Elise Frank – I Didn’t Pay For It
A singer you won’t soon forget. A songwriter who stands out from the crowd. A mesmerizing performer who doesn’t let up until the last aching note is played
Elise Frank – I Didn’t Pay For It
Format: CD – Digital
Label: Ruf Records
Release: 2026
Release date: January 23, 2026
Elise Frank is a singer you won’t soon forget. A songwriter who stands out from the crowd. A mesmerizing performer who doesn’t let up until the last aching note is played.
Having spent the past five years travelling the world and performing under the name FRANK, she now moves forward full throttle with her second full-length solo release ‘I Didn’t Pay For It,’ an album that shows she’s ready to take the music world by storm.
Recorded in one extremely intense week in the fall of 2025, ‘I Didn’t Pay For It’ is not a technologically slick and polished blues album, but rather one that – by design – sizzles with raw energy and emotion. “It is minimalist, and barely produced in the sonic sense,” says Frank, who was born Élise Lounici in Tarbes, a small French city near the Spanish border. She feels music in general (and the blues in particular) should be “organic” and “human,” thus she rejects the current trend toward heavily processed sounds. “We didn’t pick the takes where the musicians played the cleanest; we picked the ones where something was happening. I don’t care about having the best musicians or being a guitar hero. My only goal is to convey emotion in the most authentic way possible, without artifice.”
Joining Frank in the studio were her long-time rhythm section Sébastien Gaschard (drums) and Josselin Fleury (bass) as well as award-winning guitarist Laura Chavez (Vanessa Collier, Mitch Ryder), whose sparkling lead guitar adds to the album’s magic. The sound at its root is guitar-heavy. “An old Strat straight out of the amp with no pedals,” Frank smiles. Her crashing chords anchor moody, slow-burn originals that recall the ghostly allure of Cowboy Junkies or Jefferson Airplane-era Grace Slick. She can also go balls to the wall when called upon, as on her supercharged version of the oft-covered “Bullfrog Blues.”
“I wanted to create something singular, sometimes more punk than blues, and above all rough around the edges,” she explains. “Luckily, the sound engineer Michael Murauer was completely on board with this. He helped me a lot in bringing to life what I had in mind.”
The self-penned songs on I Didn’t Pay For It emerged at different times and in different places during the past four years. Most were inspired by life on the road and by real-life experiences. “She’s a Bird,” for example, tells the story of an independent young lady who goes from one adventure to the next as she pleases. While those around her frown on her freewheeling ways, the woman herself sees nothing wrong in living a life without care. “This song came to me while I was walking home after a night out,” recalls Frank. “I’d spent too much time watching the frustrated looks of men directed at these ‘birds of freedom’.”
In “Your Kind,” Frank again trains her keen eye on a member of the opposite sex. “It’s about a man who leaves his mother’s home at 30 and doesn’t know how to fry an egg or run a washing machine. He then sets out to find a woman ‘of his kind,’ someone who would be both a good mistress and a good mother to him.” Frank wrote the biting “Car Dealer” as payback to a shady auto mechanic whose double dealing left her stranded in the middle of her first tour of Ireland. “I’m Smoking” and “Twice On Sunday” are more recent creations in which the songwriter tells stories of love mixed with feelings of loneliness, passion and longing.
Then there’s the reflective “How Did I,” which dates to Frank’s time busking on the streets in France. “It came to me one morning when I was wondering what the hell I was doing out there playing. It’s a very simple song, born from an improvisation during a hard busking day; words of encouragement to myself, promising that we would end up playing everywhere and that I had to keep believing.”
With her second full-length album now done, Frank can look back on those days and see that the struggle was worth it. Band members “Seb” and “Jo” have been there every step of the way and came through when it counted. “They are much more than musicians playing the parts,” she says of her trusted rhythm section’s contributions to the album. “They’ve known and played these songs since the moment they were created.” The raw energy, emotion, spontaneity and power – all elements that define ‘I Didn’t Pay For It’ – are thus no happy accident. They’re the product of a group of musicians standing in a single room, giving everything they have, making music with a common goal. “There was no other option,” says Frank, satisfied that her newest album ultimately reflects the fire that burns inside her.
Website: https://elise-frank.com/
Tracks:
01. I’m Smoking (4:42)
02. How Did I (4:07)
03. Car Dealer (5:27)
04. Double Lovin’ (3:20)
05. She’s A Bird (4:22) (feat. Laura Chavez )
06. I Didn’t Pay For It (3:10)
07. Bullfrog Blues (3:44)
08. Your Kind (4:13)
09. Here Comes The Blues (4:15)
10. If You Need Me (4:23)
11. Twice On Sunday (6:10)