We were lucky to catch up with Stephen Francis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephen, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

In grade school I spent a lot of time watching MTV and listening to records. I would pick up a ‘Guitar World’ magazine to learn a song or two and then read about all the guitar players I loved. It was a magical time where the guitar heroes of the 60s/70s were being celebrated by all the contemporary musicians. There was an article on Slash talking about Joe Perry or Stone Gossard mentioning Led Zeppelin.

My curiosity about their backstories kept growing, so in addition to learning the music of these bands on the guitar, I began to read books on them. At the time I hadn’t really thought about attempting to pursue any creative endeavor of my own… until I read “Hammer of the Gods”

It was through this book I learned an inappropriate amount of information about Led Zeppelin. While the myths of their debauchery and rock n’ roll lifestyles was appealing to me, I was most fascinated by the work of Jimmy Page as a producer as well as the amount of studio work he did prior to forming the band.

After I finished reading that book I was inspired to create a band of my own and pursue music.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I began playing guitar at the age of 9 and like most musicians meandered around my local music scene through my teens, joining bands, touring and figuring out where I fit. Making music came quite naturally but it was a concerted effort to organize with my peers and tour the country together.

When Model Stranger was formed, of which I am the singer and guitar player, that was a really happy accident. All three of us shared a similar passion for performing, love for Rock n Roll and were curious to see what would happen if we put ourselves out there.

What sets us apart from others??? Well, there are so many amazing artists out there and so much content to take in everyday that it is hard to see where we differ… I guess that would be up to a listener to determine.

We’re very proud of our last record ‘Phases’ which was released in 2020 and the subsequent single/music video ‘Surrender’ that was released in 2022.

We LOVE making music videos for no good reason. You can view them at our YouTube, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Like many people reading this right now, I think the pandemic and the shutdown was a really difficult time as we had to let go of a lot of plans, postpone and forfeit our spot in line.

We had many peers that faced similar scenarios in which momentum or planning had been underway on a project or tour and in March of 2020 we were forced to abandon ship.

The band had spent 2 years working on writing/recording the songs that became Phases and had a tour planned. We ended up pivoting and releasing later in the year never following through on the tour.

There was so much uncertainty about whether we’d be able to do what we love and if any of this is ‘worth it’. Following through and letting go of the way it was a great lesson.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Get ready for Web 3.0 and pay artists directly. If they have a mailing list/website (www.modelstranger.com) shop there. Share the artists content on your socials or in text messages to friends.

If you stream something more than 10x, buy it or donate to the band separately.

Society should not trust that the middle man/distribution services are going to get that money into the right pockets. The artist is the creator….. not the distributor, not the door man, not the promotion company.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.modelstranger.com
• Instagram: /modelstranger
• Facebook: /modelstranger
• Twitter: @modelstranger
• Youtube: /modelstranger

Image Credits
Photos by Mike Hari @Fadeoutmedia www.fadeoutmedia.com