We live in an immediate culture where we expect supply on demand. It’s as true for music as for anything else – both as consumers and as artists who have the means to record, press and distribute material in an astonishingly short length of time.
Kildare trio Stone Ocean, however, have taken a more circumspect approach to their self-titled debut. “A year ago we were just finishing it off over in New York,” says guitarist and vocalist Karaoke Kennedy.
“When we finished that we went over to the UK on tour for about a month, travelling the length and breadth of the place”.
For an unknown Irish band to get so much British touring under the belt is rare these days, but for Kennedy it was a great experience.
“It definitely made us a better live band and we also learnt a lot about touring, how to maintain ourselves as a band and how to network in another country. The variety of gigs there is endless.”
The story of the record goes back further. Formed in Celbridge in 2003, the band began working on defining their sound and getting gigs, leading to a high profile Oxegen slot the following year.
“In the run up to that we’d started working with a producer called Paul Murphy to cut some demos. He really wanted to help us get off the blocks so we did a three-track CD with him and he helped us bag the Oxegen slot. Paul started to shop the EP around and Ghost Train came on board.”
The Ghost Train in question is a small New York label. Why did the band go abroad when there would be appear to be so many options in Ireland? “It wasn’t so much that we weren’t making headway at home,” Kennedy points out, “it’s just that this was the best situation that came up for us. All the cards were in our favour and it was too good a deal to turn down.” Thus the band decamped to New York state to record.
“It took a lot of hard work before we went over,” says bassist Glen Cummins. “We were rehearsing about eight hours a day to make sure that everything was ready.”
Although the band would lay claim to a variety of influences, StoneOcean is most certainly a rock record. And there are a lot of rock fans in this country, so why don’t we ever get the feeling that the domestic scene is really up and running?
“I really think it’s to do with trends,” says Kennedy. “It’s hard sometimes for people to look outside the box. People don’t want to be the ones to go with something new, and they’re afraid of change. No one’s willing to take a chance, they want some sort of a guarantee that it’s really, really good. If you can get on TV or radio it helps – Larry Gogan started playing one of our songs on daytime 2FM and all of a sudden we got the green light because it was now a recognised song. The truth is we were playing that song for a year and a half in every toilet that we could! It’s weird how it works but people don’t want to take a chance before they spend their money on a gig or a CD.”
“I’d also say that there is a lot of variety in Dublin,” says Walsh, “so much so that people are almost overwhelmed by the sheer amount of bands out there. Every week someone is releasing something or throwing a launch party and saying they’re the best band on the planet. It’s hard to compete with all that so you really do have to get the seal of approval from somewhere.”
Variety is something that Stone Ocean know about. Although their album works wonderfully as a cohesive whole, there is enough going on to keep the listener hooked throughout. “We had about 30 songs when we came to record the album,” Kennedy explains, “some heavier, some lighter. It was a small independent label and we knew we had a tight budget. Our producer helped us pick the right songs to go on the record.”
"There was a time right at the start when we decided what kind of band we were going to be and then as we started to progress we decided to go with anything that came along – heavy metal, ska, country & western – and we ended up with a lot of different material. Towards the end of that period we decided to concentrate on crossing over the rock stuff with a dance feel and make that our signature sound, to give the girls something to jiggle to.” Is the plan working? Kennedy laughs. “Well the girls are jiggling...”