Jeannette resident makes most of new musical directions

So, you find yourself thinking about what it would be like to make a new start.

For someone who actually followed through, meet Jeannette resident Mick Francis.

As lead vocalist and primary handler of details for the up-and-coming Pittsburgh pop-punk band Lotus Kid, he seemed to be headed in what he thought was the right direction, up until March 2020.

“When covid happened, we were really going. We had about 40 dates on the books that actually got canceled,” he said. “We got to the point where we actually had a manager and a booking agent, and I was finally able to step away from doing it myself. And then, just like that, it all crashed.”

That summer, the band did release a five-song EP, “All.The.Things.You.Dread!” And late in the year came a well-received video for one of the tracks, “Beneath My Stride.”

During part of the video, Francis — at the time he went by Mikey O’Toole, based on his birth certificate’s “Michael Francis O’Toole Jr.” — lip-synchs while being superimposed with images of a bass guitar, the instrument he’d been playing professionally since he was a teenager.

But he wasn’t doing so with Lotus Kid.

“That’s when I created the ‘Mick Francis’ moniker, because I was, like, I need to get back to the basics,” he recalled. “I need to be back to playing the bass.”

As of 2024, he’s doing plenty of that as a self-described “hired gun,” performing on behalf of numerous artists in the studio and on stage. In addition, he works as a guitar technician for the likes of the Clarks and Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers.

What makes this a banner year for Francis is the release of his first two video singles, the originals “Cut Off My Head” and “She Doesn’t Want Me.” Both are on his four-song “EP0” (as in “zero”), with all the tracks demonstrating the technical proficiency of his bass work.

A prime example is the latter part of the EP-closing medley “When I’m Feeling Ur Touch”/“Red Beet Soup,” which is all Mick, including his initial drum-kit performance on a recording. And it’s best appreciated by listening through headphones for the stereo effects.

“My dad gave me a fretless bass he has from the ’80s,” he said. “And then I have an old Yamaha effects processor I ran it through afterward to get a sort of ‘trippy’ thing going.”

Professional musician Mike O’Toole Sr. also gave his son plenty of early inspiration.

“My dad was extremely technically proficient on the bass guitar, and I would just, from a very young age, watch him play it,” Francis recalled. “I always wanted to be a bass player, but my dad didn’t get me a bass until I grew into it. I think one day when I was, like, 14, it just all clicked, and immediately I was out playing in bands.”

Eventually, he was playing bass for the likes of country star Gabby Barrett, the Munhall native who scored a massive hit with “I Hope,” and the band Milly at the invitation of Johnny Grushecky, Joe’s son.

“I was 22 or 23, and I went from — the month before, I was playing in church basements and I was playing at coffee houses — to a month later, I’m with Johnny playing at the Stone Pony,” Francis said about the famed venue in Asbury Park, N.J.

Later came work with the Queers, punk-rock stalwarts with a four-decade pedigree.

“Since I was able to put that on my résumé, it’s been a lot easier to find work. I usually say that, and they usually hire me,” Francis said.

This summer, he continues to tour with the Prince Project, a tribute band featuring “Purple” Wayne Smith channeling the artist once known by a symbol on electric guitar. On the schedule are concerts on July 6 at Centennial Plaza in Canton, Ohio; July 12 at the Oaks Theatre in Oakmont; July 13 at The Vanguard in Hampton, Va.; and Aug. 9 at the Crafthouse Stage and Grill in Baldwin Borough.

On Aug. 11, the live debut for Mick Francis and the New Romantics is planned for the Raise Your Voice Fest in Monessen, celebrating the life of the Jake Hursh, who died in 2022 after battling cancer. He was a member of the Irwin-based reggae band FUBAR, which will perform at the festival.

A week later, Francis travels north to back multi-instrumentalist songwriter Brooke Surgener at Celebrate Erie Main Stage, an event that happens to be headlined by Gabby Barrett.

In the meantime, he continues to pursue his own musical creations:

“I don’t stop. I stay up ’til 6 in the morning sometimes.”

But keeping exceptionally busy is fine with him.

“I think if my life didn’t go this route, I’d have been very unhappy,” he said. “I’m paying off a car now with this music. I’m paying rent with music. It blows my mind, and sometimes I have to pinch myself: Like, how am I doing this?”

Making a new start would seem to have helped.

For more information, visit mickfrancis.com.