What is your favorite part about working together?
Stone: I love Victoria’s songs, they are extremely good and fun to write arrangements for.
Victoria: Stone is a talented and intuitive musician with incredible skill who knows how to write and arrange with a beautiful complexity that is never obtuse or inaccessible. I love how driven and enthusiastic he is about his work.
Do you imagine a specific city, person, or thing when you write music?
Stone: I’d say if I were writing a line about a specific city, person, or thing I’d probably be imagining it then, but in general no.
Victoria: I tend to write about personal relationships, but most of the time I write less about a specific person and more about a conglomerate of people close to me with qualities or experiences that mirror each other and trigger a big emotion in me.
Which song from Mind Palace Music felt the most natural to write?
Stone: A few of the songs on the album were written in an hour or less and that feels natural in the sense that the song seems to already exist in nature and we’re discovering it.
Victoria: For me it would be Star Game, that one happened quickly and simply, the lyrics feel concise to me too.
Which song from Mind Palace Music is your favorite?
Stone: probably Letters, it has an adventurous arrangement around a sweet melody, and that pretty much sums up what I like about the project.
Victoria: Major Blue Empty for its unabashed solos and eerie feel, and My Garden for its weird structure and textural arrangement.
What were the most challenging parts of recording music remotely?
Victoria: No deadline and no eyes on me getting things done makes completing tasks difficult
Were there any unexpected benefits to remote recording?
Victoria: The privacy of it really allowed me to take my time. I think also that it created this very unique production quality that mirrors the process. The final sound of the record really encompasses the balance between the organic writing combined with the more calculated digital recording process.
If you could collaborate with anyone who would it be?
Stone: Neutral Milk Hotel
Victoria Rose: John Frusciante
If you could materialize any musical instrument/ piece of gear, what would it be?
Stone: would love a nice recording studio
Victoria: I want a piano and the ability to play it well.
Do you have a favorite venue? Why?
Stone: Bear cages in Boston. It’s an abandoned zoo where there are sometimes generator shows … in the bear cages.
Victoria: I really love playing First Unitarian Church in Philly. I love that there are pews for the audience to sit in the upstairs rooms, and I love that there are many rooms to explore during a show should you get bored or antsy
If you could rewrite the soundtrack to any movie, which would it be?
Stone: Gene Wilder Willy Wonka
Victoria: I really don’t want to ever write a soundtrack I don’t think I’d be good at that.
