about

FRANCIS AMAT’S BIOGRAPHY

Francisco Jose Amat Arteaga, better known by his artistic name of Francis Amat, was born in Barcelona, Spain on October 16, 1966. Although a few months later he moved to Madrid. He studied at the prestigious school of Nuestra Senora del Pilar, where at the early age of 8, he started to be interested in music and started to take guitar lessons. During his school years he is very actively involved in any musical event, being part of groups, playing at all school festivals and also, at the age of 15 he directed the church choir at the school masses. At the age of 17 he puts together a rock-and-roll band with three friends, they record two demos and present them to Warner Music. In less than two months they get a recording contract with Warner Music. The name ofthe band was Pato de Goma [Rubber Duck]. Francis plays the guitar in the band and writes some of the songs. In 1984, at the age of 18 and still in his senior year in school, he records his first album. Combining it with school, Francis has to attend to the professional commitments of the band, promote the album, live concerts, that take him throughout Spain during the summer of 1984, playing in more than 40 cities throughout the country. The group gets a hit with their second single Chicos Malos [Bad Boys] which gets to number 1 of the Top Forties the most important radio show in Spain. In 1985 and 1986 Pato de Goma continues to tour Spain and prepares what was to be their second studio album. Unfortunately, the management of the record company changes and this second project is never recorded. Meanwhile, Francis starts to show interest in the piano and synthesizers, studying said instrument. He is also interested in production and in 1986 he produces the group Los Moviles for DRO records, in addition to making several recordings and perfecting his skills in the recording studio. Between 1987 and 1989 Francis makes several live tours as P.A. engineer for Rosendo, Paloma San Basilio, Bordon 4, Emilio Jose, etc.

In 1990 Francis leaves for the United States to improve his English and lives two months in California, between San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1991, back in Spain, he puts together another band, XL, being the singer and writer of the songs. Even though this group was very close to getting a recording deal, it never got it, but it allowed Francis to rub shoulders with the music scene in Madrid and get to know a lot of musicians,with whom he would come to work int he future. In 1992 Francis sets up his first recording studio. Having much interest in writing songs, he writes and produces the original soundtrack of the tweive chapters of the documentary "De campo y sin merienda" for Telemadrid network, a documentary about nature. He improves his command and skills in the studio, making arrangements, producing and recording. In 1993 he takes part as a musician in the soundtrack ofthe movie "Porque 10 llaman amor cuando quieren decir sexo? ". He also recorded the album "Matricula V" for the lvfatricula V group for Sony music as a session musician.

In 1994 he produced the album “Sacame del mundo" for Dinobile, he participates as session musician in the album "Esperando Nada" of Chilean artist Nicole and also wrote the song "Solo el Mar" for her. This album would come to sell over 300,000 units in Chile and more than 450,000 throughout America. He also was part of the album "El Compromiso" of the El Compromiso band for Virgin records and of the Paco Ortega album"La magia del barro", where he recorded as a musician and took part of several of the arrangements for the songs. During this year Francis composes the soundtrack for the 10 episodes of the "Fauna Callejera" documentary for RTVE.

In 1995 he discovered a group of very young girls who play and sing and after perfecting their repertoire by writing some songs, he gets BMG Ariola sign the group. The band is called Gatas Negras (Black kittens) and it is probably one of the first rock groups in the Spanish scene. "Las chicas de mi edad", a song written by Francis, gets to be the top ten that year.

During 1996 and 1997 Francis works a lot in the world of advertising, composing jingles for very important campaigns such as MoviStar, el Pais, Canal Satelite, Bayer, Onda cero, Toyota, ONCE, Disney channel or Coca Cola.

Between 1997 and 1998 he composed the original soundtrack for the documentary "Vietnam, vida tras la muerte", which is selected at the New York Times Festival as a finalist to the award for the best documentary in 1998. He also composed the music for the music show "Musica si" for RTVE. He also produced the Alfredo and Bruno album "Palabras nuevas" for Bat records and the album "Las cosas llegan" of Pablo Bicho for Arcade records. He takes part as a session musician in the "!panema" album for the !panema group for BMG Ariola and DJ KUN's "Latin Kilombo" album for Dro records. This album received several awards during the music awards that same year and goes to gold. Francis composed a song for this album. He also took part as a session musician in the album "Dile al sol" of the Oreja de Van Gogh, the first album of the group, which gets to sell over one million copies and later receives several awards, among them, the prestigious international award Ondas, as the revelation band ofthe year. He also took part in the album for Lico, "Mientras camino" for EMI records. This flamenco artist combines pop and flamenco music, the genre that Francis has not played and which would open many doors for him in the future.

In 1998 Francis composes all the music for the "Canal cocina" (Cooking channel). His music would be used for the next 8 years. This work earns Francis his first international award at the New York TV Festival, the bronze medal in the "Id's and promotions" category.

1999 is a very important year for him, since he would produce two works with his great friend Sergio Castillo, famed producer and musician in Spain. The album "Mi mente" of Lanco for Vamm records and Estopa's first album "Estopa" for BMG Ariola. The latter earned a platinum record for selling over 1,500,000 records and an Ondas award in 1999. Francis co-produced, made the arrangements and played in all the songs of his record. This album was recorded in Francis’ studio being the engineer himself also. He also had the opportunity to work with Joaquin Sabina, a very well-known artist in the Latin scene, making arrangements for the brass for one ofhis songs.

