There's a reason this indie orchestra begin their new song, "Kid," with an ominous tone: "Kid" tells a frightening and true story. "When I was 11 years old, I fell off a 25-foot cliff onto a Limestone riverbed, then tumbled into what remained of the river below that," says Claire Puckett, the survivor of the story this song tells, the main actor seen in this video and also the singer, guitarist, pianist and banjo player in Austin's Mother Falcon. "My friend's brother pulled me out. I walked back to the cabins, marveling at the ground receding beneath me. I was a very quiet child and tried not to make a big fuss about it. I heard whispers of me being 'saved,' but in a way that alluded to it not being by my friend's brother; as if my life was worth something more than the immediate care of the community around me."
Mother Falcon is the little orchestra that can do the seemingly impossible, from touring with a cast of fourteen or so members to playing stages that shouldn't be able to fit cellos, horns, bass, guitars violins and much more. And those band members write their own material, including the songs on their new album, Good Luck Have Fun, which will come out August 14.
The video was directed, photographed and edited by the band's man of many keys — including accordion — Tamir Kalifa, with help from other bandmates. "Austin and Central Texas recently came out of one of the wettest seasons on record and we shot the video following weeks of unrelenting rainfall. We always intended on having water represent the limbo of Claire's near-death experience but when we finally went to shoot it, the environments we were familiar with were almost unrecognizable. There was more water than we'd ever seen and it flowed with an intensity that helped transform the energy of the video," he says. Claire Puckett saysthat the discomfort she displays in this video was real: "I jumped in Nick's pool, let out my breath and stayed at the bottom for as long as I could, then vaulted out of the pool and did that routine over and over again. By the end of the day my brother had to pull me out because I was so exhausted, which weirdly paralleled with the true life events of the song."
In the spirit that is Mother Falcon, the lyrics and themes in the music are all part of what makes this band so special. "Our writing process is very introspective," Tamir Kalifa says. "The lyrics and themes within the music are often derived from conceptual and philosophical conversations had between band members — lyricists and instrumentalists alike. Usually, these conversations end once vocals are recorded. With 'Kid,' we dove even deeper in order to explore ways to visually articulate what was discussed. It's a real privilege to visualize our music the we see it."
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