Stone Horses frontman John Allen talks ahead of performance at the Let There Be Rock Fest
Read Original News-Post Article by Colin McGuire
Among the line items on John Allen's musical resume, you'll see everything from drummer for SR-71 to leader of the Charm City Devils. These days, he fronts Stone Horses, a hard rock band that not only features Frederick's Dylan Howes but will also be part of the Let There Be Rock Fest on June 15.
Headlined by Jimmie's Chicken Shack, the event will take place at the Amvets Post No. 2 (otherwise known as The Farm in Frederick), and it will benefit the Rhythm Changes nonprofit scholarship program, which funds a variety of student music programs throughout Maryland.
We caught up with Allen recently to talk about the event, the importance of rock schools, his band's upcoming single and album, winning a Maryland Music Award and the notion of Frederick being a music town.
I was doing some research and couldn't really come up with the origins for the band. How did things come together for you guys?
Stone Horses really kind of started at the end of my previous band, Charm City Devils. We had a guitar player that was touring with us and filling in for our guitar player who couldn't do it. We were touring with Slash and there there were a few dates that guitar player couldn't do, so he filled in for him and then actually later in the tour, the other guitar player couldn't do a few dates, so he switched sides of the stage and filled in for the other guitar player [laughs]. That guitarist's name was Teddy Merrill and that's who started Stone Horses with me.
How long have you been together?
I think the first thing came out about 2018.
Is Charm City Devils no more, then?
Correct.
Did everything end OK with that band?
Yeah, everything was amicable. A couple of the guys in the band just couldn't make it work financially anymore.
I can hear similarities between the bands and this is a type of music that you don't hear that much of these days. How do you keep focus on it when oftentimes, people don't go that way anymore?
Hard rock in general has gotten smaller, but it's just what I've done for years. I don't really know anything else. I feel like I have to be true to myself and this is the music that I write, so that's what I do. I don't feel true to myself if I'm not writing what I feel inspires me.
Do you have any bands you're listening to right now in the same genre that people might want to check out?
Yeah, there's a band called Rival Sons that I love. There's a band called Reignwolf, who I saw open for Rival Sons in Nashville. They are kind of dangerous, lo-fi bluesy rock. I just dig it. With bands playing live to tracks with everything anymore, that spontaneity and danger is kind of taken away. I think about watching John Bonham. There's some great live footage of Zeppelin from 1970 at Royal Albert Hall and they open up with a song that actually never made the records. It was basically a cover song, "We're Gonna Groove," and when it opens up, the energy that's coming off of him and the stage ... everything could fall apart at any second, but it never does. That element of danger. That's what I’m into these days and I want to see energy and risk-taking instead of just, "Oh, yeah, it's the same exact tempo as the record," and "OK, everything's perfect because of whatever is going on behind the scenes." To me, that's not human and it's not rock and roll.
Do you think the genre is in trouble of being watered down too much?
I don't know about that. I just know what I like and I'm not going to comment on whether it's watered down or not, but I want to hear real stuff. I don't want to hear what I call laptop rock. Of course, we all use computers because that's how you have to record these days. Nobody has the $100,000 tape machines they used to record in the studios. You have to use technology, but I'm not into hearing stuff that sounds like it was created with a computer. Synths or things that don't sound organic. I like more organic music.
Did I see that you might have something new on the way?
Yeah, as the kids say, we're dropping a single June 28. It's a remix of our song "Free" and it was remixed by John Spiker. He mixed the new Slash record. I heard his mix of a song Slash covered, the Fleetwood Mac song "Oh Well." I was just blown away by how it sounded and was like we have to get this guy on a track. I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.
Will you have another album this year?
Yeah, the full-length will come out in October. We'll release that on vinyl as well.
How was the recording process? How'd everything come together?
We wanted to put a project together that, for those who aren't familiar with the band, had the most streamed or best songs along with a bunch of new tracks as well. The process has been long. I'm trying to group the songs together in a way that flows and sounds good because a lot of them have been mixed by other incredible mixers. That process has been a little convoluted, but we're constantly writing. It's got five or six new songs on it.
Will you tour?
Yeah, we hope to get out in late summer for some stuff.
When was the last time you played in Frederick?
It has been a while. We played in Hagerstown. I'm trying to think. Oh, it was in the middle of COVID. We played outdoors at the fairgrounds. A promoter was doing shows outdoors to keep everyone safe and they did a drive-in. You pulled up and you could tune your car radio to get the audio from the stage. Everybody was kind of huddled around their own vehicles. We played with Blackberry Smoke. That was over two years ago.
You're from the area, correct?
I lived in Frederick, Spring Ridge, from about 1998 to 2001. Something like that. I was living there and then I joined SR-71. I played drums for them and that band was based in Baltimore at the time. Driving back and forth for rehearsals, I was back and forth quite a bit. Plus, they toured a bunch, so I relocated back down to Baltimore.
Did you have any impression of Frederick as a music town?
Yeah, I always thought it was a great music town. I always thought there was a lot of great talent there. Actually, when I left, there had been a burgeoning indie scene that was popping up, and I was really sorry to miss it and to have to move away right when it was getting fun.
You guys recently won a Maryland Music Award. How was that experience?
I'll tell you, it's a huge undertaking and a really well-run show. It was very cool to be recognized. Kix won a bunch of awards — Best Rock Band was one. We were in a category with them, and we knew we weren't going to win that [laughs]. But it was cool to win the award we did win.
You're coming up to play the rock school event. Can you talk a little about the importance of having a rock school? I know Scott Marceron [Let There Be Rock School founder] has done a really great job with all of that. How important do you think it is for kids to have that option?
I think it's incredibly important. I remember when I started, the hardest thing was to find players and form a band. It was a bit frustrating, and this gives the young kids a way to connect to other like-minded musicians. It also kind of gives you a history of rock music and it teaches a lot of important skills, but one of the most important ones that I tell a lot of aspiring artists is you need to play with other people and you need to learn to engage with other players. It helps both of you.
Yeah, and it's important to get started young, I would think.
I agree. It definitely goes without saying, to start kids young playing instruments. They teach so many different aspects of playing and performing. I think it's just a really awesome thing to be involved with. We've had rock schools bands open for us in the past, and we hope to have that happen more in the future.