Here’s a news flash, I’m not a critic of anyone’s music, I’m here to try and get you to listen to new and old cool music. Nothing more , nothing less. The Autumn Stones are based in Toronto and I love that City , hanging out eating hot dogs on the corner of Dundas and Yonge Street after visiting The Hockey Hall of Fame and touching The Cup with Lemieux’s’ name on it well that’s priceless for a kid from Pittsburgh. Anyway this is the kind of Music my Canadian Wife likes, a little Smiths, a little Spirit of the West/Beautiful South , cool band , they lay down a solid horn laden backdrop to that dream pop shoegaze voice, sweet combination. Looks like they have a new Album coming out later this year, their second called “Escapists”. It’s Monday , your week is just getting started, there are a few reasons you need to give The Autumn Stones a listen.. They are friends of Nikkis’…They are out of Toronto and Toronto Rocks! My Wife is Canadian and we dig Canadian Music…and most important of all, The Music is really cool ….
Meet The Band….
Hi our name is….
The Autumn Stones
And our sound might be best described as….
Jazzy Dream pop
We Are……
Ciaran Megahey: Vocals and Guitar, Gary Butler: Saxophone, Michael K. Newton: Bass and Matthew McLaughlin: Drums
We Are Originally From….
We’re based in Toronto and Gary and I are both from Toronto, Michael is from North Bay, Ontario and Matthew is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Who are some that have an influence on your sound??
We’re influenced by The Magnetic Fields, The Smiths, Echo and The Bunnymen, Guided by Voices, Scott Walker, The Beautiful South. Mainly post-punk indie sort of artists with a little jazz and dub in there too.
The first time we met was…..
Michael and I met about 5 years ago in a music business class. Gary and Matthew both answered Craigslist ads.
We knew we were going to be a Band when………
I founded the band back in 2009 with the drummer, Evan Bender from my old band The Assistants. He left a few years ago. I met Michael soon after Evan and I started jamming. I had a lot of material from the last band that was unrecorded and I really felt like it would have been a real waste to not get a band together and record the songs I had. So the main motivation when I started the band was to make records with the material I had a amassed but things have evolved as time passed and lineups changed.
Before starting the band we were employed as…….
We’re all still doing that ha ha. I work in a library as a library coordinator. Gary is a very established editor of various publications. Michael tends to work in retail. He’s also a prolific podcaster with his show Two Turntables and a Bottle of Wine. Matthew worked for Environment Canada when he was in Saskatchewan but is mainly doing music now. He plays in quite a few bands.
Our craziest gig ever was….
We haven’t had many crazy gigs. Probably the strangest is one we did at a small bar in Toronto called The Embassy. It has a weird stage that is basically a piece of wood nailed to the bar on one side and the wall on the other. It’s pretty ghetto but it was a fun show. It was part of a music festival we have each year in Toronto called Pitter Patter Fest. The venue was pretty packed and sweaty and a good time was had by all. I remember being rather tipsy and having to improvise a solo that I forgot how to play. We are a fairly sane band. No really hard drugs or pooping in anyone’s mouths thus far.
The First Song We Wrote Was….
I guess the oldest/first Autumn Stones song is “Companions of the Flame,” the title track from our first album. I played this one for years with The Assistants but it has changed quite a lot since then. I wrote that one in 2006 and we finally released it in 2011.
It’s About
Like a few of our other songs it deals with religious bigotry/fanaticism. That’s sort of a pet subject for me. The narrator of the song is the devil and he is essentially welcoming religious fanatics into hell to a swaggering psychedelic beat.
What tunes are you currently jamming to…
Mostly we jam on original material. We’re trying to get the songs for our next album, Escapists, ready to record later in the year. We’re about three quarters of the way finished with figuring out the arrangements and finalizing exactly what songs we want to put on there.
What are some of the 1st songs you remember listening to that made you say, that’s what I want to do….
“She Bangs the Drums” and “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side” were big ones for me in the teen years when I started playing guitar. I loved that orchestral guitar thing that Johnny Marr and John Squire did. Secondary melodies! One of the best-kept secrets of great pop song writing. Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields has a tremendous knack for this as well.
When you’re touring and have some time off , where could we find you..,.,
At the pub knocking back pints and checking out the local talent.
The one thing we want you to remember while your listening to us….
The one you really love.
Listen to some tunes…..buy and follow
