PHIL: First of all, Don, thanks for the files of the book and the music. Our paths have crossed before in my incarnation as a music reviewer, I think. Could you tell us briefly how the idea for Spirits Burning came about and what you were involved with in music prior to that point?
DON: I wanted to create recordings that brought together musicians dedicated to celebrating space rock and make it a global ensemble, and one that also included unexpected combinations of musicians. I was inspired by early Brian Eno albums featuring members of Roxy Music, Hawkwind, King Crimson, and The Pink Fairies… other solo albums that had an interesting credits list, like those by Robert Calvert, Steve Hackett, Michael Oldfield… and concept albums like “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast” and “Peter and the Wolf”.
My 1990s were bookended by a decade of being in San Francisco club bands (one of which was called Spirits Burning) and the first CD by the Spirits Burning collective in 1999. In between… I was part of the original Melting Euphoria (before they got signed to Cleopatra). We were a trio; I played keys, sang, and recited poetry. I also played synth in the Thessalonians and Spice Barons ambient ensembles on Silent Records. In the second half of the 90s, my Spaceship Eyes solo project was my focus. One album was primarily synth. I put together an ensemble to do a few gigs. When Spaceship Eyes got signed to Cleopatra’s Hypnotic label and they asked me to do drum ‘n’ bass, I began to experiment with combining dance and space music. Then the label asked me to do tributes for King Crimson and Genesis. For those rock-based covers, and for a gig opening for Belgium’s Present that mixed Spaceship Eyes and some spacier, prog rock songs, I resurrected the name Spirits Burning.
PHIL: What did it feel like to cross paths with a legendary writer such as Michael Moorcock and with Nik Turner and Daevid Allen– there have been many others of course! You must have thought you were dreaming at times – I would! And do you have any favourite recollections that you can share?
DON: At times, yes, dreaming: To be collaborating with a writer whose books you read from your teens to adult years, or musicians who you followed from album to album and band to band. I never take it for granted.
Daevid, Nik, and Cyrille (Verdeaux) recorded at my home studio, where I would have the starter tracks in Pro Tools sessions waiting for them. Some of my best memories are what occurred before or after our sessions. Daevid giving me a copy of Robert Calvert’s poetry book as he knew I was a big Hawkwind fan. Nik and I having dinner at my favourite Thai restaurant and me introducing him (and me) to Palm Fruit Juice. And with Cyrille Verdeaux, working out his performance at a local prog show, while his daughter sold crepes in the lobby between acts and then got to see him perform.
Mike (Moorcock) presented a different challenge. He couldn’t record here, and he wasn’t set up to record himself. I flew to him, set up a small recording system in his house, provided printouts of what I wanted him to sing, and away we went. As we moved from song to song, it was almost like I was retelling his story back to him, reintroducing him to characters and plots that he had created decades prior.
PHIL: I’d like to talk more specifically about the music now, concentrating on the CD. ‘Hothouse Flowers’ opened the “An Alien Heat” CD based on Michael Moorcock’s book, the one with the striking sleeve and the listing of the Spirits Burning ‘crew’. I’m intrigued to know more about how you put one of my favourite books by Michael into music, and also about the musicians playing on that particular album.
DON: I had previously done a musical adaptation of Mack Maloney’s “Starhawk” novel and was very happy with the results. It gave me the confidence to ask Mike about doing the same for my favourite Moorcock trilogy: “The Dancers at The End of Time”. I like to talk about art that feels timeless to me. For example, for guitar, Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland”. That how the “Dancers” trilogy hits me. And, in working out music for it for over a decade now, it hasn’t let me down. I’ve read the three books over a dozen times, and they still excite me.
In terms of the musicians, there were the people who I had been working with on previous Spirits Burning albums (like Bridget Wishart, Jonathan Segel, Ken Pustelnik, Harvey Bainbridge), having Mike sing and play harmonica was a given, and I continued to invite new people, which I tend to do with each album. This one brought onboard guitarist Andy Dalby (Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come), Hawkwind family member Mick Slattery, and others. The violinist for ‘Hothouse Flowers’, Ryan Avery, came from close by. He was a coworker when I was a tech writer at Avid and then Dolby.
A little over a year into the development of music for “An Alien Heat”, which is the trilogy’s first book, I emailed Al Bouchard (who had played on two previous SB albums). I invited him to play on a song or start a new one. Soon, he was involved in almost all the songs on the album and the next three (as the lengthier third book would require two separate CDs, a part 1 and 2). Plus, Al brought in musicians from his musical circle. This included other Blue Öyster Cult members (like Buck Dharma who sings ‘Hothouse Flowers', and Richie Castellano who plays rhythm guitar on the piece).
