Francy Planet is the solo project of London, Ontario songwriter and author François Goudreault, formerly the frontman of Hello Kelly. Someone who has stuttered since childhood, Goudreault has spoken about songwriting as the place where his words come out clean, work that earned him the Stuttering Foundation’s Converting Awareness into Action award. His new single, “Brain Freeze,” is the first in a run of songs building toward a full album expected in summer 2027.
Brain Freeze
The song started with an oddly specific spark: a brain freeze in a parking lot in Orangeville, Ontario, outside a Circle K that used to be the Mac’s Milk where Goudreault biked as a kid for Nintendo Power magazines and slushees. That collision of past and present, standing in the same spot decades apart, became the track’s core idea, a sudden, fleeting glimpse of every age you’ve ever been before you’re pulled back into your actual life. Musically, “Brain Freeze” leans into modern grunge-pop built on ’90s alternative foundations, big drums, crunchy guitars, and a bright melodic vocal that gets to its chorus fast, drawing loosely on the same lineage as Weezer, The Dirty Nil, and Our Lady Peace. The track carries an infectious energy from the start, with heavy, driving guitar work setting the tone early on and giving the whole song its momentum. Goudreault’s vocal performance matches that intensity, delivering the lyrics with a strength that lets the emotion of the song come through clearly. It follows Goudreault’s 2025 debut RETCON, a concept album paired with a book of short stories about a man realizing his own life had lost its narrative thread, and “Brain Freeze” plays like a kind of coda to that idea, a reminder that you can rewrite your story but never fully escape not knowing what happens next. Written by Goudreault and produced and mixed by GI Holm, the track reportedly got simpler as it got louder, with Holm pushing for restraint over piling on more parts.
Final Thoughts
“Brain Freeze” pairs a genuinely unusual origin story with a sound that should land easily with fans of melodic ’90s-leaning alt-rock. Francy Planet plays a full-band show at Sneaky Dee’s in Toronto on October 3rd, with support from Monday Big, Us Villains, and Mirrage. For more, visit francyplanet.com.
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