Songfacts®:

• "It's Called: Freefall" is a conversation with the Devil, something you'll often hear in the music of Rainbow Kitten Surprise. The lyric was written by the group's lead singer, Ela Melo (known then as Sam Melo - she transitioned to Ela and changed pronouns in 2022). It's based on the idea that if call to the Devil, the Devil will come, and he'll offer you a deal (the old "crossroads story of lore"). After you take the deal, which you inevitably will - you called for the Devil, after all - what happens next is freefall, when you let it all go.
  
  We know this because Melo often introduced the song at concerts when they played it early on with a tale along these lines:
  
  "I was taught that nearly any sin could let the Devil in unless you confess and repent.
  See, the Devil enters soft and quiet through the eyes and through the ears and exits through the mouth in violence. That's why they say 'hear no evil, see no evil,' because the Devil is real he's among the people. I was taught that if the Devil comes, run, but don't call the Devil unless you want him to come. Then one day I called the Devil and I thought, I'm going to fight him. Guess what happened? It's called freefall."
• Ela Melo's upbringing informed the lyric. Her parents were missionaries and moved with her to the Dominican Republic in 1999 when she was about 8 years old. They were all deeply immersed in the culture, where there was what Ela called an "obsession" with the Devil. They didn't return to America until 2006, eventually settling in North Carolina. When Melo started writing songs, many of them dealt with stories she heard in the Dominican, often with malevolent themes. The first Rainbow Kitten Surprise song to get much heat was "Devil Like Me," which has a very similar theme. That song they entered into a 2014 VH1 contest called "Make A Band Famous," earning them a spot in the competition.
• According to Ela Melo, the song started when she was experimenting with a Lowrey Genie organ she bought at Goodwill for $50. Only two of the keys worked, so she alternated between them, and the lyrics flowed out of her in a stream-of-consciousness.
• Listening to this sinister song, the band name is rather... surprising. They took the name Rainbow Kitten Surprise after visiting a friend in the hospital who was stricken with meningitis, his life in jeopardy. They asked him to suggest a name for their new band, and in his heavily drugged state he said, "Rainbow Kitten Surprise."
  
  The band has been counseled to change it over the years but they've refused. It's kind of a "A Boy Named Sue" situation where the silly name strengthens their resolve. It also serves as a tribute to their friend, who eventually recovered.
• Rainbow Kitten Surprise played "It's Called: Freefall" in concert as far back as 2016, two years before they released the song. They played a lot of festivals in 2017 (Bonnaroo, Firefly, Austin City Limits...), which is where many fans heard it for the first time. They refined the song as they played it, so it was well-honed by the time they entered the studio in 2018 to record it. The song also generated a buzz that got them a major-label record deal with Elektra, which gave the song a big push when it was released on their album How To: Friend, Love, Freefall. The song ended up on a lot of streaming service discovery playlists, attracting lots of attention for this curious band with a funny name.
• This song is a great example of the layered vocal harmonies that define the sound of Rainbow Kitten Surprise, with different voices entering as the song progresses.
• The band doesn't appear in the music video, which was animated by Anthony Francisco Shepperd, known for his fluid, morphing imagery and bright, contrasting colors. Those elements are on display in the video as the Devil reveals himself.
• "It's Called: Freefall" plays in the Netflix series Ginny & Georgia. The song appears in the first episode of the show's third season, which debuted on June 5, 2025.