. I felt these two in conjunction with each other are kind of the middle marker of the album and really hooks the listener back in and takes them to the end of the album. How do you tracklist the album once you finalized all the songs?

You kind of chip at it like a little sculpture. You have an idea of what it's going to be and then it just keeps changing. And then it's not really until all the songs are done that you're sitting down, you're like, “okay, what would I want?” You put yourself as a listener in perspective and you're like, as a listener, “what do I want? What grips me?” And then I always like the last track to send you out. I like an album to take you in, really grip you and to go on this journey together and then send you off. 

Going off of that, “Picture That” is one of the slower songs on the album, and as you said, really sends off the listener. What do you really want people to take away from SUNSHINE?

I love an album that you can live with and that you can live within, and it can be like a hug or a blanket. And so I'd really just like people to have a companion, this album to be a friend.

What was your songwriting process for this one specifically? So I'm assuming it's probably changed more than it has been in the past. 

Well, actually it's pretty similar in the sense that it's just like, I think of it as filling up a swimming pool with a lot of water before you can go jump in and swim around. See what you can find in the pool. And so I feel like lived experience for me is how I fill the pool. And then the pool gets filled with water and then making the record is just swimming around with the water. So the process is just marinating over little voice memos, little melodies that come, you can hear if you're listening to the right radio signal in your brain. And then just refining and refining.

You’ve spent the last few years out on the road traveling. From 2023?

2021. Well actually every year since 2021.

So what's your prediction for your adventure in 2025?

I'm making my river album. I just canoed the Mississippi. Now I'm making the river album. I finished the songs, so now we're recording them. Nine tracks. 

But I am going to be finding a mix between the both. So I'm here for six weeks, which is the longest time I've been somewhere in the past four years. And then once that record is done, I'm going to go back on tour. Then I'm going to go out and see what LA is like. Even though it's on fire right now, it's devastating what is happening. May and June is what I'm aiming for, to go try and see what that's like. So I've got a bunch of friends out there making music, and I'd like to just go be part of the party. 

Your last two albums are named WANDERKID and SUNSHINE. So are you going to keep up with the whole capital letter theme?

Oh, I didn't even think about that. Maybe. I like it all caps. But I'm not sure. Maybe not, maybe yes.

Looking back through your career as an artist in the last few years, what's been a moment that you've really been the proudest of yourself?

I just love when people come up and say how much it means to them. I'm really proud all the time because you get a DM, and I feel like it gets me through the tough times or whatever. I played Rockefeller Center, which was awesome, in front of the big gold statue. I was like, “what the heck?” That was awesome. I'm just kind of always in disbelief.

I was wondering if this is still true today, that you have different bands in different cities? 

Yeah, absolutely. 

Do you want to talk about your band here today?

My band today is just me. It's just me. 

Chuck Berry used to do that. They used to just drive around in a Cadillac and put together a band the night of [the show]. Which, I don't have that, that would be a little much. But I've got an LA band and New York band and a London band.

What is one goal that you want to accomplish in 2025?

This sounds weird since I do shows for a living, but I would like to do more experiences that invite silence into my life. The river was great. It was so quiet, and I really love that. I'm going to drive to Alaska and that's going to be really, that's quite nature-y. There's actually a thing called the Sunshine Coast Trail. It's like 150 miles on the western coast of Canada. About two and a half hours north of Vancouver. So I'd like to walk that. It takes a week. But yeah, I like to drive to Alaska.

Find JW Francis on Spofity, Instagram, and his website. Listen to SUNSHINE, here.

All photos via Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)