io
(download press photos)
Buffalo, NY singer-songwriter Rob Falgiano explores light and shade with intimate, playful, blunt lyrics about the human experience with joy, wonder, hope, anger, sarcasm, despair and love. Deep and shallow together, because that’s what most people are, not all one or another.
With a love of classic pop structure and fascination with the mysteries of sound, Falgiano blends genres, incorporating jazz chord voicings with pop melody, rock, bossa nova, R&B low end, early blues and country, abundant syncopation and infinite cryptic influences, plus ambient electronics and synth bass sounds from 1980s American radio and the British alternative pop he loved growing up.
In the comfortable remove of a recording studio, every sound must feel true to become part of the whole. This is a rule, even when it leads to weeds or the unknown. It’s art as self-discovery while trying to entertain and stimulate. Some songs are about love or lust. Others are about the creator and the beauty of the natural world, or deep space, from which we likely come – and to which we’ll return.
Rob loves intangibles: mood, atmosphere, and Does This Make Me Feel? Ideally a song displaces you in its mystique, though sometimes fun is priority. Some songs are surface obvious, others kaleidoscopic.
Falgiano’s 10th full-length recording is Back With The Dreamers, and he’s written two related books on metaphysics and the possible nature of a creator/god, including Life is Magic. His 11th record in progress is tentatively titled “Everything is Only the Beginning” or “Nobody Knows.”
Rob has worked with studio producer / engineer Mike Rorick since 2009. Rorick is a sonic genius who helps get artists’ songs to the finish line. They collaborate in a fluid way, in favor of the best, most interesting result, because only art which comes from an honesty has resonance. Rob has aspects of a hunger artist but isn’t trying to be intentionally obtuse and would likely do a Prince cover for you upon polite request, though he’s not a jukebox.
Falgiano’s songs have been used on TV shows: ‘Friday Night Lights’ (NBC), ‘Felicity’ (WB), ‘The Black Donnellys’ (NBC), ‘Everwood’ (CW-ABC Family), ‘Dude I Just Want My Pants Back’ (MTV), and ‘General Hospital’ (ABC).
Opening slots for a dozen national artists include: John Hiatt, Jakob Dylan, Nickel Creek, Ingrid Michaelson, Three Dog Night, Matthew Good, Goo Goo Dolls, The Pursuit of Happiness, Ron Hawkins, Deep Blue Something, Nellie McKay, and Chris Trapper, also Buffalo-born. Rob has played more than 1500 shows in the northeast US & southern Ontario, Canada.
– – –
DISCOGRAPHY: ‘Burning Sun EP’ (2024) | ‘In It EP’ (2023) with Plaster Sandals | ‘Back With The Dreamers’ (2020) | ‘Little Vision’ (2017) | ‘Nice Mouth’ (2013) | ‘All Star Heart’ (2010) | ‘Red’ (2005) | ‘Things I Used to Know’ (2003) | ‘The Contortionists Get Sweet For You’ (2001) with The Contortionists | ‘Down The Long Lonely’ (1997) | ‘Pop Revolution’ (1997) with Plaster Sandals | ‘Two Steps Left of Hip’ (1993) with Plaster Sandals
‘…an opening set by singer/ songwriter Rob Falgiano, whose remarkable vocal range turned some heads.’
‘Funk-rock band grooves with hints of soul and jazz, influenced by groups like Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and the Robert Glasper Experiment.’
‘His use of digital blips and beats as flourishes sound something like Elvis Costello singing with the Postal Service.’
‘Rob Falgiano took to the stage first. In a way, he was both Simon and Garfunkel. His stature and guitar skills invoked the former while his vocals recalled the latter.’ –
‘His (opening set) presented the audience with a mosaic of influences that conjure up a likable & sometimes funky sound. His work vaguely resembles that of John Mayer’s earlier soft pop rock albums.’ –
‘His strongest, most finely detailed and compelling collection to date.’
‘Daring and delicately understated.’
‘The album is gorgeous. His music smacks of a hard-won humanism, tempered by a clearly blossoming songwriting talent.’
‘What’s impressive about your work is your unwillingness to settle for the obvious. More challenging than simply crafting a pop tune, but when you put the elements together properly the sky’s the limit.’
‘Falgiano is more interested in making an album of value instead of writing one for the casual crowd.’
‘Many will be won over by Rob’s voice alone, Neil Finn-like on the opener and sporting a mellow-soul falsetto.’