After sixteen years in the Austin music scene, Francis McGrath has released his first album, “No Less Days”. He is also bringing his music to Austin stages with his band, The Frequency Mods. Growing up listening to bands like The Alan Parsons Project, Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, The Who, Styx, Queen and Kansas, Francis developed a very open mind. “Those bands would try anything if it felt right for the song, and I really respect that. I loved getting one of their new albums, listening to it with headphones while reading the lyrics and checking out the artwork. It was a complete experience.” Since then, a growing number of artists have ended up in his CD collection, including Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Suzanne Vega, Sarah McLachlan, Seal, Dave Brubeck, Abra Moore, They Might Be Giants, Weather Report, Philip Glass and a huge number of soundtracks. One of the keys to his style is his writing process. “Most of my songs start as poems. In fact, most of my poems haven’t been set to music. But sometimes a poem makes it clear to me that it wants to be a song and the poem dictates the style the music will be.” The writing of the music is facilitated by the fact that Francis is a multiinstrumentalist. While Francis performed most of the instruments himself, the album also includes appearances by Austin singing legend Maryann Price and Will Taylor of Strings Attached. When asked what’s next, Francis laughed and said, “Right now, I only have ideas for about seven more albums. I’m also really enjoying playing live with The Frequency Mods”