We spoke to Stonefield guitarist Hannah Findlay about their latest album Far From Earth.

Listening to the Findlay sisters’ new album it quickly becomes apparent that the group have expanded on the sounds and themes of their 2016 sophomore record As Above So Below. Stonefield has musically morphed into a refined psychedelic machine capable of bringing just the right amount of weird to their already heavy, stoner-based DNA.

Having recorded Far From Earth with Black Mountain’s Stephen McBean, the group brought in some darker and heavier flavours which caught the attention of Flightless Records (the label owned by King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard and run by drummer Eric Moore) who quickly added the four sisters to their roster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkI2sqc7AwI

Stonefield are currently on a national tour at the moment and you would be doing yourself a favour by heading along to one to catch their set which is heavy with tunes from their best album yet, Far From Earth – tickets and info here – and check out our interview with Hannah below:

 You were back in the US playing a bunch of shows last year, how has the response been over there?

It’s been amazing. It’s feels like we’re starting a new chapter in our career, which is very exciting. Our audience has been growing with every trip and we feel very lucky to have a very supportive team over there enabling us to do some cool things!

What was it like signing with Flightless? How did that come about?

It’s been such an easy process, which is super refreshing. We recorded our album last year in LA, showed Eric (Flightless) the finished product and he like it! It was as easy as that!

Tell us about some of the concepts behind Far From Earth?

For this album we pretty much removed ourselves from all outside influences, went into our shed and wrote the album. We really just focused on writing stuff that we were happy with, without thinking or worrying about anything else. Once we’d written a few songs, space became a big focus on the album with instrumentation, textures and lyrics.

There’s definitely a few more ‘Eastern’ flavours in terms of guitar in songs like ‘Visions’ and ‘Far From Earth.’ What were some of your influences when writing the LP?

We’ve been listening to a lot of newer bands like Kikigaku Moyo, The Black Angels, Jacco Gardner who I guess are influenced by many of the same artists that we are.

It also feels like more of a move away from the more classic rock stylings of As Above, So Below into more psychy territory. Was this a conscious decision?

I think it was more so learning how to create what we’re envisioning and not being too influenced by what’s happening around us.

What are you looking forward to on the Far From Earth tour?

We’re really looking forward to playing new songs from the album and to be playing shows outside of the main cities, it’s always nice exploring smaller towns!  You’ll see us having a good time and doing what we love most! Oh and we have something a little bit special planned for our Melbourne show!

Where are you headed next?

After our Australian tour we’re hoping to go over to the UK and Europe as we really haven’t spent much time there at all. We’re also hoping to get back to the US before the end of the year!