As the hit ABC drama “How to Get Away with Murder” wraps up it final season, one of its stars is preparing to embark on a new creative path.
Jack Falahee, known for his role as ‘Connor’ on the popular series, is collaborating with celebrated electronic artist and his childhood friend, Tim Wu (known as Elephante) to create new music as a duo. They’re known together as Diplomacy, and on the heels of the debut release of their single “Silver Lake Queen,” they sat down with the Knockturnal to discuss their journey as a pair both professionally and personally.
The Knockturnal: So you guys met when you were kids?
Jack Falahee: Yeah, we met freshman year of high school. I grew up in parochial schools. Tim went to the public schools, but I met him through some mutual friends and you know, fast friends. But then we both split off our different ways. He went to Boston for college, I came out here. But then somehow by luck or fate, we both ended up in L.A. And I was crashing on his couch when I was out there auditioning. Yeah. And the rest of the sort of history. It took us a couple of years … finding our footing out there, individually in our careers and then, sort of once we were both comfortable, that’s when we started kicking around the idea for this project.
The Knockturnal: It’s crazy because I feel like this industry, it’s so hard to find success and you guys both found your footing.
Tim Wu: Yeah, we always joke that it’s too crazy that two Michigan boys kind of both kind of found our way to L.A. and both kind of made it on our own. We have another buddy thats an Olympian.
The Knockturnal: Really?
Tim Wu: Yeah. Yeah we’re both fortunate to be able to chase our dreams, and we sort of kind of took it as a sign of fate that we should probably try to make something happen.
The Knockturnal: Yeah, I know, that’s really cool. Do you remember your first impressions of each other in high school?
Jack Falahee: I don’t. I have a horrible memory, so I remember almost nothing of high school, but Tim apparently has been painting this picture…
Tim Wu: He was a little heavier then, but he was still very good looking and very cocky. You wouldn’t walk around school as much as strut, huge strut guy.
The Knockturnal: That’s a good picture to paint, I feel like.
Jack Falahee: It was more of a waddle, I think.
Tim Wu: Yeah, but underneath the baby fat the bone structure was there.
The Knockturnal: What were you like?
Tim Wu: What was I like? I played a lot of tennis. I think that was kind of my thing back then. You know, on top of music stuff.
Jack Falahee: Yeah but Tim was like a star tennis athlete and like the smartest person in the school. So there was a certain confidence there. I obviously copied all my homework from Tim. You had a certain confidence. You weren’t as… Outwardly showy as I was, probably.
Tim Wu: Yeah, probably. I mean, I was definitely scared to go to a new high school.
The Knockturnal: What type of music were you guys into then?
Tim Wu: I mean, a lot of Eminem…
The Knockturnal: Very Michigan.
Jack Falahee: For sure. And we went to some Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts together, though definitely made their way out to Michigan and were super influential. I grew up in a household where my dad’s a bluegrass musician so I listened to a lot of that, a lot of Bob Dylan, some Beatles. But my dad had this like weird hunch about the Beatles.
Tim Wu: My idol growing up as John Mayer, I was into classic rock stuff, like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin, and a lot of hip hop. I didn’t really get into electronic music, what I do as Elephante, until much later in college.
The Knockturnal: And so what are your influences now?
Jack Falahee: They change. I mean, Tim obviously is like, super entrenched in the music world with his career, so he gives me a lot of homework.
Tim Wu: We have Spotify playlists.
Jack Falahee: Yeah we have a shared playlist where he’d add things on, but I can pull it up. Especially when we were starting to work on recording, I was out here doing musical theater and needed to kind of lose sort of the theatrics, almost operatic vocal quality.
Tim Wu: But a long time you’re like, hey…
The Knockturnal: This isn’t Broadway.
Tim Wu: You need to enunciate less!
Jack Falahee: So I have a ‘Jack Vocal References’, it’s like The Killers, Zane, Death Cab for Cutie, Harry Styles, Ansel Elgort, Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon, X Ambassadors, you get the idea.
The Knockturnal: Okay, cool. What about now, why was this the time that you guys wanted to start this and why did it work?
