By: Rob Cavuoto
Authentic, classic rock sounds are needed now more than ever, and those sounds are in no short supply on The Stone Chiefs’ debut album Drive On.
In an era when more and more musicians rely on electronics and software to get their art across, it’s refreshing to discover an up-and-coming act that hasn’t forgotten the foundation that rock music was built upon – the electrifying, rip-roaring sound of a real, live band playing together. That’s the exact approach The Stone Chiefs, adopt on their recently-released debut album.
Consisting of members Dallas Perry (Lead Vocals), Aaron Wiig (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass), Brian ‘BT’ Torrence (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass), David Arnn (Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass), and Michael ‘Twig’ Neece (Drums), The Stone Chiefs seek to melt faces worldwide with their riveting, guitar-driven assault and supercharged live show. I spoke with guitarist Brian Torrence about the band, the new album, and the virtues and perils of playing cover gigs as a young band.
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Rob Cavuoto: Can you tell us about the history of the band and some of the band’s influences?
Brian Torrence: Aaron, David and I met in college where we would have suds-and-buds-fueled guitar sessions in dirty apartments noodling on stuff like Zeppelin, Hendrix, etc. Aaron and David cut some original tunes over that period in a local studio. After college Aaron and I were in the same band for several years before it fell apart. We all kept in touch and jammed whenever possible but played with various bands for awhile. We later met up with a drummer through David who had an in on well-paying cover gigs. As a result, we formed a four-piece to just be minstrels for easy money and booze on the weekends.
Fast forward down the road a bit…David recommended a singer from another band he was jamming with. In walks Dallas Perry… Dallas brought a strong rock voice to the group to take us above and beyond the typical band. Guitar players are a dime a dozen but a good singer is hard to find. After Dallas joined is when we actually started renting a practice pad and writing original music as a unit. We had this sense that something was bubbling and we wanted to put in the effort to see what happened. We eventually went our separate ways from the original drummer and auditioned Twig after seeing his ad on Craigslist. Our original intent was to audition multiple drummers and pick the best fit, but we bonded immediately with Twig on that first tryout and decided we definitely wanted him behind the kit. He took our original tunes to another level. With all five components gathered, The Stone Chiefs were born.
The Stone Chiefs - Drive On
As far as influences…we all share a common fondness for guitar-oriented rock from classic artists like Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles to modern artists like The Black Keys, Radiohead, any Jack White outfit (The White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather), etc. Being five different individuals, we also each bring our own unique influences that helps diversify our sound. David and Dallas lean more towards the classic-era sounds. Aaron and I lean a little more into modern or indie rock sounds. Before playing with us, Twig played in hard rock, metal and even country bands. So, influences among us can run all over…The Doors, Tool, Oasis, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, The Cult, Beck, Sublime, Skynyrd, etc.
Rob: Tell me about your unique style and sound, how did that come about?
Brian Torrence: Well…besides the five different guys having differing influences angle that I mentioned earlier, our band is also a bit unique in that we have three guitar players who rotate the bass-playing role around depending on the song. We’re all guitar guys and none of us want to be the permanent bass player! [Laughs] We also figure a three-guitar assault would be too much of a good thing…too much stepping on each others’ toes…so we wouldn’t want to add a sixth band member to play bass. So, the bass player duty gets moved around depending on who has certain ideas for guitar or bass for that particular song. The cool part of that is that you get a varying dynamic on the album. Each song has any two of the three guitarists paired and could have any of the three guitarists on lead or rhythm. We also all write songs, so there’s the multiple songwriting style angle, too.
Rob: How do you classify your music?
Brian Torrence: It’s definitely rock in the classic sense, but I think it’s a blend of both a late ‘60s-early ‘70s classic-Southern sound with elements of modern rock guitar plus a sprinkle of ‘90s rock in between.
Rob: The guitar on the CD sounds great, it has a nice punch. Can you shed some light on how it came about?
Brian Torrence: David was instrumental in fostering the bands guitar sound. He introduced Aaron to Dr. Z amps and found him a Carmen Ghia head. Aaron paired it with a 2×12 cab with Vintage 30s and plays it to this day. David plays a Maz 18 Jr. in either a 2×12 cab with a Redcoat and Greenback or a single 12” cab with a mystery speaker. For the album we had access to some additional gear. We ran a Budda through an Orange cab on several tunes. That Orange cab also sounds awesome hooked up to the Carmen Ghia. A Fender Twin Reverb and a Marshall got a little bit of action.
We all are big believers in the raw power of small wattage boutique amps pushed to kickass, natural tube distortion sounds. Many times we just plugged a guitar into a cranked Dr. Z and pressed record. When we did use stomp boxes, gear in the rotation included TS808 Tube Screamer, Expandora, FX Engineering Spitfire, FX Engineering Mirage, H2O Echo, Deja Vibe, an old school Ross phaser and some other goodies. Oh, can’t forget the Fuzz Face.
For guitars, the majority of the album was tracked with a 1972 Les Paul Black Beauty, a modified Epiphone Sheraton II, or an old Stratocaster with a DiMarzio in the bridge that is mean as hell. A buddy Aaron knows has a vintage Epiphone Riviera, so we had to get our hands on that for awhile too.
Producer Jeff Creed did a great job of working with the band to capture the natural sound of the guitars. We ran 2 or 3 mics per take on a cab with slightly different mic positions. Getting a cab mic’ed up to cover the variables is an art form. You got to somehow know what sounds will mix out well together with little frame of reference except what you think sounds nice. For micing the guitar cabs we typically used a condenser and a ribbon mic, don’t remember which ones offhand. Of course, we busted out the trusty SM57 on occasion as well.
