Not exactly the kind of stuff you’d want to spin on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but to dig deeper, listeners have recently discovered an entirely genuine and enticing approach that stretches into the darker corners of one’s psyche. And it’s an approach that Rob Murray, who works the keyboards and guitars for Falloe, is quite familiar with.
“Well,” he says, taking a long pause after being asked if the music of Falloe is always born out of personal experience. “Every gig always ends with one of the members in the band having to get driven home,” he laughs.
“I think everyone’s been hurt in the past and everyone can relate to the songs in one way or another,” he continues. “There’s all kinds of loneliness that you get lost in. [Vocalist/guitarist Wade F Piva] has just got a great way of expressing it, even though he’s happily married. He’s got this unique way of looking at things. He’s got his degree in literature and he’s definitely very proud of his art.”
And rightfully so. On their self-titled latest and second full-length, Falloe create a warm and rich sonic landscape that after a few listens quickly becomes indelible. Tracks like Science Of The Heart, the first single from the record build from a simple acoustic melody into a wash of dense of haunting textures.
It creates a fairly intense headspace for the listener, but what sort of headspace does Falloe have to get in before penning their tracks?
“Wade’s the chief songwriter,” says Murray. “He comes up with the lyrics and the basic song structure. He likes to have a couple beers and let his mind wander and come up with some of the sick stuff that it does, like murder and betrayal. Then he’ll bring it to the rehearsal space and play it four or five times and you know, after a few rearrangements, we seem to have a good grasp on it.”
“I think a lot of it has to do with Wade’s voice,” continues Murray. “It’s a very majestic voice, but we all try and fool around with reverb and delays as much as we can to strive for that haunting feel.”
With Falloe, the band has tried to expand on everything they’ve experienced as a band up to now. Six years in, with their debut full-length The Diamond & the Thief and two EP’s (The Ballad of Jimmy James and Dead Dogs) to show for their consistent gigging, Falloe seem ready to take their place upon the city’s roots rock elite.
For Murray and Falloe, the key has indeed been trying to learn from what they’ve done and never be content to stop searching.
“We hadn’t actually recorded anything as the current lin-up is now. Until to record a record and listen back to it, you’re always trying to figure out what you sound it. And when you do, it always inspires you to play better shows, to play more shows and just emulate what you hear on the record and what you want to be. For this new album, we produced it ourselves and I mixed it myself. Sure, it might have been for budgetary reasons, but we also really wanted to strive for a sound and atmosphere that we were comfortable with.”
BY JOSHUA KLOKE
