Inside the Music Universe: R00K
uPlaya™ Artist Bradley James Falconer recently took some time to answer some questions for uPlaya™ about his group, R00K, and the healing power of music. R00K describes their music as a postmodern mix of alternative, pop and electronic, combining heartfelt songwriting, robo-soul vocals, and sleek digital production. Members include a collection of talented and experienced artists in Oakland, with a few of them most recently performing with Sting, Stevie Wonder, Santana, and John Legend.
uPlaya Featured Artist, R00K
uPlaya.com: What is your inspiration?
Bradley Falconer: My inspiration is providing inspiration to others, the way my favorite musicians have always helped me pick myself up, dust myself off, and keep trying. Songs can be great medicine!
uPlaya.com: What new projects are you working on? What can we expect in the future?
Bradley Falconer: R00K will be releasing several new original songs as singles in the coming months. We’ve also done a number of dark, alt-flavored covers of pop songs by Britney Spears, Beyonce, Lady GaGa, and more. We’re also working with a genius remixer to give one of our catchiest songs a more club-friendly flavor.
uPlaya.com: When will you move to live performances?
Bradley Falconer: That's the primary goal for R00K in 2010. We have a fair amount of recorded & produced original material at this point, but it seems very hard to make a connection to a fan base without the spark of a live performance/connection. Especially if you're an indie artist with little-to-no promotional or advertising budget. At the same time, you need to have super-strong original material to stand out as an artist. It's fun to do covers, but they're always already somebody else's song...
uPlaya.com: What do you think is the most important skill an artist should possess?
Bradley Falconer: Well, there's the x-factor of talent, but tons of people have that. I think persistence is at least as important if not more so. You have to want it so badly you can't live without it! Being a musician is not always a terribly practical career choice. (If you want to interview my mother she'd have plenty to say on that subject. 
)
uPlaya.com: Tell me about your creative process
Bradley Falconer: I usually flesh out the lyrics and melodies over a beat, then invite my four key supporting players to fill out the music, rhythm, and backing vocals….I've also written songs with other people, which is much more unpredictable. You just get into a room, take a deep breath, and see what happens…. Always it's about trying to be spontaneous and just see where it goes. Once a song has taken shape, recording and producing the released version can be quite a lot of work. But my collaborators make it lots of fun, too.
uPlaya.com: What have you learned from the people you have collaborated with?
Bradley Falconer: Commit to what you're doing, 100%. Whether it's a songwriting session, a studio vocal, or a live performance, you have to kinda throw yourself off the edge of the cliff and just trust that you'll somehow fly. If you hold back the passion, you're not giving your audience what they need to make a connection.
uPlaya.com: Is there an overarching theme to your songs?
Bradley Falconer: I would say they all represent a drive to be "fully known" emotionally -- warts and all. In addition to my musical life, I'm 6 years into a doctorate in clinical psychology. So there's a way in which I think the best music is therapeutic for the artist to make, and therapeutic for the listener to hear. I want every feeling to be "OK" in the world of R00K -- even the really nasty, ugly, despairing, difficult, etc. ones. So I really try to dig down deep into the bedrock of my own experience......even though it's not always so comfortable to reveal that kind of stuff.
uPlaya.com: As a scientist yourself, what do you think about the meshing of technology and the art of music? What does it mean to be an artist in the digital age?
Bradley Falconer: In a way I've never seen art and science as either/or. I think the role of technology has always been to support human exploration and expansion … I think a real artist can take the latest technology and find a way to make into a channel for genuine communication. In the right hands, I've always thought synthesizers and AutoTune could be completely poetic and sublime. I'd say something very similar for Hit Song Science … It's never going to make a great songwriter out of a hack … Ultimately it's still up to the artist to take all that information and balance it out without losing his or her own voice.