Thievery Corporation's Jeff Franca on His New Project, ETHNO

ETHNO is the electronic-music project of multi-disciplinary producer Jeff Franca, who is best known as the drummer for world-electronica orchestra Thievery Corporation. With ETHNO, Franca incorporates a breadth of inspiration from around the globe, from Africa to Asia, South America and the Caribbean. These influences are textured with a kaleidoscopic amalgamation of synthesis, spatial recordings and throttling bass.

Franca calls Colorado home, but, as with his sound, his endeavors are global. When we first spoke with him, he was on the north shore of Iceland, five hours removed from the capital city of Reykjavík.

“Some friends of mine that have some things going on up in Crested Butte — they’re kind of like an international heli-skiing group, and they built the studio out here,” says Franca. “I worked with them a lot through the pandemic with Eddie Roberts [of the New Mastersounds]. We were kind of a little private band for them. And now they've got the studio up and running, and we're doing this third-ever session here with artists from Crested Butte, with Chris Funk from the Decemberists running the studio and producing the record.”

The place, Floki Studios, is part of the larger Eleven Experience, which owns properties around the world, including 1,000 acres on Irwin Mountain, thirteen miles outside of Crested Butte.

Fifteen years ago, one of the first places Franca immersed himself was in Jamaica’s roots reggae scene. While there were hurdles to plug into the local community, the experience was formative. “Jamaica always requires a little outreach,” says Franca. “You have to make friends with people so they can trust you, and try to help them out in whatever way. Like, I'll bring them a CD player for their car, because it's hard to get stuff in Jamaica that you can get in the States.”

These exchanges allowed him to enter arenas of roots reggae less seen by outsiders. Franca was able to play with elder craftsmen of the binghi drum in Spanish Town, Jamaica, colloquially known as the “Valley of Death” for its high crime rate. A vital influence on Franca’s music, the binghi drum is iconic in defining the genres of roots reggae and ska. Since then, Franca has played music in Costa Rica, Brazil, Mexico, Croatia and as far south as Santiago, Chile.

However, despite his worldliness, Franca chooses Colorado as his home because of how the music scene approaches collaboration and acceptance. “I haven't ever experienced competitive musical energy in Colorado," he says. "Everybody supports everybody and wants everybody to succeed. It's a beautiful thing.”

He credits Denver’s loyal fan bases, as well as venues like Red Rocks and the Mission Ballroom, for creating a lot of energy that attracts music fans. “I think the general population loves music. I think any night of the week, you've got five to seven sold-out shows at decent-sized venues. That’s in one city, and it's not necessarily a major one. It's incredible,” exclaims Franca.

For musicians, he sees a lot of benefits in making Colorado his musical base, despite being geographically isolated. “[It’s] a great place to build something and to build a creative project that people can latch onto,” says Franca. “I tell a lot of the younger artists who were kind of questioning [themselves] that this is a place where, if you want to start a band, it’s a great place to do it.

"But if you want to get hired [as a contract musician] to go on the tour bus [with an established band] and hit the road, then there are not as many of those gigs available, because all the bands already have everybody they need.”

ETHNO is in the middle of a three-night run in Colorado with BoomBox; they share the same manager. Franca became friends with BoomBox members Zion Godchaux and Kinsman MacKay, as well as their manager, Keith Stevenson, during a tour when BoomBox opened for Thievery Corporation for a number of dates.

Franca says that the crowds have been really receptive to ETHNO, even if it’s dissimilar to BoomBox’s downtempo brand of house music-infused funk, opting for more Afro-trap, ethnic bass music.

Franca is finalizing ETHNO’s debut five-track EP, which he says shows different sides of the project. “This EP has songs made within the last six months, and then it has songs that were part of the original batch. So that kind of tells a bit of a story of the EP’s evolution," he explains. "The original batch is definitely a little more aggressive and made for the show. I struggle with putting out music like that, because I don't listen to music like that at home. But a lot of people do, so I'm letting it go.”

He hopes that the EP will be finalized by the end of the month so that he can start releasing the three hours of music he has in the cache, as well as implementing the next stages of ETHNO’s evolution.

“I think once we get a lot of these ETHNO first-batch tracks out, I think there'll be a big record, which might be performed by the Ethno Global Orchestra somewhere,” says Franca. “I'm starting to think bigger and less about what's happening in Denver, and more about presenting my life’s work. And maybe ETHNO remains this faceless, tribal electronic stuff, or maybe it’s a different thing. I don't know, but I'm starting to get really inspired to compose, since I used to compose a lot of classical and modern percussion music. What I do with ETHNO, I’m in there, but there is more that I can do with my capabilities.”

ETHNO plays with BoomBox at Knew Conscious, 2350 Lawrence Street, at 10 p.m. Friday, April 22. Tickets are available only to members. Both bands play the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street in Boulder, at 9 p.m. Saturday, April 23.Tickets are $30.