Devil's Gate Music
Related Articles
Walsall-based rock four-piece Stone Broken celebrate the release of their brand-new single ‘Remedy’ with a few big appearances at outdoor gigs this Summer, along with UK tour dates as special guests to Delain following in November 2024. The band – Rich Moss (vocals/guitars), Robyn Haycock (drums/vocals), Chris Davis (guitars), and Kieron Conroy (bass) – are also celebrating their 11th birthday as a band; lot’s to talk about with Rich and Robyn then:
Busy festival season for Stone Broken; headlining the Big Top stage at Firevolt Festival, and then an appearance at Kris Barras’ mini-festival at Chepstow Castle. Who are you looking forward to catching up with at these?
Rich: I think it’s mainly about catching up with the fans more than anything. We are a very talkative band; whenever we go anywhere we like to catch up with people we might not have seen for a while. And new faces as well as familiar faces, anyone new to Stone Broken that we haven’t met yet or been to a Stone Broken show, then it’s good to say hello to those people as well. We are still coming out of the back of what has been a weird time for bands where it has been a path of discovery via the internet rather than via shows.
Of course, we are super excited about headlining the Big Top at Firevolt, we have played the festival before so it is nice to go back.
Robyn: I’m also super excited about seeing Vandenberg as well!
Rich: Also, we haven’t seen the guys in The Treatment in so long…and the guys in Trucker Diablo as well; they supported us before at a gig in The Slade Rooms I think it was?
Robyn: It is a fantastic line-up at both events!
Mr. Barras’s show at Chepstow Castle is almost like a mini-festival, as well as Kris Barras, and yourself, there is also Dan Byrne, and The Hot Damn; that’s tasty!
Robyn: That will be our first time playing in a castle.
Rich: We have played some places, but never a castle. We have played a church on a Sunday before! We get on great with Kris.
Robyn: I think we have played with everyone on the line-up, it’s going to be awesome.
When was the last time that you asked another musician for a selfie?
Rich: You know what, I don’t ask many people for a pic, but I think that the last person that I got a selfie with – other than when we are on tour with people because that’s different – was probably Mark Tremonti. I will struggle to ask someone for a photo, I just haven’t got it in me.
Robyn: Oooh! I am the opposite! I’m like “Excuse me!”
Rich: Backstage at a festival Robyn is something else! So, who was your last selfie with, Rob?
Robyn: I want to say John Fred from Black Stone Cherry…or Chris Jericho. But we have played with them, I’m horrendous at the end of a tour! I will even ask them for drumsticks! [laughs] I’ll be like “Do you want to trade?” [laughs]
Have you ever caught a drumstick at a gig, Robyn?
Robyn: You know what, I’ve never caught a drumstick! I’ve always asked…I’ve got Dax’s from Cheap Trick, John Fred’s, and I think I’ve also got Garrett Whitlock’s [Tremonti, Mammoth WVH].
You mentioned Chris Jericho a moment ago, what are your memories of touring the US with Fozzy back in 2018?
Rich: It was probably one of the best tours that we have done. Not just for the shows, but also for the experience itself. I think that for most UK bands – even European bands – it’s a dream to go to America and play music. It helped that we had a Top-40 single over there, and we got to hang out with some cool people, the shows were amazing, and the fans were incredible. Although we were over there just shy of 2 months, we didn’t get to see that much of America because it is so vast. Touring is made easier if you get along with the bands that you are on the road with, and Fozzy were all incredible. They knew that it was our first time in the States and they all looked after us. I remember [Fozzy guitarist] Rich Ward telling us what were the best spots to go eat, and even the best places to go get ice cream because ice cream is my addiction. [laughs]
Robyn: One of my first memories of the trip was driving 2 days to get to a show. The UK is tiny in comparison. I used to complain about driving for 4 hours for a show! It was a good job that we had comfy seats! [laughs] We had fans in America who drove 8 hours one-way to see us play for 30 minutes and then drove back in the same day. I was like “How are you doing this?!”
Stone Broken have just completed a run of small, intimate headline gigs, is it difficult to get back into a groove after a few months off, or is it all muscle memory once the lights go down and you bring the band in Robyn?
Robyn: I think that once I am sat on the stage and ready to go, it all feels like HOME, do you know what I mean? Nothing changes, it is the pre-show nerves that you have to get over! [laughs]
Rich: And they intensify the longer that you are not on the road…
Robyn: Yes, backstage you second guess everything, like “How do I drum again?” and “What does this song sound like again?”! And then once I sit down it’s like “Let’s go for it!”
Rich: I would say that it is a bit of both. For me, there are two elements to a live show: one is the songs, and the other is the interaction with the audience. The songs are muscle memory. But it’s the bits in between the songs that I get into a groove with. I think that I talk fairly naturally when I’m onstage but it takes me a couple of shows to get comfortable with it. We have played three shows recently and during the third show, I found my groove.
