[Noise of the Week] STOLAS talk Allomaternal concept, third album + Live Photos

About a month ago, I saw Hail the Sun in Philadelphia. What does that have to do with Stolas? Well, in addition to the two bands being Blue Swan label-mates and their members sharing the side project, Sianvar, RJ Reyolds and Sergio Medina filled in for Hail the Sun on their most recent tour. When they took the stage, I immediately noticed the absence of Aric Garcia and wondered who the guy with the long, curly hair was. Once they started playing, I was enamored with him as a musician. Not only did he perform technical songs that belonged to another band with precision, but he did so while flailing around the stage, jumping off of equipment, and literally rolling around on the floor. I left the venue determined to find out who this insanely passionate guitarist was and when I could see him perform live again.

During my interview with Donovan Melero, he mentioned that he had been listening to a band called Stolas. Trusting his judgement, I checked them out and discovered Sergio Medina was the guitarist of said band, who had what appeared to be an out of body experience while playing the Voltage Lounge the night before. Since then, I’ve listened to Living Creatures and Allomaternal countless times and have become just as enamored with the rest of the talented musicians that make up the band. Citing acts ranging from The Mars Volta, to Between the Buried and Me, to As Tall As Lions as their influences, Stolas blend a variety of genres together, crafting their own distinct sound. On top of that, they add intriguing and well-crafted lyrics, telling a story for the listener to piece together. I now have an even deeper appreciation for Allomaternal having heard a summary of the concept firsthand.

Last night, Stolas made a stop in New Jersey as part of their Allomaternal Tour, and I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with them before their set.

The band has come a long way since your debut album, and your sophomore record has several changes, the most obvious being the lack of guest vocalists. You also spent some time with Jason Butler of letlive. and collaborated with well-known producer Kris Crummet. What would you say is the most significant growth you’ve made with Allomaternal?

Carlo: I would say it’s eliminating the guest vocals and focusing on our own vocals and ideas to put on our albums.

Jason: I think since the Allomaternal album was mainly written while we were on Blue Swan and it was consisting of all new songs. I think writing music that was more, I guess, relevant to how we feel now as a band is the most challenging thing we’ve accomplished.

Allomaternal has a consistent theme throughout. Can you tell us a little bit about the overall concept behind the album and also how the album artwork compliments that theme?

RJ: Sure. So the album is set on this island where there’s a big rain forest and there’s this tribe there that sort of gains social status through collecting feathers from these thousands of species of birds that live there. There’s these orphan girls that live in this tribe that don’t have any family with feathers of their own, so they resolve to leave their tribe during the monsoon and go find feathers for themselves and then come back with them, which they’re forbidden to do. So it talks about what happens to them through that. There’s little clues in the artwork as to what happens. Obviously the hand with the feather is sort of the main plot line of the album, but then there’s a dagger inside because one of the girls is given a dagger by someone in the village to take with her and that ends up coming out in a few different things that happen later in the album. We had a few other pieces commissioned that unfortunately didn’t make it, but there’s also on a few shirts we’ve done like a jaguar, which also plays a big part in different parts of the album.
In a previous interview, you had mentioned creating an illustrated book explaining each song on Living Creatures. Do you have any plans to release something similar for Allomaternal?

RJ: No. [laughs] First off, the thing we were going to do with Living Creatures…the whole story was made up after we recorded the album. It wasn’t like with Allomaternal where there was a concept and then we wrote music around it. Secondly, when I wrote Allomaternal, the story, and when I first proposed doing a concept album to the guys, I thought it would be a good idea to write something that listeners would have to interpret on their own rather than having some sort of supplemental material so that you can listen to the album and kind of derive the story out of it for yourself. Rather than just having something that would say, “Okay, well here’s what happens in this part, and so on and so forth.”
Is one member responsible for the lyrics or is it more of a collaborative effort?

