The Falling Birds are a garage duo with a stripped down, no frills, approach to rock ’n’ roll. The Falling Birds follow a simple concept: write songs with foundations in blues and folk, then throttle them with punk rock snarl. The combination is a sound that is all their own, a modern blend of post punk Americana that defies easy categorization.

In this interview spotlight, we chat with Stephen Artemis of Brooklyn, NY based The Falling Birds discussing the band’s influences, the digital music era, their newest project and more.

Full Q&A along with links and streams available below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

We are The Falling Birds from Brooklyn NY and we play blues rock for the new millennium.  It’s like punk, folk and blues all  mashed up.  My name Stephen Artemis and I play the guitar, harmonica and I sing the songs.

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?

I had a close friend kill himself and music was the only thing that could make me feel ok.  Ever since then it has been my outlet.  It’s easy to stay motivated because it’s just ingrained in me now.  I’m always writing.

How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?

Yeah well this time around we wanted to make something that cuts through the bullshit and gets to the point really quickly.  I wanted to showcase some songs with good hooks.  This is our first studio record.  Everything else up until now has been recorded DIY in our basement.  This EP has a lot higher production value while maintains a real raw energy.

Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?

Yeah of course we face challenges.  Everybody thinks music should be free for some reason and that makes it hard to survive.  People assume that there’s a big disconnect between themselves and the music they don’t buy so it doesn’t really matter if they pay or not.  But most of the time it’s actually a very direct line the money travels toward supporting the artist.  They also assume that musicians get paid a fair royalty from streaming sites and that’s not true either.  It’s not their fault, there’s no reason why they should know how all this works, but that’s the challenge.  The upside is that distribution is easier, but I think that’s about it.

Where can we follow you online and hear more music?

​​Our website www.thefallingbirds.com is the best place because we have our full discography online, but you can also hear us on Bandcamp, Spotify & YouTube.  If you want to follow us the best way is through our email list because we’ll offer free music, discounts and let you know when we’re playing in your area.  You can also follow on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.  Just google “The Falling Birds” and you’ll get all you need and then some.

Anything else before we sign off?​

Just that when we made this record we were stoked to record with Brian Speaker (Jeffrey Lewis, Femdoms) as our producer and have Jeff Lipton (Heartless Bastards, Dropkick Murphys, Arcade Fire) do the mastering production.  Those guys helped us bring the record to life and I think they deserve a lot of credit.

Thanks for having us!