While Hogan is quick to concede that using his adolescent alma mater’s music program on the road would prove rather costly and problematic, it’s this kind of little bigness that pervades throughout the band’s unique chamber-pop sound. Led by Hogan (vocals/keyboards) and rounded out by Betancourt (guitar), Stephanie Skaff (vocals/sundries), Nick Anderson (bass), Julia Tepper (vocals/violin), and Tlacael Esparza (drums), the members of Frances take a grandiose, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach to their music and juxtapose it all against a noticeably genteel disposition.

“I think a lot of these are kind of shy songs,” says Betancourt. “But when you put an orchestra in the mix, it changes the whole dynamic.”

Adds Hogan, “I think that balancing between the vocals and the big band is kind of the key. I think it reflects our personality as a band, or at least what our personality was when we made the record…we love to play loud and cause a ruckus, but we also appreciate the reserved nature of things. There’s earnestness I think to it, a certain emotional quality to the vocals that’s not really trying to slam it over your head, [but where] the music is maybe slamming you over the head.”

While anyone can generate sufficient noise out of the likes of glockenspiels, omnichords, woodwinds, and strings, it’s Frances’ meticulous studio production that puts them on the level of fellow compositional auteur Sufjan Stevens.

“I guess we take pride in being dorks,” says Betancourt, “not just in the instruments we use, but in the attention to detail on the orchestration. We’re not really playing garage rock.”

While initially a bit intimidated on how they were going to adapt the music to live setting, Hogan says he and the rest of the band are already treating each performance as their own thing. Even the thought of lugging around all the necessary equipment is just seen as part of the process. Says Hogan, “The one advantage of having lots of instruments is that as long as you keep them kind of small and you use things like melodicas and violins, it makes loading stuff quite easy. There are a few extra trips, but they aren’t as torturous…of course the guys in the band [still] want me to get a piano.”