PHIL: ’Alien Injection’ is a track that features prominently in compilations like “Our Best Trips”. The vibe to my ears is Hawkwind and I see that Pete Pavli, the bass guitarist with the mighty High Tide and Ade Shaw, famed for his work with Hawkwind and Bevis Frond appear on that one. Why does this particular track stand out for you?
DON: Pete and Ade both appear on the “Alien Injection” album, but not the title track. Pete came onboard via the ‘Gloriana’/’Entropy Tango’ demo tracks that Mike (Moorcock) gave me permission to use as starter tracks. Later, I would invite Pete to play new parts (like viola) for the “Starhawk” and “Healthy Music” albums. Ade has also been a recurring contributor, now on four SB albums. The ‘Alien Injection’ song was the first SB appearance of singer Kev Ellis. Little did we know, he would sing the song live when we put together a version of the band for Kozfest 2017, and that the song and entire set list would manifest as the 2024 release “Live At Kozfest”. The story of the song is a long one, which I cover in depth in the book. First, I’m quite happy with my lyrics and what they attempted: mother nature needing help. Next, it was a song that almost didn’t make the album, until it got reworked and became the album’s best song. Everything from adding mellotron, a distorted rhythm bass, and backing vocals to being one of the few songs I asked someone else to mix.
PHIL: I love the tracks involving Daevid Allen, like ‘Imagicknation’; his voice is so distinctive and the stereo synth effects on there are striking. ‘Arc – A Real Creeper’ is another, a French release I believe (“New Worlds By Design”) - très atmosphérique! There is a narrative running
through this one and some ‘vocalisations’ from Daevid (I presume) – could you tell us more?
DON: Yes, that is Daevid’s voice on ‘Arc’. And yes, it appeared on the first of two releases on France’s Gazul (a sublabel of Musea). The label destination came about because of the late Gary Parra, the drummer with Cartoon. I had co-produced his first Trap album, which was released by Gazul, and Gary was in the Spaceship Eyes live ensemble. Thanks for noting the synth effects on ‘Imagiknation’; it’s a great example of how one can play with sound. Included in there… me playing with a sine wave and using a ¼-inch jack as an instrument to create percussive sounds.
Daevid and I always treated my home studio as a sandbox, where anything was possible. With ‘Arc’, Daevid picked up a copy of my masters’ thesis from my studio bookcase and started reading and performing lines of my poetry. It was otherworldly. Improvisation in a totally unexpected, unplanned way. And his gliss guitar helped levitate the piece to a new destination.
PHIL: ‘Your Better Angels’ from “Evolution Ritual” (2021) is an instrumental with fiddle and mandolin as part of the instrumentation. The sustained piano chord at the end is most haunting and may have some special significance. Can you say more?
DON: I do like to expose certain sounds, and after the wonderful intertwine of drums, guitar, bass, fiddle, and keyboards, it felt right to punctuate the ending with something ambient yet stirring. Something that musically takes you deeper into a mysterious pool. Perhaps somewhere in the back of my mind was the first use of piano in “Game of Thrones”, the ‘Light of the Seven’ piece, which builds the incredible opening of season 6’s penultimate episode. It has sprinkles of piano lines, many of which end with silence or a reverb tail.
PHIL: ‘Our Secret Cloud’ is another particular favourite of mine: the piano work and guitar work are notable. This is taken from a collaboration with Cyrille Verdeaux in 2013 called “In Large Doses”. Can you tell us more about this piece and your collaboration with Cyrille.
DON: This is one my favourite pieces too and why I included it on the book CD. Ambient in a new light. It was part of the first of two Spirits Burning & Clearlight albums. I was a big fan of the Clearlight “Symphony” album, and Cyrille and I hit it off long distance, via Facebook. It turned out he had some Bay Area ties (family, and he previously lived south of here in the 90s) and we could record at my place. My goal was to showcase Cyrille in a different way than his Clearlight albums. I think we did that successfully via the different song styles I presented to him and the contributing musicians that shaped each song.
The ‘Secret Cloud’ piece began with my keyboard strings, organ rumbles, and record player samples. I remember that Cyrille and some others questioned my use of silence in the piece. I felt like we were telling a story via an instrumental, and aural stories can have an absence of sound. That “Game of Thrones” piece has it. As do some Godspeed You! Black Emperor songs. Everyone who contributed to the song added something special. The song gained a whole new level of sound after the invite acceptance from members of Universal Totem Orchestra. Giuliano Beber’s guitar work is wonderful, as if it is speaking. For the vocals, I asked for lines that were not necessarily words. The results from Ana Torres Fraile and two other singers were stunning. Potent. For me, this is one of my timeless Spirits Burning tracks.