Tim Wu: I think it’s a couple things. I think we both needed some time to sort of figure out our footing and our own curves, and we’d always joke about starting a band. Then I think, it’s only in the last couple of years that we kind of sort knew what we were doing. I mean you never actually know what you’re doing, but it’s sort of that creative confidence that we could create stuff and make stuff that’s actually dope and is cool, is on par with all the content and artists that you really like as a consumer. So it was that, and also, you know, we spent a lot of time before we had launched any of this. This was very much in the works, and I’ve learned that my big thing is you can’t rush, you can’t rush art. It kind of is, it’s done, it’s ready when it’s ready. And you know, we got started a couple years ago working together and it was fine, but it didn’t really have that spark and that special something. I think it was, we’d been working together for a year and a half or a year before we started writing songs, and started having these ideas that were like, “Oh no, this is like, actually dope shit.” We need to pursue this and make an album.
Jack Falahee: I think it took a lot of convincing of me as well. You know, as an actor … I always have the privilege to sort of hide behind whatever project I’m in. And music’s very different where you know, Tim’s used to at this point, but when you put on music it’s… Especially as an independent artist it’s just you, it’s something that you created from the ground up. And that, to me, was scary and a much more vulnerable sort of leap of faith. So it definitely took a little bit of convincing.
The Knockturnal: And it’s a really transitional time for you, too.
Jack Falahee: Yeah. I mean we didn’t know that going in, obviously. I genuinely thought that the show would go for another year or two, which frankly, is sort of, ironically now I feel a little bit more secure that we have this project together, because I’m not just going off into the abyss, sort of with nothing to sink my teeth into.
Tim Wu: Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall.
Jack Falahee: Thank you.
The Knockturnal: Is this more the direction you want to go in? Or are you still holding on to projects?
Jack Falahee: I think that’s the amazing thing about being an artist now. It’s like everyone can sort of do anything they want, all at once. I think people are less contained.
Tim Wu: He’s actually multi-hyphenate. He’s a modern day Renaissance man.
Jack Falahee: Sure, sure, sure.
The Knockturnal: No, I definitely feel that you see a lot more of those crossovers now.
Tim Wu: The whole idea behind this is to launch of my acting career!
Jack Falahee: Yeah, exactly.
Tim Wu: That’s the quid pro quo.
Jack Falahee: The Harry styles trajectory.
Tim Wu: That’s my angle.
The Knockturnal: Do you watch a lot of [Jack’s] stuff?
Tim Wu: I do and I don’t, it’s an interesting experience because I do obviously want to support him, and it’s also a little strange for me still, seeing him on screen. Although he has his one thing that I’ve seen… I’ve seen him do as Connor [on ‘How to Get Away with Murder’], and I’m like, “Oh, I’ve seen that.” I think it’s like the look of disdain that he gives. I’m like, “Oh I’ve, I’ve gotten that one before.”
Jack Falahee: I think they call that my resting bitch face.
Tim Wu: Is that what it is?
Jack Falahee: I think, yeah. Matt [McGorry] called it that. I was like, okay.
Tim Wu: It’s a very good resting bitch face. But you know, outside of music we’re like always doing cool creative stuff, and I think one of Jack’s greatest qualities is sort of cultivating this creative community where everyone supports each other… Giving people space and encouraging people to do cool, weird shit.
The Knockturnal: Did you have any anxieties coming into this?
Tim Wu: I have all of the anxiety all the time.
Jack Falahee: Yeah, I have a ton of anxiety. I mean, that’s why we were very… very careful to sort of cultivate this, the brand of the band, if you will, and the macro artistic vision because we didn’t want to just rush and put things out and have everyone be like, “Oh great. This TV actor’s made a song.” Because that does give me a lot of anxiety to be… the worst thing is to be dismissed before given a fair shot, I think. And you know, it’s both sort of a blessing and a curse that we have both more visibility going into this than, a band that’s just entering the scene. So there’s a lot of anxiety there. But I think that we’ve taken our time to really cultivate this vision that we have about it being more than just music and you know, a lot of cool content and videos and everything else going into it. So that’s sort of helping, a little bit, but yeah, there’s all the anxiety.
The Knockturnal: Yeah. “Silver Lake Queen” doesn’t sound like your electronic vibe, at all. Is this a new direction that you’re trying to go in?
