A Quick Chat with stonesatellites

If Your Language Is Iron, Mine Must Be Clay has such a striking title. What does it represent to you, and why did it feel like the right introduction to your solo project?

Ha! It was a "striking" title choice I guess you could say, but that's exactly the reaction I was aiming for! Well, the iron and clay comparison actually originated from a bible verse I read way back (I'm not religious, I've just always been fascinated by ancient scripture) which I interpreted as the downfall of two opposing forces, unable to unite due to circumstances beyond their control. This seemed to correlate perfectly with what I was going through at the time. Looking back in hindsight, I've probably sentenced myself to a lifetime of incorrect pronunciations from radio stations and whoever else. Oh well, so be it.

The track pulls together industrial rock, alternative metal and electronic elements. How did you go about balancing those influences without letting one dominate?

I think creating "tolerable music" is all about getting the ebbs and flows correct, regardless of genre. A lot of electronic music demonstrates this really well, with all the buildups and drops aiding to create peak excitement. So if I want my story to be told properly and heard well with these singles, I've got to trust my intuition and follow that "wave" I guess you'd call it.

It is tricky to explain, but also for me sometimes there's nothing wrong with just "going for it" and seeing what you come up with. This style more then often produces the best work.

For the record, I absolutely love when acts throw together some outrageous genres, Twelve Foot Ninja in recent years I recall executing this quite well. So, I don't think artists should be worried about putting too many genres into their style.

This single was a collaboration between Melbourne, Boston and England. What was it like creating a song across three different countries?

Fondly enough, I actually didn't think of it any different to writing a song locally. Yes, there's time zone issues and whatnot but at the end of the day we have so much technology to use at our fingertips, so the communication never really fades out. Even with past bands, I've never been the type to force a group of guys into a room and say "Let's write a song guys!" (not saying that it doesn't work for others). It has always been writing licks, riffs, hums etc. in our own time and sending audio files around for one another to learn outside of practice. No reason why that shouldn't be able to occur on a global scale.

You've been very vocal about embracing MIDI and modern production tools. Why do you think technology is opening up new creative possibilities for artists?

For me, I think it comes down to the accessibility of it all. I'm the sort of guy where ideas come to me randomly, so it's great to always have that phone in your pocket, or computer in the next room ready to help. It kills me when musicians I know turn a blind eye to these tools. You don't even necessarily need to use it to record final album takes or whatever, even just as reference for your own personal practice and writing. Trust me, it makes all the difference!

Fans of Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode and Mike Patton will hear familiar touchstones, but where do you think stonesatellites finds its own identity?

I want to say it will simply just come down to me being authentic; true to myself and my art. That being said, I do think most art is stolen or at least borrowed to a degree, so us artists can be only so unique at the end of the day.

Rest assured, I'm still going to try my best to create something special under the stonesatellites name. But I suppose the identity would have to include some grooves, dancing and screaming!

As your first original release, what do you hope listeners take away from If Your Language Is Iron, Mine Must Be Clay before hearing what's next?

I'm not going to be an obnoxious fool and say "you'll enjoy and take away happiness from my single", because you very well might not. So to put it bluntly; I have no idea. The listener will have to find that out for themselves.