T
ool & D
ie page 16
Stonewall interviewed
B
y
R
ed
Stonewall is:
Philip Chui - Bass
Ryan Young - Drums and Backing
Vocals
Josh Parker - Vocals and Guitar
When and how did you all come
together as Stonewall?
Josh -
Me and Ryan met up at a battle of the bands
in 2004, I was in a band called The Few. Ryan
was in a punk band called Fancy Pants and Cell
Phones, and I thought he was rockin' drum-
mer.
Ryan -
So we ended up becoming friends and hang-
ing out. The Few were having trouble with
their drummer, so they asked if I wanted to
join and I loved the idea. So we jammed for a
few months under the name The Few, then we
changed our name to Stonewall.
Josh -
We were having problems with our old bass
player after Ryan joined and ultimately had to
let him go. He was a founding member, so we
had to change the name. So we then were on
the hunt for a bass player.
Ryan -
So Phil was a good friend of mine, and I knew
he was sick on bass. And the guitar player
of Fancy Pants recommended that Phil should
try out, and the rest is history. Four years lat-
er we are still going strong. He was cool guy
to hang out with and a great musician. 2006 is
when Stonewall really became Stonewall.
How would describe your sound
and who is your main influ-
ences?
Josh -
I would kinda describe us as a hard rock, metal
infl uenced trio.
Ryan -
We are chameleons because we infl uenced
by everything; jazz, to funk, to country, to
roots. But our main infl uence is probably hard
rock...and metal. But old metal like Metallica,
Pantera, and Black Label.
Philip -
From Led Zepplin to Machine Head.
Josh -
Yeah, bands like Sound Garden, a lot of Grunge,
a lot of Stoner Rock. Philip is the funk guy.
Ryan -
The list goes on and on. We love it all, and
try to jam it.
What made you want to play
music in the first place?
Ryan -
For me it was just music. My father was a big
infl uence. I was thrown into it the minute I
was born. He was in a band. I loved it, I ate
it up, I wanted more of it and I couldn't get
enough.
Josh -
The same with me. My uncle played guitar and
I always thought he was wicked cool through-
out my high school years because he was the
cool guitar playin' black sheep uncle. It got
me interested and I started playing when I was
fourteen.
Philip -
For me, I grew up listening to fantastic mu-
sic. My parents listened to great music and
I absorbed much of that, but I took it for
granted. I didn't really pay attention
to music until I was fourteen when
I got a bass. Then I started playing
with awesome guys in my fi rst band
when I was fi fteen. I was hanging
out with these twenty two year old
guys. That was life changing for me.
Some of the lyrics in
the What If? album are
pretty deep. What are
they about and what
are the motives behind
them?
Josh -
I write most of the lyrics. We do
some co-writing. Yeah, a lot of the
lyrics like "Blessings for Pearls" are
about the government and how ev-
erything seems to be going so won-
derful in the country [sarcasm]. You
can read in to them how you want,
but most of the songs have their
own meanings. The song "Your
Sweet Intense" is one that kind of
sticks out in my mind. It's about a
girl I was seeing. Then my bass play-
er started seeing her. It was a con-