Interview with award-winning artist and songwriter Carleton Stone
Interview with award-winning artist and songwriter Carleton Stone
Today On What On What's Good with Jovin Tardif, I am here with Carleton Stone. Carleton is an award-winning artist and songwriter. You may know him as the founding member of the group Port Cities. Fun fact: Carleton has also written songs for and with such diverse artists such as Donovan Woods, Classified, Bobby Bazini, and Neon Dreams. Stone just recently released his latest single, “Papercut” from his new solo release that is set to be released in June 2022. In our #cinqque5tion interview, we discuss growing up in Nova Scotia, tips for performing in front of an audience, touring internationally, and much more.
1. What can you tell us growing up around music in Nova Scotia? Did you have a favourite artist and why?
Growing up in Cape Breton there was always a thriving music scene. This part of the world is well known for its Celtic music, but I was always more interested in the local indie/punk scene that was happening in the late 90’s/early 2000s. Some of my favourite memories from my teenage years were from sweaty all-ages shows (which I religiously attended) to seeing bands like Slowcoaster and Rock Ranger. Later in high school, I remember seeing Gordie Sampson play for the first time and my mind was absolutely blown; the caliber of songs he was writing was like nothing I had ever seen in the flesh before. In the coming years, I became great friends with all my local heroes, and since then they’ve become huge mentors and supporters of my career. If I had to choose a favourite artist I would have to pick Gordie because he’s had the biggest impact on my life creatively and professionally.
2. How would you describe your recent music?
My new album ‘Papercut’ feels like the musical culmination of my career so far, mixing in the more roots/rock n’ roll sound of my previous solo albums with the more pop songwriting from my years writing and performing with Port Cities. Lyrically, the album was inspired by things that have occupied more of my headspace in the past few years: the life of an artist, getting older, dealing with loss, dreams that don’t come true, etc. It feels exciting to be back releasing music into the world again after a challenging couple of years.
3. Do you have any tips for anyone about performing in front of an audience?
The biggest tip I could give is to be confident. The audience will be uncomfortable if you seem uncomfortable, so just own the space on stage and try not to get in your own head about the performance. And have fun !!
4. Any interesting stories from the recording room?
The first part of this album was recorded in Toronto with another great friend and mentor Howie Beck. Howie produced my last solo album in 2014 so when it was time to start planning this one I knew I wanted him to be involved in some capacity. Once we chatted we decided we wanted to try to assemble as many of the musicians we used on the last album. It was so great to get in the room and make music with these humans again, especially with the added familiarity of this being the second time around we had all worked on a batch of songs together. I don’t really have one specific story but there were a lot of laughs and camaraderie shared during the week or so we spent in the studio.
5. Did you have a favourite place to perform while touring internationally and why?
Germany was always one of my favourite places to tour. We participated in a songwriting camp at a castle in Colditz every year for five or six years, so we had a great bunch of friends and collaborators that felt like our German family every time we went there. Because of that, once we started touring more seriously with Port Cities we felt like we already had a really good understanding of the German people and had small built-in audiences in almost every city we went to. Hope to get back there soon!!
6. Will we ever see a reunion with other Port Cities members?
Dylan and I are still playing a handful of Port Cities shows a year around the east coast. We’ve been having guest female vocalists for the different shows which have been a fun way to perform the songs and keep them sounding fresh and different. So the project is definitely more on the back burner for the time being, but hopefully, we’ll revisit it in a more serious way somewhere down the road!
7. Where can we see you next?
I’ll be playing a handful of shows around Nova Scotia this summer before heading off for a bunch of North American shows opening for one of my favourite bands growing up - the Crash Test Dummies. Really looking forward to getting back out there and sharing the songs from this new album with audiences!
What On What's Good
Comments
Post a Comment