As a true musical nomad, Peter Stone feels a deep connection to the world around him and wants to do everything in his power to heal global wounds. We at Indie Top 39 first heard his brand new single, ‘Pacific,’ a few weeks ago and it resonated strongly amongst the entire team. ‘Pacific’ was added to our New Music Sunday Playlist and we could not be more excited to introduce you to the undeniable talent of an artist who just gets it!
Can you tell our readers who Peter Stone is in a nutshell?
I love nature and stories and songs and people. I love to travel. And I love to make music. I love how it brings people together and breaks barriers and ignites the soul. I’m continually working on combining these things in a way that’ll have a positive impact during my time here on Earth.
There’s so much work we have to do in order for humanity to live harmoniously with each other and with nature. I feel that making music is the best way I have to be able to help with healing those divisions and to keep things moving in a positive direction.
PETER STONE
Not to mention keeping myself sane along the way. It feels like what I have to do, it feels right. So it’s what I do.
‘Fells Reservoir’ was your first single to be released. Do you remember when it was ‘born’ and how it felt when you released it into the world?
Oh yes I believe I remember the song’s birth quite well. Well – I’d consider the birth to be when it was written. I was walking along, just enjoying a lovely day and a lovely forest path in the Fells, a big park near Boston, MA.
The beauty and solace found in those woods wooed me and I sat by the water and wrote this loving song in response.
PETER STONE
A crying out against the painful transience of attachment, and an acceptance of the grace of the cycles that bring us into both bliss and despair.
And then, its birth in terms of the public release? Sure that was a catharsis! Having released a bunch of tunes with my previous project The Rare Occasions, but not any solo work, it was such a different feeling to be promoting something that was more of an individual endeavor. Granted – Luke of TRO did play drums on the tune! But to have pretty much the full creative control and the bare, raw feeling of this sparse instrumentation, my lyrics, my voice carrying the tune? That’s something else. Very enlivening and affirming. It has been a great joy and honor to have so many folks hear the song, and to hear how it’s affected people.
Acoustic or electric?
Ah such a hard question! Acoustic has such beauty to me in the way that it is so ancient. What a feeling – to bring the magic of music out of thin air with just a piece of wood with some strings tied on. I love that. I love playing around the fire in the woods, or on a boat out on the river, or in a parking lot, just being able to pull it out anywhere and bring some of music’s divine power into the space. I usually play acoustic guitar when I’m chilling or playing for myself or friends. HOWEVER. When playing shows and gigging it is 99% of the time on electric guitar and always has been! I like how electric guitar gives my songs a little bit of a different vibe than many other singer songwriters and solo performers. I love being able to pepper in some leads overtop some live looping. I love being loud. It’s a fun time.
What does ‘Pacific’ mean to you and what message do you hope to convey with it?
Well, it’s hard for me to write about ‘Pacific’ honestly. It’s a song that’s getting a few years old now in terms of when it was written. It’s about the end of a relationship and the end of a chapter of life. I tried to pour it into the song. Like a lot of my songs, it’s one more way of conveying the need to accept the transient nature of existence. To work towards non-attachment and presence of mind. It’s a bit of an advice-to-self song in that way, in me reminding myself “you can’t fight the decomposition”. That bit calls out to certain Buddhist practices of meditating on death. I write about loss so much, and it definitely is a way that I am meditating on death. This is a practice that is to help us gain awareness of the inevitability that everything ends, even our lives. All relationships end, all possessions are lost. It’s important to be mindful of these things in order to not grow overly complacent and attached to the current state of being.
‘Pacific’ is also a therapeutic outpouring of emotion.
I hope that people who struggle with loss (let’s be real… everyone) can find some catharsis in hearing it.
PETER STONE
I hope also that the calm movement and sonic space of the song is soothing to listeners along the way. Oh, yeah and I hope people take better care of their houseplants than I did.
I read that you’ve lived in apartments, vans, tents and hostels all over America – what about the musical nomad lifestyle appeals to you?
