ONE ON ONE: AN INTERVIEW WITH STONE!

WE ARE HERE TODAY WITH STONE AND THIS IS A HIVE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW. WE’RE JOINED WITH ELLIOT AND ALEX, HOW ARE WE DOING TODAY GUYS?

Elliot and Alex: Yeah all good, how about you?

NOT BAD! IT’S AN EARLY START TO THE DAY BUT I’M READY TO GET INTO THIS INTERVIEW! I GOT INTO YOU GUYS DUE TO A RECOMMENDATION FROM MY HOUSEMATE. SHE’D SEEN YOU AT READING & LEEDS IN 2021 ON THE BBC INTRODUCING STAGE—

Elliot: They were two different shows depending on which one. One of them I could walk for and one I couldn’t.

WHAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN?

Elliot: Well it’s a long story. I broke my knee. I had to sit down for Reading. I’m not saying I’m Dave Grohl but… You’ve never seen us in the same room.

YOU GUYS REALLY KNOW HOW TO PUT ON A PERFORMANCE. I NOTED THAT EVERY MEMBER OF YOUR BAND IS ALWAYS DOING SOMETHING - LET’S FACTOR OUT THE BROKEN KNEE - WHEN YOU’RE ABLE TO, YOU’RE MOVING. WHAT GOES INTO THAT?

Elliot: It's so weird because there’s an element of stage prep. I didn’t just step up out the gate at the age of 17 when I first started playing live and was doing all of that stuff. It has come with time but also like a lot of the time, there isn’t really a reason or rhyme behind it. It’s just this constant compulsion to keep moving. Like we stand relatively still in practice. As soon it's live and it's in front of people, it hits that energy, I’ll tell you what! I think with the way I play aggressively, it definitely is channelling the daily stresses and obviously, music as a whole is a conduit for your mental health and stuff. It's a great outlet and it's really visceral and a very dynamic thing that's tangible. When you’re a kid, you’re allowed to throw a tantrum but when you’re an adult it's not advised. You don’t want to throw a tantrum because it’ll upset people.

This is the one thing I can think of that I can go out and be nuts and it's rewarded. Even just doing backing vocals I’m like that. I’m 24 so I try not to throw a big tantrum but I go onstage it’s like (mimics screaming)

If you go out on the street, you can’t do that! You get to channel that. It’s awesome. Channel frustration, rage, anger, love, hope. It becomes a ball of emotion and it puts you right there in the room. It's like a drug. People have said are you on pills or something? Nope. I was just having a good time. Maybe too much when I’m playing.

A LOT GOES INTO THE PERFORMANCE ASPECT AND MAKING SURE YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT HEADSPACE FOR THE PERFORMANCE. THE THING ABOUT MOSHPITS AND AGRESSIVE/ENERGETIC MUSIC IS IT DOES GET PEOPLE MOVING. I THINK IT’S REALLY CATHARTIC. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD SEE YOURSELVES OUT ON THE STREETS DOING SOME ENERGETIC BUSKING?

Elliot: We did a thing in the park in 2021 just before Reading & Leeds. It was more of a chill-out one. I think one of us wasn’t wearing any shoes. I wouldn’t mind being a bit of a public nuisance.

Alex: It depends on the vibe for that one. As you said, it gets a bit rowdy and if we do set everyone into a frenzy, I’ll be inside of it.

Elliot: We might have had a little sticker incident one time so if they see our name come up again…Maybe, maybe. Stick me in a room and I’ll play.

A LOT OF FANS FIRST DISCOVERED YOU THROUGH THE BBC INTRODUCING STAGE IN 2021, BUT YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR A WHILE NOW HAVEN’T YOU? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER?

Elliot: So me and Finn met each other, we go back about 8 years. We met at like 17 and started this punk band together and did the circuit and then we met Alex in 2018. We’d done the circuit and things had started drying up a little bit and we were starting to write our new era, going into “Stupid”. It was written a long time ago like when we were 19 and we were capturing that “god it sucks to be 19” kind of thing. And we only put it out at the age of 22/23. But yeah we’d been going for a while and things had dried up end of 2019 and we were like “Okay, we’ve got so much more to give now.” But then Finn, Alex and me hard launched this new thing. Finn was like “It’s gonna be Stone. It’s gonna be awesome.” And I was like “But Finn, with Google, how are we going to come up?” And he said “Yeah, yeah we will.” And so every so often I check and yeah, it might be my algorithm but we come up!

Alex: It's there!

Elliot: So we had 4 songs recorded that they come from our money from our wages. We found Sarah who was the missing piece of our puzzle. We went through a couple of bassists and we found Sarah who went to college with Alex. It was like “Great! Stone is ready, let’s fucking go!”. And then the pandemic hit. And we had to find out how we’d get by. We did the whole thing with everyone while they were singing imagine all the people and everyone was watching Tiger King and we were like “How do we become successful musicians?” And so we decided to graft through the socials. And during all that time, we had been building a big team behind us and then in 2021, that Reading Youtube video was our 3rd show out. The first was a warm-up, the second was Leeds and the third was Reading. We went out with bands like Blinders and the Wombats and things just started coming through.

