King Falcon Talks New Members, Old Goals, & How a Video Game Inspired It All

Over the past few weeks NYC rockers King Falcon have opened for Sublime with Rome at an incredibly spacious outdoor venue in Stamford, CT, and been part of a bill at the 160 person capacity Bowery Electric in NYC that featured five other rock bands that ranged from hard rock, to punk rock.

The reason King Falcon fit in perfectly on both of these bills is because their brand of rock n roll is timeless.

Founded by frontman, and guitarist Michael Rubin (second in photo), the band’s lineup currently includes (photo: L to R) Joe Conserva (bass), Dip Chakraborty (drums), and Justin Kosisky (rhythm guitar), and they’ve been touring pretty much nonstop in support of the first King Falcon LP, a self-titled effort that was released in the fall of 2023.

After a brief moment to catch their breath, and play a few hometown shows, the band will be back on the road again in October for a tour that will hit cities throughout the Midwest.

I caught up with Michael before King Falcon’s show at Bowery Electric, and he opened up about the changes the band has gone through since the release of their eponymous debut album, as well as how he ended up the frontman of the band despite not considering himself a singer, and how the video game Guitar Hero, and a not so gentle nudge from his father, led him down the rockstar path.

{placing phone on cymbals case in the Bowery Electric green room} Are these your band’s cymbals? 

No, but fuck it.

Close enough. {laughs} 

That’s how you gotta start the interview. {laughs}

Alright, so last fall you released your debut album, how has life changed since then? 

It’s been a lot of time on the road, which has been great. I love touring.

I have a whole new band now, which is fun. It’s still King Falcon, but I have a whole bunch of new bandmates, so a lot has changed.

What happened? The album came out, and everyone in the original lineup said, “I have to do other real life stuff now”? 

What happens is this – and this is kind of the thing I’ve had to come to terms with – success is a scary thing, because when you succeed, you end up somewhere different, versus if you fail, you end up back at your house, which is a very safe place, instead of going to the very scary place.

So I think what happened was the album came out, we got management, shit got real, and our management sat us down, and was like – hey, you guys are probably going to be on the road more than not.

One guy in the band was like, you know what, I’m going to go shack up with my girlfriend, see y’all later. Now he's running sound for her band, which makes no sense.

Then our drummer left because he wanted to do a solo record. Okay. Whatever. All good. My last conversation with him was, “Listen dude, I support you, but if I were doing a solo record, I would at least wait until after the tour, but hey, you do you, man.”

That’s wild. Before we talk more about your new band members, what are you most proud of in regards to the first King Falcon LP? 

I think what’s cool about it is there’s no excess fat … but I think there are a few things where we maybe played it safe because we, you know, first time on a label, first time making a full length record.

I think after a whole year of touring since then, and playing that music, I have a clearer picture of what the second album should be.

So I think the first album was a really great introduction as to like, “Hey we’re not fucking around here as a band,” but I think the second album is going to be even better because I’m already about halfway through writing it. I’m really excited.

I’m guessing a lot of that writing has happened while on the road. 

Yeah. I went through a pretty bad breakup a couple of months ago. It was my own fault, but that netted a whole bunch of songs.

That’s how it goes, man.

Diving into your history, I loved reading your bio because all of this started for you when you were ten years old playing Guitar Hero. I feel like the creators of the game would probably love that. What inspired the transition from Guitar Hero to playing a real guitar? 

My dad.

So my dad is not a soft guy in any sense of the word. He does not have a soft side.

I remember one day, I was like nine or ten playing Guitar Hero, and he was just like, “How about you quit being a fucking loser, and play real guitar?”

Subtle. 

Yes.

Three months later I started playing real guitar.

Was that when you started attending School of Rock? 

That was like a year into me kind of fumbling around with “Stairway to Heaven” by myself in my parents’ basement.

I think the biggest thing about School of Rock is when you play by yourself it’s hard to be motivated, but when you think, OK, I have a band, that keeps me honest, and every week I have to keep up with stuff.

You formed your first band at 12, and were in cover bands as a teenager. So first off, is there any video evidence of that might show up on an eventual Behind the Music? 

Oh yeah. Absolutely.

There’s a video of me, I think we were in St. Louis, we’re playing “The Death of Rock and Roll” by Todd Rundgren. My hair’s a little shorter, and I’m like 40 pounds heavier. I’m just a little kid looking all round up there.

There’s probably a bunch of videos of me doing Zeppelin stuff, but I never really sang cover music, I always just played guitar.

Funny story – I don’t think of myself as a singer. I think of myself as a guitar player who sings, but what happened was in every band I was in, the singer was the most dramatic person, and they would inevitably leave, but I was always the creative person who wrote the songs, because it was my band. So every time a singer left I would have to rewrite all the songs, because it was a different person, different voice, different character.

At some point, after like four or five times of this happening, I got so sick and tired of redoing it, I was like, well, I’ll just sing, because I’m not going to leave.