Honestly it feels odd to me to stay in one place too long. We humans evolved as nomads. It feels natural. I think a lot of the craziness we see in human society might be helped if everyone moved around a little more. It really shakes you up, shows you who you really are. When the only thing that stays constant day to day is the fact that you’re living it? When everything else in your surroundings changes? It’s very eye-opening.
And of course you get a chance to meet people who are different from you and from the folks in your hometown. And to befriend folks, see the kindness and welcoming nature in folks everywhere. I think in that way, travel shows us how important it is to try to bridge divisions that result from racism, nationalism and other tribalistic mindsets.
And beyond that, you see the wonder and the beauty that is this world. You see the impact people have had on our ecology. For me it helps keep me inspired to heal the wounds human society is inflicting on ourselves and our non-human siblings. The wounds that we’re inflicting on the web of life that IS us. For real – we’ve got to shape up if we want to keep receiving the bounty that is here on this planet, and to continue having this divine home.
What is the song you’re most proud of writing?
I’m superrrr proud of the tune ‘The Outlook’ which is the next one to arrive after Pacific (June 4). It was a song that just felt like I was channelling it, and I think it captures something that I’ve longed to put down into words for a while. I’m psyched to get that one out there!
One of my favourite acts, The War on Drugs, hails from your neck of the woods. Well, Pennsylvania at least. Who would you recommend we check out from your local music scene?
Hell yea The War on Drugs is great! Oh there’s so so many great artists from the Harrisburg area! I’d definitely shout out Hollan, Shine Delphi, Kevin Koa, Cumberland Honey and Tanner Bingaman in terms of folks who make music in the same space as myself genre-wise. Let’s see. I love working with Zach King, he is a folk singer who’s so fun to see and has a great collaborative, scene-building attitude. Yam Yam and Shawan & the Wonton are two artists killing it more on the jazz/funk side of the spectrum. Winter Parks and Ajay Shughart are great, making some spacey, groovy music. Dang there’s a lot of good ones.
Einstein famously said, “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician.” If you were not a musician, what would you be?
Well. Right about now, I would probably be camped out with folks who are resisting the construction of a new Tar Sands oil pipeline through unceded native territory in Minnesota. I do support this type of work however I can through music, and without music I’d have certainly found another way to do so. I encourage everyone to check out and support the work of Giniw Collective, some folks on the ground in MN. They are one of the groups on the forefront of fighting to put an end to the horrific history of colonial-corporate forces assaulting indigenous people, defiling holy spaces, and polluting the natural resources that all lifeforms depend on.
I don’t bring this up to get too heavy and bombastic on you, dear reader. I do find it important though, to avoid the way that art spaces can sometimes get divorced from politics and current events. Part of what art does is communicate, and there’s so much to share. But so often art seems to be used to pacify, distract, confuse, advertise. I want my place in the musical world to be centered in communities of artists who wish to create beautiful things, while concurrently working to bring about a more beautiful society. My favorite artists have worked to do this and are still working to do this. It’s so crucial.
You’re allowed to collaborate with one musician or band. Who do you choose?
Man, that’s tough, but let’s go with John K Samson of The Weakerthans ❤️
The Weakerthans have long been among my favorite artists – since I was a kid. I absolutely adore the way Samson’s songwriting tells stories with exquisite detail. The songs capture a depth of character and complexity of meaning in such a deft way. I love it.
What does the future hold for you?
I’m super excited to get this whole batch of songs out there and follow it with a proper full-length record! I have a bunch of songs written but unrecorded that I’m super pumped about, and I’m ready to sit down and put them onto tape. So I’ll be performing a ton, getting these tunes out there as much as possible, getting my message out there as much as possible, and in between I’m busting out my laptop to piece by piece together that next project.
I just want to keep doing the thing – playing for people, bringing people together, putting my heart out there in the music and in my words.
PETER STONE
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Introducing » Artists We Interviewed
This coverage was created in collaboration with Musosoup as part of the #SustainableCurator movement.
