Eugene Francis Jnr

Early life

Eugene Francis Jnr (EFJ) was born in Cardiff, Wales on 8 March 1977.

The Fantastic Super Foofs, Kaptain Black and Dirty Perfect

'The Fantastic Super Foofs' formed in Bridgend circa 1994. At this stage they played punk rock, and were briefly known as "Mister Puss". By 1997 EFJ had enrolled at University College London studying Planetary Science. It was here he befriended Coldplay and My Vitriol. The singles "Bilo Boss", "Devan Endo" and "Timmy Zuckermann" were released on the independent labels Floating Toast and Fuzzbox and were met with positive reviews in the NME and were played by Steve Lamacq and the late John Peel. In 2000 EFJ took a trip to Chicago to see his friends Mclusky who were recording their third album with Steve Albini. This inspired the next project – Kaptain Black which combined the styles of blues, punk and country music and named after his hero Frank Black. The album "In Fertility" was released in 2004 on the Mighty Atom label. They toured with Mclusky, and released the single "Drone the Queen Bee". In 2005 EFJ agreed to write and perform music with the Weezer-like Cardiff band Dirty Perfect under the name "Kip Armstrong." They released one EP entitled "Lines, Opiates and the demented operation" on Fuzzbox Records and one single 'Quarterback Hairdo' on Sound Foundation Records

Solo career

Time spent in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York playing impromptu shows EFJ started experimenting with Folk, storytelling songs coupled with electronica. The story goes "during a late lock-in at The White Horse Tavern, New York City under the watchful eye of Dylan Thomas a friend told him to continue with what he had been doing, and create an album based on the demo's he had loosely recorded." Up to the challenge he returned home to Wales to start work on the proposed concept-album The Golden Beatle. During 2007 he started posting songs on his Myspace, playing solo shows in London and Cardiff and formed the "Harmonious, beatnik supergroup"- The Juniors which was made up from the "cream of the Welsh indie scene." These bands and individuals included Vito, Broken Leaf and Lindsey Leven (of Gulp). EFJ was invited to open for the Canadian twins Tegan and Sara and released the Limited Edition Vinyl double A-side "Poor Me / Kites". The single and video found their way onto VH1, MTV2, BBC Radio 1 Radio 2, XFM and BBC 6 Music it also picked up numerous plays in the US on radio stations KEXP. "artist of the week" and KITS Eugene Francis Jnr and The Juniors also played the mainstage at The Greenman Festival and it became their trait to throw rattles into the audience.

The Golden Beatle, The Juniors 2008–2009

The album The Golden Beatle was completed on Christmas Eve with numerous instruments making up its refined sound. It was released in April 2008. The 7 piece band 'The Juniors' appeared with Frank Sidebottom on Channel M and on Radio 4 for Clive Anderson's 'loose ends' and toured with Todd Rungren and Coldplay. They played the Secret Garden Party and Guildfest festivals and also performed in the US at SXSW in Austin and CMJ in New York. In December 2009, he supported Coldplay, with his band 'The Juniors', at the O2 Arena in London. He gave out badges, albums, T-shirts and many other merchandise on-stage at these gigs, and his album was also on sale at the merchandise stall.

Death and das Love Bytes 2012–2013

After selling his worldly belongings in July 2009, flying to Los Angeles and buying a motorbike EFJ travelled the US, Canada, Mexico and Central America for 11 months. He then attended Los Angeles Recording School and in 2011 started work on a new album 'Death and das Love Bytes' from which the first single 'Necronomicon' was released in the summer 2012 and the new line-up 'EFJ vs dotdotdot' played Leopalooza, dot to dot and Nozstock festivals.

Death and das Love Bytes release is penned for March 2013

Discography