What are your names?
Sam Woods (vocals), Mitch Perry (guitar), Tate Senhenn (bass), Luke Woods (drums)
What is the band’s name?
Stonehaven
How did you come up with the band’s name?
After trying many band name generators back in 2014 to no avail, a high school friend and I decided that this particular mashing of words gave off a vibe similar to the music that we were trying to portray. – Sam
What is your genre of music?
We call it alternative rock, but you could maybe push for a certain subgenre of metal too. – Sam
Give us a little bio about you.
We’re Stonehaven, a 4-piece alternative rock band from Brisbane, Australia. We launched this band as a way to keep ourselves busy and working on music through COVID, and we stumbled across something really unique and fun. If you’re a fan of rock/metal energy mixed with intricate melodies and finesse then you’ll enjoy what we have to offer. – Sam, Luke, Tate, Mitch
What made you go into music?
We were all around music growing up – our (Sam and Luke’s) parents both came from music families themselves before passing that gift on to us. They converted the garage at our property into a music room and we’d spend all our time there together as a family or with friends after school just writing and playing music all the time. I guess I just never saw it as an option to not pursue music. – Sam & Luke
I too grew up around music – my sister performed from a very young age and was a massive inspiration in pursuing music. I picked up a guitar in primary school and it instantly became a passion which I’ve held onto ever since. I have been lucky enough to explore and perform across a variety of genres and consider myself extremely lucky to share this passion with close friends and family. – Mitch
Are you signed?
We’re unsigned & independent! However, we have a great team of people helping us with a lot of the behind the scenes stuff – marketing, PR, airplay, music submissions etc. We’re all really thankful for the hard work everyone is putting into this release. – Sam
What is the meaning behind the single?
The song is about embracing your individuality and allowing what makes you unique to flourish. We feel like it’s a tough time for humanity right now and a positive message or some reinforcement probably wouldn’t go astray. – Sam
Describe the track in two words.
Energetic, anthemic. – Sam
What was the writing process like?
This song didn’t even start out as a Stonehaven song and was about 30bpm slower or something like that… it was really mellow. There were a lot of cool elements that we found in that old version that we thought would be really interesting to try and work with and turn it into a rock song. A lot of the ambience and clean guitars are from the original writing session from back in 2019. We kind of sat idle on it for a while as COVID hit and we thought it would be pretty hard to launch a band, but we ended up getting impatient and here we are! – Sam
What was the recording process like?
Luke and I are audio engineers and producers for other artists, so we teamed up to record this song ourselves. We recorded everything in our fully soundproof home studio in Brisbane, which we actually built from scratch with the knowledge and prowess of our lovely construction-based guitarist, Mitch. It’s an awesome facility to have and we think the result is great. – Sam
What musician doesn’t want a fully soundproof studio in their garage? As soon as the band moved in together, we instantly knew we had to build one. Continually moving gear around to rehearsal spaces and studios is the bane of any band’s existence, so we agreed this project was our first and foremost priority. Being the perfectionists we all are, we didn’t go about in half measures and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. Multiple bands now utilise the space for rehearsals and studio recordings, and we look forward to continuing to produce out of the comfort of our own home. – Mitch
Who did you work with on the single?
Callan Orr of Avalanche Studios Dream on Dreamer in Melbourne mixed and mastered the song for us. He did an amazing job as always – after hearing how massive his drum mixes are we couldn’t go with anyone else really. He’s great at what he does. – Sam
Will we see a Music Video for the track?
Yes! Doing this all during a global pandemic makes it a little tricky to plan though, so we’re unsure on the date. It should be dropping within a few weeks of the single debut on November 20, 2020. If you follow us on social media @stonehavenaus we’ll most definitely keep everyone in the loop there. The concept for the video is really awesome – it’s visceral & energetic yet quite beautiful all at the same time. – Sam
Will we see an EP or Album and if so what can we expect from it?
