Maja Francis has since her debut in 2015, painted a world of neon-colored synths, bombastic drums and sky-storming emotions with magnificent melodies. The breakthrough single 'Last Days Of Dancing' presented a new and obvious supplier of sparkling pop with the emotions on the outside, something that was further cemented on the subsequent collaboration with Swedish pop sensation Veronica Maggio on the track 'Space Invades My Mind'.
With the debut EP Come Companion, Maja was embraced by both Swedish and international press with major articles in NYLON Magazine, ELLE & Swedish acclaimed magazine DI Weekend.
With the attention from the debut, the feelings of anxiety crept closer. Was this really what she wanted? To process the feeling and let the fans even closer, Maja’s own struggle with mental illness became the theme for the upcoming release Cry Baby pt 1 & 2 where Maja urged to "carry her feelings like a tiara" with the meaning of being proud of vulnerability and strong emotions.
“Early summer 2018 I released my “Cry Baby” EP’s and after that I collapsed in a small pile, dyed my hair blue and went down to the sea in Skåne where I grew up. I had gotten lost in why I started with music from the beginning, and I stopped feeling things from the inside. It made me sick, and I felt that I needed to stop with the music and with the image I created of myself, to be able to fall in love again…. And somewhere among tears and pink cigarettes I started writing a diary which later became a voice memo which later became a whole album - A Pink Soft Mess”
In 2018, Maja took a time out from releasing music.
She went back to her roots and the piano, and out came songs more inspired by the childhood idols Dolly Parton and Tori Amos than the modern pop landscape.
The desire to write music and how she wanted to write songs came back, and 2019 was the year when Maja wrote her debut album. Without rules and 100% from the heart.
"I realized during these years that I had really missed the organic and what I actually started in from the very beginning….. just my voice and at most one instrument and then adorned it instead of the other way around, that my voice had to fight towards a production all the time, or being saved up with an auto tune because the melodies did not come completely from me, or because I did not get bogged down in things.
Johannes and David who produced the album understood immediately. We spent a few days in a studio on the countryside, where their biggest mission was to make me feel totally free in my own voice- there was so much that was damaged there. They helped me find my way back to actually love being in the studio from hating it"
Maja Francis is often described as an "Emo Dolly Parton". Her sound is distinctive, emotional, personal, and the result of a variety of strong sources of inspiration, experiences and collaborations. With her new material, Maja Francis has abandoned the world where music creation is captivated by demands and expectations, and where commercial success becomes the only significant point of assessment.
When she now returns with new music, it comes straight from the heart.
A Pink Soft Mess is Maja Francis debut album, recorded with and produced by, Johannes Runemark and David Wikberg together with Maja Francis.
The album includes the previously released "Anxious Angel", known from the final scenes in Netflix’s acclaimed original series "Love & Anarchy" and "Tiny Tornados" - songs that embrace the melancholy and emotional country pop that, just like the pink shimmering color theme, has come to characterize Maja Francis’s songwriting and artistry. The album also features 'Mama' a collaboration with Johanna and Klara Söderberg from First Aid Kit, watch the lyric video below.
