WRITTEN BY SARAH ONTIVEROS

As Editor in Chief of a budding magazine, the time to sit down and truly write from the heart is few and far between. I get caught up in the sweep of work and business logistics of it all. When at my core - writing, art, music, film, and everything in between - simmers with a heat that warms me from my bones to my fingertips. All of it has always been a balm for my soul and sometimes, when life gets busy and the weather turns cold, literally and figuratively, that warmth goes from molten to stone (pun intended?).

But sometimes, sometimes you hear a song or songs that render you viscous once more. You’re taken back to a time when a simple strum of a wooden guitar cracked you wide open and then sweetly stitched you back together. Stone’s EP - ahead of their summer album release - does just that. Three whispered songs into the wind and into the space between my ribs that once knew a fire so warm. The first note on the piano immediately summons a familiar, and long-loved, Daniel Ceasar tune. But at once the similarity fades into a raw indie progression akin to Nick Cave’s “Into my Arms,” but with a far more melodic voice, both frayed and fluid, with falsetto-like moments that glide over you in an embrace. 

It's a triptych of an EP that unfolds into one resounding portrait of solitude and grief, love and hope; the multitude of emotions that cork themselves inside of us and feel like they can only be decanted through artistic expression. They’re raw and unfiltered and it’s no surprise that the music is paired with gritty and minimal video editing. Teo Cortez, the director behind the thirteen-minute-long music video, combines all three songs into a live found-footage-like montage, shot entirely on VHS. “A couple of his songs contain sounds from old home videos which led me to start visualizing his music with the VHS look” says Cortez, “I wanted to create an aesthetic for his EP that was simple enough for us to achieve and paired well with the acoustics.” 

At once you’re sitting next to the artist on his piano stool, aching alongside the lyrics, “I’d let you tear me to shreds and come back, cause remember that one time that we had.” The next, we’re audience members, bums on the gravel amidst the rubble of grudges held. Then we’re on the road, to what I can’t help but feel is the visual representation of the molten core at the center of us all, the darkest parts of our heart, illuminated only by embers of hope - stoked to life with each strum of the guitar and press of a weighted ivory key. 

“When working with a VHS camera, you’re at the mercy of whatever the image gives you. But there’s just something about shooting on VHS that feels comforting. You connect it with friends, family, and moments from your youth… So I kept the lighting as minimal as possible. And with the acoustics of each single it honed in on the core elements, the songwriting, the single instrument, single angle, with a single source. This way, in the edit, we can focus on what’s most important: the music.” Cortez finishes.

There is in fact something comforting about Stone’s EP trilogy - made visceral by the VHS footage of the performances captured by Teo Cortez. As a teenager, I was obsessed with folk-rock and cameras, and hearing these songs brought me back to the rough-cut “music videos” I’d string together for some of my favorite bands. None of them very pretty, but each of them a simple look at a complicated life. Unrefined and unfiltered. The person or place in our mind that doesn’t need to put on airs, but just exists. Just burns. 

FOLLOW ALONG WITH STONE

on Instagram @_stoneband_

You can find their music on: Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Music.

FOLLOW ALONG WITH DIRECTOR TEO CORTEZ

on Instagram @dir.teo