Hailing from New Jersey, half of The Stolen caught up with us to chat about their new EP, I’m So Dead. From the recording process to the inspiration for their cover art, Rob and Dom divulge all the little details surrounding the latest release.

Hey guys! Things seem to have been pretty busy in your camp recently, especially since you’ve only just released your new EP several days ago! How has the response to I’m So Dead been so far?

DOM — It’s been awesome, everyone is really digging it. It’s pretty cool to see that fans are already singing along to the songs at shows. We’re stoked on it!

What was the recording process like?

DOM & ROB – The recording process for this EP was a little different than what we have done in the past, we did a large part of the record ourselves. We recorded guitars with Mike Oettinger up in Union City, NJ and then tracked everything else ourselves. Our guitarist Rob mixed the entire record, he spent a lot of nights up until 4am just making sure everything sounded the way we wanted it to.

Did you come across any bumps in the road whilst recording or was it ultimately smooth from start to finish?

DOM – I would say that it was a relatively smooth process. Obviously when recording a record you are going to come across things like how you want a certain part to sound or what to do in a section of the song but overall everything went smooth and we are really happy with how everything came out.

Who is the primary songwriter in the group, and where do you get your lyrical inspiration

DOM — When writing, our guitarist Rob will come to us with some chords on guitar and some lyrics and we kind of go from there. We will all throw in our two cents and everyone is involved in the writing process. It’s good because when writing we will have so many ideas bouncing off one another, something that one person says or does may lead to something else and in my opinion it’s a really enjoyable way to make music.

The EP itself is described as telling a story of personal/drastic change; are you able to elaborate on this for us?

ROB — The EP isn’t really a concept record per say more so it does have a lot of common themes. At the time of writing, I got out of a toxic 3 year relationship and the EP was more so the process as well as the aftermath and that life goes on afterward and all the different changes that have happened since then. I absolutely adore the cover art for I’m So Dead; the blue is such a gorgeous, vivid colour that makes it incredibly aesthetically pleasing.

Where did the inspiration for the artwork come from and who actually designed it?

ROB — The idea was actually a combination of Mike’s and mine. We figured a bouquet of dead flowers symbolizes kind of the end of something that may have seemed wonderful and the shade of blue more so is the vibrance, the aftermath so to speak.

Which artists would you cite as your main influences from the 90s, and what keeps you attracted to them after all these years?

DOM — We take influence from many bands, not just artists from the 90’s. We listen to everything, and when I say everything I mean it haha. You’ll catch us listening to so many different artists from so many different eras and they all have an influence on the music that we create.

ROB — The 90’s influence definitely is apparent in the record however we also definitely grabbed a lot of elements from anything like early 2000’s emo-ish bands (a la Taking Back Sunday, The Dangerous Summer, The Early November) as well as the timbres from a lot of modern pop songs.

It’s pretty exciting that you’re in the middle of a long tour run to celebrate the EP release; which dates have been your favourite so far?

DOM — We actually just wrapped up the tour a few days ago in New York City, but it was amazing. The whole tour was a blast for us and it was amazing to see people sing along to these new songs. We’ve had a lot of awesome shows this tour in a bunch of different cities. Columbus, Buffalo, and our hometown show in New Jersey were all amazing times for us and we always love playing in those cities.

Once the tour has wrapped up, what are your further plans for the rest of the year and even beyond? Can we expect anymore exciting announcements any time soon?

DOM — We are always writing new music and looking to tour. We want to stay on the road as much as possible, so that͛s definitely something to expect.

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