E337 King Falcon on Vintage Guitars, Their Rejected Hit, and Evolving Beyond Their Blues Rock Roots

Mike: I'm Mike.

Joe: I'm Joe.

Dip: I'm Dip.

King Falcon: We're King Falcon and you're listening to The Itch. 

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KC: You're listening to The Itch. My name is KC.

Dan: My name is Dan.

Aaron: And I'm Aaron. And this week we are scratching The Itch to Bloom. Because that is the name of the upcoming EP by this week's guests, Michael, Joe, and Dip of King Falcon.

Dan: Yeah, and I just wanted to give them a mad shout out right off the bat because as somebody who travels by car a lot, typically when you're driving, you have like a destination in mind. You got to get there by a certain time. And these guys were kind enough to pull over into a parking lot for like almost an hour, if not more.

KC: Yeah.

Dan: And give us their time so that we completely threw off their whole schedule for the whole day. But I appreciate it. And it means a lot to us that you're willing to fuck up your whole schedule for us.

KC: Yeah, right.

Aaron: Not only did they pull over and kind of pause their trip to their next destination on their tour, but they had had car trouble the day before and had their van in the shop. And so I think they were already delayed and they still were like, no, we want to do this. we'll make it work. And so I'm just doubling down on the kudos that you guys already gave because that was, that was a very cool thing of them to do that they did not have to.

Dan: I agree.

KC: Another thing I want to commend them for is, uh, ever since this version of the band has been going, pretty much every interview that they've done, all three of them are a part of every interview. And I just, I think when bands do that, it gives them a more cohesive element. Not like one person is the driving force type of thing. They're all in it at all times. And I just, I think that's always awesome when that happens.

Dan: Agreed.

Aaron: And you know, in a lot of those cases, there's still one person that is maybe the, the most talkative or kind of the overall spokesman. Like, I remember when we talked with Plaiins, Chris kind of took that role, and Michael has that role with King Falcon, but it's still great to have all 3 of them there and kind of bouncing off of each other and telling stories together.

Dan: And the other thing I want to shout out, because we touched a little bit on it in the interview, but when we saw these guys live, they left quite an impression. It's— and it's, it's really cool when we see a band live and then, you know, it works out to where we're interviewing them very shortly thereafter. And that just kind of goes to show you the impression that they made, because the last band I think that that happened with was Aurorawave, right?

KC: Probably.

Dan: And now those are like our besties, right?

Aaron: Basically.

Yep.

They've been dropping some songs from this EP. It is slated to come out in September, but you can hear a number of tracks from it already. And it's definitely, as we talk about, a bit of a sonic pivot from what they've done before, but some cool stuff that's worth, that's worth getting into. And you can tell how much these guys just adore music. and instruments. I'll make sure I bring that up. I, maybe for the first time in an episode, was able to make a strange psychic prediction that I won't go into further detail on because it's more fun for you to hear it in the conversation. But that happened.

Dan: Yeah, and he's got the evidence to prove it. 

KC: Right! Doing some prep work for this conversation, I heard a couple of things that I wasn't sure if we would get into them in the conversation, and we, we did on both. Not really specifically trying to go into elaborate detail, but Michael has some hot takes on chocolate chip cookies and Eric Clapton.

Dan: And we had no plans really of addressing it, like you said, but the one is just such a hot take that I couldn't let it go.

KC: And your kids had a good follow-up question.

Dan: Runs in the family.

KC: So without any further ado, here's our conversation with Michael, Joe, and Dip of King Falcon.

Aaron: I'm gonna kick it off. I know KC and Dan have a lot they specifically want to talk about, but I asked them if I could lead it because I had a kind of a funny experience. So before we get into things, we had an amusing moment I wanted to share that happened when we saw you guys in April at Delmar Hall on the Des Rocs tour. So I asked KC to pull this up. I keep a notes document on my phone for concerts where I write down my observations and stuff like that. So we went into this pretty much blind. We didn't really know anything about you guys. We were there for Des because we've been following him for a few years. So within about ten minutes of taking the stage, I wrote a note about Michael. So I was hoping— KC, I bolded that for you. Can you read that out loud, that first thing that's in that note that I had you open up?

KC: Yep. "Frontman seems like the kind of guy that would love to talk about vintage guitars for about three hours."

Mike: That is, that is 100% spot on. That's actually the only thing I like to talk about.

Aaron: I looked back at my notes and I was like, because then, then we got like press releases and information about the band and like, oh yeah, he loves vintage guitars. I was like, hold on a second, I think I had a premonition about this.

