Over the last two years, perhaps no British hard rock band has shown as many promising signs as Stone Broken. We were delighted to catch up with singer / guitarist Rich Moss and drummer Robyn Haycock not long after they had performed to a beyond capacity Dogtooth Tent on the last day of the 2017 Download Festival. With the band still sweating (by their own admission) moments after coming off stage, we discussed their performance, upcoming tours, the next album and more…
This is Jamie from Rock Sins and I’m here with the lovely people from Stone Broken – how are you guys doing?
Rich Moss: Good, really good!
Robyn Haycock: On a high!
Rich Moss: We’ve not come down yet *laughs*
RS: I’m really not surprised! I didn’t actually get to The Dogtooth Tent until about ten minutes into your set and it was absolutely rammed. The overflow was about ten deep outside the tent.
Rich: From the stage, you can see that the tent is full and you can just seen around the entrance but you have no idea how deep that is. But the vibe in there was superb.
Robyn: It was incredible!
RS: As you said, the atmosphere was amazing, every single person in there was singing along.
Rich: Every show, when I go out on stage I’m thinking, am I gonna let the audience sing? Am I not? it’s always a gamble incase they don’t know the words. But I heard what they were like in the previous songs and it was clear, “these guys have got it” so they ripped into Wait For You and it was awesome.
Robyn: It was a hairs stand up on the back of your neck kinda moment.
RS: Well we know what The Broken Army are like, they’re some of the most dedicated fans around and they certainly didn’t let you down!
Rich: That’s the thing; They never do. They are so, so reliable. We are second to them. We’re just the guys that rally them, they are the troops, you know what I mean? We’re so proud of them.
Robyn: They’d do anything for us and we’re very lucky!
You have other festivals coming up, including the main stage at Ramblin’ Man if memory serves me correctly…
Rich: Yep, main stage at Ramblin’ Man which is exciting! That’s gonna be the biggest stage we’ve ever played on.
RS: You’ve played there before on a smaller stage right?
Rich: Yeah we played The Rising Stage which is the smallest stage, mid afternoon slot, fairly low down the bill but we had an awesome response there. We gained a lot of fans that day I think. But now Ramblin’ Man have been persuaded to take us onto the main stage and they’ve given us a lot of trust, so we just have to go in there and nail it now.
RS: After seeing today I don’t think you will have any problems there.
Rich: Fingers crossed *laughs*.
You’ve also got Subterrean Festival in Cambridge, which is a brand new one that’s trying to get off the ground but looks like a good one.
Rich: Yeah, we’re headlining that one!
RS: There looks to be a good collection of up and coming bands on that.
Rich: Yeah, we played Cambridge with Glenn Hughes and the crowd there was phenomenal so we’re looking forward to going back, it’s going to be great.
Speaking of Glenn Hughes, how did that tour go for you guys, because I know it was quite a long tour, and then it was rescheduled…
Robyn: Yeah…
Rich: You know, our emotions were so up and down throughout the whole of that.
Robyn: On, off, on, off…
Rich: So we had the Glenn Hughes tour and then it was off, then it was back on and moved but we couldn’t make it because we were going to be in the studio. So then we moved our studio time and eventually we got to play the shows.
Robyn: And it did mean because of the rescheduling that we got to go to Europe as well so it did work out well for us.
Rich: I’m so glad that we cancelled, well, delayed, going into the studio so we could do it. It all worked out nicely and we went back into the studio and that’s all recorded now so it’s all worked out. It’s good when everything comes together like that.
Is it next week you’re on the road with Cheap Trick for a short run?
Robyn: End of the month, 26th, 27th, 29th.
Rich: That’s why I’ve got Robyn with me, because I haven’t got a clue *laughs*.
RS: And then after that later in the Summer you’re touring with Living Colour!
Robyn: Yep, and we’re going back out to the EU for that one, and then we’re playing some shows here as well. We’ve got some pretty awesome shows coming up.
RS: You guys seem to have a very good booking agent *laughs*.
Robyn: *laughs* He’s just pulling wonders isn’t he.
Rich: It’s great, we’ve got a really good team behind us in every aspect of what we do. You can write solid tunes and play great shows but if no-one knows about you, the music, the shows, and also our tour manager Flick is a god send. She just sorts out everything on the road. It’s so great to have her onside.
Robyn: It’s a great family vibe that we have going on.
Rich: It really is man, you know what you were saying about The Broken Army? It’s kinda like that with the road crew because we are just one unit.
Robyn: We all get on like a house on fire, it’s just really awesome.
Going back to what you said about getting noticed, it seems like since the album broke Stone Broken has barely been off Planet Rock Radio, those guys love you!
Rich: It’s brilliant.
Robyn: We’re so thankful for Planet Rock.
Rich: They’ve really given us a massive push. We’ve had a lot from Paul Anthony, the first time I heard about us being played on Planet Rock was through Paul Anthony’s breakfast show. I had the message come through “you’re being played on Planet Rock” and I was like “no we’re not”, then I had loads more come through and it was like maybe we are. Download last year, I was here doing press, I was a cameraman at the time…
RS: I knew you were here last time because your old manager has asked us to come and talk to you and we couldn’t at the time but I couldn’t remember if you’d played the boardie takeover or something like that.
Rich: We didn’t play at all last year but I was brought in to do press, and that was the first time I met Paul Anthony. He tapped me on the shoulder and was like “Hey Rich hows it going”. And my brain is going “he knows me”. From there we’ve got a real good friendship going and all the others at Planet Rock like Wyatt. We’ve done Rock Stock for them and Winters End (festivals) and we’ve been announced to do Rock Stock, we’re headlining the Thursday night for the VIP’s again, they’re trusting us to do it. It’s incredible the amount of passion and enthusiasm the band has going for it at the moment.
We understand you may have had a slight change in your label situation…
Rich: Yep, so, we were going to release the next record on Frontiers but that isn’t the case anymore. We haven’t got anything to announce on that yet at the moment, but as soon as we do have something to announce we’ll be letting everyone know.
Robyn: There’s a lot of exciting things happening in the background. A hell of a lot of exciting things. As soon as we can announce, we will.
Rich: So that’s happened. It is all in the best interests of doing things the way you want to do them.
RS: Well you’ve built yourselves such a platform from the first album you have to make sure it’s all in place.
Rich: You know it’s so much worse this time, because of what we’ve managed so far we’ve got to really nail this one *laughs*, so the pressure was on while writing, but I’m happy with what we’ve done. I’m looking forward to it.
Stone Broken play the main stage at Ramblin’ Man Festival this weekend (Sunday to be exact). Tickets are available from the official festival website. We look forward to covering more news on Stone Broken’s new album as and when it is announced!
