STONE

“I just grabbed him when I heard how good he was and gave him no choice but to be in my band,” recalls STONE frontman Fin Power of his first meeting with guitarist Elliot Gill. “I said to him from the start, we’re going to fucking make it, trust me, we’ll put all of our eggs in this basket and we won’t fail.’ You know what, that was nine years ago!”

And nine years on, STONE have become slow-motion overnight sensations following two acclaimed ‘punkadonk’ EPs, substantial support from Radio 1, and a raucous, unpredictable live show all building a powerful two-way community between the band and their ever-growing following.

On first impressions, Fin is very much their focal point: a young man with such an insatiable lust-for-life that he wants to express all of his thoughts all at once, and who might be found crowd-surfacing seconds into one of their shows, or giving an impromptu on-stage speech with the passion and zeal of a revolutionary. Yet as a band who mean and feel every single lyric they deliver, STONE are the sum of more than just one voice. They couldn’t exist without Elliot, as much Fin’s creative compatriot as he is the yin to his yang; the sensitive guitarist to balance Fin’s self-confessed “laddy lad,” a man undeniably possessed by magnetic rock star charisma.

From the other side of Liverpool, drummer Alex Smith is the pulse that holds the band together, sitting in-between their personalities and providing the foundations for the pair to run riot. And from Oxfordshire, bassist Sarah Surridge offers their feminine counterpoint, a now-honorary Scouser who was won over by STONE’s lunatic ambitions when she first joined four years ago. “They spoke with such passion and energy that I knew I wanted to be a part of it, because I could sense it was going to go far.” As she remembers, the boys’ pitch to her was simple: this is Plan A, there is no Plan B aside from trying even harder.

Fortunately Plan A is going so well that the release of STONE’s eagerly anticipated debut album ‘Fear Life For A Lifetime’ is now on the horizon. It’s a collection of songs which come together like a coming-of-age narrative – a place that can help people navigate the tumultuous experiences of young adulthood. If you’ve felt love but not always felt you deserved it; if you’ve been ambitious but also wracked with self-doubt; if you’ve been confident at times but crushed by anxiety at others: this is the album for you. Just as importantly, if you’ve ever felt like you don’t belong, STONE offer a community that feels like a welcoming home-from-home.

“The shit we’ve all been through is 100% informed by that aspect of just connecting with people,” notes Alex. “A lot of the experiences that I’ve had personally I know echo the experiences of a lot of the kids who come to our gigs and go fucking nuts.”

And as we’ve seen from their gigs with Sam Fender, Yungblud, Inhaler, The Wombats and DMA’s as well as at festivals including Glastonbury, BST Hyde Park, Reading and Leeds, STONE kick-up the kind of anarchy perfectly suited to such a cathartic outpouring of energy and emotion. Their music adventurously explores a wealth of alternative genres, moving from vitriolic, post-punk poetry to soaring indie anthems built for pints-in-the-air gig mania and sun-kissed festival fields, along with a hip-hop undercurrent and a punchy, anarchic edge.

That exuberant rush translates equally as well throughout their upcoming debut album. STONE recorded its snapshots of British youth culture while immersing themselves into the routine of the small town of Brattleboro, Vermont, where they worked with Rich Costey (Sam Fender, HAIM, Biffy Clyro) during sessions split between three separate trips. No interference from the label or the management: just the escape of being able to focus on the noise of making a record without any outside distractions.

The result is an album in which fresh highlights emerge with every listen: see how ‘My Thoughts Go’ fires up the simplistic, most irresistible hook in a way that feels connected to the great lineage of the great Liverpool and Manchester indie heroes who have preceded them. Powered by pounding big beat rhythms and a swaggering youthful attitude of having the world at the your feet, ‘Neva Gunna Die’ is darker yet just as instantly captivating, while ‘Queen’ fuses sweet, saturated synths with a sparkling classic rock riffs and a spoken word breakdown to create a moment infused with echoes of every decade from the ‘60s onwards, but firmly rooted in the present day.

That style is reprised in another future smash with ‘Roses’, while other standouts include the reflective, melancholy ‘Say It Out Loud’ and a dramatic portrait of urban paranoia with the angular attack of ‘Train’.

Fin sums it up: “This album is about community, passion, love, hate, singing, dancing. It speaks for all of our experiences, we want to only portray who we really are. I’m hoping people can relate to it and understand it, and maybe find their own stories through our songs. It also shows that no mountain is too high to climb, and no problem is too hard to solve. We mean what we say and we want to be a voice for those who are misunderstood.”

What’s more, it’s not just talk. The band members have all been deeply invested in the Liverpool community, with Fin previously working as a social worker, Alex as a teacher, and STONE playing charity shows in support of Rape Crisis and MIND. Meanwhile, Elliot continues to volunteer at a local youth club where he teaches youngsters guitar and helps set up what he calls “early embryonic gig opportunities to teach kids that they too can go out and play a show. You don’t think being in a band is feasible until you do it.”

“We definitely want to continue that sense of altruism,” he continues, “especially as things progress with STONE. We have an incredible opportunity and all these new privileges, so I feel it would be remiss if we didn’t give something back.  Supporting the local community is something we don’t want to lose sight of.”

That determined, all-in-it together community spirit extends to their live shows. As Fin asserts, “The show doesn’t finish when we come off-stage, the show carries on until we’re back in the van.  We’re there for our fans until they decide to leave. We’re not done until we make sure that every single fan who wants a photo or a conversation gets that. We’ll keep doing that until it’s physically impossible.”

Integrity. Passion. Charisma. A palpable shared bond. A catalogue of killer songs. Giving it everything at live shows. STONE are now perfectly positioned to capitalise on the ambition that Fin and Elliot shared when they first met.

As Elliot asserts, it shows that ambitions can be realised. “Society doesn’t have the reverence of the creative arts being a job. A lot of people don’t really see musicians doing it professionally and assume it’s just a lucky few who can do it. But it’s not. Everything we’re now doing speaks to our efforts, our passion, and the opportunities we have created for ourselves.”

Fin’s concluding thoughts on STONE’s future brim with the optimism that comes with infinite potential. “We don’t worry about metrics, we’re artists. Our art will be out in the world and it can be perceived in whatever way people want it to be perceived. Wherever the motion of the ocean takes us, we’ll just keep making our art and writing songs.