Debbi Francisco: Moving To The Beat Of Her Drum

An opening act for multi-Grammy winner Bruno Mars in a mega concert is undoubtedly on any musician’s wish list. Ecstatic doesn’t even begin to describe Debbi Francisco’s once-in-a-lifetime experience. There was no live audition. Her band was hired based on its Instagram videos. She was only 23.

For the leader and drummer cum guitarist of Indie pop rock Juniper’s Club band it was a surreal moment when she got the message in 2022 that they were chosen to be the front act for the American singer-songwriter’s Uptown Funk Live In Bahrain concert on November 28, 2022.  It was beyond “Wow!” 

Fourteen months have gone by when I interviewed Debbi in March, and yet the Bahrain-based musician was still smiling ear to ear as she recounted the exhilarating experience. 

“We got a message on our Instagram saying that they want us to play for ‘a show’. We only learned later on that it was for Bruno Mars,” says a thrilled Debbi recalling that day. “They learned about us through our Instagram videos. We were kinda new back then, but they liked what we did so they hired us.” 

It certainly couldn’t be just sheer luck that got Debbi onstage for Bruno Mars’ concert. Switching instruments – drums, guitar and bass – she and a fellow Juniper Club bandmate played to a high-octane audience for one-and-a-half hours. 

“I think half of the audience enjoyed us while the other half was just there for Bruno Mars,” she humbly says, despite the fact that post-concert she scored a lot of followers on Instagram as well as messages and calls from parties interested to book them for gigs.

“After Bruno Mars, I played for another band that was doing the front act for American rapper Fifty Cent’s show when he came to Bahrain,” says Debbi, who unknowingly found her drum rhythm by playfully beating her toddler chair with a spoon or a pencil when she was two years old. 

The little drummer girl has come a long way. No one believed she could play such a big instrument (for her 5’2” frame) when she was just starting out. But she proved them wrong.

Playing for a band, let alone being a drummer, was too far into the future when a clueless nine-year-old Debbi and her mom boarded a plane from Manila to join her architect dad in the Kingdom of Bahrain, a Middle East island-country between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Little did she know that Bahrain was going to be home for the next 17-plus years. 

Where the love of music started

Growing up in a very church-oriented community in Bahrain, her life was basically school and church. The latter was where her love of music began. 

“Every time there was a service I loved watching the choir and I don’t even sing,” says Debbi whose mom is a choir member. 

She remembers very clearly how her interest in drums started. They once arrived in church too early. While waiting for other members she asked her mom “if I can mess around on the drums”… and because no one was around, mom said okay. 

“I played my first beat. Even mom was shocked that I could get a beat going. She made me play drums almost every time we went to church, and the pastors allowed me too. I was about 10 or 11 at that time. People told me I had some rhythm that I should tap and start playing bongo drums,” she says, tickled at the memory.  

Debbi could have inherited the musical genes from her mom, a music teacher at a kindergarten school in Bahrain who never discouraged her musically inclined youngest child.

What really tipped the scales for Debbi was Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana show. She was practically glued to the telly when she was a kid, in awe of celebrity guests who frequented the show.

“But more than Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers were my biggest influence. Three brothers in a band together… my goal at the time was to play one of the Jonas Brothers’ songs. I started learning this one song – ‘SOS’ – on the drums. It was also one of the first songs I played on the guitar a few years later,” says Debbi, who started playing in a band at 20. 

Nowadays Debbi plays the drums, guitar and bass with three bands including her Juniper’s Club with a repertoire of indie pop, rock, hip hop, jazz and Arabian fusion. The original two-member band added two more post-Bruno Mars concert. 

Juniper's Club has built a reputation as a gifted pop band. “This dynamic ensemble easily combines the unique charm of Indie Pop with the catchy hooks of Pop, making them known for their fascinating melodies and irresistible beats. Their lively blend of genres results in a sound that is original, recognizable, and utterly captivating... Their skill and commitment to their craft are evident in their ability to write songs that have an emotional impact on listeners. Every song they write demonstrates their avant-garde approach to pop music, which embraces experimentation and pushes limits,” according to a review by vibrate.com (an online hub for independent musicians providing music analytics for industry professionals).

