The Debrief: STONE — Yuck Magazine

Nov 18

Nov 18 The Debrief: STONE

When Scouse duo Fin Power and Elliott Gill began jamming together in their teens, building what they describe as a “formative live experience,” it was all geared towards one end goal. Making it. The big time. For lead singer, Fin, and guitarist, Elliott, this was never just a weekend mess about, it was the start of a meticulously planned ascent into the hearts and minds of listeners across the country.

For Fin, the clear driving force behind STONE’s cognizant motors, a music career was more of a calling than a combination of luck and happenstance. “I wanted to be in a band,” he begins. “I started playing with other musicians, and that's when it hit me; the first time you hear a bass guitar in a room, you know, when you're playing, you hear drums and you're playing along. It's a surreal experience.” When listening to Fin talk over Zoom, his passion for the topic of discussion is evident, even through the laptop screen it’s hard to not be enthused by his bubbling energy and positivity, so it’s no wonder why Elliott found it so contagious, having spent a vast amount of time in his company over the years. “I think it's just the difference between him and people who start bands, they maybe are a little bit laissez-faire about it,” he explains. “From the off that energy just infected me, that ambition. It’s put us on a path to where we are now. It’s made me believe I can do this. Fin’s instilled this into me. He saw a diamond in the rough and knew if we stuck together it would all work out.”

It was in 2019 that these years of self-belief and practice came to fruition. After the demise of part of their previous moniker The Bohos, a new project was born with the addition of bassist Sarah Surrage and drummer Alex Smith. Fin knew Alex from college, and Alex knew Sarah from the year below at University. Whilst Fin’s explanation for the birth of the band would be much more driven in its nature, Elliott offers a more laid-back version of events. “I guess we sort of just stuck at it,” he pauses. “We’d been sort of kicking around for a bit, playing live, then STONE came a couple of years later at the end of 2019, and we’ve been coming out the gate ever since.”

Whilst their belief in one another hasn’t waned since the band’s inception, one matter happened to cause a slight concern in what is otherwise a cordial connection between the guitarist and lead singer; the band’s name. Finding its origins in Fin’s mother’s maiden name, STONE, has a double meaning, it’s both a homage to the singer’s Eastern European, post-WW2 roots and a proverbial bat to swat away unwarranted claims of music industry nepotism due to Fin's father, Cast's John Power. “My last name's Power,” Fin says matter-of-factly. “My dad was a musician; that doesn't just follow me around, it follows the whole band around. People seem to think that, you know, we only get things because of my father; it gets to us a band. My mum's last name was Stone, that's where it comes from, and the name has a very powerful background, but Elliott had some worries.” Fin pauses here to allow his friend and bandmate to explain himself; the comedic timing between the pair is impeccable and just further highlights that their bond isn’t just a random sonic attachment. “My main concern was what happens if we google ‘stone’. Are lots of pictures of stones gonna come up, or The Rolling Stones,” Elliott laughs. “Fin just goes, that won't be a problem. Because we're good and it will all come off; he believed in it so much. We knew we'd be good enough to get through the algorithm.”

““I let myself have the day that it happened. That’s just the way I am. I’ll celebrate a win on the day and the next day, I’m looking ahead””

— Fin

It’s clear that Fin steadfastly allays any fears or concerns his bandmates may develop, bringing them closer as a unit with a unitary sonic direction. STONE evolved their sound through several singles, before creating the experimental ‘punkadonk’ EP, released today on Polydor. “As far as the creativity goes, we've allowed ourselves in the last couple of years to just try different styles with this sort of central STONE… tenants if you like, of our sound,” Elliott explains. “They're sort of the denominators between that; you'll see in the new EP that there are a couple of songs that are different sonically to our previous releases.”

STONE’s rise over the last few years could be described as meteoric, from playing small venues in Liverpool to supporting the likes of Yungblud and Sam Fender, and soundtracking the official Liverpool FC kit launch with their single ‘Let’s Dance To The Real Thing’, they’ve done quite a lot of grafting in the last three years, as they’re keen to admit, I had to question if they’re ever given time to reflect on the momentous milestones they keep on achieving. “I always thought I was gonna be in a band at some level, but I just never had an existential thought that it would be the direction that my life would go in,” Elliot starts, before Fin chimes in. “I let myself have the day that it happened. That's just the way I am. I’ll celebrate a win on the day and the next day, I'm looking ahead. We've played sold-out tours, and I've been in the van home thinking about what's next.” Even so for the most obsessively ambitious artists, surely even they allow themselves a pat on the back from time to time, no? “I do have moments of moments sometimes,” Fin confesses. “It's funny you're asking this today because I've been walking around thinking things are going well, but I rarely have those moments. I'm looking at the balcony above thinking how do I climb up?”

One of those rare occasions occurred for Fin when STONE signed to Polydor. In their own words it “marked six years of graft and hard work” and acts as a symbol of the painstaking effort they’ve put into achieving their goals at lightning pace. Celebrating by going to a karaoke night, which is often where you’ll find the gang on a night they aren’t playing a show. “Everyone knows STONE loves karaoke... so at the moment I'm doing it ‘Don't Stop Believin’, that Journey tune,” Fin says with a humorous smirk before Elliot offers his song choice. “I was doing ‘Don't You (Forget About Me)’ by Simple Minds because I had a little ‘Breakfast Club’ moment on the night,” he laughs.

It was their signing to Polydor that allowed them the time, or more importantly, the money and studio space to record their debut ‘punkadonk’ EP. Littered with lyricism associated with the famous Scouse grit and realism, the EP’s themes range in subject, from the perils of social media and its associated mental health impacts to the struggles faced by the British youth in a world seemingly set up by and for its parents. Crucially, the lyrics that Fin and Elliott write are from lived experiences, a fact they’re keen to get on the record. “Every single song I've written's my own experience, I've never talked gobbledygook. It's never lying, never fake,” Fin asserts. “Everything I write comes from a real place that I've been through. Sometimes I might write about things that I see, but it’s largely my opinions and my views on things.” Elliott nods in agreement, before tackling the explanation for why social media plays such a prevalent part in their lyrical mindset. “It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, it gives everyone a tool to platform and empower themselves, but at the same time,” he pauses. “It's become such a commodity that there's pressure to be a bit performative. There's a huge fine line between like being fake and being authentic.”

““I guess to quote Fin, on drunken karaoke… don’t stop believing””

— Elliott

Authentic would be a great word to describe Fin and Elliott; there are no frills with them both. They’ll say it like it is with conviction, in almost stereotypical Liverpudlian fashion. Their passion is clear and their ambitious nature is like nothing I’ve seen from two artists in a long time; whilst the obvious geographical connection would be Lennon and Mccartney, Fin and Elliott are more Liam and Noel in their motivated, on-the-make outlook. Whilst the years that succeed them far outnumber those that they’ve already experienced, with a litany of future goals yet to be realised, I wondered what they’ve both learnt so far that they didn’t know at the sprightly age of 16. “Just write what you want to write. Don't pretend to be anything else,” Fin says earnestly. “That was the minute I realised that the best songs came when you stop trying to write for what people want to hear.” But what about Elliott? “I guess to quote Fin, on drunken karaoke… don't stop believing,” he laughs. “Hold on to the feeling. I would encourage any musician our age to do the same.”