By 1997 Francis had enrolled at University College London studying Planetary Science, where he befriended Coldplay and My Vitriol.

The singles "Bilo Boss", "Devan Endo" and "Timmy Zuckermann" were released on the independent labels Floating Toast and Fuzzbox, and received positive reviews in NME and airplay from Steve Lamacq and John Peel.

Francis subsequently spent time in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York and began experimenting with Folk, storytelling songs coupled with electronica.

He began posting songs on MySpace and playing solo shows in London and Cardiff in 2007, and formed another group called The Juniors, including members from Vito, Broken Leaf and Lindsey Leven (of Gulp).

The 7-piece band 'The Juniors' appeared with Frank Sidebottom on Channel M and on Radio 4 for Clive Anderson's 'loose ends' and toured with Todd Rungren and Coldplay.