Don Falcone is the musical architect behind the collaborative called Spirits Burning. Spirits Burning has been an ongoing music project for many years now and has put out an impressive stack of over 20 albums. Contributors include members of Blue Oyster Cult, Hawkwind, and many more. Yes, our own DNA Girl (AKA Deb) from Astro Al also contributed to the album Behold the Action Man.
Recently Don published a musical memoir about his experiences with Spirits Burning and more. If you buy it here, it includes a cd!
The CD contains many tracks pulled from different Spirits Burning albums. As to the book, it is thus far my fav read of 2025.
Here is my interview with Don Falcone conducted via email
1. How did you conceive the idea of writing a memoir and what helped
it come together?
Don: I’ve always wanted to pull together some of my music experiences in writing. Fun things like the prop gone wrong story early in the book or how the live at Kozfest UK gig and album came about. Legal things like record contracts and performance rights societies, including lesser-known collection agencies like Sound Exchange. Even basic things we take for granted, like choosing a band name or song title. I felt I could present a great under-the-hood read for people who like music, a pseudo guide for musicians, and some untold stories for fans of Michael Moorcock, Hawkwind, Blue Öyster Cult, and Clearlight. And to keep it fresh, invite some of the musicians involved to provide their own words.
How did it come together? First, I was laid off from my tech writing day job at Dolby. I was nearing retirement, and not sure if I wanted to continue working full time. The termination included access to a placement agency. My consultant/coach there noted that “every time you talk about music, you light up.” He asked, “Is there anything you could do related to music?” One of my answers: “I could write a book.” The other important piece happened a few years earlier. Paul Sears, one of my drummer collaborators, had written a memoir, “Angels and Demons That Play.” I contacted Paul and asked about his publisher. Soon after, I had a contract with the publisher and was officially writing a memoir. Plus, Paul’s book, which I had read a few times, served as a template. I could follow his lead for things I liked (such as including input from others) and go a different path for things that I felt could be done differently (such as including pieces of Hawk Alfredson’s paintings, instead of hand-drawn illustrations).
2. In the book you detail the process of getting record contracts, how did having that experience under your belt help with negotiating a book deal?
Don: It shaped expectations. I knew there would be a specific set of deliverables and a negotiable delivery date. I knew that I had to ensure I had permissions for quoted text, artwork, and photos. There would be different book sales royalties for books bought directly from the publisher (akin to a record label) vs. a distributor. And different royalties for physical printed copies vs. Kindle. Just like a CD or LP vs. a digital album download. It was interesting to compare book sales royalties vs. music ones. In my limited experience as an author of one memoir, book royalties are more.
3. What challenges were present in creating the book?
Don: I’ve been spoiled with Spirits Burning. Of the twenty-plus albums, I think only one label asked for a change to the music, and only two labels asked about replacing artwork.
Add to that: Writing a book was always going to channel my days of writing user guides. For those, I was used to established roadmaps. Specifically, a company style guide and standard rules of grammar and punctuation. I also have a lot of confidence in my editing skills. For example, I was the primary editor for Pro Tools guides during the first decade of this century. And, I feel I have a good sense of graphics, that is, how the documentation looks.
I may have asked the publisher too many questions at the start. To make sure I knew the roadmap, and how to follow it… or challenge it. There were definitely moments where we disagreed on style and standards. And we needed to work through that, which we did.
Another challenge was being patient. I’m used to that with Spirits Burning invites, so this wasn’t new to me. I did want to have the book done by a certain date and had communicated that to the publisher. A bit of self-made pressure… where I was getting input from 125 Spirits Burning crew members over a three-month period, a foreword from Michael Moorcock (who I knew had to finish one of his books first), and some more detailed entries, the last of which was from Al Bouchard (who during the time I wrote the book was on tour a couple of times and recording multiple albums).
There was a small challenge of remembering the past too. While reading the finished book, Linda Moorcock and my brother David asked me how I remembered so much. Here was one my response to Linda:
“It’s a combination of at least four things.
- I have a good memory. About some things.
- I’ve told certain stories over and over. For example, me singing a song and throwing a milky way into the audience.
- I've saved many documents covering my past. Like a Word doc of every band, band demo, and band member. And a lot of emails. The emails verified certain memories and filled in forgotten blanks of others. That’s how I was able to have so much detail in the chapter about playing live.
- I did a lot of research. Especially online (Google and ChatGPT). That’s how I was able to decipher the dates of two hurricanes and even the days of the week they occurred. What I remembered was that my “incident” occurred on the Friday after the second one. And in a couple of cases, I asked people for their description of an event that I remembered and wanted more detail. Like the college stunts.”
