Amanda Frances is a post-pop artist, songwriter, videographer and Web3 innovator hailing from Toronto. The multidisciplinary artist is also COO of Sadboy Records, one of Canada’s fastest growing indie labels.
With a 6 track audio-visual album set to drop this year, Frances demonstrates a drive to innovate by dropping her genesis NFT project with decent.xyz for the upcoming debut EP, attachment theory, produced by JUNO-nominated producer, Father Bobby Townsend.
What does the web3 movement represent to you?
Creative freedom. As an artist and songwriter, I’ve felt (and heard) the pressure from music execs, program directors at radio, and even from myself at times to sound a certain way, create music that is playlist friendly, adhere to a certain release strategy, and generally to fit within a mould that is currently “working.” I think that type of mentality is the thief of creativity. Web3 provides creatives with both a new revenue model as well as an opportunity for direct relationships between artist and fan/collector. I’ve personally experienced the sense of freedom that this can open up in creatives, and have seen it inspire a wave of innovation within the music industry.
How did you get into it?
I was introduced to crypto and NFTs by A-SHO, who is an insanely talented artist and who also happens to be my partner in songwriting, business, and life. I then spent a ton of time in Twitter Spaces learning from other artists and innovators within the space, which I’d recommend to anyone who’s interested in learning more.
What’s the impact it had on your music and creativity?
My immersion in Web3 has honestly had the biggest impact on my creativity of anything I’ve experienced in my career thus far. I no longer feel constricted by industry standards or feel the need to create to try to please curators. I’ve been reminded that there is innate value in every piece of art that I create, and that innovation within my art and its release is what is truly important to me.
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about.
Oof. This is going to have to be a two part-er. I just released a brand new single called “making out with vampires”, which is a cheeky & moody little number dedicated to the people that we know we never should have fallen for in the first place.
I was also lucky enough to be among the first handful of artists to collaborate with an incredible platform, Decent (decent.xyz), for the release of my Genesis NFT project for my upcoming debut EP, “attachment theory” (the first single off of which is “making out with vampires”). I’ve committed 50% of my streaming royalties for the EP for this drop for a period of 3 years, and collectors of the NFT will share in a cut of streaming royalties from all 6 songs on the EP, which I’m really excited about. The Decent team and I are all so passionate about innovation, so we experimented with a new model for Music NFTs using a bonding curve for this drop, which was a smashing success, and ultimately allows for fans to be the ones to determine what a project is worth.
It’s a lot to wrap your mind around, so I made an entertaining little video explaining the basics of it all here.
What inspired your latest NFT project?
The desire to innovate. I hope that my experiments within Web3 can somehow add value in bringing about a new model for how we think about and value art as a whole.
Where do you think art and creativity are heading now that we have all this technology at our disposal?
There is so much innovation happening right now at the crossroads of tech and music. I’m so inspired by everything that is being built, and ultimately I think the Web3 movement is allowing for the value of art as a whole to be perceived in a new light. I think Web3 technologies also empower the relationships between artists and fans and provide groundbreaking opportunities for collaboration and ownership of music and art that is incredibly exciting.