Mike: Well, I'm glad that I project that because it's definitely like, that's a curated thing that I've tried to project.

Aaron: That's great. So yeah, I was entertained by that and I just thought that would be a good thing to lead off with because I know it was going to come up at some point or another in the conversation anyway.

Mike: Yeah, well, I mean, listen, you know, I don't want to— there's plenty of other things we could talk about because once we go down the rabbit hole of vintage guitars, then that's a pretty steep rabbit hole. But yeah, I mean, I look like that was kind of like— I grew up being a nerd about things. Like, I— the story I tell all the time is that when I was a kid, I had a bunch of Hot Wheels, and instead of like smashing them together or jumping them off things, I would just like organize them by type and color. And I think that like something is undiagnosed there. And instead of trains, it just happened to be guitars for me, you know, which I think is fortunate because it's like, it's a little bit more commercially viable. Um, although maybe not as profitable because you can use a lot of money to be made on trains. No, it's just one of those things where, you know, once you, once you play one, you're like, dang, that's cool. And that's how you end up— I think I have like almost 60 of them at the moment.

Dan: Yeah, you just described me to a T as well.

Aaron: Not with guitars, but—

Dan: Yeah, not with guitars, not with guitars, but with collections in general. Like, I have a signed t-shirt collection. I have actually just a t-shirt collection. I don't know if you can see it too. I have a Funko Pop collection on the top of my—

Mike: You sure do— damn. Oh my God.

Dan: Uh, my— the entire top of my closet is filled with Funko Pops. So as someone who has various collections that can take up a lot of space, and space is a premium in New York City, I'm just kind of wondering, how do you manage your guitar collection while living there?

Mike: Honestly, dude, the hardest part is the cases because guitars are not that big and they kind of all go up on the wall. But cases are the trickiest part because they just take up so much room and they're all like hard, you know, and you can't, you can't stack too many of them because you don't want them to like break or anything. So those are honestly, I'm still sort of working on a solution for that. It's a bit of a mess right now, but I do have all the actual guitars are up on a wall, which is pretty sick.

Dan: That's awesome.

Mike: My favorite part is, um, there have been a couple guitars that I got which sort of have a smell to them, and that smell is a mixture of Marlboro Reds, Grandma's attic, and mothballs. And sometimes that doesn't air out right away, so you put one of those guitars up on the wall and everything smells like Grandma's attic for a month. That's— so for me as a collector, that's part of the appeal. But for anybody else, they're like, it smells like cat piss in here. And you're like, yeah, sure enough.

KC: Touching back on the tour for just a second, we knew that Des brings high energy, seen him a couple times, and you guys definitely match their energy, rocking out all set long. So I just want to commend you guys for, for putting on such a good live performance.

Mike: I appreciate that, man. You know, I, we've known Des for a long time, and I actually played, like I opened up for Des a long time ago. It was two shows. One was in Nebraska and one was in— was it in Des Moines, Iowa? It was in Des Moines, Iowa. And he— I mean, he's infinitely better now, obviously, with a lot more experience, but he was incredible back then. So I think all of us were very aware going into it, the fact that we had to kind of be top of our game in order to, like, you know, he puts on a great show, so we also have to put on a great show, you know? And, uh, that's kind of that. You don't want to have there be a huge disparity. So I, I feel like Danny being as good as he is sort of made us be, uh, as good as we can be, and I think that's important.

KC: Definitely.

Dan: So you guys have a new EP coming out, the Bloom EP. I'm really curious because this is a, you know, you guys released a self-titled debut album in 2023 with Mascot Records. This new EP though is going to be dropped as an independent release that comes out in September. So I'm really curious, like, I understand that the new EP has kind of a different sound a little bit than the last album. It was a little bit more bluesy, a little bit more poppy. Now I'm kind of curious as to what the the, the idea behind the change in direction?

