STONE SENSES INTERVIEW

On the verge of unleashing its second full length album and with a constant stream of booked shows, Southern California's Stone Senses are certainly keeping busy of late. Luckily The Pier got this sweet new update from the Reggae Rock crew.

The Pier: So tell us how did Stone Senses originally get together and for those unfamiliar with the band how would you describe your sound?

Stone Senses: Five of the seven members are Carlsbad natives; we all pretty much knew each other previous to the band. Eric, Mike O., and Dirty Dan started jamming together in 2004, and soon Mike F. joined the band on sax, as well as Carl Mannino on percussion.

After a few months of playing with various bass players the band decided to hold auditions, to which Dan (Funkdoobius) was the obvious man for the job. Garrett originally had taken pictures and video for the band, and when the rhythm guitarist spot became vacant Stone Senses asked him to fill the spot, and the rest is history.

We call our sound "Soul-infused Reggae/Rock". We like our vocals to be powerful yet soulful. We are a reggae band without a keyboardist, so we tend to have a grittier, guitar driven sound. We play the music that represents where we come from; we try to embody the groove that only Southern California has.

The Pier: Real nice. You recently did a big show with Natural Vibrations. How did that go?

Stone Senses: Every show we have played with Natural Vibrations has been a blast. Our Carlsbad show reached capacity at The Oceanhouse. The place was full, everyone was rocking out! It is cool to be able to perform when both the bands and the crowd are really into the show and having a great time.

The Pier: Were you excited to play the Haunted Ball & Chain Festival? You must have been disappointing to have it cancelled?

Stone Senses: We were way stoked to be playing that festival, but yeah unfortunately it got postponed until the new-year. The Indian Reservation where it was being held at lost their liquor license a few weeks back. It's almost impossible to do a show like that and not be able to make money on booze, so we totally understand and agree with the promoter's decision to postpone the festival.

The Pier: Bummer. So what's the best and worst concert experience you guys have had?

Stone Senses: The best concert experience we have had definitely has to be when we opened for The Wailers at the Coach House in Orange County. We grew up listening to their music our whole lives, it's what made most of us fall in love with reggae. They are legends, end of story.

But to top it off, they are not only great musicians, but they are really good people, cool to hang out with. We have had mixed experiences with bigger acts, some seem to know that they are rockstars, while others are more down to earth. The Wailers were definitely respectful and down to earth. It is definitely something we will never forget.

Another equally cool experience was the first time we opened for Mikey Dread. It was back in late 2004 at a club in North San Diego. We got to reason with him for hours that night. He was very humble and down to earth. Since then, we have been fortunate to share the stage with him in San Diego and LA another four times. I actually just heard a few days ago that he has a brain tumor and is currently undergoing treatment on the east coast. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mikey in this tough time.

As far as bad experiences go, we played a four band show with a couple local artists that was atrocious. It had the potential to be decent. It was at a nice club in San Diego and had some good bands on the bill, although we were the only reggae band. The show was being put on by these two women… we'll call them Danielle and Alicia.

The way that the night worked, was four bands would all play two very short 20-minute sets, the second in reverse order. That way, in theory, all the fans of the different bands would at least stick around to see one of your sets. Well, this sounded good on paper, but as it turns out, we went first and so we were scheduled to go absolutely last, eighth, for our second set.

So as the bands progress, we find that Danielle and Alicia are both in each others bands, and really just add or swap a player or two around, and call themselves a different name. So Alicia and Danielle play the third set, the fourth set, the fifth set, and the sixth set, with minor changes to their lineup. Essentially, the three other bands got 20 minute opening and closing sets for an 80 minute Danielle/Alicia mega set (the two never left the stage), all on the theory that we were sharing stage time. After all of that we even ended up getting stiffed. We learned a lot from that show.

The Pier: The bitches. Anyway there is a definite little scene growing down there in San Diego. There seems to be a whole bunch of bands supporting each other, like you guys, High Tide & Diego Roots etc. That must be cool?

Stone Senses: It is really cool to have a group of bands that we all get along with and support. All the bands down here seem to have their own unique twist or take on reggae music, taking it somewhere other than straightforward roots style reggae. There is definitely a rock-reggae scene that differs from the roots scene in this town, and ultimately we are all spreading our music to the same places, the same people, so why not work together? Karma is real, and what goes around comes around.

Each one of these bands has talent and can throw a good show, but at the same time if we work together, we can throw an amazing show. That is the end goal for us, to give the crowd the best show that we can give them. Our fans support us so much, we want to give them something that's worth the money that they paid to see the show.

The Pier: Any plans to do any shows outside of California?

Stone Senses: We have already made two trips out to Arizona, and are planning a tour all the way up the West Coast next spring to promote our new album.

The Pier: So what can you tell us about this new album? How does it compare to the first, Harder Than the Rest?

Stone Senses: The album is definitely musically more mature. We have learned a lot about where we each fit as a separate piece in the same puzzle. Our first album contained some really good music, but a lot of it was formed through jam sessions, or off simple progressions. We had written 14 or 15 songs and decided to go into the studio because we had enough tracks for an album, not because we had written an "album".

Our approach to writing the music this time had a lot more structure, but doesn't lose its raw sound. Expect some surprises on the album. We have begun to realize that we have our own distinct sound and style of music, not to just confine ourselves to a distinct genre. We all have different backgrounds, from jazz to metal to reggae (of course). We tapped into these styles and have begun to define our own style. So far I think we have like 12-14 brand new songs. We are in the middle of mixing those tracks and are stoked on how everything is coming along so far. There have been talks in the past few weeks actually of going back into the studio to track a few more songs for the album, but we'll see.

We have really taken our time with this one, and I think it is going to really show. We have been recording at Paradigm Studios again with Justin James at the controls. We first worked with Justin a few years back when we did Open Mind for the Sense Boardwear compilation Livin' Life to the Fullest. Justin engineered and mixed Harder Than The Rest as well as having worked with Sense Boardwear on all of their compilation CDs.

The Pier: Does it have a name yet?

Stone Senses: Our new album will be titled Live It Up.

The Pier: Cool name. Any particular songs you are excited about? Do all the band members contribute to the songwriting process?

Stone Senses: We are very excited about our first single, which is entitled Room To Grow, as well as the title track of the album, Live it up. Most of the band writes the music for their particular instrument, however as far as the songwriting goes, most of the time Mike O. will write the chord structure and lyrics for the songs that he sings, and the rest of the band will put their own touches on it until it is a finished song. Eric on the other hand only sings, so it is usually left up to Funkdoobius and Garrett to come up with the chord progressions and musical structure to go along with his lyrics.

Garrett wrote both the lyrics and the music for the track The Tables Have Turned on this album. Once a band member has a song down, they bring the song to the rest of the band at practice, go through the structure and work out any kinks that there might be with the entire band present.

The Pier: Ok, standard last question for The Pier. What is your favorite summer hangout or destination and why?

Stone Senses: Our favorite summer hangout in town would probably be the beach in Carlsbad and the Pizza Port. Good waves, good beer, what more could you ask for? As far as favorite destinations for band members, we love traveling…the Carribbian, Hawaii, and the Sierras are high up on our list.

Thanks to the guys for answering our questions and to find out more about Stone Senses, check out the band's MySpace page RIGHT HERE.