Carlo: For this album it was definitely the most collaborative. For Living Creatures, definitely mostly Jason, a little bit of me, and a really little bit of Sergio writing some lyrics. And I think RJ did, too. We’re all pretty collaborative, but Allomaternal had a lot of lyrics thrown in especially because RJ wrote the story. And so Jason and I writing lyrics based off the story with RJ’s help just trying to make it all come together. It was really hard…

Jason: Yeah, there was a lot of time spent. We had this pool of lyrics where I would write a bunch of lyrics based off RJ’s concept, and then Carlo would write a bunch of lyrics. Basically, my scenes and Carlo’s scenes, aside from a few things were all written by themselves. I kind of re-wrote it to connect and make sense determined on what song and what story.
I always like to ask my favorite artists about what they’re currently listening to. In fact, I first listened to you guys based on a recommendation from Donovan Melero. What are each of your favorite albums that have been released recently?

Sergio: Rx Bandits – Gemini, Her Majesty.

Jason: Eidola – Degeneraterra. That’s definitely one of my most favorite albums so far.

Sergio: I’ve been listening to Sufjan Stevens’ newest album a lot, Carrie & Lowell.

Carlo: I was gonna say Gemini, Her Majesty – Rx Bandits.

Sergio: Wake by Hail the Sun.

RJ: I’m trying to think…I don’t know how recent this is. I listened to it before, but I gave the newer Copeland another spin-through and for some reason started to get it and started enjoying that. But before that, I was on a huge Closure In Moscow kick. I really like Pink Lemonade.

If you were to cover any album in its entirety, what would it be?

Jason: [laughs] Hmmm…One that we all agree on?

Nah, it can be individual. Any album you’d want to recreate.

Carlo: Man, that’s hard. [laughs]

Jason: Brand New – The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.

Sergio: Dark Side of the Moon.

[laughs]

Jason: Typical!

Sergio: I know Dream Theater’s already done that.

Carlo: Umm…I guess I would also be The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.

Jason: That would be rad.

RJ: I would totally want to do a cover of Waiter: “You Vultures!” by Portugal. The Man. That would be awesome. [laughs]

Sergio: They’re still a band. We can’t do that yet! [laughs]

Jason: I mean, so is Brand New.

RJ: I don’t care! [laughs] Fight me!

Sergio: Actually, no! Portugal. The Man’s It’s Complicated Being A Wizard cause they never did a live anything of it, and it’s just this 23 minute electronic slash…I dunno what you would call it, but I would love to do an interpretation of our own.
The summer is always filled with festivals and large tours. If you could choose one to be a part of, what would it be?

Sergio: I’d like to make my own with Blue Swan. We did Nights of the Blue Swan. In California, we did three shows, and they were all really successful. I would love to one day be able to do a Night of the Blue Swan in the entire country, not just California.

Make that happen! I would totally come to that!

Sergio: I would love to!

RJ: Yeah, it was like six bands.

Sergio: Yeah, six bands. I mean, the roster is currently growing, so it would get harder, but it’s possible in the future that it could possibly happen. Who knows? We’ll have to wait for that.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell our readers about what we can expect next from Stolas?

Sergio: New music.

RJ: New music. [laughs] After this tour, we’re planning to take a good bit of time off to write, and then eventually go into the studio and record another album. Maybe other tours, but we would all like to get home and lay roots for a little bit and really put in some serious work on the new album.

Will the new album also have a concept, or do you think you guys will stray from that style?

RJ: No, I don’t think we really want to…

Sergio: Not as a whole. Maybe individual songs will have their own little stories.

Jason: Yeah, I think that’s the way that we write anyway. Every song kind of has a story or something to relate it to.

Sergio: Mostly on Living Creatures, like songs like “Destroyer,” being more personal for Jason.

RJ: I don’t know. When we started initially talking about the idea of having a concept album for Allomaternal, the main reason being we didn’t want to write another Living Creatures. And Likewise, we don’t want to go write another Allomaternal or another Living Creatures. We just want to take the things that were successful from both of those albums and move forward and write a new album with it, while also trying out some new stuff.