An interview with Stonebrother
An interview with Stonebrother
What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences?
(Zach) Honestly we’re not really sure where the name came from. We had been trying to think of a name for weeks and every time we picked one, we discovered it was taken. One day I was driving home and it just came to me, so when I got home we looked it up and nobody had taken it already, so we went with it. As for influences, we each have our own personal ones but collectively we fall somewhere between Van Halen Guns n Roses, Rush and The Tragically Hip, with many others in there as well.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
(Ethan) Our approach to songwriting basically is start with something. Anything. A riff, a good line, a title, whatever we have in the moment. We start working around that until we come up with a melody. We play with that until we get an absolute skeleton of a song, and then we shift into poetry mode and write the finalized lyrics. Sometimes we rework the format of the song, switch around verse order stuff like that, but that’s the gist of it. As for themes, we like to write about what’s on our mind. What we’re thinking about at any given moment. Be it political, personal, or just an attempt to tell a story. Writing about how you feel gives the music a more genuine and personal feel, so we try to write what we think.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
(Ethan) Our approach to songwriting basically is start with something. Anything. A riff, a good line, a title, whatever we have in the moment. We start working around that until we come up with a melody. We play with that until we get an absolute skeleton of a song, and then we shift into poetry mode and write the finalized lyrics. Sometimes we rework the format of the song, switch around verse order stuff like that, but that’s the gist of it. As for themes, we like to write about what’s on our mind. What we’re thinking about at any given moment. Be it political, personal, or just an attempt to tell a story. Writing about how you feel gives the music a more genuine and personal feel, so we try to write what we think.
Why do you write the music that you do?
(Leo) We write the type of music that we do because it’s the type of music our group enjoys writing, recording, playing, and performing. We also feel it’s unique in the way that there’s not a ton of bands in our style around our area, and that brings a different dynamic that people want to see.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
(Zach) When we write songs we have the performance part in the back of our minds so it’s never too hard to translate. We might add some things to make it more entertaining but for the most part the songs stay more or less the same. When we make a setlist we consider the demographic we’re playing to, the size of the venue, what the event is, how long we have, etc. We adjust accordingly to try to give the best show possible.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
(Zach) When we write songs we have the performance part in the back of our minds so it’s never too hard to translate. We might add some things to make it more entertaining but for the most part the songs stay more or less the same. When we make a setlist we consider the demographic we’re playing to, the size of the venue, what the event is, how long we have, etc. We adjust accordingly to try to give the best show possible.
What plans do you have for the future?
(Ethan) We have a couple projects in the works right now including a music video for our song Problem Child, maybe an album in 2022 or so if all goes well, and we’re looking into getting some gigs, as many as we can. If we get really lucky we may be able to do a small tour in the coming months, should vaccination and case numbers start moving in the right direction.