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Company Of One with LUCAS STONE · HEAVY Music Interviews

0:27
I'm Lucas Stein now just released the EP Deathbird. I hear my homie Chris
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from Heavy mag Beautiful Lucas, thanks for joining us tonight, brother Che's mate.
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How are you? I'm very well, thank you? What yourself?
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Good? Good? Very good. So, as you mentioned, you recently
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released your new solo record, Deathbed, back on May the thirty first,
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so he's been out a few weeks now. Brown's The early reception been,
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yeah, really cool. Like I'm pretty busy with the Hammer stuff, you
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know, and I sort of have squeezed this thing in amongst everything else and
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kind of had a lot of help from Tiana with the release and stuff,
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and was a little bit rattled with everything else going on, so I kind
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of probably wasn't very vacant for heaps of it, and then it kind of
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happened and was out, and the reception has been amazing, Like I've had
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a really cool, like you know, steady stuff with the with the music
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press and stuff. Like it's just more like a lot of messages from I
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guess fans of Helm and fans of hammers and stuff, and even just friends
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and people that have followed my career online and stuff. In a sense and
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really really nice lot. It's very yeah, it plays you away, super
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kind comments, and just really cool to see a lot of people connecting with
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it on the level that I guess you kind of hope that music does.
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You know, well, I'll give you an example, bro. You know
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Jimmy Glintstaf from Asriel obviously, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He
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does our reviews and heavy and he's probably one of the harshest critics we've ever
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had. I love his work because he's brutally honest and it's very you get
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him to say a nice thing about anyone except his mother. And he gave
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he gave your EP a glowing review, mate, that's how good it was.
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Yeah. Yeah, he's he's a legend of a dude. Man.
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He's we've sort of crossed paths for a long time, like obviously because he's
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a Gold Coast boy as well, and we have a lot of mutual friends.
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And he's always been a sweetheart, Like you know, every time I've
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sort of talked to him or seen him somewhere, he's always had nice things
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to say. And I actually saw that review and it was it was I
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was rad to see I'm like I said, dude. Mainly for me,
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it's just about people connecting with my ship, you know what I mean.
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So that's yeah, it's always good to hear. So tell us a bit
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about Death Bend from a musical point of view, What are you going for?
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Okay, Honestly I was going for nothing like Di did. This was
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This was the release that, like I've you know, had some decent success
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across a handful of bands which have have been namely scally intention Helm and Hammers,
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and I'm happy with that stuff. I now play drums and a little
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funk band as well called Hot Cobra. But those four bands specifically have given
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me a really really cool, like left of center career in music on that
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Glowe rock Star. But I don't really care too much. It's more about
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the fact that I've been able to write this music with my own sense of
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integrity and no pressure from outside, you know, influence or anything. I'm
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quite a selfish songwriter, I will admit to that, which has probably been
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pretty detrimental to my career on like an economical sort of front. But this
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album specifically, or this EP, it's a pretty fucking long VP, so
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I guess it's almost called an album. This one specifically rings true with that
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more than any of them because I didn't have any I didn't even have any
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reflective sounding boards from anyone because I wasn't in a band for it. It
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was all one hundred percent a selfish kind of project where I was like,
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Oh, I want to do this and I want to do that, and
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I'm just going to do it. I want to do it, not even
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have a conversation with anyone, So I didn't really know what I was going
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into other than I had these other songs and these other things going on and
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kind of just wanted to serve that. Like I didn't I didn't want to
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have an invasive process. But in saying that, the intention with just randomly
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grabbing a few of my mates in different bands and saying, hey, I've
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got this part. You know you've popped up in my head for this particular
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part. Let's have a fuck around with this thing and see what comes of
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it. And that was actually, I won't say, more satisfying than being
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the band, but it was kind of new like because there was no preconceived
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agenda from me or the other person, and it was just a rad process
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of like, hey, Brailett tang talk shit for a bit, run through
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these lyrics, I've run through this groove or this roof, and then fucking
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getting the studio and see what happens. And it was Yeah, that was
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sick. So really, man, you had to ansy question, not really
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much of a I wasn't going for anything. If anything, I was kind
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of going for nothing, just hoping for the best. Like, yeah,
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I'm the subject of the guest artist City used like You've got people like it's
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Colin Jeff' from a Version's Crown, Jason Brown from Suck Luddo, Sam Vallin
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from clindul to Source. There's quite a few from there. But you were
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just saying then that someone grabbed you about it made you want to approach those
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people, like how did that process work? Like you listen to a song