It must have been difficult having found your groove that the dates then end.
Rich: Exactly, yes.
Robyn: To be fair, all of us in the band, and the crew, were wishing that it could go on a little bit longer because it was great to get back out there.
Did you roadtest the new single ‘Remedy’ at the shows?
Rich: It was the first time that we had played ‘Remedy’ live. Mixed in with all the singles, and while I wouldn’t say deep cuts, there were loads of Stone Broken album-bangers. And that’s what the shows were for. The first show fell on the release day for ‘Remedy’ so it was a celebration of a new song coming out. So that was the focus, and we had so much great feedback about the song. It was nice to play something new and fresh and I felt that it gave us and the audience a new energy. We were all discovering together what it sounded like live.
Do you still get nervous in the lead-up to releasing new music?
Rich: There is always a nervous energy surrounding every release and I think that is because you don’t know how a song will go down with the fans. You just hope that people will like it because we stand by everything that we release. We will only ever put out songs that we love, and then it is down to the fans, and The Broken Army to decide if they like it or not. We never thought that putting out a slow song would mean millions of hits, and the song would be a staple in every show in our career so far, but ‘Wait For You’ did that. The song has been used in marriages, etc, and we simply never saw that coming when we recorded it. It’s not something that you can sit around and plan. It’s something that everyone else decides. People will ultimately decide on your biggest song, and that’s great because it puts it into their hands and they are the people that support you and come to your shows.
Are you harsh critics of your own material? For instance, if you go back and listen to the debut album ‘All In Time’, do you pick up on things that you might have done differently today?
Rich: I think that there is always going to be an element of that because as time goes on you develop and change, or the flavours that you introduce today are different. But we always see past albums and upcoming material, as snapshots in time, so it’s good to look back because it can bring back a memory. Or a state of mind at that time. It is nice to revisit older albums now and then. I’ve never thought “I don’t like that one”…
Robyn: I’ve never listened back and thought “That’s cringe!” [laughs]…well not yet, thankfully!
Rich: [laughs] There is still time!
Stone Broken are now eleven years old as a band, and with the same line-up. Has it been a challenge keeping the original line-up together during this time, especially given all the uncertainty during the pandemic?
Rich: We have always had chemistry in the band and know we are super fortunate to have that. It’s rare to find four like-minded individuals, who want to keep on pushing, without there being a rift.
Robyn: Don’t get us wrong; we can get on each other’s nerves, but we face that with comedy! [laughs]
Rich: It is like sibling rivalry, and it comes with the territory. There is a lot of give and take. And like Rob said; when we are on the road we remedy any situations with humour, and banter. It might seem surprising to others that we are still the same four original members, but to us then it is normal, I cannot see Stone Broken being anything other than the original members. Stone Broken is 100% the four of us.
Tell us about Stone Broken’s connection with the mental health charities Uprawr Mental Health Foundation, and Metal For Good, you’ve recently had a t-shirt collaboration with them to raise awareness on mental health.
Rich: This is something that I have started to speak about more now. I had a bit of a mental health episode coming out of the back of Covid and I found it difficult to deal with, but I had a lot of support around me. It was only the end of last year, and the start of this year when I felt that I was coming out of it…and realised what I had just been through. I hadn’t a clue at the time what was happening, all I knew was that I felt different and my emotions were all over the place. But it wasn’t until relatively recently that I realised that I had been struggling with my mental health and I had to face the fact that I had been. There is a stigma attached to mental health, so I thought that it was important that we show our support for mental health as I have been shown support from people in the band; Robyn, Chris, and Kieran have been super supportive of what I have been going through and they have been super patient as well because things have taken longer.
We want people to know that we are with them through any sort of struggles that they have, and we have known the guys at Uprawr for a while so it made sense to do a t-shirt with them. We all could talk about mental health more, and open up about it more. Robyn will be playing some Linkin Park songs in celebration of Chester Bennington at ‘1000 Lights’ on Sunday 18th August at Utilita Arena in Birmingham, and that’s in conjunction with Uprawr. [tickets HERE]
Robyn: That’s going to be an emotional show for everyone involved. Growing up, Linkin Park were a staple in what I listened to, and for the rest of the band as well…
Rich: My first album was ‘Hybrid Theory’…
Robyn: It’s nice that we can pay tribute to Chester as well as raise awareness about mental health. It is getting more common to speak about mental health, and that is great, so raising awareness is always a help. It’s something that we feel strongly about as a band.
Get more information on Uprawr Mental Health Foundation, HERE. And Metal For Good, HERE.
Stone Broken performs with Kris Barras Band at Chepstow Castle on August 15th, purchase tickets HERE.
For all future Stone Broken gigs, connect with the band HERE.
Interview – Dave
All live images – Rob Wilkins