Mike: Sure. Well, I mean, a lot of, a lot of stuff happened, you know. Like, I, I— first of all, when I, when I wrote all the songs on the first record, I was like 19, 20 years old, so I was a lot younger than I am now for sure. And like, my taste has grown and my knowledge of music has grown, and we've obviously done 500, 600 shows or however many since then. Like, we've done a ton of shows So, you know, I think all those things sort of play into it. Also, just like my life changed, you know. The band is different as well. I don't know if I mentioned that, but like Joe and Dip were actually not on the first record. So the title— first of all, the title Bloom comes from the fact that we are now a new band and this is kind of our first, like, thing that we're creating. And also that we are now independent. So this is very much us. So it's the idea of Bloom is like we're just kind of at the beginning of it. You know, that's, that's really where it's at. Um, yeah, you guys fucking weigh in on it. Like, you guys are— you guys know the songs as well. Shit, it can't just be me chatting the whole time. You wrote the songs? Fair enough. Yeah, I guess I did write the songs. Um, let me, let me tell you one story that stuck with me though, and I think this is probably the biggest thing. We were on tour once and we were at a hotel, and obviously everywhere we go people are like, are you guys a band or something? You guys look like a band. So everybody was always asked about it. And there was a lady who was working at the front desk of the Hilton, and she asked us if we were a band. I said yes. Next morning, as we're walking out, she was like, I listened to you guys, and you— she said just like this, she said, you guys are fantastic, but it feels like you haven't been through enough shit yet. And I was like, you know what, you're right. Because I feel like, um, well, our songs are very cool, uh, on the first record. There's no there isn't one where you listen to it and you're like, damn, I feel the— I feel the big sad in that one, you know? And I think that's important, even, even for an upbeat rock band. It's important that there be a little bit of yourself in a vulnerable kind of way that is imprinted on the songs. And I feel like Bloom has a lot of that. And I think that's why, like, when we were demoing the songs, everybody around us that was hearing them was really, really excited about them because it's different and because it's Uh, honestly, a lot more honest. So I guess that's what I have to say about Bloom. I mean, we're stoked about it. We've got, I think two more songs that are not released yet on that, uh, and we're working on a full record for next year. So we've got a lot of stuff going on and really excited to be independent while doing that because it's, it's fully our vision and it's not really influenced by anything else other than what we think is cool.

Aaron: You mentioned that Joe and Dip weren't really part of the band on the first album. So as you guys are working on, on this one, the EP, was it more— was it a collaborative process, or is it still kind of Michael does it and brings it to you guys?

Mike: So I, I'm definitely the primary writer, but, uh, as, as I've said before, there's so much talent in the band now that I write with the abilities of Joe and Dip in mind. Like, Joe is honestly a better singer than I am, although he won't admit it. got an incredible range and he's got a really, really good ear and he sings harmonies really well. So like, if you listen to Plastic Crown, some weird harmonies on that song, and that's because I know Joe can sing them. You know, if you listen to any of the other songs on the record, you'll, you'll hear some pretty impressive harmonies, and that's all Joe, dude. Like, that's because he can sing it. And kind of the same with the drum parts. Like, Dip— don't tell him I said so, but I think Dip is genuinely one of the best drummers out there, and nobody plays drums like Dip. So The, you know, the, the capabilities that he has, I think, need to be very well presented on the record. And like, this next— we're, we're doing drum solos on the recording for the, the next album. Like, that's— he's not getting away from that. It's happening. So again, I, I do most of the writing, but it, it is very much informed by who is in the band.

KC: Well, as props to the, the drumming on Hungry Dog Run, that's one of my favorite songs off the EP, and it's A lot of it is the storytelling that you have in the lyrics just throughout the whole song, but then you have like multiple breakdowns like within one giant part, and the drumming and the guitar work is just phenomenal on that.

Mike: Appreciate it, man.

Joe: Thank you.

Dip: Thank you.

Mike: Yeah, and that's sort of what I'm talking about. Like, I feel like the lyrics for that song— like, what I think the first record did really well and kind of established with King Falcon is that we're a band that's really about the hooks. Like, every song, everywhere we play, by the second chorus, the crowd kind of knows how it goes, even if they haven't heard the song before. And that's something really important, I think, as a new band. Because, I mean, first of all, don't bore us, get to the chorus. Everybody knows that.

Aaron: Yeah.

Mike: But also, it makes it so that a new band that you don't know is digestible, so that you can hear it, you're like, okay, I feel like I know the song, rather than it's some kind of long convoluted journey where like two and a half minutes in you're like, How did we get here? You know, that's one thing for sure. But I feel like these new songs have sort of evolved lyrically where there's a little bit more storytelling and there's a little bit more, like I said, vulnerability. Like Hungry Dog Run for sure is a— that is a song that is a story from beginning to end. Similar— Cadillac is similar in that way, but I think Hungry Dog Run— Cadillac is a fun song. Hungry Dog Run actually really has something to say because that, that was one of the first songs that I wrote besides Plastic Crown that's kind of political and not necessarily on one side or the other, more like a proletariat rises up kind of thing, you know. Um, especially, especially living in New York, the first two lines, rent comes fast and he's living on scraps. Like, that's, that's New York, man. Like, rent really does come fast and you're living in a shoebox and it's $3,000 a month and you're like, that's— it shouldn't be that way. And, and unless there is art that calls attention to the fact that that is a problem, then people just let it go. So, you know, that's like my contribution to that, I think. And that was not something I think I was capable of writing with in mind when I was 19.

