As a well decorated artist, Francois Klark has won a number of awards, including the Oscar Peterson Award, Standard Bank Award for best original composition, and Most Promising Performing Solo Artist. His latest song, ‘Always’, recently got picked up by Resonate Entertainment to appear in their Netflix dance film, ‘Feel The Beat’, where the company, which has a deaf member, played by deaf actress Shaylee Mansfield, beautifully brings American Sign Language (ASL) into the choreography. This, along with Shaylee Mansfield’s instagram movement, #InstaCaptioning, inspired Francois to include an American Sign Language interpretation of the song, in addition to choreography that is influenced by the restraints of COVID-19, for his music video ‘Always’. Please read our exclusive interview to learn more about Francois Klark.

Where are you based?
Toronto, Canada

Do you remember your first major exposure to a musician, band, or song that resonated with you?
Absolutely — I distinctly remember the day my sister introduced me to Lauryn Hill. As soon as I heard Lauryn’s voice, it was as if I could see the world in full colour for the first time.

What artists do you listen to?
Labrinth, Sia, Lauryn Hill, Coldplay, Mokita, Emeli Sandé, Bruno Major, Nick Wilson, and Jack Garrett.

What inspired you to get into music?
My love for music was definitely instilled and encouraged by my mom from as early as I can remember. Many years of singing in choirs from a very young age cemented that love and made me realize that music is something that I want to be immersed in for the rest of my life.

How did you develop your own sound?
My love of the people and cultures of my home-country, South Africa, combined with my interest in classical and electronic music, has shaped my sound into a sound ranging from tribal pop anthems doused with provocative hooks, flickering synths and band instruments, to stripped down delicate piano ballads underscored with orchestral arrangements.

Your album "Love" feels like an invasion of privacy; it's like listening to a series of love letters or diary entries — especially the acoustic tracks. "Please Stay," "The Only One," and "Three Words" are all powerful. Can you talk about the background behind this album?
I firmly believe that you need to live in order to write — life needs to happen to you. I often write about what I’ve experienced or think about, but I also love dreaming up fictional stories and writing songs about it, almost as if describing a movie that is playing in my head. The ‘Love’ album is just that — a collection of made up stories (Spaceman) and, like you put it so beautifully, diary/journal entries from my life.

Jejune loves your song and the music video for "Always". The sitting choreography in the music video looks complex. What was the story behind the video, and what inspired this choreography?
Making a music video under Covid19 quarantine restrictions not only sparked the idea for the concept of the video, but also directly dictated how we would execute production. My initial idea was to have a dancer self tape a video on their phone while sitting at a table as if on a Skype or Zoom call, like so many of us during isolation. Convinced that the meaning of the song would be better delivered by a duo, choreographer Matthew Fata recruited dancers Ian Chubb and Katie Hazard. Katie and Ian were in Colorado at the time, so we changed the location and placed the table in the beautiful isolated hills of Colorado. The new outdoor location also allowed enough physical distance to get videographer Jesse Lozano onboard with the project. Matthew choreographed and rehearsed with the dancers over FaceTime from Los Angeles, and a couple of days later sent the footage over to me in Toronto for some final tweaks.

The inclusion of American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation takes this video to another level. What inspired you to include the ASL interpretation?
The inclusion of ‘Always’ in Netflix’s new dance flick ‘Feel The Beat’ was the main inspiration for making an ASL version of the music video. What struck me about the movie was the prevalent use of sign language throughout this mainstream film. It made me realize how important it is to make all mediums of media accessible to everyone.

We saw that “Always” was danced to in the new Netflix movie “Feel The Beat”, which also brought in an ASL element to the performance. Can you tell us what you thought of that dance performance?
I am completely enamoured with that performance. It is an incredibly beautiful moment in the film. Choreographer Mia Michaels, along with director Elissa Down, and script writers Shawn Ku and Michael Armbruster, did a fantastic job of highlighting the importance of inclusivity, togetherness, and family in that particular scene.

”Feel The Beat” actress, Shaylee Mansfield’s instagram movement #InstaCaptioning has been inspiring others to start captioning their videos. Can you tell us what this movement is about and how this has impacted your art moving forward?
Shaylee is definitely the expert on this, and you should probably chat with her about it in depth. However, my understanding is that this movement urges content creators, especially on Instagram, to caption all their posts so that the content is accessible to the deaf community.

How has COVID impacted your life, both in regards to music and otherwise?
I am very thankful that my family and friends are all healthy and safe. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who have not been so lucky and I pray that they will find peace and that there will be full recovery and an end to the pandemic.

I have experienced the ‘new normal’ as a bit of a blessing in disguise with regards to music and the effect of the pandemic on our industry. As an independent artist, the hustle of the old ‘normal’ often pulled your attention in ten directions at any given moment. I frequently found it a bit difficult to carve out time to be creative without any outside pressures infringing on the creative process. I have never written as much, in such a short amount of time, as I have during the quarantine period during this pandemic.

Are you working on any new creative projects?
Yes — I am currently writing my sophomore album.

How are you staying positive during these times?
Lots of time spent outdoors and sitting behind the piano writing new songs.

What is your motto in life?
Learn to love — especially when it is hard to love.

To learn more about Francois Klark, please follow him via the below platforms:
Instagram: francoisklark
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6pWdTbfpN654qlN83k3O0P
All Platforms: https://linktr.ee/francoisklark
Deaf Spectrum: http://deafspectrum.com/

Photography by Aoife McCartan.

Francois Klark Bring ASL To His Music