Chris Leyva (Blizzard), who grew up in Mexico City, also books bands at venues around town and co-manages the Black Cherry Group that he founded in 2006 with Reliable Records main man Jerry Segal.
A video for “I Need You Now” released in summer 2012 features his five-piece band the Falling Doves, which he calls “A collection of old friends and professional touring musicians. The band was made to accompany me and my diverse songwriting catalog,” says Leyva of the ensemble.
“I met Italian transplant Stefano Belforte the Saturday night he arrived in Los Angeles, he had literally been here three hours...we had a full band by Monday, and he moved here from Italy. The name the Falling Doves came from an article I read about birds falling all over Italy and Rome, and I just felt, What’s next?, you know? End of the world?”
Leyva also performs and records solo material, and his band Leyva & the Dead 67’s specializes in a mixture of early garage rock and punk.
In early 2016, after touring England, Falling Doves signed with Britain's RMN Records. Their sophomore album Doves of War featured a lineup with Leyva, Mike Dorsey, Clint Feddersen, and Kyle Mueller, and collaborations with members of the Rembrandts, Greg Douglas (Steve Miller Band), and Jason Hill (Louis XIV, Jett, the Killers). It was produced by Rick Parker of (BRMC, Scott Weiland, Lord Huron, Dandy Warhols), and Skyler Lutes in San Diego, with additional production by Jason Hill (Louis XIV, Jett, the Killers).
Falling Doves embarked on a UK and German tour retracing the Beatles steps that eventually led to a gig backing original Beatles drummer Pete Best at Queen Bee's in San Diego in March 2018. The following month, a video was released for their track "Love on the Runway," with performance footage filmed at the Lafayette Hotel's famed clamshell.
Paring down to a duo featuring Christopher Leyva and Mike Dorsey, their Live in Tokyo album (released August 2018) was recorded during their late 2017 tour of Japan, and mixed and mastered at EastWest Studios in L.A.
"We're going on tour to Australia for the third time," frontman Christopher Leyva told the Reader. "We're doing a few benefits we created along our tour to benefit the https://www.wires.org.au, they help the animals burned by the wildfires. The main benefit in Australia will be in Brisbane at the Crowbar Feb 21 where along with a couple locals we will be selling our shirts and collecting cash...we teamed up with a great poster artist, Diego De Grandi from Brazil, to create a tour shirt and benefit poster, he's done art for Oasis, Tom Petty, and the Rolling Stones. We'll sell the shirt on tour, and all funds will go to the Wires charity."
A new EP called Isolation was released in summer 2020, featuring covers of tracks like "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen), "Wonderwall" (Oasis), and "Ships Out to Sea" (The Be Good Tanyas). In Autumn 2020, the band signed a deal with Sony BMG Latin for their Electric Dove album.
In summer 2021, they announced their next album, Skylark 69, and a live concert video. In addition, "The Falling Doves have been collaborating with Little Miss Nasty, a Hollywood based rock and troll burlesque troupe, on some video content for the Doves upcoming tour," said frontman Christopher Leyva.
Skylark '69 dropped in March 2022 via local label Pacific Records, including its debut single "Shotgun." Leyva says of the single "Have you ever been in a relationship where you choose love and they choose chaos and to end things, and no matter how hard you try, you feel like they are the judge, the jury, and the executioner? And your only crime is trying too damn hard to make it work? Well, that's the theme here." The subsequent Falling Doves Double Vision 2022 World Tour kicked off March 25 in Tarzana CA, followed by a pre-Grammy event, and then a European and UK tour before returning for U.S. and Puerto Rico dates through summer. A September midwest tour was followed by a December trip to Australia.