KC: Yeah, makes sense. Also an interesting story behind Holding Out. The previous label refused to release the song despite everyone around you telling you that it was the next hit.

Mike: Yeah, I—

they hated that song. And then when we put it out, it was number 1 on the SubModern charts. We were the only indie band that was up there, and it was, uh, it was number 1 for like 2 months.

Dan: Was that part of the decision behind going independent?

Mike: Yes, that song 100% was a lot of the reason that we decided to go independent. The other thing is we wanted to be able to control our own release schedule. And I have to say, no hard feelings with the label at all. Like, we're all still cool. It was very amicable. I think they're great guys. Like, I wish them all the best. Like, it's not We're not here like, fuck our label. It's not like that at all. Like, they're—

KC: Yeah.

Mike: They're good dudes. But again, I just think, um, best way I can explain it is that it's really, really hard to turn a battleship, and it's a lot easier to turn a small boat. And the label is a battleship, and we are a small boat, and we need to kind of be able to do this as we see fit timing-wise. And it's very hard to do that when you have a, like, a much bigger institution that you have to constantly check with and not be on the same page with. That's really what it comes down to, as well as being able to do whatever we want creatively. So—

Dan: Were any of the EP tracks holdovers from past writing sessions? Or are they all new songs?

Mike: Wait, for sure. Wait was— Wait, actually we had to wait to put that one out as well. Nothing Feels Amazing, for sure. Uh, Wait, Nothing Feels Amazing, and Holding Out, I sort of wrote around the same time, and those songs sat for almost a year and a half. So they were really kind of sitting for a while. I think, um, Hourglass and Hungry Dog Run were sort of more recent. Like, we kind of— those were written more recently. Like, we didn't have them sitting as long, particularly Hourglass. I mean, that one's probably the, the quickest one from recording to when it's actually coming out. But yeah, Holding Out, Wait, and Nothing Feels Amazing were in the chamber for quite a while.

Dan: And you had mentioned that these, uh, that they're gonna be putting out a full album next year. Are these songs all gonna be appearing on it? On the full album?

Mike: No, I'll be honest with you, I think it's sort of a cop-out when bands do that. Like, no shade, but a little bit of shade. Like, you guys couldn't write five more songs?

Dan: That's awesome.

Mike: You know?

Aaron: Dan feels the same way, isn't it? One of his big pet peeves is, I just bought this EP and now I'm buying the same songs on the album.

Mike: 100% agree, and we will not be doing that. These songs are from this EP, and there will be new different songs on the album.

Dan: Awesome. Well, you just got somebody to buy your EP when it came out.

Mike: I thought it would be funny to do three albums, have the first album be album 1, have the second album, second album be the live album, and have the third album be the greatest hits. And it's just three of the same albums.

Dan: How you spin it nowadays.

Mike: Yeah.

Aaron: So since our introduction to you guys was while you're on tour, I wanted to make sure we spent a little bit of time talking about travel, especially because we got some interesting tidbits from your team before we set this up. So I'm curious. Yeah.

Yeah.

Dan: And you're on the road right now.

KC: Right.

Aaron: And literally you guys are on the road right now, or at least at a highway exit for the moment.

Mike: We are.

We're at like a Love's or something.

I don't know.

Some type of gas station.

I think it's a truck stop.

Yeah.

Aaron: Somewhere in Ohio on your way east. Yeah. So Dip, you came all the way here from India.

Dip: Yes.

Aaron: I'm very curious what brought you here and then how you ended up getting connected with Michael and Joe.

Dip: It's like, it's a mix of music and my wife. Like, she wasn't my wife back then. She was my girlfriend. So I had to choose between a city in India or New York, and then I thought like, why not, let's go to New York. And I was here for a couple of weeks, and then I thought that I should get out of my house and find people to work with. I did that, I went to a drum jam, and that was the first time I saw these guys because Mike was looking for a drummer, and that was the first time they went to the drum jam as well. So it kind of worked out.

Aaron: Nice.

Dip: Yeah. Match made in heaven!

Aaron: Yeah, I was just thinking about how— I mean, I don't know where exactly in India you're from, but I was just thinking how like diving headfirst into New York City is a wild introduction to the US. But then you also come from a very populated country, so it's maybe, maybe crowds and whatnot isn't that new.