IT’S 2023 NOW AND I WAS AT THE SHOW BEFORE THE HOMETOWN SHOW. FINN GAVE A SPEECH ONSTAGE ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS MET AND PUT TOGETHER THIS THING YEARS AGO, AND NOW YOU FINALLY HAVE THE OPPERTUNITY OF RETURNING HOME AND PLAYING THE STAGE YOU SAID YOU’D SELL OUT. HOW DID THAT FEEL?

Alex: It's injected in my veins man. It’s that feeling of being on stage and any stage and people are going nuts but when it's your hometown and it's your own town, it's something else, you can’t describe it really.

Elliot: I mean they were feral. We’re getting actual proper big boy pits. It's a spectator sport for me, man. I love watching them, not being in them but when I get to cause them [Excited noises of jubilation]

Alex: On the other hand, I love a good mosh pit so I’d be jumping in them.

Elliot: It’s like a Kanye. You wish you could watch yourself live.

FROM A DRUMMING POINT A VIEW, INVITE SOMEONE UP FROM THE AUDIENCE, PASS THEM THE STICKS AND SAY “ALRIGHT, I’M GOING IN!”—

Alex: I’d lose my job because I’m no that good.

YOU WERE SICK! YOU DID A SOLO WHERE EACH OF YOU WALKED OFF STAGE AND IT WAS JUST SARAH LEFT. YOU SAID SARAH WAS THE MISSING LINK TO FORMING STONE AS IT IS NOW, HOW DID THAT COME TOGETHER? SHE’S GOT AN AMAZING STAGE PRESENCE. HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW?

Alex: We went through a lot of bass players looking for the one and then Sarah just came to practice and the vibe was just spot on and she learnt the songs and was playing them with this feel that was just right. And as a drummer and playing along you need it to be just right. If it's too tight it won’t work, if it's a bit too loose then you’ll end up sounding like some folk band. Something with the way she plays just locks in with us.

AND SHE DOES VOCALS WITH YOU AS WELL —

Alex: And what she brings (in a high-pitched voice) with the backing vocals like this adds a different dynamic.

Both: It's sick!

Elliot: I love it, her energy, she’s such a vital part of the band. There’s a bit of a spectrum of masculinity within the band, starts with Finn, and then to me, Alex is normal. You’ve got GI Joe, then you’ve got me. It’d be good if we could get some girl power into the band for the female energy, it's really good for the band and very good for me. I remember when we met she had this very carefree like “yeah” Like, there’s enough neuroticism. Yeah, we really get along with Sarah. There’s something there. we’ve roped her in now.

SHE’S HARD STUCK, AND FROM WHAT I CAN TELL YOU GUYS ALL ENJOY IT, I DON’T THINK SHE’S GOING ANYWHERE ANYTIME SOON.

Elliot: When we go to shows more and more and more there’s one girl watching Sarah and going “Oh my god, I can do that as well!” I feel like it's really important to have that representation. You’ve got girls coming along with dying half their hair red and saying “Can I have a photo with just Sarah?” We need more of that industry.

GOING FORWARD, WHAT KIND OF IMPACT DO YOU WANT STONE TO LEAVE FOR THIS GENERATION AND GENERATIONS TO COME? IT’S A BIG QUESTION I KNOW.

Alex: I mean for me, Stone has always been about being who we are. As a kid I always used to struggle to be who I am and used to put on a front sometimes. Going back to that first question, it's like being on stage, when I’m on stage and I’m playing, the only person I can be is me. I’d love for the band to be this beacon of humility to encourage people to be who they want to be.

Elliot: As long as the music is honest and our message is honest, people will resonate with that. Being a musician is very self-fulfilling and self-indulgent. Like I want to create my art and that’s great but along the way, we realise the power that can have and the way it can resonate with other people. And people down the line are going to find this community through this band and people make friends through us. I’ve been our mantra is “its about the friend we’ve made along the way”. If people can make friends out of Stone and remember us and go wow, that band is really good, they were really fun. When all is said and done, we were honest and people put something of value, I just want to create some sort of emotional impact.

IT’S A LEGACY. THIS HAS BEEN AN ABSOLUTELY ENLIGHTENING INTERVIEW AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. YOU’RE GOING TO BE TOURING IN OCTOBER, IS THERE ANY SHOW YOU’D LIKE TO RECOMMEND THE READERS OF HIVE TO COME TO?

Elliot: The whole tour!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME TODAY - HAVE A LOVELY REST OF YOUR AFTERNOON! THIS HAS BEEN A HIVE INTERVIEW, TAKE CARE!

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