For those who have never heard of Stone Fruit before, who are they and what is their music about?
We have both been lucky and grew up in households that supported the arts and music was an important part of our childhood. About 10 years ago, we both came in London to study and pursue a music career. Although we have been best friends and have collaborated in multiple occasions for a long time, it took some time to finally realise that it would be great to write music together! Two EPs later we are going strong and are in the final stages of producing our third one.
Our music brings together the different experiences and influences that we both have. We try to be unbiased and avoid getting limited by trying to stick to a specific style but instead let our songs reflect our current state of mind, our evolution as artists and people and implement sounds that are aesthetically pleasing for us as individuals and as a team. Therefore, listeners can spot elements of ‘rewired’ soul, pop, R&B and electronic music in our releases.
What has been the most rewarding/ most enjoyable highlight of your career so far?
Every release is special for us. Songs that are born in our heads and hearts, that grow in our home studio are finally out in the world. It is so much fun to see how other people perceive and interpret our songs.
Also, we were lucky enough to do some lovely gigs just before Covid hit and while promoting our first EP. Playing for Sofar Sounds in London was a definite highlight. It was one of these magical moments where we performed in such an intimate setting, and this created a unique form of communication and intimacy with the audience.
What have been some major challenges in your music career so far?
As independent artists at the beginning of their careers we take care of most aspects of our releases ourselves. Writing the songs, producing them, creating the videos and any other content around them. Additionally, we have to take care of the marketing aspect and budgeting. This process takes a long time.
Along with our other projects & endeavours, we have to occasionally sacrifice spending time with our loved ones or resting! We have made the decision that we will work many hours in favour of writing and releasing new music because we both find a lot of joy and fulfilment through this process and we like having creative control over everything! So, it’s less frustrating, because we are very comfortable with the decisions that we have consciously made.
What are you grateful for right now in this moment?
The fact that we weren’t silenced by the pandemic. It has been a rough year but spending time with each other, honing our artistry, exploring new sounds and pouring our soul into songs has been the best form of a getaway for us.
Physical copies or streaming sites?
Why not both? Physical copies – like vinyls – can be really personal and we believe that people still like to have a tangible product to take home with them when they come to gigs. On the other hand, streaming makes our music accessible to everyone around the world. Streaming services have been wildly criticised for underpaying artists but it is mind-blowing that our songs can reach every corner of the earth at any given moment.
What was your most played song of 2020?
L: It must have been a Ry X song.
V: This year I have gotten into the habit of listening whole albums and Djesse Vol. 3 by Jacob Collier has been by far the album I listened to the most.
A playlist you can’t get enough of?
‘Deep Dark Indie’, on Spotify.
A dream collaboration?
Even through this challenging year, musicians have been so resilient and there are so many artists that constantly inspire us and we would love to collaborate with. It feels almost impossible to highlight a few. With endangering to look back at this list and regretting for not including someone, here are a few names: Bruno Major, Lianne La Havas, Jacob Collier, RY X, London Grammar, Tom Misch, Jordan Rakei & more!
Lastly, what can fans expect from Stone Fruit in the coming year?
We keep writing new songs and we are currently on the final stages of creating our third EP and producing two music videos. The new EP will also include a cover of one of our favourite songs, ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac. Although our sound is not similar to Fleetwood Mac, there are specific aspects of their song writing that have influenced us deeply, like the awesome lyrics and storytelling and their haunting vocal harmonies. We have never included a cover in any of our gigs or releases but ‘Everywhere’ is such a lovely song and we found ourselves noodling with it on a Wednesday afternoon. We started changing up the chords and the melodies and bringing it close to our style in such an organic way that we had to make it part of our next release! We also filmed the whole process so we will probably release a video that will give to our listeners an insight to the space we are working in and of our creative process.
Listen to Stone Fruit’s newest single ‘Second Guess’ here:
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