Dip: Yeah, all of the people I meet and everyone who asks me about like, how are you adjusting, I say that Brooklyn has the right amount of people. So, that really works for me.

KC: Fair enough.

Aaron: I actually like that. As somebody who's somehow never been to New York, like, that makes me want to go to Brooklyn because I feel like it would be overwhelming, but right amount of people works.

Dip: And also a good amount of trees and everything, so it kind of works out.

Aaron: Right on.

You guys, obviously we are right now are talking to you as you are on the road together in your van. So, and you just told a story at the beginning there, uh, about the the van having some issues. I'm curious, what's the craziest thing that's happened to you guys during your travels? And bonus points if it was on this recent DesRocks run.

Mike: Joe crashed into a hot tub!

Dip: It was not on the Des Rocs run.

Joe: It was not on the Des Rocs run, but it was about two months before.

We were on our way to our first gig of the run. Uh, we were driving up to Toronto, and in Buffalo, about a half hour from Buffalo, Uh, at like 11 PM at 80 miles an hour. Suddenly a hot tub. Uh, but the truck in front of us like got over lanes real quick, and before I could even see what was in the road, it was disintegrated and split our radiator in half. We were now on the side of the road in smoke.

Aaron: Oh my gosh.

KC: Wow.

Joe: It was fiber glass everywhere.

Mike: So if you're watching this and you're wondering why your jacuzzi didn't show up... Sorry. 

Aaron: King Falcon owes you one. Well, somebody owes you one.

Mike: But you know what? You know what happened? Somebody put that on the back of the truck and didn't pull the ratchet strap and go, "That'll hold it. That's not going anywhere." They missed that crucial step of saying that won't go anywhere.

KC: Wow, that's so wild.

Mike: Yes, that was a fun one.

Aaron: All right, I've got I've got one more travel question, and this actually. We have a thing we'll do in a minute here that we call Burning Questions, which is kind of a pool of stuff we ask everybody. This would really fit in there, but I'm singling it out for you guys. Besides obvious stuff— gear, toiletries, clothing— what's something that is essential for you to travel with?

Mike: Oh, I can tell you for Joe, it's baby powder.

Joe: Gotta have it.

Mike: I know for Joe it's baby powder. Uh, that's a good question.

Dip: Um, I would say like toothpaste and floss.

Mike: Yeah, toothpaste is really important. I never bring toothpaste. I always use Dip's. I always forget it. So another— I'm psychotic. I don't bring a charger with me on tour. My phone only charges in the van. So if I'm not driving, like, my phone doesn't charge and it's just dead all the time. Like, that's okay.

Like, it's not—

I don't really have to talk to anybody.

Joe: I think you should drive more.

Mike: No, if anything, I was gonna say Dip needs to drive more, although Dip has done some pretty serious driving this tour, so I can't even make fun of him. It's really— he's really put in the time.

Joe: Imodium. I mean, that's kind of a toilet paper.

Mike: Yeah, dude, like, oh dude, like Pepto-Bismol. I don't know.

Dip: I would say like Advil, Mucinex, because these two guys always get sick.

Mike: Always get sick.

Sick right now.

Dip: Just before the interview, Mike sneezed like 1,000 times.

Mike: Yeah, I had to get 'em out. I don't want to sneeze on camera.

Aaron: Get them all out in advance.

Mike: Yeah.

I know there's a lot of things to bring and it's like not what you expect. It's like really lame stuff, you know? Like we used to have a massage gun. I kind of gave it away though. I gave it away on the Des Rocs tour. I gave it to the Romes guys.

Aaron: Oh, they were just really stressed and they—

Mike: Yeah, no, they were. And that shit's out there in Canada now. So, um, a lot of things that we could bring. By the way, we love the Romes guys. They are like some of the coolest people we've ever been on tour with, and they're just the nicest dudes.

Aaron: Yeah, that's cool. We thought they were a very interesting choice to be the— like, sonically, to be the sandwich in that tour. We're like, you guys and Des, I feel like sonically fit pretty well together, right? Romes is like, how about we take a hard left turn on the sound? Which can work, it's kind of cool, but it definitely threw us off at first because we weren't that familiar with them either.

Mike: Listen, I hear you, and it's one of those things where like, like, they're significantly bigger than us, so they kind of have to be the direct support. Like, we're, we're not as big as they are, you know? But it is weird going from us to them and then Des Rocs. It's a little bit of whiplash.