Right now we’re planning to drop a few singles and we’ll see where that takes us. I’d love to be able to get an album out there soon, though. – Sam
What else can we expect in 2020?
After the single debut on November 20, we’ll have a music video to follow up sometime in December. As we mentioned earlier, the whole global pandemic thing makes shooting that a bit difficult so it’s hard to put an exact date on that at the moment. If you’re interested and want to give it a watch when it drops, be sure to follow us on all social media outlets – @stonehavenaus – Sam
Do you have any collaborations coming up with any upcoming artists?
We don’t have anything planned with other artists right now – we want to get a few songs that are uniquely us out there first. We’d love to collaborate on new material going forward and really welcome the idea of it. I’m super excited by the idea of someone else bringing their sound to a Stonehaven tune and seeing what happens. – Sam
Would you be up for collaborations if other musicians wanted one with you? and who would they have to contact?
Absolutely! Any of us would love to work alongside other musicians as much as possible. It’s probably best to email info@stonehavenband.com to have a chat about what we should do together. – Sam
Do you play any instruments?
I play guitar, bass, and sing. Mitch plays guitar, Tate plays guitar and bass, Luke drums. – Sam
Who are your influences?
The few that come to mind are Balance and Composure, Slaves, Bring Me The Horizon, Don Broco, Normandie as far as similar genre bands go. However, we all come from different musical backgrounds and influences – Tate used to play with a Deathcore band, Mitch played mostly blues growing up, Luke plays in a country band as well as Stonehaven, and I started writing/making electronic music on my laptop. It’s really fun bringing all this together in the studio as the result is different to anything any of us imagined. – Sam
How do you get inspiration to write songs?
I seem to conceptualise most of my songs in the shower, and hum a melody into my phone or something to pursue later. I don’t know why that is… I try and consume as much music as possible and listen to a wide variety of genres and moods so that my knowledge of what sounds are out there is as wide as it can be. I think the power of drawing influence from outside your genre and seeing what you can do with it with your own music is really fun. – Sam
Where do you see yourself now in 5 years?
I would hope that humanity is now post-pandemic and we’re touring the globe! Taking our music around the world has always been a dream of ours collectively so we want to push for that as hard as possible. I guess you’ve got to shoot for the stars! – Sam
When you’re not doing music, what do you do?
Most of us live together, so we’re probably still hanging out as a group playing pool or ping pong. You may spot us at a pub on occasion. We’re known to enjoy a lovely spot of golf if the weather permits. – Sam
Let’s not forget to mention that if I wasn’t pursuing music, i’d be touring the world in professional ping pong. – Mitch
What was the song you listened to most that influenced you to go more into the music scene?
It was Enemy by Balance and Composure. I heard them, and that song, live for the first time in 2014 at a La Dispute gig and it blew me away. I was baffled by how well B&C combined so much energy and aggression with really soothing, accessible melodies (for the most part). I will definitely always remember that gig being the reason I enjoy writing alternative music and want to pursue it forever. – Sam
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
Back yourself, no one else will. Do what you’re not doing. – Mitch
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians not about the industry and just as an artist?
Always finish a song you’re writing. No matter what you think of it, if you have an idea, hash it out and finish it. – Mitch
What quote or saying do you always stick by?
“We spend far too much time complaining about the way things are and completely forget we have the power to change anything and everything” – Mitch (DEEP
Where in your hometown is a must go to visit?
You can’t deny that a beer at Howard Smith Wharves by the river is a great time. – Sam
You’re coming off tour;
1/ Where do you go first? Stones Corner Hotel – Mitch
2/ Who do you see first? The bartender – Mitch
3/What do you eat first? Ramen, lots of Ramen – Mitch
When you are at a gig, what are 5 things you cannot forget?
Pick, Strings, Spare Cables, Patch Leads, More Picks. – Mitch
Do you have social media accounts so your fans can follow you?
We’re @stonehavenaus on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also check out our website!
