Celebrating the 200 millionth track uploaded to SoundCloud: Francesca Lombardo’s “Eye Ring”
Meet Francesca Lombardo – a London-based DJ and classically-trained vocalist who has performed at IMS Dalt Vila, Burning Man and Tomorrowland and is dropping her debut album, “Life of Leaf” on February 15th. Her genre-transcending talents are the main reason you should stream her latest release, but here’s another big one: her single, “Eye Ring,” is the 200 millionth track uploaded to SoundCloud. That’s 200 million uploads…that have launched careers, created movements and resulted in what SoundCloud is today: the most diverse community of creators and catalog of music that exists nowhere else.
Although uploading the 200 millionth track is seemingly lottery-level random, “Eye Ring” is actually a prime example of the boundary-pushing content that SoundCloud is known for. The track is tagged #dance, but it’s so much more than that: it’s a mash-up of all the sounds Lombardo loves. It opens with piano notes and lush vocals; strings sneak in and gently support and sway the melody like a hammock. At 1:35 the beat pounds in like a heartbeat through a stethoscope, creating a classical-contemporary result that both Enya and Robyn would approve of.
We were able to sit down with Lombardo last week and find out more about this artist who blurs the lines of dancefloor and dreamscape, who didn’t let a studio fire (like actual fire) stop her from recording this track, and who has amassed nearly 50K followers on SoundCloud. To distill it down to the bones, she kept creating and she never gave up. So who knows? Maybe our next big milestone will be your next upload.
Read on to get to know all of the sides of multi-disciplinary artist Francesa Lombardo, and stream “Eye Ring” below.
Tell us about the track “EyeRing”?
The track is mostly a combination of all the sounds I love, drawing upon all my musical influences from an early age up to now. From the string arrangements to my choice of lyrics, “Eye Ring” helped me reconnect with what music composition means to me and it felt right making it the first song on my album.
What was the writing / recording process for “Eye Ring” …your creative process in general?
Once I had written the initial idea and structure for “Eye Ring,” I worked with my friend Andrew Waterworth on the kinds of string arrangements that I wanted to run throughout the track. We recorded these with some very talented players in London. Unbelievably, during these sessions while we were out for lunch, the studio caught on fire with all of our instruments inside; the fire brigade turned up while we waited outside in the cold and thankfully nothing was damaged. We recorded the rest of the strings in the thick leftover smoke!
How have you built up a following using SoundCloud?
I’ve worked hard to keep a steady release of music over the years, across other labels and my own, as I always want my fans to come back to something new. SoundCloud is also a great place to archive my mixes, radio shows and remixes that have happened over the years, which I think gives a good representation of how I have evolved and what I do as an artist across my various projects.
What are your plans for 2019 and beyond?
The album comes out this Friday, February 15, 2019; we have some launch parties planned and some initial live shows in the works across the globe. Of course, I will continue to DJ and release music – and I’m already working on tracks for the next album.