KC: Yeah.

Mike: And it's, it's almost a shame because like, I know some people maybe not wouldn't be into that sound, but like, Romes is so incredibly good and talented that like, it's a shame that the crowd is not like perfectly set for them for that thing. So yeah, it's definitely an interesting choice, but sometimes it be like that. Shit, right?

Aaron: Yeah, good is good. So you know, yeah, if you're talented, then you just kind of you make it work.

KC: Yeah.

Dan: So we noticed that you guys don't seem to have a tour announced at the moment. So what's next for King Falcon as we get close to the release of Bloom?

Mike: Yeah. So look, we've done a lot of touring last year and a half. We got to make this record, you know. So we got to our plan is, and this is super. pretty early announcement, super preemptive. We're going to Europe next year, so it's looking like we'll probably end up in Germany, maybe Switzerland, maybe Austria. Uh, and we want to make sure that we have a record that's ready by then. We want to make sure it's a good record. So we're honestly— I don't want to say taking time off because it's definitely not time off, but we are taking time away from touring to make the record. Well, yes, and, uh, and, and Joe's gonna go make some money doing another gig as well because, you know, he gets this Yeah, this, uh, it's not like King Falcon really pays a whole lot. Um, no, but, um, no, so that's really what the plan is for the rest of the year. I mean, we've got to make this record, uh, and then next year we're going to Europe and, and it'll all be new songs and things like that. And, yeah, so last year we did about 100 shows. This year we've been on tour for, uh, two and a half months already.

KC: Mm-hmm.

Mike: So we've done a ton of touring. We've kind of been everywhere, and I think it's time that we just hunker down and Make some new content, really.

KC: Makes sense.

Aaron: All right, for our last section, I'm excited that we get to do this. A lot of times we run out of time before we get to Burning Questions, and we actually kind of love them. So I'm glad, especially with a whole band, that we have a little bit of time here to dive into a few of these. So these are questions that we, we kind of pick from our little pool and we ask everybody. So I'm interested in hearing from each of you guys to start. What is a song or an album that changed your life?

Mike: Delta Sleep, Ghost City. Joe brought them to the band and they have become the band's collective favorite band. 50% of the music that we listen to on the road is Delta Sleep. I remember on the last tour we finished— or before the Des Rocs tour, we finished in Washington, D.C. and there was exactly enough time from Washington, D.C. to my house where we could listen to the entire discography. Like, down to the second, there was exactly enough time. Um, yeah, and I'm sure you guys have different— but like, most recently, they— because I, as somebody who makes music and as somebody who is in this professionally, you get kind of jaded pretty quick and you get really sick of hearing stuff. So when you, when you hear something and it really just tickles the right spot, you know. It's nice because that does not happen often.

Aaron: Hmm.

Mike: And it's been a while, but Delta— like, before Delta Sleep, it was Tame Impala, and before then it was like Pink Floyd when I was a kid, you know.

KC: Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. What about you guys? 

Joe: I'm gonna also say Delta Sleep, but it's gonna be Twin Galaxies, their album. Uh, I think it's their like first album besides, uh, the EP they put out. It was— I, I heard it at a time in my life where I felt that every song That he— it's kind of like sequential that he writes, and I felt like everything that he was saying I was actively going through. So it was, uh, pretty, pretty mind-opening to see it from an outside perspective and path to go down for myself.

Dip: For me, I would say it would be Hybrid Theory and Meteora from Linkin Park. Yeah, those two albums changed my life. That's the reason why I started like playing drums, and the song in particular is From the Inside. That was the first time I realized that there's a thing called 6/8 as a pattern, and that changed my life.

Mike: Which is funny because at this moment King Falcon doesn't have any songs released in 6/8, but I remember when Dip joined the band, he's been saying, he's like, you got to give me a song in 6/8. We've got a couple we haven't put out, like we've got one that we recorded and haven't released that's in 6/8, and a couple demos that are in 6/8, so there will be some 6/8 King Falcon, and you can thank Dip entirely for that.

Aaron: There it is.

Joe: Start practicing your waltz. 

Aaron: Exactly, yeah. We need those dance numbers. I gotta gotta move.

KC: Perfect. What is a song that you guys love playing live?

Mike: Um, okay. This is gonna be this is gonna be an interesting answer for me. One of my favorite songs to play live is My Name Is. And it's actually one of the songs that, uh, like, my taste of music personally with our own stuff, like, On Your Soul is probably one of my favorite songs. My Name Is is one of my lesser favorite songs, but I love playing it live. And it's kind of funny how that works because that song is like kind of got a southern blues rock to it thing, and that's like not really anywhere in my playlist, but it's so much fun to play. So Interesting answer for me. I don't know about you guys.