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and thinking who could do a part? Or is it? Like that's something
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interesting to know how you chose who you chose and why well I wanted it
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to be. There was a couple other people as well that were in the
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line, like from from cog was there's actually a song still outstanding that I
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might be able to hopefully get his pipes on one day there's like a secret
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track that will come from this, you know, spoiler alert nothing, that
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one's yet to be finished. And there was also Kimmy from Dead Letter as
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well. He was here was a conversation for ages and we just couldn't get
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that together because we're both so busy at the time that we needed to do
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it. But all the guys involved in essentially they're just mates of mine from
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over the last twenty five years, twenty years that we've all shared the stage
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or shared processes as fellow musers, like a lot of that older guard like
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those two I just mentioned, and obviously Jason as well, like and then
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Nathan is like fuck everyone really specifically those two I was mentioned that aren't actually
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on the record, but Jason and me go back years and years, Nathan
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and I go back years and years. Even Mick and I obviously Fish from
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Hammers, we go back years and years. And it's one of those things
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where as I was doing it, maybe there's a part of me that kind
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of felt lonely because of all the other shit I said. I was like,
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I didn't have a fucking band, so it was like, oh,
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I want to share it with someone, but I didn't really have like a
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plan, So those people probably just popped in, Yeah maybe a texture thing
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like I was in part of a song, maybe like half that stuff sometimes
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happens and you sleep. Sometimes it happens when you're sitting there and no long
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the guitar and you just have a like I'll try and I try and embrace
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the spontaneity of a response with things like I'm a control person and I have
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an intention, but if something comes to me on a whim or whatever,
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I feel like, if that's if it's your gut kind of saying, oh
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do this thing or ask that person, then that's what happened. So I'm
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guessing with those people got to be more of that, but also having a
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subconscious kind of awareness that they need to be close to me, like the
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people involved need to be you know, homies sort of thing like which all
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those every single person that did have a finger on some of that stuff are
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like my bros. Yeah, you know, and the people that I had
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conversations with as well that didn't make it on there and my bros like this,
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you know guys that we've shared this together, like we've shared all this
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these years kind of thing. You know. Yeah, I'm telling was there
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anyone like old enough to say no, no, no, No one said
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no like nah like that. That was another cool part. It was like
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everyone's really keen, like even with like I said, with Kimmy and Flin,
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it was more a matter of just not being able to get to each
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other and trying to clear the schedules and stuff, and everyone seemingly you know,
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people tell lies, don't. I don't really try to associate with too
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many liars, And from everyone seemed pretty keen, you know. Imagine that
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if they said not fucking man. I mean, if there's anyone that could
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take it like and have a laugh at it, be me. But unfortunately
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everyone was pretty nice. Mate. It'd be even worse if, like you
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thought they were just taking the piss and you play it right, everyone they
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got no seriously mate, don't turn up. Yeah yeah, they just book
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it in and just don't show. Sorry mate, just say somebody is stumbled
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upon this interview by chance and they think it's starting to sound a bit of
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all right, mate, Like give us two songs off deathbed that they should
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listen to. You give them an example of what do you expect and explain
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a bit about those songs, why you chose them? Okay, I would
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like my personal It's funny, man, I'm just sorry. I'm not trying
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to be too long wintered with this one. This is one of the first,
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I'll be honest here, it's one of the first releases that I've actually
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like every time you write like I write, so you know, and I've
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contributed this all these releases across a couple of different bands over the years,
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and it's like, I'm such a critical, you know, push myself in
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and out of my body person to get the best result, that I quite
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often don't enjoy my own shit. And I'll often, like for example,
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with the Helm Records, like I've record them and have all those years of
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months of like coming up with this stuff back and forth and doing it,
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and then I wouldn't listen to the fucking thing for so long, right,
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So with this album, I've actually enjoyed listening to it, like as a
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listener, Like maybe it's because it's got the other people in it, and
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I'm here and I'm waiting for other ship as well besides my own fucking wining
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get somebody else credit, So yeah, yeah, yeah, well definitely like
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the heaviness of Portant I really love, like not so much in the sound
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of it, but the weight, the sheet emotional weight in that song I
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love. I think Cross my Heart is probably a special song for me,
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and that I don't generally release that kind of music. It's closer to being
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like one of my older acoustic tracks turned heavy than it is the stuff that
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I generally write with like the bands that I'm in and have been in yep.
