Francisco Martin is in the driver’s seat with his new single and lyric video Passenger Princess — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
On the heels of his breakthrough EP Manic, which found dreamy falsetto and robust belting serving as conduits for conversations about mental health, relationships, angst, and human disconnection, singer-songwriter Martin is back with his first new release of 2023. The soulful, vibrant, and electric Passenger Princess is a lullaby for the long-distance driver that shows us a softer, more sensitive side of Francisco — and gives you a spot to put your feet up on his dashboard.
“Passenger Princess brings timely joy to the table when you didn’t ask for it,” Martin comments. “Its free, radical-like soundscape and subtle pull for attention bridge the gap between my influences of indie rock and soul.”
In this song that pays homage to girls who don’t drive but get driven, life is viewed through a wide-angle lens — cinematic landscapes of sunsets and the PCH. Whereas Francisco’s sophomore EP contains starkly unapologetic and unafraid chronicling, Passenger Princess features aesthetic hedonism and mesmerizing melodies that make you want to go for a drive just because. The lyricism takes pages out of the Urban Dictionary, making a meme into music.
Francisco was born and raised in a musically fertile household in the city that shares his first name. Self-taught as a child, he mastered drums, guitar, piano, and several other instruments, taking his talent to local stages while playing with musicians several years his senior. He later earned the title ‘writer-producer’ as he began to dabble in poetry and experiment with SoundCloud, where he amassed a following for his original renditions of favourite covers.
Francisco shot to fame with American Idol season 18 in 2020, where he placed Top 5. From there, he quickly released a few singles before embarking on a fall coast-to-coast tour. His heart-on-sleeve soulful pop has garnered favourable comparisons to songwriter artists such as James Bay, John Mayer, Maggie Rogers and Ed Sheeran. To date, Francisco has released several singles, including Swollen, which has amassed close to eight million streams. Francisco released his debut EP Beautiful Ramblings Of A Restless Mind in 2021.
Relocating to Los Angeles in pursuit of full-time artistry, Francisco realized he had an all-consuming yearning to be his authentic self in his music. He emerged with his first true artistic statement, the six-song EP Manic — a bold collection of emotionally raw pop-rock — in the fall of 2022. Now, following a coast-to-coast tour, Francisco is ready to release a series of new singles throughout 2023; a collection of future anthems just waiting to make their debut.
Watch the lyric video for Passenger Princess above, hear more from Francisco Martin below, and take a ride over to his website, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