Tim Wu: It was definitely an intentional choice to kind of break away from, particularly as the first single, I wanted to be very clear that this is a new entity. This isn’t just Jack singing on and off on a song. Like I said, I have a very wide range when it comes to music. It’s just… another part of music I love. But it’s one of those things that just kind of happened. We didn’t plan how we wanted anything to sound. We just were writing these stories and writing these songs that, through the lyrics, that sort of evoked… I saw this world that I wanted it to be in. And “Silver Lake Queen” ended up turning into this sort of alt banger. You know, some of the other stuff’s a little more electronic and more vibey. In the very beginning, we really wanted to make sure that Diplomacy took on a life of its own and it wasn’t just me doing my normal song.
The Knockturnal: Seven three four, [in reference to their online handle @Diplomacy734] is that like an area code?
Tim Wu: It’s the area code that we grew up in. We have matching tattoos.
Jack Falahee: Two. I forgot that we had two.
The Knockturnal: What’s the other one?
Jack Falahee: We have a tree that Tim designed. Ann Arbor is often referenced as a tree city, so both because it’s Ann Arbor, and also because 420 originated in Ann Arbor. So there’s a lot of “trees” being smoked. But we got that one before we started the band. And then once we started the band, we got another one. My girlfriend says we have too many matching tattoos, but I think she’s just salty that she and I don’t have any matching tattoos. How many is too many?
Tim Wu: Who’s to say?
Jack Falahee: Six?
Tim Wu: Yeah, six.
Jack Falahee: I think six is probably too many.
Tim Wu: Probably, yeah.
The Knockturnal: You’re going to get there soon. So would you [Tim] ever take on a different persona than Elephante? Would you do a different name to signify a different era of music?
Tim Wu: That’s a good question, I’ve never been asked that. Maybe … Elephante is, you know, it’s me, but it’s also not me. It’s a certain part of me that… has sort of taken on a whole life of itself I think. I think it’s also…I don’t really look at Elephante necessarily being defined by its sound, like people associate it with certain things. But that sound’s always evolving too. It’s like your favorite coat.
Jack Falahee: Right. It’s also interesting because Elephante is like, you as a producer.
Tim Wu: Yeah.
Jack Falahee: And you are producing Diplomacy as Elephante. So it’s real complicated, I mean…
Tim Wu: A whole identity thing. But again, I don’t plan things out creatively. It’s like … in the studio or I’m on the plane or whatever and I just do things. Do what I’m excited by. I’ve had crazier ideas in changing my name, so… can’t rule it out.
Jack Falahee: With the show ending, I got into a thing last year where I was convinced that I was going to change my acting professional name and my team like lost their mind.
The Knockturnal: What were you thinking of?
Jack Falahee: Just a bunch of dumb shit. But I like got stuck in this idea that I didn’t want, people to only associate me with the show and that musicians are constantly changing their names, so why can’t actors?
The Knockturnal: And your managers are like, nah.
Jack Falahee: Everybody was very upset, but…
Tim Wu: I’m on board.
Jack Falahee: I mean, I know you’re on board. I just like, it interests me that actors don’t do it, you know?
Tim Wu: Probably just, people aren’t used to it, it’s not as accepted, whereas people have been starting new bands and changing their names.
Jack Falahee: Yeah and musicians are just generally crazier, I guess.
Tim Wu: Well, we had Bowie, who I guess is an actor also, but … he sort of started the whole like, “I am not a human anymore, I am now Ziggy Stardust.” Yeah, the alter-ego has always been big.
The Knockturnal: I think its a cool thing, like P. Diddy just deciding to change his name every two weeks…
Tim Wu: Yeah, exactly. Why not?
The Knockturnal: And my last question, I like the video for “Silver Lakes People,” how did you link up with that dancer?
Jack Falahee: Sadie [Yarrington] my girlfriend from high school, my ex-girlfriend. I mean she and I were all very good friends but, like Tim said earlier, we have this, we’re fortunate to have this like super beautiful artistic community, both here and in L.A., and Sadie’s one of the few folks that we grew up with that is, you know, doing this sort of professionally. And so, when we wrote the song and decided on the concept to have an actual Silver Lake queen, it was obviously going to be Sadie. And she’s going to be involved in the project going forward in a lot of cool ways. She’ll definitely be our choreographer and movement coach and I’m sure people will see her in videos and on stage going forward.
The Knockturnal: A lot of talent coming out of Ann Arbor.
Jack Falahee: Something in the water?
“Silver Lake Queen” is out now