Tag: David McMillin

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “If You Look Hard Enough”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Song: “If You Look Hard Enough”
Album: Look at What Tomorrow Brought Us
Release Date: February 25, 2022
Label: Roadblock Records

In Their Words: “This is the happiest song I have ever written, which is an oddity for a time marked by headlines of a global pandemic, the failings of democracy and a battered and bruised planet. I used to regularly fall into the trap of focusing on the bad side of everything, but I’m digging my way out of it now. This album is about a new focus to choose optimism over despair, dig a little deeper for a bigger sense of purpose and find more reasons to smile. We haven’t played a show since the end of 2019, and this is the song I cannot wait to close a show with when we get to do it again. I have been dreaming of the feeling of an audience joining in the countdown of the bridge and helping us take out that final chorus. It hasn’t happened yet, and it already gives me chills.” — David McMillin

Photo Credit: Alec Basse

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “Fits and Starts”

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Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Song: “Fits and Starts”
Release date: February 5, 2020

In Their Words: “The past year has been stuck on pause. Before the pandemic, time traveled on a superhighway at a million miles an hour, but since March, we’ve all been in a traffic jam. There have been plenty of huge challenges in that standstill, but the break from a consistent surge of momentum has actually been good in some respects. It’s been a chance to reflect and recognize that we’ve all been fooling ourselves as we speed through life seeking somewhere new. ‘Fits and Starts’ is a song about making the concept of time meaningless so that it feels okay to keep holding that pause button.” — David McMillin, Fort Frances

Photo credit: Esther Sullivan

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “These Lights Will Shine Again”

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Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Song: “These Lights Will Shine Again”
Album: These Lights Will Shine Again
Release Date: May 22, 2020

In Their Words: “Pressing pause on the world has felt strange and uncertain, but it’s also given people a chance to reflect on what really matters. Instead of focusing on being scared or sad, I’ve been trying to think about what I’ll do and who I’ll see when life starts to move again. I’ve been looking at a map of the world and thinking about all the places I want to go (even if I’m wearing a mask for the journey). This is a positive song meant to dim the volume of the news to put the present — and more importantly, the future — in perspective.” — David McMillin, Fort Frances

Photo credit: Ehud Lazin

LISTEN: Fort Frances, “Desert Hotel”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Fort Frances
Hometown: Chicago, Ilinois
Song: “Desert Hotel”
Album: The Front Page of the Modern Age
Release Date: November 8, 2019

In Their Words: “California has been a constant theme in my songwriting, but I’ve tended to focus on the very last mile of the coast of The Golden State. ‘Desert Hotel’ steers away from the Pacific toward desolate, uninterrupted beauty. I wrote this song after my wife and I spent a couple of nights somewhere outside Joshua Tree, dreaming of sending a letter to the rest of the world that we planned to vanish into the sands of southern California. The song is rooted in escaping everything — the city lights, city speeds and city noises — and being someone new. — David McMillin, Fort Frances

Photo credit: Ehud Lazin