Festivals Franc Moody: “At festivals, you kind of have to make sure you deliver the best show you can”
Ahead of their slot playing at Lisbon’s NOS Alive festival this weekend, we caught up with the London duo to reflect on their year so far.
Is Lisbon the coolest city on earth? It’s certainly a contender! Whether you want to sample some of the world’s most delicious food, hang out in the most interesting bars, or just catch some sun for the majority of the year, the Portuguese capital has you covered. That’s not even mentioning NOS Alive festival: the massive event which draws some of music’s biggest names - where else can you watch Olivia Rodrigo, Nine Inch Nails and Justice all in the space of three days - and allows you to get a good dose of vitamin D at the same time.
As ever, the 2025 edition of the event is as jam-packed as ever, with Amyl and the Sniffers, Barry Can’t Swim and girl in red also taking to the stage across the weekend. Plus, London dance-focussed duo Franc Moody will be on hand come Saturday night to soundtrack the final hours of the fest. Ahead of their set this weekend, we caught up with the band’s Jon Moody and Ned Franc to chat about their recently-released album ‘Chewing The Fat’, and see what they think of festival season…
It’s been a big year for you so far what with your album ‘Chewing The Fat’ being released back in March. How did it feel to get the record out there, and - with a little bit of hindsight - how do you think it’s all gone so far?
Ned: It feels like a really significant year in the (almost ten) years since we tentatively began this whole project. I think it’s safe to say we both felt really excited to get this album out into the public consciousness as it felt like we’d managed to realise to an extent a lot of the sonics and writing we were striving to reach. It might be a bit of a cliche but we genuinely feel really proud of this record as a whole and the process of recording it.
So far, the reception has been great. Longtime fans seem to appreciate the more mature shift in sound, and at the same time it’s brought a lot of new people to our shows which is awesome to see.
Tell us a little about the record; when it came to making it, what sort of headspace did you find yourself in? How did you want to continue your journey on from ‘Into The Ether’? Did you have a specific outline for this album, or was it a bit more open-ended and exploratory?
Jon: A bit of both really, but we knew we needed to face a change. We found ourselves getting a little frustrated being stuck in old habits both in the studio and on stage, partly because of the safety of using the box of tricks that had previously “worked: for us, and also partly because of wanting to service the disco groove sound that had become set in stone somewhat. We realised we needed to break out of this if we wanted to give the project and the sound more life, so we had to dig a little deeper and refine the sound into something more direct, raw and honest. The show was also starting to feel tired to us and it needed a facelift, and ultimately this album would be the vehicle for changing that. All the while trying to juggle the fine line of never veering too far off what we hope our fans will enjoy… It was a big challenge but once we started exploring we uncovered some interesting new recipes.
It sounds like this record really marked a necessary evolution for yourself as a band; how challenging was it to navigate that, and reinvigorate yourselves after spending a number of years on your journey so far? What do you think helped the most during that time of re-evaluation?
Ned: The process of getting to a headspace where we could confidently write the songs that then became ‘Chewing The Fat’ was a long and protracted one. It was a bit of an exorcism of sorts, we really needed to persevere, and believe that we’d eventually end up creatively where we needed to be.
It definitely took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I think we must’ve written 20 albums worth of bad songs on route. Ultimately keeping that fire burning in our bellies was key, finding a common ground that would excite and invigorate the whole project anew.
How do you think that scenario ended up impacting both the sound and attitude of ‘Chewing The Fat’?
Jon: I guess, stopping for a minute to reassess where we were at was the catalyst in the want to make this record. Tracks where we really captured this transition for me are; ‘Going Through The Motions’, ‘Waiting For The Punchline’, ‘The Light You Bring’, ‘Square Pegs in Round Holes’ and the title track. Focusing on deeper, bolder parts and sound scapes rather than layered up disco grooves (don’t get me wrong we still love a solid disco groove!!). We also had a very timely opportunity to watch LCD Soundsystem for the first time and found the way they presented their songs, and to such a wide audience demographic incredibly inspiring. We were definitely channeling that experience through the writing of ‘Chewing The Fat’! Throw in the use of Damon Albarn’s synthesiser collection, and we were good to go.
Obviously this project started out with you wanting to make people dance; by the sounds of things, that MO is still very much at play, but do you think the vision has refined over the years? And why is it still so important to be making music for people to dance to (especially now the world is going sideways…)?
Ned: So I think that’s always been the common denominator in both our musical careers even prior to Franc Moody (Jon’s Handel Suite’s aside). Before Franc Moody we were both in a large funk and rock n’ roll group, and before that it was more of the same, it’s just in our DNA.
I think we’re always maturing as writers, and exploring new sonics, and as such each album is a kind of snapshot of where we’re at both musically and emotionally at that time and in spite of all those quite marked differences the need to keep people dancing is still there at the fore for us. Our live shows are key to that, and it’s so important to us that we never rest on our laurels where that is concerned and always strive to make it as engaging as possible.
You also played at Brixton back in April! How was it getting to play that headline show? How did the new songs go down in a live environment?
Jon: It was an amazing moment for us! We’ve hardly played in the UK and Europe in recent years so to play a big hometown show felt amazing. We collaborated with the amazing Deadbeat Films on the production who really brought our vision to life. It felt like our most mature and thoughtful production we’ve done. New songs are always a little tricky to slot in when a lot of the crowd are there for the older tunes they know and love, however the stage and the show was built for the new tunes and I think it translated as well as it could have.
You’ve also got a handful of festival performances on the way - including over in Lisbon this weekend at NOS Alive. How do you prep for those sorts of performances, and what do you think you love most about festival sets?
Ned: Festivals are an incredible way to get your music to an audience that may not have seen or heard of you before so you kind of have to make sure you deliver the best show you can. We just played the main stage at Down The Rabbit Hole in Holland. We were on before Wet Leg and Iggy Pop, quite an intimidating line up to be on but at the same we felt very privileged to be on such an illustrious bill. It’s a hackneyed line but we just give it everything we’ve got and hope that nothing blows up mid performance…
What one piece of advice would you give to someone hoping to catch your set this summer?
Jon: Get to the front!
Franc Moody will play NOS Alive Festival, which takes place from 10th-12th July 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. Find out more and get tickets at nosalive.com.
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