4. What, if any, interesting anecdotes, stories, etc. were left out of the book?
Don: Here are two of many.
First, a short one that would have been ripe for the “Mistakes Are Made” chapter. My wife and I went to a Digidesign Halloween party at The Fillmore in San Francisco. We were dressed as Sid and Nancy. One of my props was an item the company distributed at trade shows for their Smack! Compressor plug-in. It was a pen in a clear, two-tiered casing: the top plunger and the long barrel. It looked very much like a syringe. You pressed the plunger to extract and retract the pen point. Of course! Not the best swag decision. For the company or me.
The book has a photo of when I met Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser at the 2023 Marin Country Fair, and a few sentences. Here is more about that meeting. A Blue Öyster Cult show at the nearby fair was an opportunity to meet the band members, all of whom had contributed to Spirits Burning. In the days leading up to the show, I was in touch with Danny Miranda (the bassist) and Buck. Danny offered guest list tickets for our quartet. We had already bought tickets, which turned out all for the better. We were able to sit in the second row. The guest list seats were near the sound person, a bit further from the stage. Danny and I exchanged numbers, and Buck and I already had each other’s numbers.
There were make-shift high fences jutting from each side of the stage, such that there wasn’t going to be an opportunity for the band to really meet with the audience. And there was bit of distance and height from a ground-level barrier to the stage, which also would deter post-show interactions.
When the show ended, I phoned Danny and got no response. I later learned that he, Eric, Jules, and Richie had left backstage on a golf cart. Within a day or so, Danny apologized. One of his family had passed away and he needed to deal with that.
Meanwhile, I got a phone call a few minutes after the show ended. It was Buck. However, I couldn’t hear him given the background music blaring out of the P.A. I found a quieter spot and called him back. He said he was behind one of the fences to the side of the stage. My two friends had momentarily left us, a trip to the nearby bathrooms, so they would miss the story that now unfolding. With my wife Karen by my side. I went to one of the fences. Higher than an average person or two. They had the height of a high school football fence, with material woven in that prevents you from seeing pass it. In the same way I once pulled up and out a jail cell door from its bearing in an escape room (a Dolby team building event, and yes, I’m sure it was a safety measure in case people were locked in, and not there to be used to leave the cell and grab the keys), I did the same heave to a section of fencing at the fair. Through the opening I created, Karen and I saw Buck behind a small table, and approached him.
My first order of business was to give him a copy of a Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock album to hand to Jules Radino, BÖC’s drummer (as I hadn’t been able to get it to him yet). Unfortunately, three girls in their 20s had followed us through the fence opening. They wanted to get Buck’s autograph. They asked about the SB CD, now sitting on the table. When I explained that Buck and other BÖC members were on it, they asked about buying it. I said no. It was for Jules. Eventually they were gone, and no one else took advantage of the opening between fence sections. Karen took two photos of Buck and me, and I thanked him for his involvement with the SB/MM albums and was glad we could finally meet. Also present was Melne Twf. We did some crazy photos with her too. When done, we exited the side stage area and pushed the fence section back into place.
5. If people buy the book from Stairway Press (the publisher) they receive a compilation cd of different Spirits Burning tracks. With so many albums to choose from, how did you decide which tracks should go on the cd?
Don: I thought about unreleased tracks, including cassette demo tracks first. Plus, I definitely wanted to include at least one in-progress Spirits Burning track, as a tease to a future release. The song with David Jackson, William Kopecky, and me on piano felt like a great choice, and a nice change from the heavier or spacier material.
I wanted at least two cassette demo tracks. The song “Spirits Burning” by a pre-CD era Spirits Burning club band seemed like a no brainer. And it felt like a home for a softer song I’ve never found a place for in the modern Spirits Burning. “Loralyn.” Of all the songs I ever wrote, this was my late mother’s favorite.
I had another song I wrote without a home and considered one of my better compositions. “Persian Cat.” There was a 21st century multi-track version. When I revisited it and solo’d the vocals and acoustic guitar by Karen, and the bass by Michael Clare, I felt I had a really catchy, haunting version. It didn’t need my piano or other parts.
