Francis Farewell Starlite

Starlite worked with Kanye West on his 2018 albums ye and Kids See Ghosts. Starlite is credited as a writer and producer on ye's "I Thought About Killing You," and as a producer on "All Mine," and "Ghost Town". On Kids See Ghosts, Starlite is credited as a producer on "Feel the Love."

Francis and the Lights have released four EPs and two albums, including Farewell, Starlite! (2016) and Just for Us (2017).

They provided the soundtrack for the film Robot & Frank (2012), directed by friend and collaborator Jake Schreier. Schreier has performed as part of Francis and the Lights, producing some of their work and directing a majority of their music videos.

Starlite began traveling across the United States by train in an effort to find what direction he was going to take his life. While on a train traveling from Elkhart, Indiana to New Orleans, Starlite came to the decision that he was going to pursue his passion for music as a career path. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2010, he said, "I had played music and loved it my entire life, but hadn’t fully committed to it. And there was a moment when I wrote down the different things I could do. And then I wrote down, 'I think I’ll give the band a go.'" Shortly afterwards, Starlite returned to his birthplace of Oakland, California, where he lived and worked in a rehearsal space at Soundwave Studios and wrote songs for close to a year. He subsequently drove across the U.S. in a decommissioned postal truck to New York City, where he then formed Francis and the Lights. The band rehearsed for an entire year before starting to perform through a series of invitation-only shows at a white fabric-draped warehouse space.

Starlite rose to prominence after producing and co-writing the song "Karaoke" for Canadian rapper Drake from his 2010 debut album Thank Me Later.

On 3 November 2008, Starlite incorporated Francis and the Lights, LLC, as a limited liability company, as an alternative to signing a record deal. This was followed by an investment of $100,000 from the Normative Music Company, giving Francis and the Lights, LLC a valuation of $1 million. Normative's president, Jake Lodwick, a friend of Starlite and a co-founder of Vimeo, said, "Francis Starlite is an uncompromising musician and a strong leader. I believe he will bring Francis and the Lights to international stardom. The spectacular live shows, beautiful recordings, and his relentless character back me up." In late 2009, Normative Music Company shut down. The duo have since collaborated on the music app Keezy.

Starlite legally changed his name to Francis Farewell Starlite in 2004. When asked in an interview with Entertainment Weekly why he had changed his name, he answered:

Francis Farewell Starlite (born Abe Morre Katz-Milder; 14 June 1981) is an American musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is best known as the founder and lead vocalist of the pop band Francis and the Lights. He is primarily a vocalist and pianist, and is often credited by the Francis and the Lights name for his solo work.

Starlite was born Abe Morre Katz-Milder to a Jewish family on 14 June 1981 in Oakland, California. He was raised in Berkeley, California, and attended Berkeley High School, where he befriended future collaborators and Francis and the Lights members Rene Solomon and Jake Schreier. In 1999, Starlite enrolled at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Starlite befriended future Francis and the Lights collaborator Jake Rabinbach while a student at Wesleyan. Starlite attended Wesleyan from 1999 before ultimately dropping out in 2002. While there, Starlite and Rabinach were schoolmates of MGMT's members Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, whom they have since toured with.