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So yeah, those two songs, and then Deathbed, the one that
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man Jaseid's definitely got some of the bigger hooks I think in it. So
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but I don't know, honestly, I kind of like I'm happy with the
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difference in texture with all of them, and I think I feel like I've
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done an okay job at making it cohesive and still having a bunch of different
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like all the things that I love, Like you know, you've got some
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of those breakdowns like in the middle of Deathbed and important almost goes back to
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that nothing Eram with Sugar, and then you've got stuff right through to the
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you know, like you cross my Heart, those sort of heartfelt I guess
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thrist ish kind of vibes and stuff and I don't know, like it's it's
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gonna there's all the stone of vibes and Carry the Black and that's still a
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brutally heavy song. So my picks would be Port and Deathburden Cross my Heart
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those two or three. You're like, brother, it's your album. It
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was hard. It's hard to pick. Yeah, like chees in between your
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kids, isn't it. It's like one part one part I'm like me and
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part like funk that's sick, you know, like, well, I don't
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know. It's it's hard because you want to be like I'm honest about it,
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like I do not want to be saying, oh it's no good,
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I don't like it, like I actually enjoy it. But also I'm still
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hooking it can go. I should have done that all, isn't it?
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Yeah? Never the job. The job's never done, mate, even when
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it's done. Yeah, I know that feeling. I want to touch on
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this a little bit before, bro, but beside your guest artists, you
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did everything on it yourself, Like was that big so that when people are
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inevitably buggy to take this on tour, you can say, sorry, I
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haven't got a band one hundred percent. But also like the guys in the
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band, Like sorry, the guys have been the guys that have been in
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it, especially Dario and even Ruckus from Hammers that plays drums, like he's
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got he's got designs. Both of them got designs all over us potentially touring
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it and I just have no, like no inclination at all to do that.
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But yeah, I don't know, maybe like yeah, it's it's like,
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sorry, this is locked up. You know, I haven't really thought
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about it too much, but yeah, Dario has definitely dropped a few like
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really unsubtle hents like come on, cuz, let's take this on the road.
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You know, how did you go play and everything yourself? Like are
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you adept at all the instruments or did you have to sort of learn a
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bit more to be able to do the whole album? No drums was my
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first instrument, So it's it's it's partly why Like if you ask any any
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that's been in a band with me, like I think I'm okay to be
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in a band with but I am a control freak and I definitely come with
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a complete vision and it's very hard for it must be hard, Like I
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try to be as understanding as I can, and I've never had like a
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band fight in any bands I've been in because I try to manage all of
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our egos and sensitivities and be understanding. But it's hard because my brain gets
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flooded with these ideas from every angle. And because I do play those instruments,
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yeah, I'm a depth at them like I can play them all.