With the unreleased tracks taken care of, I wanted to have mostly SB songs, plus some of the projects I was in. For the SB tracks, I chose some of my favorite tracks, avoiding any from recent compilations. I also wanted to make sure there were good representations of space rock, experimental, and so on. Plus, I consciously considered including x vocals songs, followed by x instrumentals. And, of course, it all had to tie into the book. This meant something from the live album, something from SB & Michael M, something from SB & Bridget Wishart, and SB & Clearlight. I also wanted to include something from an album I produced – the Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix song “Lou” fit that. Otherwise, I snuck in one track by Astralfish and Spaceship Eyes. For the latter, it was a track with members of Spice Barons, to kind of cover my ambient years.
What was missing and hard to exclude… Grindlestone, Quite Celebration, Spaceship Eyes’ drum ‘n’ bass period, and yes, lots of SB.
All-in-all though, I’m quite happy with the final collection. The music almost tells its own story.
6. Spirits Burning music has existed live, on albums, in movies, and in TV shows. What realms would you like to expand the music into?
Don: Theatre is a possibility. Staring me in the face. We have Michael Moorcock’s “Dancers” trilogy as a published work. We have four albums of songs, more than enough songs to cover the story. I am now looking into writing a libretto and better understanding how I could make an on-stage musical a reality. At some point, there would need to be a higher power to put the money into securing the rights and making it happen. One step at a time for now. To be continued.
7. Many artists have difficulty knowing when the recording of a song is
complete. How do you get yourself past that point?
Don: Many, many listens…
For some songs, it reaches a moment where you just feel it has achieved a sense of cool. It’s got everything going that you want. (And you haven’t lost that special moment that occurred at one or more points in the song’s recording and mixing journey.)
If you turn out the lights, take off your glasses, and can be immersed by it in headphones, and dance with it (if it’s a rhythmic piece) or chill with it (if it’s a more ambient one). And, if it almost brings a tear, or actually does, well, it’s a final mix.
8. What is the greatest satisfaction that Spirits Burning brings to you?
Don: It’s amazing and gratifying knowing that I’ve affected so many collaborators. The chapter in the book from crew members has a lot of kind words. More than I expected, in response to asking for them for a few words about their SB experience, or what went well or didn’t.
It’s also really special to know that you’re doing something artistic that people listening really appreciate. Some of the words from fans remind you how powerful music can be.
And it’s hard to beat the feeling listening to a song months or years after its birth… listening brings back the song’s journey. And it brings back all those feelings you got when you first heard something by one of your favorite bands.
9. With so many albums completed, what do you feel you have left to do?
Don: It’s essential that I still get excited about composing, playing, collaborating, which I do. It’s also notable that I still have lots of ideas brewing, some of which I am bringing to life.
The SB & David Jackson album is well underway. It’s an instrumental album with a sense of mystery. One of the songs was the one I mentioned for the CD put together for the book. It gives a hint of three pieces that have a smaller ensemble, with more exposed saxes. I can see it coming out in 2026.
There are two other SB albums recently started. One is heavier prog rock, which includes me experimenting with distortion or reverbs on keyboards (and other instruments). The other in-progress album has each song built on top of a music bed (like a pad, drone, or gliss). However, what’s on top, could be anything, including a full band.
I did an acoustic-based space rock instrumental SB album a couple of years ago, called “Evolution Ritual.” I’d like to revisit that concept in a different way. Perhaps with folk songs and a spacey synth, where I write all or most of the lyrics. After weaving in (sneaking in?) my lyrics into a decade or so of SB & MM albums, where most of the lyrics are lines from Mike’s books, I’d like to make some marks with my words. I used to write lyrics a lot and would like to do at least one more full album with my lyric voices; and maybe me singing a bit more.
10. If you could go back in time and get any single musician to contribute to Spirits Burning, who would it be and why?
Don: That’s a tough one. I interpret your question to be someone no longer with us. Each instrument or voice kind of has a pantheon to choose from. I would definitely not limit the choice to space rock, or even prog rock. I think I’ve established that SB is mix of different styles and musicians from different genres. And I feel like I’m still thinking how to answer…
Ok. Guitar would be Electric Ladyland period Jimi Hendrix. Bass (or field recordings) would be Holger Czukay. Drums would be Ginger Baker (who I once tried to get in touch with). Regardless of how he felt about it, he is part of the Hawkwind family. Female vocals would be Sandy Denny. I would love to have her sing some of the words I wrote in the past. Male vocals… I guess I should stick with someone I mentioned years ago in an interview: John Gustafson (who sang on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album and in bands like Hard Stuff and Quatermass). I always liked his voice. Reeds: Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Keyboards (if/when I leave space…): Graham Bond or Jon Lord. I’ll stop there. I guess I’ve kind of created a whole new band.