Dip: I would say that I feel really amazing while playing Nothing Feels Amazing, so it's probably my favorite song at this moment.

Joe: Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with that. Nothing Feels Amazing for me has quickly become one of my more favorite ones to play. It just feels right.

Mike: Yeah, I like that one too. It's kind of hard for me to sing though.

Dan: Fair enough.

KC: What's a song that you wish you had written? If you could put your name to any song?

Mike: Uh, Is It a Crime by Sade.

Aaron: Oh, he was quick on that one.

Okay.

Mike: Also, any Steely Dan song ever written. Any of them. I just wish that I had a musical brain that was capable of that level of genius.

Joe: I'm gonna say Breathing Underwater by Hiatus Coyote. That's, that's more my like daily listening playlist. And, uh, just definitely, I wish that my brain could put music out like that in general.

Dip: Uh, I would say Lazarus by Porcupine Tree.

KC: Okay.

Mike: Now if you were asking my wallet about that question, it would be All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey. Yeah, I wish I wrote that one.

Aaron: That's part of why we ask that question is because it's open-ended and people can interpret it To, yeah, their own motivation. We've had people say Happy Birthday.

Mike: Oh, that's a fucking good one too. Yeah.

Aaron: There you go. Yeah.

Mike: Well, I feel like you're not— I feel like you're not getting your returns on that song. Like, you know how many times I've— how many times have I paid anybody this many? Yeah, exactly.

Aaron: You have to somehow copyright it off the bat and then— yeah, I don't know how it would work, but yeah.

Dip: Yeah, my heart is on—

Joe: that's why Applebee's, uh, doesn't do their—

Mike: Never Give You Up by Rick Astley. Yeah, yeah.

Dan: Gangnam Style.

KC: Gangnam Style, yeah.

Aaron: All right, I'm gonna say, preferably without repeating any of the artists that you've just mentioned, what would be a no-skips album for each of you?

Oh, preferably, obviously, like Delta Sleep, you know, but yeah, Currents, Tame Impala, no skip. No skip.

Mike: Yeah, Currents. Tame Impala. No skip. No skip.

Aaron: Okay.

Joe: I'm a big no-skip kind of guy in general. I kind of like listening to albums from start to finish. I'm also like, I was in post-rock band for a while, and like, so there's a lot of post-rock bands that I enjoy listening to, like Caspian, uh, or L10-11, or The Six Part Seven, that are all like different feels but from start to finish just kind of a vibe. throughout?

Dip: Uh, I would say like Continuum by John Mayer. That's a pretty solid album.

Mike: I'm chuckling because I'm not really a John Mayer fan.

Dip: Yeah, he's not a John Mayer fan.

Mike: If I could just add my hot take, the two guitar players that I really don't like— John Mayer, and can I tell you, I absolutely despise Eric Clapton.

Aaron: Oh, wow.

Mike: Nobody has ever gotten more credit for doing absolutely fucking nothing.

Dan: Fair enough.

Aaron: Every time we get a hot take like that, we're like, we don't, but we're like, what if that was what we led? Like, this is the title of the episode. "King Falcon Hates Eric Clapton."

Dan: Yeah. None of us know enough about guitars to really debate that.

Aaron: So, like, I mean, I'm trying to decide. I'm kind of curious to ask more about it.

Yeah.

Like, if you want to go, go in a little bit, you can. I educationally.

Mike: Well first off, horrifically racist guy. Like, that's just right off the bat, that's not good. But like, all he did was steal riffs from like all the blues players and like roll off his tone knob a little bit, and everybody's like, oh my God, Eric Clapton's tone is so good. His tone? A bunch of cocaine and rolling off the fucking tone knob. And you got these guys, all these old guys that are like lawyers and shit, and they go out and spend $20,000 on a fucking guitar because it says Eric Clapton's name on it, or like he held it for four and a half seconds. It's like, all right, settle down, man. Like, anyway, it just gets my blood boiling.

KC: Fair enough. I guess we could ask about cookies next, but we'll, we'll table that one.

Mike: Everybody always asks about that. I just, I said, I said I don't like chocolate chips once and it follows me.

KC: I know.

Mike: After we crashed the van, we drove it, we towed it to a mechanic shop and the mechanic was like, I read an interview on you, so you don't like chocolate chip cookies. I was like, trying to get my van fixed, bro. Goddamn.

