tunnelMUSIC

Falling Up – Interview – 30/01/2010

 

tunnelMUSIC – Welcome back to NZ. First up, your disbanding. What was behind the decision to call it quits?

 

Falling Up (Jesse Ribordy) -In the last year we hadn’t been doing much at all really. Two years ago was our last tour with Family Force 5, and we played shows here and there, then we did a record in between but things were just slowly dissipating. When this opportunity came up we thought, we haven’t played shows in a while and I hadn’t updated anybody about us. I was just kind of hoping that people would slowly forget about us, I knew that probably wasn’t the most mature thing to do so I just felt like this was a good opportunity to say, hey we’re going to call it quits. Which for us is really no different because we’ve been just taking a break the last couple of years, so it really doesn’t feel that different other than the officiality of it. It was a natural progression for us.

 

TunnelMUSIC – You guys have been around since 2002 is it?

Falling Up (Jesse Ribordy) – Well the band actually started when I was in sophomore year of high school, so that was the year 2000, so yeah it’s basically been ten years, for me. We came on the scene maybe 2002 or 2003, so sometimes it feels like a long time but other times it also feels short.

 

TunnelMUSIC – What have been some of the highlights over the last ten years of you guys being a band?

 

Falling Up (Jesse Ribordy) – Some of the highlights include going to Parachute. Any chance we’ve had to go international was something that we would do right away. We just love the fact that there’s different cultures that we were excited to learn about what other people did in different parts of the world. We all love recording and writing so we all got our fair share of that, I think we’re probably sick of it now. (Jeremy Miller) I think also the different members that we had in the band that we don’t have any more. The characteristic that came in and out of our entity called Falling Up, whether it be members or managers or even booking agents or whoever was involved. Those people who come into your life and have influence and then weave in and out make for interesting stories and thoughts later on.

 

TunnelMUSIC – With all the different members coming in how did you find the recording process? Seeing also as you’re changing your sound so much.

 

Falling Up (Jesse Ribordy) – Very difficult, when you switch in and out members it makes it very difficult. When people want to join a band I think they think that, that is all inclusive. I think being in a band takes years of work and discipline and knowing when you should say something and when you shouldn’t and also when you should do something and when you shouldn’t. That was the hardest part, trying to teach somebody that, members who didn’t know how to do that. A lot of the time we got really young guys, they were always the most available, young guys who just wanted to shred on the guitar. Little did we know that sometimes it was a little difficult, we felt like their fathers sometimes, or their mothers in some cases.

 

TunnelMUSIC – As you depart have you got any final messages for your fans just to say thank you?

 

Falling Up (Jesse Ribordy) – An immense amount of thank you to our fans, it’s stupid how much we owe them. Everybody thinks that we have given so much but it’s really them giving to us. I just thank them and really appreciate all the support, whether they bought a CD or a t-shirt or not, it doesn’t really matter. Just the fact that they were involved and appreciated. Whether they loved our first record and hated our last or loved our last and hated our first, if they appreciated one little melody we did then, thank you.

 

TunnelMUSIC – Let’s talk about faith for a second. You guys obviously have your own faith but how do you include that in your music and your song writing?

 

Falling Up (Josh Shroy) – I feel that our God is a very natural god who created everything. I think that a lot of people make him out to be very disconnected from our world. He is so supernatural and we all feel that he is that supernatural, y’know he’s literally natural which makes it more wonderful, he’s more with us in everything. We look at how we create the song, just loving each other and loving music and using the principles, using what he’s given us to do that. How we express our faith? It’s just through living it. It’s not necessarily about saying ‘Jesus’ on stage or preaching because the message of our life will have a greater impact, a greater story to people rather than that one thing we did on that stage.