Television continues to be a very important field for Francis and this year he composes the main titles for the "Curso del 99 " show for RTVE, "Un pais maravilloso" and "Los ninos del milenio" for Antena 3. He also continues working as a session musician for the albums "Krasy" of Yula Yul and "Los lunes que quedan " of the Los Lunes band for Dro records.

At the end of 1999, Francis starts to compose the soundtrack for the series "Hospital central" for the Telecinco network, which would lead to him composing all the music for the series until 2011. This series would become the longest running series in Spain. A drama series that takes place in a hospital, which would enjoy enormous success through the years, reaching number one in viewing audience several times. Francis will start the first season that year and will continue to write the original soundtrack for 19 seasons.

In 2000, between seasons of Hospital central, Francis produces the album "Lio" of Hector Lera for Discos en la Arena and takes part in the arrangements and as a musician in the album "Tan dentro" of Esmeralda Grao for Loccade records and as a musician in the album "espunk" of Meteosat for Universal music. This same year, in September, he marries his wife Paloma.

In 2001, in addition to his work for television, he co-produced the second album of Estopa, "Destrangis", which sold over 800,000 records. He also took part in the "Grandes exitos" record of the GOLD series for Universal of the artist Pimpinela, as arranger and the album "Vestidos de Domingo" ofthe Cabra Mecanica for WEA records.

In 2002, BMG Ariola edited a third record for Estopa "Mas Destrangis" with songs recorded for the second album which never came to light, where Francis had co-produced, arranged and played in. That year, he produced the album "A que molo" for artist K.O. with Vale music and the album "Las chicas son guerreras" of Beatriz for Warner Records. He participated in the arrangement for the song "No te quiero mas" of Marta Sanchez for Muxxic records.

In 2003, the Academy of Musical Sciences and Arts asked Francis to compose the music for the music award for that year. He continues his work in "Hospital central" and in February ofthat year, his first son, Pablo, was born.

His second son, Alvaro, was born in 2004 and Francis produced his third album for the Guarana group, "Guarana", which was very successful, after producing "Desde el principio" for the international duet Azucar Moreno that same year, which took him to London to work with great engineer and musician Merv de Peyer. He continues his work in "Hospital central", which that year becomes the fictional series with the largest audience in Spain. He also composed the original soundtrack for the short film "Mus" of Patxi Amezcua, which received several journalistic and audience awards.

In 2005, in addition to his work in "Hospital central", he composed the music and the soundtrack of the series "Lobos "for Antena3 television and the opening credits music of the series "Corta-t" for Cuatro TV. He also participated as a musician in the production of "Nos vinimos de Shopping" for the Mexican band Juan y la Bruja and as a musician and sound engineer of the album "Volviendo a casa" of Alejandro martinez. That year, after 10 seasons in antena, "Hospital central" received the prestigious Ondas award to the best national fiction series. This would be one of the numerous awards earned by the series through its history.

In 2006 he worked as engineer in the album "Distinto" of Lagarto amarillo, and produced the song "Me lo dice el mundo" of Idaira, one of the revelation artists of the successful show Operacion Triurifo which surpassed all the viewing records in the country. He continues his work with "Hospital central", composing the music for seasons 13 and 14.

In 2007, Francis once again works with another new artist coming from the show OT (Operacion Triunfo), Leo Segarra, making the arrangements and playing in his album "Iniciando sesion ". That year, "Hospital central" earned the Gold TP to the best national series.

In 2008 Francis composed the soundtrack for the television series "RIS cientifica" for Telecinco and continues to write the music for "Hospital central", which he will continue to do during 2009 and 2010.

In 2009 Francis was the composer of the original soundtrack for the movie "25 Kilates" of Patxi Amezcua, which received several awards and box office success.

Also, in 2010 he wrote the music for the short film "Ofelia" of Anita Sinkovic. His third son, Jacobo, was born this year in 2010.

In 2011, Antena3 television and Telemundo televised the story of Arturo Perez-Reverte "La reina del sur" in a very ambitious series to be seen on both sides of the Atlantic, in many countries in South America, the United States and Spain. Francis is to be responsible for the soundtrack of the series, which becomes the most viewed Latin series in the United States to-date.

From 2008 to 2011 Francis combines his facet of creator with teaching, by teaching the production course at the SAE international institute. Also, between 2011 and 2013 he produced the album for the Los Aperitivos band, "Grandes fracasos", a revision of the best known songs of the band since 1980. It was edited in Spain in September 2013.

His latest work, has been composing the music for the TV series, “Griselda Blanco: La Viuda Negra” produced by Televisa, aired in Mejico, Colombia, and The United States with a lot of success.

In addition to his work on television as a composer, Francis has written songs for great Spanish artists such as Ana Belen, Ana Torroja, Azucar Moreno, DJ Kun, Paco Morales, Gatas Negras and international artists such as Mijares or Nicole, totaling over 5 million records sold by these songs.