Afro-Caribbean pop artist Sabrina Francis released her latest single ‘Call Me’ on Friday 28th of October 2022, with her coveted Treehouse band. It followed the grand acclaim of her last two singles ‘Cocoa Tea’ and ‘Learn To Love’ widely praised across the UK and amassing over 450,000 views on YouTube, gaining the support of the BBC Radio Network with interviews across ‘Carrie and David Grant Show’, ‘The Scene’ and ‘ The Late Show’. Music News caught up with Sabrina to find out more…
Hi Sabrina, how are you? I’m great.
Tell us about your latest release ‘Call Me’. I’ve written many songs in my life, I tend to take the process very seriously and as a result, a lot of my songs turn out feeling very intense, which I love, but sometimes, I get into a mood where I just want to make something light-hearted and fun. “Call Me” is the result of one of those moments.
I wrote it on a VERY cold and dreary day in New York, in an airbnb with a Nigerian producer named Mystro. Who’s also the producer of “Somebody's Son” by Tiwa Savage and Brandy. It was exactly what we needed.
You recently debuted the song during your live performance in London at Bush Hall. Tell us about your recent performances in the UK. On the day of my flight to the UK, only a couple of days before my biggest show in the UK at the Tabernacle, I found out that my guitarist coming from Mozambique wasn’t going to make the show. I was devastated, because my music is very guitar centred, we had to find a guitarist in only a couple of hours and he had just one night to learn 22 songs.
I was a wreck the two days leading up to the show. But in what seems to be the theme of my year, it worked out great! The new guitarist (Joe Whettam), did splendidly, the turn out for my main show “Bush Hall” was also very nice, and the experience set a nice tone for the rest of the shows.
The music video for ‘Call Me’ is very colourful and fun with a retro aesthetic, how did the concepts of the video come to you? For the music video I worked with a group of young Jamaican creatives, who were really motivated to tell a story.
I thought it would be a good match because of our similar backgrounds, and I was right. Like the song, I wanted the music video to feel light and playful and I wanted to depict some black love.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt about being an artist and what advice would you give anyone thinking about releasing music? As an independent artist, be prepared for WORK. A lot of the things that would typically be handled by a music label, you do yourself, and it can be a lot.
It’s a fully fledged business. When I started, I didn't anticipate just how much of my time would be spent doing administrative stuff; accounting, emails, contracts, social media, digital marketing, the list goes on. It will command a lot of your attention but don’t get lost in it. Try to remember that it’s still about the music at the end of the day, you still need to create. Never stop being creative. When you have so many other things to manage, that can be tough. So make it a priority.
Talk to us about your influences as an artist. If I’m being honest, this isn’t something I’ve given a crazy amount of thought to. In my day to day, I’m just trying to secure a future for myself while simultaneously trying not to bring shame to my family. Every now and again though, I’d be in a grocery store or on the street and someone would come up to me and say something like "your music helped me through a really dark time in my life” or a child would say "I want to be a singer like you”.
These are the moments where I’m jolted out of my little bubble and I give thanks that I’m making choices that inspire people and that the thing that saved me (my music), is helping people heal and bringing people joy. I can think of no greater honour. So my goal is to keep creating music with that intention, I’d be content with that.
What can we expect from you in 2023? More music of course! I try to practise what I preach with regards to the music production part of my job. I also want to do more live shows and festivals. So I see a lot of travel in 2023 😬😵💫 You can follow the journey on my socials.