PHIL: The thing that strikes about the Spirits Burning music is how stylistically varied it is. It is neither Hawkwind nor Gong nor anybody else but does resonate with fans of this kind of music. On ‘By Design’ we hear a heavy organ and guitar-based rock, ‘Loralyn’ is a gentle ballad while ‘Lou’ is a nice country rock with fiddle. Cellos, violins and even a flugelhorn on the instrumental ‘Oak, Elm and Spruce’ are used. Are there parameters for the music, a kind of Spirits Burning ethos if you like, or is it more a case of anything goes?
DON: There is a great variety of style, and that has always been the goal. I didn’t want to celebrate space rock by imitating it. Instead, I wanted to take it to new places. I do look towards creating a sense of mystery or coolness in many of the songs. And I do attempt to have some interesting, or unexpected sounds. In the end, I want each song to be as enticing, as memorable, as the songs by others that have excited me over the years.
The song list you provided is interesting. Keep in mind that the CD isn’t really a Spirits Burning CD, even though many of the songs are by Spirits Burning. It really is a Don Falcone CD, supporting some of the musical adventures written about in the book. That's why there is a Spaceship Eyes track (which also includes members of the Spice Barons), and an Astralfish song, which was an instrumental project with Bridget showcasing her EWI skills. The ‘Lou’ piece was by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix, from the “Terminal Café” album that I produced. While I didn’t play on that song, it’s my favourite song on the album and Mike suggested including it too. ‘Loralyn’ is from another time, from the pre-Spirits Burning San Francisco band Kameleon. In the book, I note that of all the songs that I wrote during my mom’s lifetime, this was her favourite. It never quite fit into my other CD-era bands or projects. The book and the supporting CD felt like a great place to give it a home.
PHIL: To further develop the last part of our discussion. You mention a few of your influences in the book. Which of them would you say permeate the music the most?
DON: First, there is the direct influence of those who I have worked with. Daevid (in Spirits Burning and in the two weird quartet albums we did – one as Weird Biscuit Teatime and one as the Daevid Allen Weird Quartet). Bridget with Spirits Burning (including three SB & Bridget Wishart vocal albums), and then Astralfish, and our live gigs. Mike with the “Dancers” and the Deep Fix. Cyrille, on two SB & Cyrille albums, and his “Impressionist Symphony” album that I produced. And Al Bouchard, who I never could have imagined becoming a primary collaborator for the “Dancers” albums. What Al describes as being a godfather for the project.
While it may be hidden for some listeners, I know that more recent releases have been influenced by PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. For example, inspiring me to think of new ways to incorporate sound design into songwriting. Or, to think about new rhythms, especially ones that don’t have the snare on the two and four. However, I also know that there will always be an influence from Hawkwind, Peter Hammill, Kate Bush, Robert Calvert, The Stranglers, and all the space rock, prog, folk, and ambient bands or artists I’ve listened to; the influence specifically being the best of their work, and what resonates in my head forever.
PHIL: What are your plans now in terms of promoting the book and continuing the Spirits Burning project?
DON: For promotion, I’ve reached out to print and online magazines, most of which have reviewed Spirits Burning before (or bands like Hawkwind). At least two radio interviews: the Mack Maloney radio show (probably in January) and a Neptune Currents show on KKUP (February 9). I think Perfect Sound Forever will be publishing an excerpt from the book. And I’ve posted info about the book on social media. I told U.S. people first since they can get the book and free CD via Stairway Press. The book/free CD combo will be available from Jayde Design in the UK, starting in late January or so, when they have books in stock. Otherwise, the book can be purchased separately from the Amazon site of different countries and other online resellers. For those readers, if you want the CD, the book does include an order form in the back pages for ordering the CD.
In terms of future Spirits Burning recordings, there are three main albums underway. The final “Dancers” album, titled “The End of All Songs – Part 2”. The album is about 85% done. Besides performances by Al, Mike, Bridget, Andy Dalby and other returning crew members, there are some new contributors (like Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman, Hawklords’ Mr. Dibs, and Scott Heller of Øresund Space Collective). There is another Spirits Burning & Bridget Wishart album about half done. And a Spirits Burning & David Jackson instrumental album in the works. One of the in-progress songs with David is included on the book CD too. Additionally, there are a few more albums just starting to gestate. Lots to look forward to.
PHIL: Thanks very much, Don, for taking the time to answer our questions. Is there anything else you would like to add?
DON: Thanks for your book review and this interview. Cheers!
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