Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Stonerider

Wondering what your first new music purchase of 2008 should be? Look no further than Three Legs of Trouble, the debut release from Atlanta rockers StoneRider (in stores Jan. 28, 2008, via Trustkill Records). Their riff-heavy sound—with equal doses of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Southern rock—is a breath of fresh air and just the thing you might need to get out of those winter doldrums. The four members of StoneRider—vocalist/guitarist Matt Tanner, guitarist Neil “Staxxx” Warren, drummer Jason Krutzky and bassist Champ Champagne—might be familiar to some, as they previously were in the thrashier Southern-tinged rock band Fight Paris. But as guitarist Staxxx makes clear in the following interview conducted by Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki, the old band is dead. Live-Metal.net readers, meet StoneRider.

Live-Metal.net: Hey, what’s up? First, I wanted to say I enjoyed Three Legs of Trouble very much. It’s a great way to start off 2008.

Neil “Staxxx” Warren: Thank you so much. We appreciate you taking the time to do this.

How did you come to the decision to basically start over and change the band from Fight Paris to StoneRider?

You know, it kinda just happened on its own in a way. It’s something that was talked about during the writing of the record but was never really acted upon. We were about two weeks into recording the record and we all decided that we definitely wanted to go that route.

We had a ton and ton of names we were constantly throwing out. That one just came out one day and everyone agreed upon it. There was a lot of change happening around us and things got pretty tough, so for us it symbolizes getting through the journey no matter how difficult times get.

How does the music on Three Legs of Trouble differ from the music you made as Fight Paris?

Well, everything on it is different, really. The style, the musicianship is tighter, the vocals are obviously different. We wrote this record as a band jamming in a room day in and day out. Everyone was involved. It’s really special to all of us.

Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, AC/DC—all the legends, man.

StoneRider’s sound is unique on the Trustkill roster. Was there ever any wondering about whether the label would know what to do with a band like StoneRider?

That of course came up, but Trustkill has always been great to us and has always seemed to really get our band. They are great people, too. I’m a firm believer that if the songs are undeniably good, then it doesn’t matter what label releases them, just as long as it’s out there for the public to hear.

What did producer [and Joe Walsh keyboardist] Bill Appleberry bring to the table?

Name it. Tons and tons of ideas, experience, knowledge, friendship. He’s really big on pre-production and arrangement of songs, so that was a great experience we had with him.

Just looking at the track list got me excited because I saw one of my all-time favorite songs. Why did you decide to cover “Hair of the Dog”?

That was actually an idea Bill had. The playing on that particular song and the vox/lyrics actually kinda fit Three Legs of Trouble pretty good. The attitude of it just made it a no-brainer for us. We didn’t think it was gonna turn out as good as it did. Bill kept promising us it would. We didn’t believe him, really. He was right!

That is a list that could just go on and on, but off the top of my head? We can do a pretty ripping version of “Whole Lotta Rosie” by AC/DC.

There is, and it’s all in the talks right now.

We will be hitting the road next year, for sure. We have some great people working for us right now that we didn’t have the luxury to have before. We are getting a lot of press and buzz on the record right now, so we wanna let that soak in a little bit. But have no fear, we will be out soon! And we cannot wait!

Any great rock band that’s willing to take us out. We just wanna get out there meet new friends and have some fun!

Not a chance. We’re a new band now. Fight Paris R.I.P.

A buzz is building around StoneRider, with magazines like Metal Hammer and Rock Sound each naming you a band to watch in 2008. How do you react to that? Is there any extra pressure because of that?

We love that. We wanna get over to U.K. ASAP. We know kids over there are hungry for rock music. It’s a great compliment that those mags are accepting us the way they are. We just wanna get over there and live up to the buzz!

Play for as long as we can, reach as many people as we can. We wanna bring back a style that is kind of out in the cold right now. Ultimately, we wanna write great tunes and be remembered for them!

Thanks for the interview and congratulations on making a great album. Good luck!