A Chat with Black Stone Brewers (17.04.23)
Describing their songwriting as “pop songs dressed up with progressive/metal arrangements”, Australian group Black Stone Brewers traverse various genres and styles with their unique music. We speak with Jonathan Maltman (guitar, keyboard and co-lead vocals) about their EP Conduit, winning the lottery, what music means to him and much more!
OSR: How did Black Stone Brewers come together and what drew you all to music?
Maltman: It’s a bit of an all-over-the-shop kind of story. In a nutshell, there have been 2 iterations of the band. The first came about in late 2014 and lasted until the beginning of 2017. Myself, Rob (rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals) and Blair (drums) all worked at the same restaurant together at the time. Rob also went to the same school as me but was a few years above, so we didn’t really hang that much at school. The three of us bonded over music and started jamming together with our then-lead guitarist and bass player. Fast forward to 2020, we original three lads got back together and added my best mate from school Simon on bass guitar, then Luke who I’ve known for years through the music scene joined on lead guitar at the beginning of 2022. And the rest is kind of history!
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Maltman: To me personally, it’s a way of life. It’s an expression, it’s an escape. Not just being a musician and creating art for people, but also being an audience member and a fan, I couldn’t be here without it. As an artist, it’s so much fun creating something, being a part of the process that starts with a lyric or a melody that ends up becoming this fully fleshed-out song is so rewarding. I guess that’s why I’ve appreciated music so much my whole life, because as much as a song is 3-4 minutes long (or upwards of 10 minutes in some of the prog music I listen to also!), it’s spent months, even years being finessed into what we digest as a listener. Music means more to me than just what we listen to, but the process behind it as well. Hence, it’s a way of life.
OSR: What can you tell us about your EP Conduit?
Maltman: Conduit for us means so many things. We didn’t sit down at the beginning of the process to create these songs for this EP in mind. We just started writing and writing, and these 5 songs we selected in the end just made the most sense to make up the body of work we wanted to express. It takes after all the music we know and love and smashes it into one thing which we think is new and fresh that doesn’t sound like anyone or anything else. It’s a snapshot into what Black Stone Brewers is all about – it’s heavy, it’s proggy, it’s poppy, it’s catchy, it’s soft and pretty, but also dark and edgy.
Lyrically, the songs tell stories of faith, grief, loss, and addiction through a broken lens of optimism and hope with each song acting as a ‘conduit’ for an idea or a thought. We hope that people who listen to the EP can find some meaning in these songs that makes it personal for them. Even within the band, each song means something different to each of us, which we all love, because it takes this art and makes it a personal experience. It’s not a clear-cut thing, rather something that is viewed and listened to differently based on who is digesting it.
OSR: Did you face any challenges when creating Conduit?
Maltman: Oh plenty! I think the pre-production stage was rather simple, but the recording process we definitely came across some hurdles. Everyone’s parts that we demo-ed were changed here and there on the fly because it was all about making the song the best it could be, not about the individual and their part, but rather how to best serve the song with each person’s instrument. The mixing process for ‘Too Far Gone’ however probably has to take the cake, because we just couldn’t get that mix to sit right with how we envisioned it. We got there in the end, but that was quite a slog to get through.
OSR: If you had to recommend a single song from Conduit to a new listener, which would it be and why that one?
Maltman: ‘The Puppet and the Monster’ hands down. It’s everything Black Stone Brewers is about. It’s definitely our most ‘proggy’ song but it captures every element of who we are like I mentioned earlier, it has those heavy bits, the hooky bits, the poppy bits. If you like this song, I guarantee you you’ll find something else we’ve released that will tickle your fancy. Definitely listen to the song though after the song ‘Conduit’. They blend into each other, so to get the full ‘experience’, listen to it that way!
OSR: If you could change anything about Conduit, what would it be?
Maltman: I don’t think we’ve been removed from it long enough to be able to critique it in that manner yet. It’s still this cool new thing for us that we’re extremely proud of. I think down the track there might be a thing or two that would pop up that I’d be like “I wish we’d done this”, or “why didn’t we do it like that” kind of thing, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want to change it. I think that this recording sums up where we were at as a band at that time and place in history. Going back to change something because of any reason I think would defeat the meaning of that, and that’s important to us.
OSR: What do you believe makes Black Stone Brewers unique?
Maltman: I think we’re doing something that’s familiar to people, but doing it in a new way. We’re making pop songs, but they don’t sound poppy. We’re making songs that are heavy but aren’t distinctively metal. We’re in this weird middle ground where we’re not indie, pop, or metal, but we take on all of these genres, which makes things hard to get out there, but it’s cool because I don’t think there are many artists doing what we’re doing. It’s a harder road to climb, but there’s way less traffic for us to fight against.
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OSR: If you weren’t pursuing a career in music, what would you be doing – workwise, I mean?
Maltman: Well at the moment I work full-time hospitality as a bar manager, so I think down the track I’d like to own my own bar/restaurant or brewery, or something along those lines. I absolutely love my current job so to follow this path as far as it will take me is something I’d be more than happy with spending the rest of my life doing. And let’s be honest, I’d still be doing music on the side as well – it’s as much a passion hobby as it is a potential career choice!
OSR: If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Maltman: Blair and I have discussed this many times. We’ve all said that we’d buy some warehouse somewhere and pimp it out as a studio, throw in a couple of bedrooms for good measure, quit our jobs and just spend all day every day making music. Don’t want to be too self-centred though, so we’ll definitely help out our families however we could as well, but let’s be honest, I think we’ve got our priorities in the right place!
OSR: Do you have future plans for Black Stone Brewers?
Maltman: Current plan is to promote Conduit for the rest of the year whilst simultaneously working on writing some more new music and starting to record our next project which we hope to get out early next year. But we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, so we still want to live in the moment and celebrate this big cool awesome body of work we just released. We’re extremely proud of it, and if that’s anything to go by, the next things will be even better, just you wait!
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Maltman: Well firstly, thanks for taking time out of your day to read about us. We hope that you take some more time to check us out on Spotify or however you listen to music and follow us on our social media pages. We hope that you find something that you like and stick by us for more things to come. And fingers crossed we’ll see you at a show sometime soon!
For more from Black Stone Brewers, check out their Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