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Definitely had to with my drums when I started doing this recording, I had
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to go back and play for like a fair few months and get a bunch
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of chops up that I hadn't hadn't actually done, especially because it was pretty
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metal, so I hadn't played double kick for years like properly, and it's
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always there like it doesn't take too long to get back. But yeah,
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definitely I would call like confident with those things. I definitely had to tighten
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a few screws. They're based stuff as no dramas, but yeah, only
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with the drums, just sort of sitting on the kid again for a few
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months and you know, running the click and running the tracks and just making
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sure that all my or your connective ship between your brain and your limbs what's
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up it did. Functions is that what they call them. Yeah, yeah,
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yeah, And as you get older, it gets a bit harder,
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you know what I mean. They vanished I actually had I will say for
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Carry the Black and Old Horse New Town. The guy that played the bass
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on those two tracks is I didn't play bass on those. I only played
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bass on the other three yep or four, including the song that's not released
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yet. Simon Rays was the first person I've got to say this on here
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because he's not on any social media. He's a total, like a nomade
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kind of dude. Simon Rais is my first best friend in music and in
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life, and we started playing music together. Like we literally decided when we're
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twelve years old, Hey dude, let's get a guitar and become rock stars.
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And he goes, I'm going to play the bass, and I was
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like, I'm going to play the guitar. So we did that, and
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I've been fucking with the drums for a while already, so I had a
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kind of a decent idea about music and what I wanted to do. He
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played based on those two songs. He is the great I'm not being biased
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here, but he's the greatest bass player I've ever seen like creative bass player
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I've ever seen in any band or global stage anywhere. And he played the
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bass on those He's one of those dudes that plays with his fingers only.
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And there's there's bass players, and there's people that can play the bass,
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and then there's people that were born with a bass in their hand, and
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they are very few and far between. And he's another like Flea or Claypool
15:39
or Steve Harris or and he's a local dude that lives in Wollongong that no
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one knows other than his mates, and he's literally the best bass player ever.
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So he did that stuff. I didn't do that on those two tracks.
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Yeah, now we're gonna have to be careful I answer this right now
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because I've guess I've guessed to write the press release. Yeah, yes,
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she did. We have to be careful that the deathbed is a true representation
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of whose stone is. Did you agree with that statement, Yeah, yeah,
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definitely. I think that's what I meant before with when you ask me
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about my intention. I feel like this is a really automatic writing process,
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and I've been pretty vexed over the years about like what I let out of
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the gates when I'm writing stuff and what I Sometimes it feels like things just
16:33
get given to you. And in my in my experience, every time I
16:40
get a song that comes in like five or ten minutes and it's like almost
16:41
the whole song, I'm always suspicious because to me, it's like you haven't
16:48
really done any work for this track. But then there's like this moment too
16:55
where it's like, hang on, I've got to identify what's in this song
16:56
and then ask myself, like is that am I a conduit in this particular
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process? Where did that actually come from another thing? Something that I don't
17:04
understand? And I've been able to just relay it and has it got the
17:08
special source in it? And quite often it does happen now, But most
17:15
of the time, like I work so hard at like creating like dynamic fluctuations
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and like a journey kind of concept for the listener. Even though I'm a
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selfish writer, I'm thinking about the journey of the person's on when they're listening
17:27
to whatever is I'm right and like saying, some of the helm stuff goes
17:30
for like twelve thirteen minutes. Other times I'll slam out a song that's three
17:33
or four minutes long, where it's got to be authentic and definitely in that
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sentence like with with Deathbed. I think the reason I do like actually listening
17:41
to it is because of so fucking me like, and it is authentic in
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that it's got all Like when I put my hands on a guitar, it's
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got heaps of riffs that I just want to hear. It's got when I
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sit on a kit and I want to hear that fucking thunderous spine snapping groove.
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It's got that shit in there. When I listen to a vocalist sing
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and I want to hear guttural grounds and I want to hear the fucking highest,
18:06
most insane kind of like almost like the singer that singing it can't fucking
18:10
sing, it kind of screams, and then nice melodies like it's got that
18:14
stuff in there. So yes, I feel like it's it's pretty fucking me
18:19
sure's carefully, I don't know, I know she coming in with the broom.
