Photo Credit: Press

Ahead of their performance at Nottingham Rescue Rooms, we sat down with Elliott and Alex of STONE to chat about the reception on their debut album ‘Fear Life for a Lifetime’, how their year has gone so far, the decision to bring their UK tour to areas outside of the main touring circuit, and their plans for 2025.

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What has the reception been like for ‘Fear Life for A Lifetime’?

Alex: It feels good to have it out there, and people seem to love it, and that makes us very happy.

Elliott: It has been pretty interesting to be playing abroad in places like Belgium and the Netherlands, seeing those songs sung back to us. It feels really good. At the moment, we’ve been very enveloped in LP2 as well. It has been really good to play the songs live, I try not to look at the metrics, but overall it has been well received.

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What was the reason you have decided to bring the album tour to locations outside of the main touring circuit?

Alex: It is all about bringing the gig to independent venues. These are all cities we have never headlined before, so it is good to come through here and give a show to people who probably wouldn’t get the chance to see us. The reception has been great and we’re glad to be playing these new locations.

Elliott: Liverpool is still a major city, but it usually gets missed out on during the main touring circuit. A lot of the bands come to Manchester, so I know how it feels to miss out on those kinds of shows. It is nice as we are occupying the space now; we’re able to play these big venues in places like Belgium and Liverpool hometown shows, but also bringing it back to basics in dive bars and clubs. I like to play them both, I feel it is good to have one with the other.

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STONE have had a busy schedule in the past 12 months, how have you managed to keep up the momentum on the road?

Elliott: You have got to love it. Part of touring is so much waiting around, so much travelling, so much twiddling your thumbs, picking up stuff, eating crap from service stations, by the time you get on stage, we like to give 110%. We are willing to put up with anything to facilitate that live show.

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Do you have any pre-gig rituals or routines?

Alex: We’re quite chilled out really and focused on the gig.

Elliott: I like to have a look around the city or town we are playing in, I will stick my headphones in and get away for a bit because you’re so cooped up. As far as rituals go, listening to songs like ‘Bulls on Parade’ and a couple of tunes to hype is up, nothing too mad.

Alex: There is nothing that we always do, which is quite funny really. We should sit in a circle and do a bit of mantra to let our spiritual side out.

Elliott: Fin had us do a group meditation once before a show that was pretty nice. Maybe I want to feel a little tense before I go on.

Alex: If you want to feel tense before you go on, maybe I will start freaking you out.

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Do you get nervous still before going on stage or are you now comfortable with it after playing live together for so long?

Alex: I’d like to say no, but it sometimes does creep up on me. Then there will be times I feel a little bit sick before going on, there is not a lot you can do about that, you have to strap in and enjoy it.

Elliott: We have been doing this for a few years now, the earlier shows I would feel really tense, which was more of a general feeling of angst before going on. I never really understood it until recently and it makes sense for it to be feeling nervous. Like Alex said, there are times when it creep up on you, as long as everything works on stage then we’re in our element.

Alex: I used to have a thing where I would worry about something going wrong, there are loads of variables

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Earlier you mentioned you are working on LP2, how long has that been in the works?

Alex: So the way we did the first album, it is a collection of songs we’ve had for a while along with some new songs. With LP2, we feel we have hit a bit of a stride and have got the sound in mind, how we want to produce it, what instruments we want to use, what sort of feeling we want people to feel. We have had this vibe for a while now and it seems to be working for us, so we will continue writing and see what comes out from it.

Elliott: A lot of it is still quite new and trying to capture where we are right now. I feel ‘Fear Life for a Lifetime’ was an album to show off the spirit of Stone in the year of 2023 and the years prior. I don’t want to give too much away, but we want to keep it as raw and visceral as the shows are.

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Are plans for 2025 already in the works?

Alex: It is all part of our master secret plan that we 100% can’t say anything about right now.

Elliott: The guarantee is that, we are a live band, and there will be chances to see us live, we are still seeing what opportunities are becoming available to us. One thing I will say is, people will be seeing us in the fields this summer with the warm cider and muddy shoes.

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During this tour, you have picked a range of different support acts for each date. Is there anyone in particular that has stood out to you so far?

Alex: Yeah, Woo. They are a band we’ve known of for a while, and we have been watching them grow, they get better each time. We are really routing for them, I am really enjoying watching them and some of the sounds they are capturing are quite special.

Elliott: They are friends of ours, they are constantly levelling up each time I see them. Their guitarist Jake is very cool. Another shout out to Oh Phantom who we played with in Hull, they were really cool.

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Are there any particular bands people should be looking out for, whether you have played with them or not?

Alex: It is a funny one and they don’t need my stamp of approval, but The Hives. We watched them side stage and they were nuts, the band are so tight. They were brilliant. We managed to catch The Streets at Rock Werchter and that was mind blowing.

Elliott: On the ground level, we had a band called Sounds Mint with us in Europe. They are like a rap, rock, punk hybrid with some really cool energy. I am good friends with Stirling Press, they are very like Blur vibes. Off the top, I recently saw a band called Inter Rail, and I’ve got my eye on them.

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Having sold out numerous shows up and down the UK, packing out fields at festivals, what message would like to give to your fans?

Alex: Thank you so much for believing in it. Stone is all about community, the fact we’ve managed to build a community from the ground up with a communal message is amazing, it blows my mind every day so thank you. We wouldn’t be able to do this without them.

Elliott: All the appreciation in the world. We are constantly checking ourselves. In return, we promise to keep delivering music that you like, putting on shows, making memories. People have made friends through this band; I think that is bigger than us. That is what keeps rock n roll going. Thank you so much for showing us that is possible.

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STONE‘s remaining scheduled performance in the UK takes place at Live at Leeds in the City on Saturday 16th November. Tickets available HERE.

Check out out review of the bands performance in Nottingham HERE.