Brian Faloon
Kiosk speaks to Brian Faloon, original drummer for “Stiff Little Fingers”, about his early life, music and his new musical project, “Radiqwal Dad”
Part 2 – Other musical experiences
Once you leave Stiff Little Fingers, what happens then?
Once I left, I was pretty much done with the music industry, and I really didn’t have any other outlet for a long time. It wasn’t that I had no interest, but no-one was coming knocking on my door asking me to join their band.
I lived in London for a little while, and I kept my hand in in terms of playing. I played a little bit in Glasgow with a tribute band which was sprung upon me, but I did have fun doing it. I played in cover bands and when I came back to Belfast. I played covers with Alan Kyle and Ciaran McNamee where we would play gigs wherever we could get them. We would play places like the Empire and venues like that.
In August 2004 you ran a Rock against Racism gig and went on to set up Love Music Hate Racism in Belfast?
Yes. My involvement with Rock against Racism, which became Love Music Hate Racism, began with SLF. We played the second big RAR gig in Victoria Park in London and the anti-racist message stuck as much of a chord as our stance on anti-sectarianism. LMHR became a major musical outlet for a few years as we built up a regular night at the Menagerie which always seemed to be packed and we also worked hard in the community to stand up to fascism, anti-sectarianism and hate, that seemed to afflict a growing immigrant population in and around Belfast. Charlotte Dryden, now Chief Executive of the Oh Yeah Center, was instrumental is making connections with similar groups in Derry and was a key organiser in getting bands to sign up and play. Darren Ferguson of Beyond Skin too was a major help in the early days and still is an inspiration.
You also had a radio show at one point?
Again, that came about completely by accident. I think I knew Royce Harper who had a radio show on Feile FM during the day, and I also knew Ryan McKinney from the Oh Yeah Music Centre and I said one day that I could do a radio show in the evening, and they agreed to that. It was down to a series of coincidences, but I really enjoyed doing it and it was a show where I could explore all sorts of music. I was able to find new avenues to explore my own tastes in music, but I thought I was able to introduce the audience to a wide range of genres from the comfortable to the obscure.
Some shows would go from soul music to reggae to people in Afghanistan playing nose flutes. The radio shows I produced really would go from the sublime to the most bizarre material.
You were a member of Scream Blue Murmur for a while?
Yes, I enjoyed doing that as well and the group toured a fair bit. The group played in Berlin, and we toured the United States and Canada. I played on a few recordings, and I contributed songs and vocals as well.
And you also stood for election in South Belfast?
I was a reluctant candidate for several reasons and there were long arguments about the “legitimacy” of my standing and what my influence as a former member of SLF might be. Campaigning and door-knocking was a hugely informative experience. In many ways it solidified my belief that as working-class folks, catholic and protestant had much more in common that what separated them but that entrenched sectarianism and nationalism worked to keep us apart. At the end of campaign, we managed several thousand votes in South Belfast and, with other results in the People before Profit campaign showed a hunger for social politics.
The music has an orchestral element to it. It also has a sense of connection to German electronic music from perhaps the early to mid 1970’s. Would that be reasonable to say?
Yes, that is fair comment. I was listening to electronic music in the 1970’s. Music from Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian Eno and that was part of broadening my musical tastes and knowledge. However, it was not really part of what I was used to playing in any live environment, and I had no skill with a keyboard or synthesizer.
I have always had an attitude towards electronic music, that it isn’t dull music. If you listen to the great exponents of this type of music, Phillip Glass, John Cage to some extent, John Adams, they are extremely expressive and more modern interpretations by Jóhann Jóhannsson or Hans Zimmer, produce hugely emotive pieces of music. Jóhann Jóhannsson would certainly be a more recent influence mixing electronica with brass and orchestral movements.
How does that transfer into you producing your music?
I look around for sounds and rhythms which provide evocative soundscapes. I found sounds from Brian Eno’s generative music programs suited the process well. The Scapes app in particular but also Bloom provided a lot of material. I imported some of the sounds from there. I build up the material, layering sounds on top of beats and vocal samples, including religious and choral music. The “We are not Friends…” project took a few months to complete and I was building up the soundscapes over that period, adding elements as I went along. I also aimed to add orchestral elements to the work. I create sections, movements where the music shifts and changes. I think that is quite important to do to avoid an overly repetitious element to the music.
We seem to be headed to more substantial military confrontations. Is there an anti-war theme built into the work you are producing?
There is a thread which takes the experiences of the past and uses them to show the futility of war, particularly with the Vietnam war and Nanking pieces, that war, is usually devastating on the civilian populations that are impacted by its consequences. There are deep physical and psychological scars that may never heal.
In the two war-related pieces my focus is on anti-war as much as it is on anti-racism and anti- capitalism, which also feature in some of the other pieces such as on “Along the dead shores of the last sea: reflecting climate and ecological collapse as an emerging threat to so-called civilization.
Living here in the US under the authoritarian, Trumpian regime the threat to the established order is real but not in a way that is to the betterment of working-class people, immigrants, the sick and the poor!
Where to now?
I am just in the throes of working on one piece now which is looking at what is happening in Minneapolis. The situation with Trump, ICE, the National Guard and the counter protests. That is something a lot of people here are trying to document, and I want to play my part in that. One of the many good things about living in Minnesota is the sense of fair play and a willingness to stand up against injustice, especially that visited by this President in acts of political revenge! That piece may need a little more reflection and distance. I am also working on another substantial piece of work based on Earnest Shackleton’s Endeavour expedition to Antarctica and the epic rescue and survival story that emerged from that ill-fated journey.
All in all, plenty to keep me occupied.