18:25
No, no, no, no, I'm actually got to tell you,
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bro, like I've been to bid thousands of bands for their album releases,
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but never anyone that looks as happy with what they put out as you
18:33
have, like you haven't stopped being about it the whole time. Bro,
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It's great, Like you very rarely get them people that are that enthusiastic about
18:41
it after they put it out. So it shows the quality of it,
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how much you actually put into it the way you thanks to lon't it,
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you know what? Honestly, even in Hammerson now, like I'm I think
18:52
I think people like this isn't this is like, I'm going to be real
18:55
honest to you, like the music world is a is a an indie story
19:00
rof with ego and I have a pretty honest one. Like I'm equally self
19:07
deprecating, and I'll equally if you ask me a question if I'm good at
19:08
something and I know that I am older, say yeah, I can do
19:11
that. But I think with this particular process at the age that I'm at,
19:15
I kind of know what I want now. So everything's making me happy,
19:18
Like all the new Hammer stuff that's coming, every song that we do
19:22
now is I'm plucking stoked, Like I'm stoked in the guys in the band.
19:26
I'm stoked in how it's all coming together. I feel like the ideas
19:29
that I'm having for the music that I'm doing at the moment at this age,
19:33
even though I'm kind of dubbed, I guess it's almost over the hill
19:37
for it. I'm definitely peaking. I mean, I feel like it's a
19:40
peak period. And I don't know, like maybe with the Deathbed thing,
19:44
maybe fucking I'm going to die next fucking week or some shit. I don't
19:48
know. There's a speaky shit going on, and it's it's cool. I'm
19:52
happy to be honest about it and I'm happy to wear it on my sleeve
19:55
where it's like, oh, I am enjoying it, like and I'm for
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the first time my life with that particular release, I've I've enjoyed listening to
20:03
it. You know, I'm getting sick of it now, but like the
20:06
process has been like fuck, yeah, this is this is cool. I'm
20:08
happy with it. So yeah, thanks yeahs kidos here brother, Well,
20:11
yeah, i'd listened to it before the interview, bro and give me was
20:15
right. It's just a great album, man. But for those who haven't
20:17
heard it, Deathbed is out now. It's five tracks of awesomeness. One
20:22
to come. Where do people get ahold of it? Bro? On all
20:26
the usual fucking thieving stealing platforms. Mate, I do have a band camp
20:33
thing which is there, but like, yeah, as long as that stuff's
20:34
there, it's on the usual suspects. Spotify, Apple, it's got.
20:40
I think there's a lyric video for Porton. I haven't done any like major
20:44
anything else. There's no film clips coming or anything like that. So yeah,
20:47
I may do a vinyl release down the track. I don't know.
20:49
It just depends on the demand. And it's had a decent amount of listens
20:53
considering I'm kind of no one outside of the bands I'm in. So yeah,
20:59
we'll see what happens down the track. Way O god, I I
21:29
do don that nothing So I so I got my own I my so do
22:27
that says not guys not they stay? There is no way you was no
22:53
no cottage guys good you got the balls? What you got flash? I
23:03
got fang out? Watch y'all you alright bother it all create crowns up for
23:17
sound and shutstown now watch it for free up time gun time bomb, We
23:32
wut scratching all around. We all no you time snopes snop we stand shot
24:00
stop shot and s guy all ward off out of the ground. White flos
24:23
nice lay boss that rise like da a rock so you and said you wee
24:44
so stop. No, that is no sid I guess try Yeah, that's
25:08
it is so time, no sad time song, A cloud to the station.
25:57
It was the Princetmas open the stretch towards you. Your first words,
26:40
what ll y'all don guys? Well, well guys all day, I long
26:51
as I shock you all white. Well, let's jo What else starts you?
26:57
Why you over line no,