Get To Know: Francisco the Man!

Every once in a while you’ll stumble across a small band that’s just getting started and you feel like you’ve struck gold because of how good they are and all the bragging rights that will soon come when they break through and you can say “I knew them when”, Francisco the Man! is that band.

Out of Orange County with members that barely earned the right to drink legally, this four piece studied at the church of Neil Young and Wilco and lead singer/guitarist Scotty Cantino’s vocals eerily recall Jim James while Joel Bond’s (guitar, keys) occasional lead and backing vocals harmonize with Cantino perfectly. The group is rounded out by Nestor Romero on bass and Abdeel Ortega on drums.

The Schmarm: How and when did the band come together?

Cantino: Me, Nestor & Abdeel met in high school. Nestor has been in every band I’ve ever been a part of. We were in a band called Culver that eventually broke up. After that we wanted to start playing music again so we started another band with Abdeel called Hotel Underground which ended as well. After that I started jamming with joel, who I’ve known since high school too and it wasn’t long before we all came together. We started recording our EP last November (2006) and didn’t start playing shows will it was released in February (2007).

The Schmarm: What are the names and ages of all the members of Francisco The Man?

Cantino: Joel Bond - 21 / Abdeel Ortega - 21 / Nestor Romero - 23 / Scotty Cantino - 21

The Schmarm: You’ve released one four song EP earlier this year, what was the process like of recording and releasing that on your own?

Cantino: It was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of work. Joel and Abdeel pretty much took care of the recording side of things… and me and nestor just played. We had our friend Taylor Balty design the art for us and I found somebody to press it for really cheap. Aside from the CD replication all the EP’s are made by hand… down to cutting the inserts, packagin and using a type writer to write the track listings. It was really a blessing to get to put something out with this group of guys. I can’t wait to do it again.

The Schmarm: This summer, your band was involved in a auto-accident while on tour, tell us about that wreck and how it has affected your group?

Cantino: I could try and explain exactly how horrible the wreck was but i think everyone there would agree that it can not be explained in words. in short: we rolled a 15 passanger van 3 times while driving 60-70mph up interstate 5 at 4am. there was 8 of us total and only the driver was wearing a seatbelt. everyone walked out alive (including all our gear) and we would have finished the tour if we had the means to get to the shows… but we didn’t. Us and Jeprocket have become brothers.

The Schmarm: What is in the plans for you guys next? Are you working on any new recordings?

Cantino: Well, we started tracking songs for another E.P. and all of us were really excited about the songs and putting out some new music. Then, after getting deeper into it, we’ve decided to focus more on writing even more material and tweaking the songs we haven’t put out yet. I think it will turn out a lot better this way. There isn’t a point to put the same record out twice.

The Schmarm: What is some music you have been listening to that you’d like to recommend?

Cantino: Jeprocket - Beyond Further Flavors
The Parson Red Heads - King Giraffe
Vespers - Demos
The Living Suns - Self Titled LP

Visit the band online: www.myspace.com/franciscothemanmusic