{mosimage}I recently sat down with Doran Palmer, drummer for Fayetteville rock outfit Falling In Two. Doran shed some light on the band’s beginnings and their hopes for the future, while offering constructive criticism for Fayetteville’s music scene.

Falling In Two isn’t really falling anywhere but in place.

What do you think your band has that no one else has?

The members who make up Falling In Two. No other band has these guys. We are unique to ourselves and our goals, our lives and who we are. No other band in the world has these four men. We create what we can, based on what we are able — we perform with an attitude and play with confidence. We are unique because we strive for it.

If you only had two words to describe your band, what would they be, and why?

Overly Critical. We spend a lot of time critiquing, not only the music, but our performances, sound quality, levels, appearances. We spend some rehearsals just going over the video from the last performance.

 Who came up with the name and why do you think it fits your band?

The name Falling In Two as it is written was from the Dream Theater Album Falling Into Infinity. I actually brought up the name and the band changed “Into” to “In Two.” Although spelled different, the meaning is the same, or Falling In Two success. After many years for all the members of trying to build bands, with little success or recording with little success, or conflicts of writing styles, this group just fell together and we work perfectly together with the same desire, direction, likes and dislikes and we genuinely like each other.

Influences, and why? Do you think you live up to their legacies? How do you think you can improve?

As a band we are not influenced by anyone. We don’t write to sound like anyone else; in fact we make every effort not to. We are constantly writing in sort of tangents, not the opposite but the side opposite the norm. Creating new music is very difficult and time consuming, many of our newer songs took months to finalize. By ever creating and exploring new directions and ideas, we are not only improving our own personal abilities but taking the music to a different level and possibly direction.

Noticed that you are from Seattle — how does having roots in such a rich music scene affect your outlook or experiences in Fayetteville’s little old music scene?

For as small as Fayetteville is, I’ve been impressed. I don’t think there is enough diversity in the scene, but the venues here really aren’t set up for that. What is frustrating is that only a few bands are really working together. Falling In Two is constantly reaching out to other bands to share gigs with and that’s pretty much anywhere in the state or outside of the state for that matter. Very few venues are open to original bands, they want cover bands.

Seattle is very different — if a record label executive, A&R or whoever, was coming to check out a band, every musician in the city knew about it and we were all there to support them and help them make it. It’s in all of our best interest to work together, that’s why so many bands come out of Seattle and the West C  oast in general. Here, we have conflict almost constantly, between the metal scene, rock, country, punk, emo, acoustic, R&B, hip hop — it’s like every group has their own agenda and won’t support anyone else.

Where can Falling in Two fans catch you boys next?

We will be at Jester’s Pub on May 9. We will have two more shows after that in the Fayetteville area, and then we will take off for a while and embark on regional tours. We only expect to move up from here. 

If you think your attitudes towards music are in tune with Falling In Two, be sure to check them out at Jester’s on May 9. You can also enjoy some of their progressive rock anthems at none other than The Rock Shop, May 17; but if you really want to see Fayetteville’s music scene in all of its diversity, you have to check out the Special Forces Association’s Festival on Saturday, May 31. The day-long festival begins at 11 a.m. and will spotlight six of the areas top bands. The evening will end with a performance by Bad Company. For more information about the festival, see the story in this issue of Up & Coming Weekly.