Stone Nobles are a hard rock quartet from Providence, Rhode Island. They formed in 2019, featuring Ross Reign, Lancer Steele, Davy Charr, and Brody Silver.
Throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nobles have continued to write and record music, and their first EP, The Rider was released today! We spoke with Stone Nobles so you can find out more about them and the backstory to their tune "Zombie Lullaby", They also curated a guest playlist for us, so you can hear some tunes they wrote and some tunes they love!
We heard the EP early, and we think that it's fantastic. Give it a listen and see what you think.
1: How did you decide on the name, “Stone Nobles"?
It sort of just happened organically. “Stone” was the first stereotypical rock’n’roll word we
thought of, and “Nobles” was something we hadn’t heard at all! So we figured it would
sound both familiar and unique at the same time. The name also refers to statues of
dead kings, serving as a metaphor for graveyards. We like to get sinister on occasion.
2: What inspires you to create?
Even though we all love rock music and have a similar collective vision for the band, we
all have different favorite artists and personal influences. It’s really great to see those
differences mesh when we write songs. Once you get to know us, you might even be
able to tell who wrote which song or a certain part of a song. Something that's
consistent with all of our writing is that we like to blend 70’s classic, 80’s metal, and 90’s
grunge. For each song, one of those sounds will shine more than the others. It just
depends on the mood! We find that it makes our catalog a bit more diverse.
3: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a creative profession?
We’ve been asked this question a couple of times, and the answer is usually the same.
Find people who like the same music as you do, people with the same vision. When
everyone is on the same page, everything is easy. Writing becomes easy, practice
becomes easy, making a setlist becomes easy. Sure, you have to learn how to manage
social media, and how to contact venues, and how to make yourself look professional.
But if you can’t create art with a group of people who share your creative direction and
drive, you’re going to have a tough time getting started.
4: Do you feel open minded about what you listen to? Do you like going out of your
comfort zone?
Breaking the comfort zone is always a big step in finding new inspiration. If we didn't try
new kinds of music, we would never grow as artists. That being said, we’ll listen to just
about anything, but rock’n’roll always draws us back in. All music is great, but rock is
what we love. It’s hard to beat. Of course there’s probably a million subgenres of rock
now, but it’s safe to say we listen to all of it. Metal too, if we’re going to be picky and
separate the two. They’re birds from the same nest. As far as music outside of rock and
metal goes, some of us dip into pop, rap, country, Americana, and EDM. Ross has been
on an Olivia Rodrigo kick. Lancer is sucker for Kill the Lights by Alex Newell and DJ
Cassidy. Brody is a nerd at heart and enjoys listening to the scores of both Lord of the
Rings and Star Wars (gotta love John Williams). Davy likes to get his groove on with
Kool and the Gang, the Isley Brothers, and often pays tribute to the surf rock king, Dick
Dale, during band practice.
5: What outlets do you find out about music from? (Record stores, magazines,
samplers, etc.)
Mostly through social media nowadays. There’s always updates from all of your favorite
artists on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. It’s so easy now. Most streaming services like
Spotify give updates on new music too. It makes playlists of new songs from genres you
like, so that’s a great way to find new music. Once in a while we’ll do it the old fashioned
way and pick a vinyl or a CD that looks cool.
6: What is your favorite format to listen to music on? (CD, Vinyl, etc.)
Vinyl is the ideal vessel. There’s something so much more satisfying in having a
physical form of music. You get the touch, the feel, the art, the sleeve, the classic
sound. That’s the best way to enjoy music. But obviously you can’t listen to vinyl
everywhere you go, so using streaming platforms through Bluetooth is the main method
now. Davy and Lancer like keeping CDs in their cars too.
7: How do you feel the internet has impacted the music business?
From our personal experience, the internet has definitely changed the music industry for
the better. The internet, and social media specifically, has given musicians a platform to
display their talents and creativity in a convenient fashion. Anyone can create and push
music on social media platforms now. Sure, that means more competition for
engagement, but who is going to complain about access to more undiscovered talent? It
can really put smaller artists on the same playing field as large ones. With that being
said, people from around the world can listen to your music. We were fortunate enough
to have an interview with Nathalia from OTAgeek Brazil. We never thought we had fans
out in Brazil, but it’s through the internet that our content was able to reach an audience
2,000+ miles away from home. It all started with Ross making TikTok videos. Crazy
right?
8: Who was the first band/artist that became your favorite band?
This one varies for each of our members. Brody’s first favorite band was Led Zeppelin,
so he received a lot of inspiration from the late, great John Bonham. Brody’s playing
really reflects Bonzo in terms of being able to hammer away at the kit. It’s helped him
create a strong rhythmic backbone for our songs. Davy is a massive Van Halen fan. He
actually started out as a guitar player, so he loves tapping and melodic solos just like
Eddie. That influence has a really cool crossover into his bass playing. We like to think
of Davy as our Cliff Burton [Metallica]. Lancer is a KISS fan from birth, they were his first
concert at age 6. Gene Simmons spewing blood and spitting fire was a huge influence
for him as a performer. KISS was also a great gateway band for him to explore harder
rock and metal, so Lancer has become the go-to writer for our heavier songs. Ross
loves Guns and Roses, Slash is his guitar idol. He’s also a huge Metallica guy (but
aren’t we all?). It’s hard to name a better lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist than James
Hetfield, so Ross takes a lot of inspiration from him. Mix that with a medley of punk
groups like Social D and Ramones, you get the frontman of Stone Nobles. Of course
newer bands like Greta Van Fleet, Dirty Honey, and Joyous Wolf have inspired us to
push into the modern wave of rock that we’re fortunate to be living in!
9: If you could open a show for any artist, who would it be?
This is probably the toughest question we’ve ever been asked. We always toss around
ideas when we meet up like “hey wouldn’t it be awesome if we opened up for…” y'know?
We’ve always had the desire to open up for Greta Van Fleet but their music is going in
one direction and ours is going in the opposite direction. It doesn’t affect our desire to
open up for them. Unfortunately it would just make more sense to open up for a band
that we would be able to compliment their sound with ours. Slipknot would be wild, and
Three Days Grace might fit well now. If it were an older artist probably Judas Priest,
Alice Cooper, or Metallica.
10: What was the inspiration for your song “Zombie Lullaby”?
“Zombie Lullaby” started as a riff that Ross came up with, what would be the base of the
verses and chorus of the song. There were some scattered prospective lyrics pulled
from his writing journal but nothing really conceptualized as a complete story. Ross and
Lancer started working on sprucing up the music. Lancer tweaked some chords, came
up with the breakdown/solo. There was a clear influence from classic heavy metal, very
much so from Judas Priest. The lead guitar riff over the chorus was inspired by “Die, Die
my Darling” by Misfits. With that in mind, we thought, “hey, let's make this dark and
spooky, something fun.” Lancer wrote the chorus lyrics and said “screw the other stuff,
this song is about zombies.” Ross said “hell yeah, I’ll write the verses about being
chased by zombies.” The purpose was to capture the feel of old horror movies like
“Return of the Living Dead” and “Nightmare on Elm Street.” We think “Zombie Lullaby”
reflects that concept pretty well!
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