Greekrebels.gr interviews Sean (Vocals) and Stevie (Guitar) of Sandstone
Interviewer: Kiriakos Tzanis
7^th May 2009

Hello Guys, this is Kiriakos Tzanis from Greekrebels.gr. I would like to congratulate you on your latest release. It's really excellent and I can't stop listening to it. How do you feel about it?
[Stevie] thanks Kiriakos, glad you liked it. We are really happy with it. Recording this album was an arduous process that represented a time of turmoil for the band and we are relieved that we have literally 'purged the past' with its release.

Who's responsible for the lyrics and the music of "Purging the Past"?
[Sean] myself and Stevie write all the songs. I would write lyrics and have a good idea of how my vocal melodies should develop but I like to leave the music relatively sparse to give others the chance to be creative on it. Stevie works in a slightly different way; he likes to have the music well developed but will leave vocal melodies to my interpretation. A lot of the fine tuning of our songs however is done in our studio.

Where did the whole project take place (recording, mixing, mastering) and who was in charge for it?
[Stevie] we were completely in charge of every aspect of recording this album. I recorded, mixed and mastered every song in our home studio. We are very lucky in this respect as we are not constrained to time and we can keep going until we are happy we have it right.

As for the cover art who made it?
[Stevie] the dark, moody cover is very much inspired by the songs themselves. We wanted to keep the cover concept simple to highlight our lyrics which we believe are the most important aspect of the package. Once again this was designed by the band.

How long did it take you to finish composing the songs?
[Stevie] if myself or Sean have a song we'll get in to the studio and spend a full day recording and maybe another day tidying certain parts up, a couple of hours spent mixing and mastering and usually the song is finished. Working like this it took us roughly six months to write and record the album.

Who do you consider are major influences of the band?
[Sean] being a singer and front man my influences when I was younger were guys like Sebastian Bach and David Coverdale etc. I find myself these days being really impressed with singers who are intent on delivering catchy melodies. The best I’ve heard at this recently is Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage.
[Stevie] as a band we are very into melodic heavy metal that has a kind of epic feel to it such as Guns’n’Roses "Civil War", but we have a wealth of influences and they’re not all heavy metal.

How would you describe your own music, Heavy Metal or Hard Rock? I am asking that because the media in the UK characterize you as neo-NWoBHM.
[Stevie] I don’t mind that description as I’m a big fan of NWoBHM, especially Maiden. We would describe our music simply as melodic heavy metal. Some people don't think that is specific enough but we like its vagueness because it gives us musical freedom.

What kind of feedback have you received for the album so far?
[Sean] overall the response has surpassed our expectations. We were aware that some people would have difficulties with it being a 15 track album with 5 ballads, but I feel it’s an honest representation of where we are as songwriters and most people seem to get that. All-in-all our reviews have been very good apart from a few of course – but you can’t please everyone.

During the composing period of the tracks featured in the album, did you imagine that the results would turn out to be so extremely good?
[Stevie] Thanks it’s cool that you liked it. When we’re recording we’re always excited about the song we’re currently working on. I remember when we finished our first CD “Tides of Opinion” we listened to it and I remember saying ‘we’ll never be able to better that’ but I think we did and hopefully we will continue to grow and improve.

A tough one now: Do you think that the next album of the band will be a step beyond "Purging the Past" or do you think that your new release will be the best release for the band?
[Stevie] at the moment we are in the process of recording our third album which we are very excited about. We are exploring new aspects of our sound and always striving to improve but 'purging the past' will always be a very special album for us.

Is there a concept behind the title and the lyrics of the songs or is every song separate?
[Sean] although all the songs are separate and we like it that way because we like to give justice to each song, the title of the album does seem to draw them together because there is a general theme of soul searching in the album.

Personally speaking I can't pick a favorite track from the album like Bruce Dickinson did on his radio show playlist by picking "Son of Carthage". Which do you consider as your favorite track?
[Stevie] I wouldn’t like to commit to one particular song but if I was forced in to it I’d have to say I’m proud of my guitar playing on 'Son of Carthage' and I find 'Y' a particularly moving song.
[Sean] well because I’m responsible for the ballads on this album I’ll say 'all operations' because even though I’ve heard it a million times by now,  it always sounds fresh to me.

In the new album we do hear some ballads that have an '80s feeling about them. One of those is "Sleep", which I consider to be an intense emotional ballad. Does this song hide in the depths of a personal experience perhaps?
[Sean] yes it does but I think it best not to divulge too much information about what this song means for me, I think sometimes when you hear someone explaining what a song is about it can spoil what you can take from it yourself. So I think ill leave that one there. [Stevie] yes sometimes what I think one of our songs is about is very different from what Sean thinks. We like to use symbols and metaphors in our lyrics which can leave the listener free to pin their own feelings to them.

Other than "The Road to Guantanamo", is there going to be any more video clips?
[Stevie] yes we have discussed this recently and we have a video director lined up. We are hoping to do videos for two songs off the album but we haven’t decided yet which ones they’ll be.

How do you think your next release might sound?
[Sean] we are hoping to get our third album out by the end of this year or at the start of next. This time myself and Stevie are collaborating on songs a lot more and as musicians I feel we are maturing. We are experimenting with a lot of new sounds and recording techniques that we would never have done before, we are generally trying to grow and develop our sound.

Are you planning a tour to promote your latest release? Any plans of coming to Greece as well?
[Stevie] we are having early talks with promoters at the minute. Being a self-financed band, touring can be very expensive but all going well we will be on the road pretty soon.

I would like to thank you very much for the interview and wish Sandstone all the best. Close the interview as you like.
[Sean] thank you Kiriakos, it’s been a pleasure. If anyone would like any other information on sandstone you can find us at www.sandstonerocks.com or www.myspace.com/sandstonerocks