This energetic band from New York just dropped their self titled debut album on the Mascot Record label. The songs on the record talk about “accepting that, as a musician, I was different than the others around me, an outcast, finding my way.”
King Falcon’s ultra-catchy songwriting melds classic rock swagger with indie-rock adventurousness, recalling artists such as the Black Keys, Cage The Elephant, Tame Impala, The Killers, Royal Blood, and Beck. The album brims with bluesy guitar riffage, sticky-sweet pop-punk choruses, soulfully melodic lead vocals, and vibrant indie-rock atmospherics. King Falcon is produced by Marshall Altman (Matt Nathanson, Marc Broussard, Kate Voegele, Frankie Ballard); mixed by 12-time Grammy-nominated mixing engineer and producer Mark Needham (The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Fleetwood Mac); and represents a powerful story of friendship, self-growth, and the bravery to go after a rock n’ roll fantasy. https://open.spotify.com/artist/KingFalcon
King Falcon’s Michael Rubin began his journey in music as hatchling bird—12 years old, —playing in a band called The Inoculated Canaries. Weaned on classic rock and pop from studying at School of Rock, the teen fledged around New York City for years. But today, the Queens, New York native spreads his wings and soars as a seasoned musician with an exhilarating self-titled debut on Mascot Records.
“Starting King Falcon I wanted to stick with the bird theme, a little bird when I started out,” King Falcon’s primary singer-songwriter and guitarist Michael Rubin says with a good-natured laugh. “I’ve been doing this for most of my life, but I’m not a canary anymore.
Michael is the creative driving force behind King Falcon, Michael’s fascination with music began through Guitar Hero, but his father kept poking fun at his steely determination to master the game. “My dad would say, ‘You spend so much time in front of the TV with that thing, why not learn real guitar?!?’,” Michael recalls, chuckling. Michael eventually took his pop’s words to heart, got a guitar, and enrolled in School of Rock. He studied there from the ages of 10-16, and immersed himself in the institution’s “real band” performance philosophy.
Hungry for more music opportunities outside the program, Michael put together a cover band with some of his buddies, but romances with the female vocalists caused Fleetwood Mac-style drama. This forced Michael, then a dedicated guitarist, into becoming a lead singer. That band morphed into The Inoculated Canaries. TIC toured consistently throughout the northeast, and showcased at the SXSW conference in Austin and the 2020 NAMM convention in Anaheim, CA.
In 2020, King Falcon released their funky and infectiously catchy first single, “Shake! Shake! Shake!” However, the pandemic cleared King Falcon’s calendar before it even got a chance to play a show. Michael made the most of the situation by sending its single, “When The Party Is Over,” out to labels. “That song represented me trying to convince my parents, and myself, that I could get somewhere playing guitar,” Michael says. The song turned out to be aces for the band. King Falcon emailed the song to Mascot, and the next day was awarded with a recording contract.
“When The Party Is Over” is an irresistible, moody mid-tempo rocker teeming with ear worm melodies. The song explores lonely New York late-night living with gritty candor, and it comes alive via a darkly alluring video. “We got chased through the park by a crazed man with a knife while making the song’s video,” Michael remembers.
Now, King Falcon will resume its pre-pandemic plans of playing its first live shows and touring. “It took two and a half years to get here,” Michael says, pausing thoughtfully. “If you asked me when I first got my guitar if we would get a label and be where we are today, I would have said, ‘oh yeah, no problem,’ but I’ve learned the reality of it all isn’t that simple. It is amazing to be where we are today, but it was definitely a challenging journey.”