Collaborations are central to our lives. Whether that originates in the form of Mary Kate and Ashley designing a new collection at The Row, Andre 3000 and Big Boi becoming the masterminds behind Outkast, and of course the space saved for childhood friends turned music collaborators, Jack Falahee and Tim Wu of DIPLOMACY. Diplomacy’s first single, “Silver Lake Queen” elaborately documents the illustrious, empowering vision of a woman with subtle references to the band’s current home base of Los Angeles. Storytelling follows both their divergent pathways, a similar theatrical expression shared behind a camera or a DJ stand.
any of the numbers and believing in the project.” Tim Wu adds, who also is a DJ under the pseudonym, Elephante. Tim and Jack momentarily diverged from their hometown roots in Ann Arbor, Michigan to express their own interests in university, Tim studying economics at Harvard University and Jack finding a pathway to acting at New York University. Tim’s time as Elephante has given him a strong foundation of testing and re-routing instrumentals and mixes to the masses that attend his festival sets and crowded club venues. Trading in images of fanatical LED lights and booming production towards more stripped down instrumentation with a guitar and vocals, Wu is prepared to captivate audiences with that same devotion to music.
Tim Wu declares that his teenage self would look at his present moment rocking away in the “Silver Lake Queen” music video, utterly awestruck at the fact that “I was in LA playing open mics to exactly zero people. he mastered the guitar. Tim states, “The project is ful- I have seen a whole gamut of intensity and interests in different crowds. I think whether people are headfilling a lot of childhood dreams that we had. It was one of those magical things where you go in and you’re doing the best you can but then you almost go into a trance and when the song and video is done you still can’t believe it happened.” I ask the question of which memorable moment in TV or film would they imagine ‘Silver Lake Queen’ playing in the background.
banging or not it's all about just creating a connection with the audience and giving them an experience that is unique and special, Wu says. “I think it’s just different sides of the same coin. The songs from Diplomacy tell a different story and I’m really excited to explore that as well.”
Tim offers a shameless best friend plug, stating, “The final scene of How To Get Away With Murder.” Despite Tim’s display of charming support, Jack laughs and offers a vastly different response. “I really like this show Peaky Blinders. It’s a period piece that uses contemporary rock. I think SLQ aligns itself with it because it has this sort of regal vibe to it but its a rock anthem at its core. Yeah, I can totally see Cillian Murphy killing people to ‘Silver Lake Queen’ that’s for sure.”
Meanwhile, Jack Falahee's character, Connor Walsh, contributed to the quintessential storyline on How To Get Away With Murder after Falahee graduated with a BFA from New York University. The simultaneous malleability of Jack’s acting abilities turned into a simultaneous, ardent love for music. For both Jack and Tim, formative years were spent with a surrounding testament to creativity.
Jack delves into the deeper meaning behind the lyrics and the music video for Silver Lake Queen, “The song itself is obviously a derivative of this chance encounter I had with this girl in Silverlake. She was just this type of person that was extremely magnetic and kind of knocks the air out of you quite a bit. Had this ethereal dreamlike vibe to her whenever I watched her walk through a bar and a crowded room. We wanted the video to have a similar moody trance with that energy that the song itself reflects in the lyrics.” “I have released a few songs in my time, and I personally have really terrible release day anxiety. My coping mechanism is shutting off for a little bit, not looking at
“I grew up in a pretty creative household but it was all lawyers and doctors so it wasn’t really an option to pursue it. The tragic passing of a friend in high school was the catalyst for me to join the school musical that year. Someone in the University of Michigan saw me and somehow they convinced my parents to let me audition for musical theatre programs. It caught all of us by surprise. It wasn’t until I was in New York that I hit the realization that ‘This is what I want to do in my life,” says Jack. Tim jointly recalls his early love for music, “I’ve been playing music my whole life. It was always the one thing that always made sense. The one thing that I would always come back to. And where I would spend my free
local wolves • 85
