The 'Beths are off

“Sorted”, I believe, is the term. After all, there aren’t many unsigned bands out there that can boast such luxuries as a personal recording studio. (Okay, it’s more of a garage-cum-studio, but still).

Hailing from Kilkenny city, Stone Beth have been causing quite a stir in their native townland with their melodic rock amalgam. Still in the fledgling stages of band-dom having formed a mere eight months ago, the quintet have grabbed the bull by its proverbials and done the nasty, booking themselves up for dates in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Kilkenny and recording a five track single which is due for independent release at the end of May. Talk about busy.

“We’ve been around so long that we know the way the music business works” explains drummer John Tierney (four out of the five members have been in bands together off and on over the past few years). “You’re on your own. At the end of the day, it’s down to us to make it happen. Everything has to happen simultaneously too – timing is the thing. We can’t release a single and not promote it so that’s why we got on the phone and started booking gigs. We’re getting places alright, but it feels like slow progress.”

Slow progress! Most bands are still figuring out how to get the bass in tune with the guitar after eight months!

“We have a lot of direction,” continues bassist Shane Myles. “We knew exactly what we wanted to do from the start. We didn’t want to be one of those bands that spends three years rehearsing and doing a couple of gigs here and there. We wanted to record the single and get it out as fast as we can because we know the songs are strong enough.”

Street smarts are a valuable asset for any young band who choose to swim in the shark-infested seas of the music industry. While treading water with previous musical incarnations the boys have learnt a stroke or two.

“We know what we want and we know what we’d never accept when it comes to the business end of things,” says John. “If someone waves a record contract in front of me, I’m not going to go, ‘Oh! Give it to me now!’. We’re not going to settle for the Toilet Tour of Ireland. We can do that off our own backs.”

As a self confessed ‘classic rock band’, Stone Beth possess a certain melodic grunge quality that’s a long way removed from shit-cool industry darlings The Strokes or The White Stripes and with a broad range of influences, (citing such luminaries as The Doors and Stone Temple Pilots) it’s no wonder that Stone Beth have such an old school feel.

“I think being a standard rock band these days is an advantage,” says John. “There’s the ten year storm – every ten years the music scene changes dramatically and goes back to rock, or some form of it. You can look at The Strokes or The Hives and what have you who prove that point, but there are other bands like Nickelback who are more classic grungy rock. That’d be more our style.”

“We’re not trying to do anything extraordinary or break new ground,” confesses Shane. “Every type of music has been done before. But if it sounds good, who gives a fuck?”