With all this said, I gotta give a big shout out to Michael Wallace at When In Rome Studios, who mixed and mastered the album. He really put the finishing touches on the guitar sound. His effort took our recordings from good to awesome. It was a team effort to get the sound we wanted. I remember sitting in the studio with the guys in the control room working on getting the intro pick slide in “Mate of Mine” just right. After a couple takes they all jumped up and started yelling. That’s how lots of the guitar tracks happened in the studio…with several of the guys hanging out trying different things until we dialed in what we were listening for.
The Stone Chiefs
Rob: How did you come up with the name?
Brian Torrence: The Stone Chiefs name resulted from a discussion at band practice. Dallas and Aaron were talking about how it would be cool to have a name with words conveying a sense of weight with a connotation of authority or mastery. After a couple of failed attempts, The Stone Chiefs got thrown in the ring. The name conjured up some cool images and visualizations to a degree …and of course, it passed the “Google test.” If you Google “The Stone Chiefs,” you see us and only us. It is a solid band name that fits us well.
But really, choosing a band name was a long, frustrating process for us that we’d all love to forget! For a while there, we just wanted to play and didn’t really care about the name – what the hell is a Pearl Jam anyway? So, we kept procrastinating and procrastinating…and playing under different band names. Every now and then, we’d come up with a good one, then the name would fail the Google test. Some other band was using it. It was probably way easier in the pre-Internet days. You only had to make sure another successful or signed band wasn’t using the name. These days, you search for the name, see some god-awful garage band in the middle of Wisconsin on MySpace using the name and don’t want to use it because some people may think your bands are one and the same. Not to mention, that band probably grabbed all the cool web site addresses already. Even when we’d get a unique name candidate, some people in the band would like it and some wouldn’t. Thankfully we ended up with a decent band name. We all are happy with The Stone Chiefs.
Rob: Do you have a favorite tune on the CD?
Brian Torrence: Tough question as I honestly do like all of our tunes. I also don’t want to be a douchebag and pick one of my own tunes [Laughs]. Seriously though, my preference for one tune versus another can change depending on my mood. Since I’m currently in a chill mood chugging a beer, I’ll drop a vote for “Come Down.” It has a smooth, Pink Floyd-y groove you can zone out to and I think each of us did our own thing to make that song sound special. I have my own selfish reasons for liking that tune, too. I get to noodle around on lead and lay down cool space-y guitar stuff!
Rob: What do you want fans to take away from the CD?
Brian Torrence: I’d like the fans to enjoy the overall, diverse experience of the album. I suppose the typical record industry gospel suggests that all songs on an album should have the same sound throughout for consistency, but screw that…I like how our album runs the gamut on styles and sounds. It ranges from harder tunes like “Straight Pipes” and “Mountain” to up-tempo party rockers like “Moxie” and “Mate of Mine” to mid-tempo tunes like “Drive On” and “Younger” to chill tunes like “Come Down,” “My Little Ann” and “Close The Door.” You may be in the mood for certain tunes one day and in a different mood for others the next. So, there’s diversity there from the multiple songwriters/guitarists, yet the album still retains enough of a common theme that it’s not jumping all over the place. We’re not following a metal tune with a polka tune, for example. The album also has great production/mixing, slick keys from Chris Johnson and smooth backup vox from Barbara Weathers, who had top 10 R&B hits (“Always,” “Secret Lover”) with Atlantic Starr back in the day.
Rob: What does success look like for you?
Brian Torrence: To walk out on a stage with my bandmates and have the lights go up on a charged audience and know that they are all there to hear the songs that we have written. No better feeling in the world!
Rob: Any advice for bands starting out regarding things to do and things to avoid?
The Stone Chiefs
Brian Torrence: It may seem like a paradox, but you sometimes have to bite the bullet and play cover gigs in the beginning of your career to advance your original music. For one thing, they pay much better and will help you finance studio time, album promotion, etc more than originals-only gigs where you may get a lame percentage of the door on a Wednesday night in a strange town where nobody knows your name. To our defense, we would always sprinkle in some of our originals at cover gigs and hype those up.
As for what to avoid….well, strangely enough, it would be the same thing….don’t become a cover band. If you’re serious about your originals, don’t fall so much in love with that easy, higher-money payout that cover gigs offer in the beginning of a band career that you end up playing cover gigs and cover gigs only…unless you want to be yet another band playing “She’s a Brick House” at weddings and bars for a living. At some point, you gotta roll the dice on being an originals-only act, financial logistics be damned!
Another thing: Find people you enjoy hanging out with who are great players. The whole weak link in the chain thing is true. Don’t be afraid to bolt on a mediocre band or kick out the guy that sucks, even if he is a cool dude. Life is too short to play with musicians that aren’t up to par or not serious. It’s crucial to surround yourself with great musicians with good attitudes.
A little bit of practice goes a long way. A lot of practice goes even further. Look up the 10,000 hour rule. It’s true. Now think about what it takes to get to that expert level of functionality as a band.
Oh, and try to have as much fun as you can.
Rob: What are your touring plans?
Brian Torrence: Our touring plans are currently in their infancy. Right now, we are looking to promote our album via media and online outlets to create awareness. After that awareness is created, we can do a tour that hopefully puts fans in the stands. Right now, we’re looking to generate the demand before providing the supply! With that said, we got some awesome shows coming up playing large venues in North Carolina (stadium gig in Greensboro and Raleigh Ampitheatre). The gig opportunities are getting bigger and better. We definitely are looking forward to performing the music.
Rob: What has been your proudest achievement to date?
Brian Torrence: Being in a great band with four other kickass guys that all get along well with each other and working together with those guys to create what I think is a fine piece of work in our Drive On album. We honestly have a helluva good time just playing all these songs for only ourselves in our practice room, and we have an even better time playing them for you!
