Review Fix Exclusive: The Falling Birds’ Stephen Artemis Talks New EP And More

March 12, 2017 Patrick Hickey Jr. Music 0

Review Fix chats with The Falling Birds’ Stephen Artemis, who discusses the band’s origin and upcoming EP.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Stephen Artemis: Like most millennial relationships, Dave and I found each other on the internet.

Review Fix: What makes your brand special?

Artemis: Haven’t you heard?  Everybody’s calling us the greatest rock band of all time.  That’s pretty special.  Or did you mean “special” like being on The Spectrum?  Cause we’ve got that covered too.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Artemis: It’s a never ending loop. I’m that guy who is constantly writing lyrics or humming a melody into my phone.  Songs pop up for me and I try yo capture them as close to their original concept as possible.

Review Fix: What’s your standout song on the album How was it written?

Artemis: For me it is Let’s Rewind but people always surprise me with their picks for favorite song.  For example, we recorded eight songs during the session.  I didn’t think Anything Worse would amount to much but once we finished production work, it stood out as one of the hands-down best songs we recorded.  I had the riff for Let’s Rewind for a while but I was having a hard time putting lyrics to it until I stopped trying to control its direction.  When I let go of control the song it almost wrote itself and I would up with whatever truth was on my mind at that time. That’s the best way to do it.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2017?

Artemis: We’re finally at a point where we can enjoy some of the fruits of our labor.  Now that the EP is done, we want to enjoy this release and just play more shows.  So the goal is to play live and have some fun.

Review Fix: What makes your latest album special?

Artemis: It is our first studio album so it’s a lot more high fi than our previous releases.  At the same time it has a lot of grit and crunch to it.  So we’re really happy with the final product.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

Artemis: Well hopefully people will find some way to connect with it.  If it connects then it’s finding a nerve to soothe in one way or another.  That’s what we want.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Artemis: We’ve got more music and touring on the way.  The hard part is getting it out there quick enough being an independent band.  We’re almost ready to get back into the studio again for another round of recordings.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like add?

Artemis: Just wanted to thank our producer Brian Speaker (Fendoms, Jeffrey Lewis) and our mastering producer Jeff Lipton (Arcade Fire, Dropkick Murphys, Heartless Bastards), those guys deserve a lot of credit for bringing our vision to life.  The EP comes out February 17th so go check it out.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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