Keeping one foot in the camp of raucous punk-rock, whilst amplifying great indie hooks that the north have long been renowned for, STONE have rapidly been garnering quite a fan base: first in Merseyside, then throughout the UK.
We caught the four-piece as they took to the stage at the London leg of their tour last week. Despite it’s iconic status in the modern band circuit, Camden Assembly is a fair bit smaller than the 500-capacity show that STONE have just sold-out in their hometown: no mean feat for a band who launched right on the cusp of a worldwide pandemic.
The upstairs room in NW1 – which is bustling at maximum capacity – packs anticipation that far outweighs it’s size, however. Far from a middling crowd of semi-observers, this appears to be a room full of serious fans, with STONE’s guitar tech receiving the same level of applause that would normally be reserved for the band themselves.
STONE’s set visits a myriad of touchstones form the past decade or so of indie. Flashes of Trampolene‘s spoken word, Slave‘s brash, unpolished delivery and The Amazons‘ radio-friendly rock creep into the band’s sound. Cue a barrage of crowd surfing and audience back & forths lead by frontman Fin Power (possibly the most rock’n’roll-ready name ever conceived?) and the overriding feeling of the evening is one of balls-to-the-wall excitement; a frenzied celebration of youth.
Liverpool, more than any other city, is associated with its place in music history, but what does Liverpool sound like in 2022?
There’s loads of belter bands knocking about in Liverpool these days, the obvious ones at the moment are Crawlers – Mysterines – Courting but to be honest if you pop your head in any venue these days you will hear something different. Distortion seems to be cool again around these ways haha.
The music video for ‘Stupid’ looks like fun.. as well as a big cleanup operation. How was the shoot? How many times did you have to play the track whilst covered in paint?
The shoot was so fun. Probably the most fun we’ve had filming. The set was put together by director Dave Crane who really smashed it especially with the budget we had. We ran through the song without paint, then while the first drops were getting thrown at us on each chorus. Finally we were covered playing through it – it was so much fun. Tagging the entire set was also very satisfying. The catharsis came when we started smashing up our instruments and the set. There was a lot of screaming and laughing. The set falling apart on us was the perfect end. Clean-up wasn’t too bad but I think we were still finding paint in places the following week… carrying on our tradition of messy music videos.Well worth it.
STONE have some exciting tour dates on the horizon, what other venues would you like to tick off of your list before the end of your career?
Brixton Academy is on all of our bucket lists we think. Just such a milestone… I think to take our show abroad in the near future would also be so sick, I don’t even mind where right now just wanna step on a plane. And technically not venues but festivals like Glasto and Primavera.
We love seeing the retro Liverpool FC merch in your press shots. Who would you approach, if one player from the current squad were to join the band?
Tough one right but probably Van Dijk, yanno – his presence would deffo suit it and probs act as crowd control hahaha
2022 is looking like a busy a busy one for STONE, which date in the diary are you the most excited for currently?
Probably our May tour – this current tour has been a blast and we can’t wait to get back out there and play to our fans again. We are also stoked for the festivals this year. Hitting the main stages at Kendal Calling and Boardmasters will be boss.
Photo Credit: Charlie Harris
STONE are heading back on tour in May, get your tickets here.
