StoneWire - Talking about Southern Rock

June 14th 2018

London, o2 Arena, UK

StoneWire are on the verge of playing the Stone Free Festival

Just before they hit the Stone Free Festival at the London, o2 Arena, this weekend... we caught up with Sky Hunter (Vocals) and Steve Briggs (Bass) from the band StoneWire... to talk about the festival and their Southern style Rock and Blues music.

MT: You have a Southern Blues feel to your music, what are your influences from this genre?

Sky: Our influences are as varied as can be in a band but there is some common ground where we all enjoy bands like Clutch and The Black Crowes. I am probably the one who is most into Southern Blues Rock / Country and two of my favourite bands are Gov’t Mule and the Tedeschi Trucks Band. I was lucky enough to see both live with their current bands but unfortunately never saw them with the Allman Brothers. It was sad when Gregg passed last year and there is a song that will feature on the new album where I give a tip of the hat to some of the great Southern and Blues artist that have passed in recent years.

Music Trespass: Can you introduce the band members to us?

Steve: On lead vocals we have Sky Hunter. Our two guitarists, Gaz Annable and Duncan Greenway, share lead guitar responsibilities and then our rhythm section is myself, Steve Briggs on Bass and Rob Glasner on drums. We love our harmonies so everyone chips in with backing vocals as well.

Music Trespass: I listened to on YouTube the track 'Walk the Line', which is a really hard hitting track. When your writing a song where do you get inspiration from?

Sky: It varies, the guys could just jam something out in the rehearsal room and we start working from there. Then sometimes Gaz or Duncan might come with a riff or I’ll have a melody and the song gets built around that. Although we have a Southern feel to our sound we are all very much rooted in Rock, it has to have a punch to it. As for inspiration: Life... plenty happening, sometimes I feel political, sometimes it’s more personal. I like telling stories in my lyrics, so I pick it up whenever something moves me.

Music Trespass: What do you think you deliver different from the bands you are influenced by, and how do you think you will evolve as a band?

Steve: We’ve always had such amazing feedback about our live show. People always say that we’re even better live than on the record and comment how much it comes across that we just love being on stage. This is really important to us, it’s at a show where you really get to connect with people and this is essentially what we all love most about being in a band.

Sky: When we write we do so as a band and with five people pitching in their own ideas and influences, it’s quite an unusual way to work and we feel we end up with quite an interesting sound and style. For us the song writing is one of the most important things, it’s not about trying to fit into a specific genre of music but to write what comes naturally to us.

Steve: I think we’ll grow as song-writers, it is inevitable to naturally evolve your sound when you write the way we do. But whether the track is fast or slow, heavy or classic, the more we write together the more the Southern Rock feel underpins everything. We’ll always come back to that, we’ll always have a heaviness, we’ll always have big melodies and harmonies… it will always Rock.

Music Trespass: I think your sound will really appeal to the American audience, have you been over their and if not are you going to tour the US?

Sky: We haven’t but it’s interesting you ask, as we’ve had several comments from Americans that they totally dig our sound. I guess the US market is massive and so probably tough to crack. But for sure, should we get an opportunity to go over and play, we will.

Music Trespass: What do you think of all the new Country bands coming out in the last few years?

Sky: There definitely seems to be a big increase in Southern / Country bands coming over from the US now. I personally am very happy, it’s a style you either like or not but there seems to be a market for it here in the UK now with labels like Earache, who used to be totally heavy, signing artist like Blackberry Smoke and The White Buffalo. I have seen Black Stone Cherry many times and they always deliver. Also, really enjoy Cadillac Three but my personal favourite is Whiskey Myers, great band live.

Music Trespass: What are you most looking forward to at Stone Free Festival?

Steve: - Obviously we can’t wait to hit the stage but the great thing about playing festivals is being able to check out so many other bands. We’re especially looking forward to Rodger Hodgson, Ritchie Kotzen and the other bands on the Orange Amps stage. We supported Michael Schenker on tour a couple of years back so now it’s great to be on the same bill as the Scorpions as well. The line-up is so great and as we are opening the second day we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy as many bands as we can through-out the weekend.

Music Trespass: What is next for StoneWire?

Sky: We are currently working hard with writing the new album and we’re really excited about the new material. We’ve been road testing a few tracks and the reaction from the fans has been amazing which has been great to see. It’s 90% there and we can’t wait to get it recorded and out to people. As a band you need to always plan a minimum of six months in advance and we are also working on a tour so when the new album comes out we want to hit the road. As much as we enjoy writing and recording, playing live is what we love best.

Questions by Dan Devour