Victorious Festival 2023: Liverpudlian indie-rockers Stone capture the voice of Generation Z

As a listener you can take or leave that, but the latter aspect is important to the Liverpudlian band.

Many bands shy away from the “voice of a generation” label, but it’s something the four-piece have eagerly leaned into.

Fin Power (vocals/guitar), Elliot Gill (lead guitar) and Alex Smith (drums) all met at college. Bassist

Sarah Surrage (bass) met Alex at university, who brought her into the fold. She proved to be the missing link.

“We had a different name until 2019,” says Elliot, “but things had run their course and it had kind of dried up, we were struggling to even care, so we decided to restart the band.

“We had this hard launch planned. We're going to have a new band, we're going to call it Stone. But I said: ‘What about Google? There's already a ’70s band called Stone. What about the Stone Roses? What about The Rolling Stones?’ and he said: ‘Don't worry about that, we'll just get good!’”

‘At this point we just needed pure optimism. And that's when we met Sarah and it all clicked into place.

With the band finally raring to go they unfortunately released their debut single Leave it Out in February 2020.

"We were just in time to rock out and then the world shut down,” Elliot laughs at the memory. “We had to rethink about how to get momentum as this new band.

“Luckily we had managed to save all our wages and got into the studio to record four tunes, so we at least had stuff to release during lockdown and then we came out of the gate, Reading/Leeds 2021, that's where it kind of started.”

Now signed to Polydor, the band have had a busy summer squeezing in as many festivals as possible – leading to a Saturday slot on The Castle Stage at Victorious Festival here in Southsea.

When we talk, their latest single I’ve Gotta Feeling, which deals with toxic masculinity had recently come out.

“Fin talks about that culture of toxic masculinity,” says Elliot, “and there's people like me who've always been scared of these people! But Fin was like, no, I used to be a bit of a lad, I was just like them.

“Toxic masculinity is something that there's this discourse on now that you wouldn't have had 10 years ago. You wouldn't have those conversations in a mainstream space, but I think it's a good time to drop a banger about that idiot in the pub! Maybe not in a punitive way – maybe telling them you need a glass of water, and maybe something more than that too. The song resonates nicely for me – it's an important message.”

And are they happy to be seen as the voice of Generation Z?

"Yeah, we're happy to wave that flag – definitely,” says Alex.

“The main tenet of our generation is that we live in the information age and you're constantly bombarded,” Elliot elaborates. “We've been brought up with life online and the experience of youth and how it relates to that, then you see all these injustices on your phone, so you're acutely aware of them in a way that you might not have been before. We're constantly micro-dosing trauma and taking it on, and wanting to do something about it and be more. It's a really dizzying experience to grow up in a time like now.

“And the most visceral thing we can do is using our musical ability to capture something of it – maybe something deep, or maybe a helpful sentiment like Hope Ain't Gone, or a bit more tongue-in-cheek with I've Gotta Feeling. Or just something daft like Left Right Forward, and there's satirical stuff going on there.

"I think music is the most powerful thing ever.”

Mental health and talking about the issues surrounding it are also important to the band.

“All of our jobs have been in the mental health or education sector,” says Alex. “Elliot worked in a school, I worked in a sixth form where I was doing a lot of pastoral stuff and dealing with teenagers' mental health. It's a tricky landscape for a young mind to navigate. That's a big part of my motivation for this.

“And Finn was a social worker, so he worked a lot with helping people who had adverse mental health. It's ingrained in our DNA to look out for each other and other people."

The band play on The Caste Stage at 3.05pm today.

Also on today’s lineup are headliners Kasabian and alt-j, plus Kaiser Chiefs, The Cribs, Natalie Imbruglia and dozens more.

For tickets go to victoriousfestival.co.uk.