A Bahrain Jazz Festival post on Facebook in 2021 rated Debbi “… a top drumming talent in Bahrain and a beacon of inspiration to other female drummers. Gender parity is a key sustainable goal for us and with talented female drummers like Debbi, we’re able to include more representation for women jazz artists on our stages. We’ve had the pleasure of hosting Debbi twice in our 2018 and 2020 editions and look forward to more!”

“We write our own music. My bandmate Shaun helps with the music, sometimes I help out too, and I write all the lyrics and structure so it’s a 50-50 job between me and him. We’ve released a few songs already on digital platforms like Spotify, YouTube. We released one recently actually,” she says. “I can get very true and raw when it comes to my music. I wish I could be more poetic with my songwriting, but instead I just give it straight away. There’s going to be no filter.”

Diverging Dreams

“I have two dreams,” says the youngest of three siblings with a BA Architecture degree from University of Bahrain. While the family has been supportive of her endeavours there is also that wish for Debbi to have a day job and pursue music on the side. 

“Ideally, I should get a day job right now and follow music on the side. I feel bad sometimes because what my family wishes for me makes sense. It would be nice to have a stable income,” admits Debbi. “Right now, I feel like I’m just going with the flow. And the flow has been good.”

The music scene in the Middle East is booming. Saudi Arabia is opening up and has been hosting big music festivals (Debbi played at one of them last year). She thinks that at the moment “my heart is leaning towards riding the rising wave”

. “I tried so hard for years to not go in this direction. But everything just keeps pulling me back to music. If you asked me two years ago what I’d be doing, I’d say focusing more on architecture and doing music on the side.”

So, what changed? 

At the time she was so certain architecture was her thing, Debbi participated in a coaching course led by Isa Buencamino, founder of Women of the World (WOW) who is also a family friend. 

“I joined WOW in 2021 out of curiosity. A lot of the things we discussed were about dreams and goals,” remembers Debbi, adding that she was barely in her 20s, in the middle of her university studies and was just starting to be involved in the music scene in Bahrain and Saudi. Clouded thoughts were swirling in her head. WOW “paved the way to un-cloud everything” for her.  

“During the WOW sessions I had a specific mindset – architecture and music, in that order. At the end of our WOW coaching course we had to write a letter to ourselves, to the future me,” she says. 

The content of her “future Debbi” letter clearly showed she had two dreams. 

“The first was a huge chunk of doing pretty well as a senior architect, like I was about to be a partner and everything. I still would love that, maybe that’s what half of my dream is made of. The second smaller chunk was about me doing big music festivals and sustaining myself through music on top of my architecture income.”  

She realised two years after submitting the letter that her dream priorities flipped. “I’m like oh my god maybe architecture isn’t the path I’m taking, that I might want the opposite – music before architecture.”

“Before WOW it was me having these dreams and thinking I’d get there eventually. But WOW taught me that I’ve to take steps to go up the ladder. It helped me a lot in setting goals. I knew I had these dreams, but I couldn’t just get on without setting goals for myself. I’ve since been more mindful of these goals regardless of how small they are. I know having goals will help me achieve bigger dreams,” she says. 

At the WOW sessions she was with other girls her age, one of whom is her best friend. 

“It was very inspiring to see there were those like me in similar stages in life who were trying to figure out how to get to their dreams. Even if our dreams were so different, it was nice to have a bond through figuring things out, which also encouraged me a lot to just enjoy the journey which I’m doing now.”

Debbi envisions moving forward with her band, and fronting for Bruno Mars gave her more courage to steer in this direction.  

“It’s very heartening that we’re getting so many calls, messages from Saudi Arabia and all the way from the other side like Dubai and Oman, and they all want us to play for them. It’s so encouraging that we’re branching out that way. Right now, I’m hyper-focused dreaming about the Middle East region. I also dream of branching out even farther like to Europe, Asia, America. It feels like the ball is rolling,” she excitedly says.

The awed little drummer girl fascinated by Hannah Montana shows is all grown up now, moving to the beat of her drum. Maybe someday another dream – jamming with the Jonas Brothers (Joe, Nick and Kevin) – will come true. 

Debbie | ws

Juniper’s Club | Playing at Bruno Mars, Bahrain 2022  | Images from Instagram: debbi (@therolledstones)