Hey everybody, Maleok here with another interview! This time I caught up with Josef Falkensköld, the founder of the hugely successful League of Legends fan music band and youtube channel Falconshield. Also joining us was the Falconshield frequent Nicki Taylor, singer of "Here Comes Vi".

So to start us off! What gave you the Idea to write songs about league?

Josef: Well I think it was in 2009 I had this idea that, I mean it was...I can’t remember really, well I was unemployed at the time so I had lots of free time. I came up with this idea to write songs, well...regular songs with vocals about games. so first it was like all different kind of games, but since I was playing league at the time it felt kind of natural to write some league songs. and then a few months later Riot games hosted the third installment of songs of the summoned. I won the runner up prize, and that was the start of the whole YouTube thing.

Nicki: So it was when you realized you could do the thing [Laughs]

Josef: Yes! I could do the thing and then people would listen to that thing.

So more directly how did the band “Falconshield” come to be formed?

Josef: Well for the first album “Gamer Metal” it was just me. Then exactly around when I was submitting the song “Hecarim” for Songs of the Summoned three I was looking around for a guitarist to play some epic solos. Then I found Martin Floberg. He just blew me away with his solos on the song and he continued to play a few more for me on some new songs. After that we decided hey why don’t we form a band! We were just the two of us for a pretty long while, me writing songs and he doing additional guitar work and solos. Then when I wrote “This is war I” that is when I first got in touch with Anti-Rivet (Kenny).

Obviously he was a very talented writer and he had other skills as well with voice acting. He was very creative and he’s reliable and that’s very important when you work with people on the internet. So we worked on a bunch of songs together and it started to be regular that Kenny wrote all of our songs. Then I think it was last summer that we decided he should join the band too. He was the last ordinary band member, and we have very good synergy; I have a certain skillset, Martin has a certain skillset that compliments me, and Kenny has a different kind of skillset which compliments us all. The latest member who is only a couple months in is Lars Hellhammer, yes that is his real name.

Wow that is a warlord's name! [All Laugh]

Josef: And I thought Falconshield was a cool name and then HE comes in. Maybe we need to change the name or something! He is the new editor and he was actually a fan who wanted to commission a song. Then he kinda went, "P.S. I’m a professional FX artist, maybe I could work on some songs.". So I asked if he had any references and he showed me some lyric videos that he had done. I was really impressed so we took him in immediately because he was a fan and he really wanted to work on the material, so it was the perfect situation.

Did you expect the “This is War” series to get as big as it has?

Josef: No I didn’t. Let’s see...I released “This is War” one in...when was this, October of 2013. And for the time it was a big hit on the channel. I got maybe 50-60,000 views in the first 24 hours. After I had completed the first one I told myself I would never do one again. It was really a hassle and a pain in the ass.

While on the topic, did you ever expect Riot to notice the videos and share any?

Josef: No I can’t say that I expected it, but it’s really cool that they did. I think it’s a big part of the success as well.

"This is War II" The hit Falconshield video Riot shared on their social media.

Now Josef, have you had any issues with having a cast so separated?

Josef: Yes definitely, especially in the first one. That was back when nobody knew of me and it was harder to get people to enroll in this project. I had a few swing and misses. I asked a few people to collaborate who said that they would but never did. And I really can’t handle stuff like that.

Nicki, what have been the major differences between working with “Falconshield” than with Riot?

Nicki: Well I mean I record it in my bedroom! [laughs] That is the biggest difference. I mean another cool thing about it is that you get almost instant gratification for the work that you’ve done. Although with Riot it was pretty instant, I went in to record on Saturday and it came out that Wednesday. But when you're doing your own music you record your stuff months in advance and then you put it out and you’re like, "oh finally somebody gets to see the thing I did!". It’s more like on my own time where Josef asks, "hey can you do this thing", and I kinda look at it I’m like, "oh ya this is cool but I’m feeling lazy when do you want this by at the very latest?". [laughs] Then I take my sweet ass time, I make it come out and I’m like, "eh? eh?".

Josef: Actually you make it sound like you’re lazy but that’s not the impression I feel people should have because I find you very reliable and fast working.

Now do you think there is a future in fan music for League?

Nicki: Well there always has to be, as long as the fanbase gets bigger the audience gets bigger. Making League of Legends music you kind of alreadyhave...Well you have to be good, if you suck it doesn’t matter, but since Falconshield as a whole is good they have a built in League of Legends fanbase that only keeps on growing because the game keeps on growing. If the game dies we might be in a little bit of trouble, we’ll have to find the next thing to move on to. But as long as League keeps going we’ll keep going.

Josef, how is it that you find guests for the songs?