Makes a lot of sense! What’s a song you covered when you were younger that when you hear it today it brings you back to that time? 

“I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” The Alan Parsons Project.

I heard it in the car the other day, and it sent me right back to 2015, because that was my favorite song to cover.

From Todd Rundgren, to The Alan Parsons Project, you’re naming acts that I don’t think most people would think young teenagers would be into. 

No. The funny thing is I don’t really like a lot of the music that my generation likes.

’m going to say some controversial shit here. I know I’m on the record.

I fucking hate Weezer. I can’t stand Weezer.

Blink-182? Garbage. Can’t listen to Blink-182.

That whole scene, not my scene at all. Not really a big fan of Fall Out Boy, that whole kind of thing.

We get compared to The Strokes, The Black Keys, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys … apart from the hits that we’ve all heard on the radio, I have never once listened to those bands. When I grew up, it was Steely Dan, it was Pink Floyd, it was Led Zeppelin. It was Boston, Kansas, Chicago, all that kind of shit. As far as I got was Nirvana.

The first band that kind of brought me into the modern era was Tame Impala. That was the first time I heard somebody, and I was like, wow, finally something that doesn’t fucking suck from the last 25 years.

That said, when I saw you open for Sublime with Rome at Alive at Five in Stamford, CT, you covered Paramore’s “Crush Crush Crush.” 

Yes. I do like Paramore a lot. Every time I listen to Paramore, I’m like, I like Paramore.

I know your band members are relatively new, but have any of them brought bands to your attention that you’ve become a fan of because of them? 

I think that the music tastes are very different.

Joe, our bass player, his thing is he really only listens to local music, which is awesome because nobody does that. Everybody’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m listening to this band that’s playing at UBS (Arena),” or whatever. Every single time our bass player throws something on, in the middle of the song, you’re like, “That’s good,” and he’s like, “Yeah, thanks, I know these guys.” He’s big in the local scene, so that’s really cool.

There was a band Justin, our rhythm guitar player, put me on to called Evanora:Unlimited. Really solid up-and-coming band.

Dip, our drummer, his name’s Dip, which is cool as hell, he’s from India, so he’s put me on to some Indian stuff, like Indian metal, and stuff like that.

What band do you think you've brought to the other members of King Falcon? 

Steely Dan. Steely Dan, a thousand percent. I force feed everybody Steely Dan.

You have Yacht Rock on at all times? 

I love Yacht Rock. It’s like the perfect medium for me where it’s intellectual enough where I can listen to it and my music brain likes all the little pieces of it, and it always fits any vibe. You’re at a party, you play Yacht Rock. You’re by yourself driving, you play Yacht Rock. You’re feeling sad, you play Yacht Rock. You’re feeling happy, you play Yacht Rock. It’s great.

I wish we had an electric piano in the band.

Finally, the hair – when did you grow it out, and how much effort goes into it? 

I always went to Catholic school my whole life, but as soon as I started playing guitar, I grew out the hair.

I would wake up two or three hours before school every day, and I would bobby pin my hair under itself so that I wouldn’t get in trouble, but if I woke up late I couldn’t do it, and every single time I was in detention.

Funny story about that, I used to get detention all the time, but it was just for my hair. They used to always call me Mr. Rubin, and the irony is that the two guys that were the deans of discipline were both bald. Me getting in trouble for having this much hair by two bald guys was pretty wrong.

I’m telling you, straight up, they were jealous. 

They definitely were, and I think that was part of it, but my thought was I’d love to be able to say some shit where they’re like, “You know, Mr. Rubin …” and be like, “Actually, that’s doctor,” you know.

I was in high school, so I couldn’t skip, and become a doctor, so I wanted to become a ship captain, so I could be Captain Rubin, and then get myself into more shit by being like, “Well, actually, that’s Captain to you.” But it was like a $1,200 license to become a ship captain, and it’s like a six month course.

I didn’t have $1,200, so I became a reverend for free.

On the internet? 

On the internet, and my nickname for the longest time was Reverend.

I’m pretty non-religious, but I became a Reverend just so I could say, “Actually, that’s Reverend to you,” which got me into a lot more trouble than it was fucking worth.

Have you married any couples? 

No, no, no. I only did it for the joke, but I did have like the card, and I have all the paperwork and stuff, so I’m legit, man.

So if you ever felt like marrying people at your shows, you could totally do it. 

I could.

I’ll do it for free.

You come up on stage with Jameson, I will marry you. That’s it.

Maybe they’ll name a kid after you, or they’ll name a kid Falcon. 

Oh, man!

The coolest name that I ever met, and maybe he’ll see this interview, dude I met briefly when I was doing a Berkeley summer camp when I was like 13, a dude named Seamus Hawk.

Chicks loved it. Couldn’t leave him alone.

He was a skinny little Irish kid, but he had a way with the ladies, man. Seamus Hawk.

For more King Falcon, check out kingfalconband.com.