behind the music with

Francis of Delirium

The sound of Gen-Z

by Giovanna - October 04, 2023

Francis of Delirium, the moniker of 22-year old Luxembourg based artist Jana Bahrich, first emerged during the pandemic with the anthemic single ‘Quit Fucking Around’

Having released 3 critically acclaimed EPs between 2020 and 2022, Jana is shifting her sound from angst filled alt-rock, to a more vulnerable and open sonic palette, embracing pop alongside rock to create Gen-Z anthems which celebrate the beautiful things of the world.

Today Jana has shared a beautiful new track ‘First Touch’, produced by Catherine Marks (boygenius, Wolf Alice, The Killers) and released via Dalliance Recordings. The track follows on from previous single ‘Real Love’.

'First Touch’ and ‘Real Love’ come after a busy year of touring with the likes of Soccer Mommy, Briston Maroney, Horsegirl, The Districts and hitting Eurosonic, Iceland Airwaves and Tree Fort Fest, as well as opening for The 1975 and Kings of Leon.

Credit: Holly Whittaker

Hello Jana, nice to meet you!
You are currently based in Luxembourg but you were born in Antwerp and have lived in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland because of your parents’ job. Now I’m curious to know which passport(s) you own, and how many languages you speak…

Hello, nice to have a little chat!

I feel like my answer will be slightly anti-climactic. As a result of constantly moving around by the time I was a fully conscious human being, we were living in Vancouver where the language classes were quite poor, at least where I was going to school, so by the age of 13 I really could only speak English. In Luxembourg the language classes were much better so now I’m quite proficient in French. Growing up though, I was fluent in Flemish, went to Dutch school and I was looking over my old textbooks from my childhood recently and my German was way better when I was 5 than it is now. So sadly, I can really only speak English and French, everybody in Luxembourg can speak at least 4 languages so I feel quite behind here. Passportwise, we didn’t stay in Belgium long enough for me to be eligible to get a passport, so I’ve got Canadian and Luxembourgish citizenship now.
How much has this ‘nomadic’ life shaped your personality? What do you need to feel ‘at home’?

I imagine it’s been quite important in shaping my personality. Especially when it comes to changing schools and having to make new friends. I had to learn to adapt quickly, especially the first few months to a year when you move somewhere can be quite lonely so I feel like it helped me be quite independent and open to trying anything. I remember I was having a tough time making friends at this one school, I was probably 12 so it’s that perfect awkward age when kids are weird and uncomfortable and my dad gave me a good piece of advice which was just that everybody wants to be listened to, so I got really good at listening to people in an effort to make friends.

To feel at home I think I need a repeatable routine, one friend and my music and art stuff.
Let’s talk about your musical background. I’ve read that you took violin at the age of 5 and now play electric guitar. What's happened in between?

By 8 or 9 I hated violin, I had no interest in playing so I just stopped playing music. In school it later became encouraged again, so I rented a french horn for band, my dad recommended I play it and when I realized it had all the best melodies in the Lord of the Rings soundtrack I was sold. We had an electric guitar in the house for awhile because my brother had tried to learn but it sort of sat in the corner. Later when I was 12 I think, I forced myself to learn ‘Ho Hey’ by The Lumineers on guitar for a friends's birthday because she hated that song and I thought it would be funny if I played it for her. I enjoyed the challenge of learning the song and just continued from there!
When you first emerged as Francis of Delirium in early 2020 it was not possible to go on tour but more recently you have toured extensively in the US with The Districts and in the UK/Europe with the likes of Soccer Mommy, Horsegirl and Briston Maroney. Which of these bands had the most impact on you as an artist?

It’s hard to choose one, I have so much love for all of those bands. I’ve had some really meaningful conversations with Briston about creating and being an artist that I won’t ever forget and watching The Districts live everynight was such a joy. The Districts are probably my favourite live band ever, the joy and hope that I felt in their songs really changed the way I wrote these song. With Soccer Mommy, like a lot of people I was obsessed with ‘Clean’ when it came out, that was my senior year of highschool album so in that way Soccer Mommy had a massive impact on me. Horsegirl are my buddies, they are a lot of fun.
Can you reveal some ‘behind the scenes’ of those gigs?

The Districts tour will be so special to me and my band for the rest of our lives. It was the first time my bandmates had been to North America and The Districts were just so wonderful and kind to us and Gretchen who was tour managing was simply the greatest. There was so much that went wrong that tour technically for the Districts, van breaking down, having to fly to a gig, tire exploding, anything you can imagine, it happened but they were so persistent and put on such a great show everytime, it was really inspiring. Generally people were so kind and open to us on that tour, we were able to get 20+ nights of accommodation covered by friends of friends, everybody I knew in Luxembourg that had a connection to people in North America was messaging them and helping us out and when we got the US, we were greeted by such warmth. The first person we met when we arrived was our engineer Matt who we had found through a facebook group (so for all we knew he could’ve murdered us) but he and his wife opened their home to us and let us stay there for way too long so we could settle into the US before starting the tour. They are now lifelong friends, they just came to visit us in Luxembourg a few weeks ago!
Talking about your writing process, are you able to write new material while on tour or do you need a quieter environment to be productive?

I think I need a routine in order to write, so I have to be at home. I’ll write little things into my notes app or in my journal but never a full song. Sometimes at soundcheck I’ll play around and record something on voice memos, but to get a full song I have to be home and work daily.
Cover art by Jana Bahrich
You started with the darkness of your anthemic single ‘Stop fucking around’ and recently got back with the more optimistic ‘Real Love’ and now 'First Touch'. Can we consider this your new sound from now on?

I can’t really say for sure, I feel like I have no real control on the tone of what comes out, it all sort of relates to how I’m feeling at the time. Our ‘The Funhouse’ EP was a reaction to the chaos of the world and these new songs are about the joy and pain of falling in love which are reflections of where I was at when I was writing them. So we shall see where the new material goes!
What’s next for Jana and Francis of Delirium?

Next is just a lot of touring I hope. It’s our favourite thing to do, so we can’t wait to get back out onto the road!