Josef: Well I try to have a general knowledge of who is big or who is--

Nicki: Who the cool kids are!

Josef: Well more like who is relevant in the League of Legends community, and whether or not they are talented. Because I could always invite the biggest YouTuber. I could invite PewDiePie hypothetically and he accept it but also not sing well. I wouldn't put myself in that possition because they need to sound good. But like I said it was most difficult doing it for “This is War I” because that was before I was known in the LoL community. After that I had something cool to reference in order to show people like, "Hey I’m doing something like this again!".

Nicki: That made it really easy for me. It’s tough when you don’t have a good reference. but when Josef message me he was just like, "Hey Nicki you were Vi, do you wanna do Vi again? And by the way here’s a thing!". And I thought, "Oh hey this sounds good, looks good, and has views let’s do it!".

Josef: Yes it is much easier to pull people now. Especially after “This is War II” which was more of a smash hit. After that released it was really easy to get people, it’s not hard. And in the end “This is war IV” Is sounding excellent with its cast!

On a scale of 1-10 how dedicated to League do you feel you are? feel free to explain.

Josef: Well this definitely has to come with an explanation I think. It’s definitely a seven to me. This is a very difficult question, because when it comes to my content it is more like a nine. However it feels like a seven because I play other games too and I want to branch out.Ppersonally I'm probably a seven on the gaming side because I love to play the game when I have time but I have very little time. Committing to a 40-50 minute game is a decent chunk of time. I mean I have a wife and two kids after all.

Nicki: League has gotta be like a nine or ten for me. To be fully honest its because that is like 99% of my fanbase. However I don’t find that to be a problem. The cool thing is that, while the music is what everybody knows me for, the stream has become a way for me to secure the understanding of my personality. So I am hoping that I can use my personality to branch off and do other things. But as for right now with League, the fanbase is there and I have something to connect my personality to. So people are going to watch me because I am playing League and they decided I'm funny. And when it comes to the channel if it is not League music it is a little bit harder to pull viewers.

Josef: Well definitely I agree, if I want to get viewers I need to make League songs. It’s as simple as that.

Nicki: Right! We did that Super Smash Brothers collab with a bunch of different people!

Josef: With everyone; You, Sky Williams, Keyori, AntiRivet, Blackinola, Stephanos Rex, Lilypichu, and Rawb.

Nicki: We had important people, it actually sounded really good! And Smash Bros is such a big thing. The video has done decently well but not nearly as well as our league stuff. I was genuinely confused because we had a lot of bigger names as well as Josef's weekly collabs. It wasn't exactly discouraging but it made me realize like, damn you people are picky, you need your League of Legends! [laughs]
<iframe style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/YFf5-i1KHgY" width="510" height="350"></iframe>

The unsung Falconshield Super Smash Bros Colab.

There has been talk of the new "This is War" being very imminent. What are the details you can give us Josef?

Josef: Well the song is pretty much done. I did a premix of it and all the verses are in. I need to tweak a couple of things like the FX and some instruments here and there. But it is sounding really good and I am excited about it. Currently Ricard is working on the video but obviously he is a busy man. However we are expecting an April release. "This is War III" parts one and two were not as much of a success as "This is War II" so we are hoping "This is War IV" brings us back to that point.

Nicki: I believe that it will, I just feel like the formula for "This is War II" was about very personality driven characters without any mechanically processed voices. I think it was so much easier to get a personality across which is what so many people were excited about it. I feel like that is what "This is War IV" has. So it's gonna be easier for the characters personality to come off correctly. It's a very similar formula to "This is War II" and I think it has a lot of the same elements that are going to make it just as successful.

Josef: I think you put it well Nicki. The dynamic is completely different in "This is War IV" than it was in "This is War III". The characters are much more interesting than before. I think it is much more dynamic than it was before, it's not just evil monsters of darkness from the Void or the Shadow Isles like before.

Finally, Is there anything you would like to tell the community about your future plans for the channel?

Josef: Falconshield has a really massive and epic plan. However I'm not even sure if I can say anything about it yet.

Nicki: I have no idea what it is...I am left out.

Josef: You're gonna be in it though!

Nicki: Oh okay well I'm gonna be in it! So the plans for Falconshield are Josef going, "Hey Nicki you wanna do the thing?". And me saying okay! [All laugh]

Josef: "This is War" is our major source of income through YouTube. We write songs all the time. Hell we release two songs every month, but I always wanted us to be working on one big project so there is always a bigger picture. This other big project we have planned is like Kenny's baby. We need a lot of resources for that so we'll see. However if we don't get started on that really soon we will definitely get started on "This is War V"!

Thank you guys so much for the interview, it was definitely a pleasure for me to get to chat with you both!

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