Psycroptic - Falling (Cover)

https://www.metalblade.com/psycroptic/ "Back in 2018 I thought it would be a nice treat to have a hidden bonus track for the “As the Kingdom Drowns” album for the Australian only CD release. I figured doing a cover of a song by an Australian artist or band would be fitting.

"When choosing a cover song, we’ve tried to seek out more left of field songs that we’re able to mould into our own. Songs that are well written and that work well with our ‘sound’ without needing much extra than us plugging in and playing. Being a longtime fan of John Farnham and also the work that he did with the Little River Band, I thought it might be interesting to try and tackle one of the songs that were performed during Farnham’s tenure in LRB.

"I found that a lot of the songs were quite difficult to make work in our style but the 1983 album “The Net”, and more specifically the song “Falling”, was quite dark in tone and actually translated quite well. We had a lot of fun recording it and we think it turned out great.

"But it turned out our version was a little too well hidden when it came to the release of it as it was only available on the physical Australia CD release. It was never released digitally.

"Fast forward to 2025 - we were randomly contacted by one of the co-writers of “Falling” - Malcolm Wakeford (via his wife Romola through our online store!) - who was keen to hear our version. Of course we express posted a few copies up for him to hear. Malcolm was very complimentary of our version of the song, which to be honest was a huge relief haha.

"This gave us renewed excitement for the song and upon a revisit to the track, and with Malcolm’s blessing, we thought that the song deserved a re-release to all the platforms so that it wouldn’t be just limited to the physical Australian CD release.

"So this is one from our vaults, dusted off for all to enjoy." -Joe Haley, Dec 2025

“Falling happened initially with a riff Stephen Housden came up with. At that point in time we were on an outro trip from the ‘punk’ genre so we turned Falling in a straighter, more 'accessible’ direction - one reason it might have appealed to The Little River Band.

"The lyrics took on a secret agent / James Bond flavour - a bit like seeing a movie or novel unfold, unavoidably falling into new situations and challenges - like a lot of us I guess.

"Psycroptic have taken it into a whole new cosmictic sphere. The intent is still there but they’ve infused it with their signature angst and incredible musicianship.” - Malcolm Wakeford

Four songs Malcolm co wrote with Stephen Housden for their post punk band The Imports were picked up by LRB. LRB then rearranged/rewrote parts of them, “Falling” was the only one they kept close to its original form so Malcolm and Stephen remain the sole writers.

As you may know Stephen became a permanent member of LRB in 1981, then bought the name from Graeme Goble and toured the band for many years, ending up with a big dispute which I think continues.

* As a musician Wakeford has been a member of Little River Band and John Farnham Band. He has composed film scores for many films, including Strictly Ballroom, Australia, The Railway Man, The Water Diviner and The Dressmaker. He was nominated for Academy Awards for his scores for Shine and Elizabeth.