We managed to catch Ashley and Ben after their brilliant performance at Artfest for some quick questions.. Read below for the inside scoop on slightly stalker-ish fans and home-made bondage gear (!)...
1. Whats the average daily routine for the band Francesqa?
"An average day in terms of Francesqa, would be to start with a bit of cereal, doing some writing, locking ourselves in a room for 8 hours, argue, having cups of tea and eating, going to the studio demo-ing, then getting crammed in a nice van for a few hours. If there's no show and we're not making music, then we would usually end up in Joe's hot tub... beers and hot tub, good times, that makes the day whole again!"
2. Whats been your favourite gig you've played to date?
"Well, that, (Artsfest) that was awesome." Ben - "I really enjoyed that show." Ashley - "During one of the Bridges I lost my mic, I don't think I have ever been that crazy in my entire life. That gig, or The Pretty Reckless in London. Missyloves - "Did you get to meet Taylor Momsen?" Ashley - "I did." Ben - "Well, we got to say hi, but she's an A list celeb so she's kind of wrapped up all the time, we spoke to the band though, the band were wicked, they had two dressing rooms, which was cool, we got one."
(Here we had a welcomed interruption from Simon from Young Guns, who's says "Heelllooooo!")
3. Have you got nicknames for each other?
Ashley - "I guess im Wilkon" Ben - "He's actually Wilkie" Ashley - "Some reason its normal to be called Wilkon or Wilkie or Wilkmeister" Ben - "I get Benji", "We have code names for each other, his code name is Goldburg" Missyloves- "You cant give you code names away, that's the whole point!".
4. Who would be your perfect support/who would you love to tour with?
Ashley - "I would love to tour with Jimmy Eat World, that would be amazing" Ben - "Do you mean realistically orrr…" Missyloves - "Well no, anyone you want" Ben - "Ok, Micheal Jackson! Elvis Presley, Bon Jovi, The Beatles..."
5. Who's got the dirtiest habits on tour?
"Erm we're pretty equal really" Ben - "I'm definitely above everyone, shower at least twice a day, Ash doesn't intentionally not shower but he just cant be arsed to wake up", "Then we end up getting kicked out of the hotel before he has time to shower, so!" Missyloves - "Have you ever trashed a hotel room" Ashley - "No, we're really unrock n roll! The only bad thing we've done is just get drunk in the hotel room, and we made really weird bondage garments out of stuff we found in the hotel room, Warren was completely naked apart from shaving foam around this (points to groin) area! That was a wild night!"
6. What's the strangest thing that a fan has ever done for you or said to you?
Ashley " Well something amazing happened to me today, I got given a gift from a fan, it was a signed copy of JK Rowling's Harry Potter, and I was like wooahhh! Thats incredible" Ben - "On the contrary, I got tweeted at saying "I can see you". Ashley - "I was wondering around in my hood and sunglasses earlier, it was cold but sunny, and someone tweeted at me saying "The hood and shades disguise isn't working, I can see you".
Thanks Guys, I'm sure we'll see you at one of your shows soon!
View the pictures from their show at Artsfest here
Catch Francesqa on their headlining dates -
16th Nov - London Barfly
17th Nov - Birmingham O2 Academy 3
Visit their myspace for more info -myspace.com/francesqa