Aaron: Why is that the thing you took away from this?

KC: Yeah, right.

Dan: I have a question. What about Cookie Crisp? Does that count?

Mike: Like— I love Cookie Crisp. That's different. That's different. That's a top five cereal.

Dan: Yes! When I saw that, that was my— one of my first thoughts. like, but what about Cookie Crisp?

Mike: Hey, now that, that's a good question! Now that's, that's good reporting right there.

Dan: There he goes.

My, my 8 and 10-year-old son definitely helped me with that one.

Mike: Shout out to the kids, man. They know what's cool.

Dan: Yes.

Mike: They're the future.

Aaron: We gotta start bringing them in.

KC: Right.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: Into the planning sessions more often.

Mike: You know what?

I would love to be interviewed by like, like an 8-year-old with a list of questions and stuff. None of them are gonna be about Anything I expect.

KC: Yeah, we can make that happen next time.

Aaron: Yeah, we can arrange that.

Dan: My 8-year-old has the mouth of a sailor and the brain of one too. No, I'm just joking. I don't know, uh, he's actually really smart and will stump you, and sometimes it's just like, wait, yeah.

KC: But he does, he does curse a lot. He's cursed more on the podcast than, than we have in the one appearance that he made.

Mike: So he sounds like my kind of guy.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: So we've already got the return interview booked.

KC: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Aaron: Jacoby leading it.

Dan: So I have one more burning question. I'm really kind of curious, what is a dream tour for King Falcon?

Mike: I'll let you guys answer this because I kind of have like a— I have a convoluted answer because I like— do you mean in terms of who I think makes most sense or like who do I just want to be on tour with?

Dan: Either or.

KC: Up to your interpretation.

Dan: You can have tw answers, like, we got time. 

Aaron: Personally, what I like to hear is active bands or somebody that is conceivably possible that you would just love to be out there with, because we like to hope that somehow this stuff gets in the right ears and these things could happen someday.

Mike: Well, in that case, I feel like one of the bands that would be one of the biggest things for it would be Royal Blood. Like, I was gonna say this, that would be fucking life-changing. Yeah, Cage the Elephant would be another one that would be also life-changing.

Dip: Yeah, um, definitely Royal Blood.

Mike: Yeah, Royal Blood's like the first one that comes to mind.

Aaron: I like that.

KC: Yeah.

Mike: You guys got anything else?

Joe: I mean, that would be great for the future of the band, but if we're talking like selfishly, I would love to tour with Willow Smith. I think that—

Mike: yeah, that's true. Joe is actually Willow Smith's biggest fan.

Joe: I'm a huge fan of her music. I think that it would be sick to open up for her.

Dan: Awesome, love it.

Mike: Delta Sleep, let's go!

Aaron: You have to at that point.

KC: Yeah, right.

Mike: Of course.

Aaron: How you've— yeah, you can tell them about the discography and how perfect it is. It'd be great, dude.

Mike: I'm telling you, there are not a lot of bands that have absolutely no bad songs. Like, every single song of theirs is good. They're all good. There's no song that is a skip. Crazy.

Aaron: I guess I'm gonna have to give them more time because I have not yet. I like when we get homework, new bands or bands to listen to.

KC: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Mike: Hell yeah.

Aaron: I'm trying to look at the other ones. I don't know if there's any that are better than that. I like, I like the, the Dream Tour is a good ender though, putting it out on something that we could like, maybe we, maybe we see this happen one day, some version of it.

Mike: That'd be great.

KC: All right, awesome guys.

Dan: Yeah, thank you very much.

Joe: Thank you.

Dan: So thank you very much for listening to The Itch Podcast. My name is Dan.

KC: I'm KC.

Aaron: I'm Aaron.

Dan: And until next time, I'm holding out.

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Aaron: If you enjoyed what you heard in this episode, please subscribe and tell a friend about The Itch.

KC: Check out the show notes for links about the episode as well as our new music playlist and where you can hear us every Sunday night.

Dan: And you can interact with us at itchrocks.com or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Gmail, all at Itchrocks. I-T-C-H-R-O-C-K-S.

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Mike: Oh, I'm sorry. Were we supposed to say we're King Falcon?

KC: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Aaron: No, it's good. We leave that open for a second and people want to. It's optional.

KC: Yeah.

King Falcon: Okay. We're King Falcon!

Dip: We are! Actually, we are King Falcon. Perfect.

Aaron: That's great. Well, I'll edit that back in. It'll be good.