STONERPOP

ARTICLE BY VANELIS RIVERA AND PORTRAITS BY ANDREW BAILEY

It took Maudie Michelle Rosenberry, vocalist, lyricist, and audio composer of American electronic duo Stonerpop, thirty minutes to record seven seconds of the band’s 2017 stop-motion music video. That two-and-a-half-minute video created for the track “Headglow” (from their 2017 album Physical Business) earned the duo an Official Selection in the 2018 African Smartphone International Film Festival. That set the stage for the band’s particular approach to their music content. “As a multimedia artist, I cannot justify ignoring art at either the auditory or visual end of the spectrum. It only makes sense to marry the two,” says Rosenberry. True to form, four music videos preceded the release of their new album. Launched on January 1st, American Dreams is a ten-track “dystopian dreamscape” whose “ethereal journey” is not only documented in sound but also the color and visual elements of music videos, which “support and enforce the underlying feeling and meaning” of their songs. Crafting sounds and visuals as diverse as the cultures from which they grew, Stonerpop is keeping their music artistic and their art visionary.

Rosenberry jokes that at one point, she was traveling between the South and the Pacific Northwest. Born in California and raised in Idaho, she would often visit her father in Louisiana and finally stuck around Monroe to study English Literature at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, graduating with a Master’s degree in 2013. It was during that time Rosenberry met now husband and Stonerpop counterpart Jimmie Bryant II. Bryant, originally from Shreveport, moved to Monroe, where he graduated from Neville High School. By 2015 the couple discovered their overlapping interests.

“It started when Jimmie led a band called Prestor Jon,” says Rosenberry. Hearing the band’s guitar work, she was inspired to dabble in string instruments, but being a brass player since age ten, they were a total enigma to her. Picking up the ukulele allowed her to amplify her musical radar, and after hearing English singer-songwriter Imogen Heap, she began to experiment electronically. “When she first approached me with the batch of material that she had, I had no idea how coherent it would be,” reveals Bryant. “The polish of what she brought me just got me excited and jazzed about making it better in any way that I could.” As a musician, Bryant thrives in collaborating with other artists, so when they started writing songs together, they set out with the understanding that they would have a hand in each other’s compositions. Bryant reveals that it’s difficult to hash out verse if you’re sitting next to your significant other. “You don’t want to put the stupid stuff down,” Rosenberry interjects, while Bryant recognizes that sometimes it inspires something better: “You have to wade through before getting to the sweet spot.” Bringing varied perspectives to the project’s theme of personal relationships and the antsy feelings surrounding them, Stonerpop released their first, self-titled EP in 2016.

Influenced by a range of artists, including Radiohead, Garbage, and Metric, Stonerpop developed out of the idea of embracing a new genre. “Stoner right now is indicative of a genre of rock, but stoner pop… we’re trying to throw everything in the mix. Help me out, Maudie,” says Bryant. “There is no singular sound. It’s about subverting the expectation,” chimes Rosenberry. “That’s it,” enthuses Bryant. The basis of their sound often will adapt and evolve, one melodic or tonal discovery leading to another, especially in their collaborative environment. “Lately, I’ve been calling it alt-pop,” says Rosenberry, though their music could also fall under the ambient electro-pop or trip hop umbrellas. Rosenberry and Bryant are sonically unique, considering their cultural context. “Pulled to the electronic genre of music is rare for where we are geographically and sub-culturally,” says Bryant. But just because they’re not what you might expect them to be, they are definitely not any less legitimate. He adds, “When we talk about subverting expectations, we use the universality of pop to set expectations that, at our best, we break.”

With their latest record, Stonerpop wants to “encourage people to both relax and take action.” The new album American Dreams is a follow-up to their 2018 release, Apollo (named after their son and released on his birthday, December 20th). A conceptualized project, Dreams was built workshopping soundscapes and ideas for Apollo. “When Maudie revealed her artwork, I was inspired. Part of the digital artifacts that she used resembled a skyline, and the depth and range of color she used really spoke to me,” says Bryant. Rosenberry reveals that the cover art for the album is highly inspired by a longing for comfort and peace. “The colors are meant to make the viewer initially feel at ease, but the imagery of the artwork hints at something else,” she says. Rosenberry chose a photograph of herself looking slightly surprised in order to portray “the uncertainty of what is to come,” a prevalent emotion throughout the album.

“The digital pixel sorting also adds a dimension of visual entropy to the image, hinting that everything is temporary.” The title is meant to refer to “the lie” and how it’s blown up into fighting for the generally sought American dream, which Rosenberry says, is “living in the dystopia.” To Bryant the American dream is reminiscent of a cheese wheel or playing the lottery. “The predetermined definition or path that has been set out by our culture has changed,” he finishes.

Stonerpop follows a clear aesthetic with American Dreams, one they would classify as “dreamy and trippy and otherworldly.” That dreaminess associated with their musicscapes alludes to the “raw grittiness dealing with issues in your brain, sorting things out,” she says. Bryant has a formula for choosing what type of songs go with different instrumentation, and those decisions on the juxtaposition of sound, melody, harmony, and later visuals, is at the heart of the output of the duo’s songcraft. Each song can take you out of space and time, but it’s not all “fluffy clouds,” says Rosenberry. In fact, there is always an intentional socio-political message in their sound, lyrics, and visuals.

The new videos produced for some of the songs on American Dreams come off as galactic acid trips or Andy Warhol color palates in motion. Though they were outsourced to talented animation artists, each video was heavily guided by Rosenberry’s album cover and color schemes. Even their eerie instrumental song/video “Right Place Wrong Time” follows hues of pastel colors, perfectly intertwined with the visual message—a caution to the dangers of commercialism. “Instrumentals allow listeners the freedom to forge deeper interpretations and connections with the music,” says Rosenberry. In the song/video “Subroutine,” the disconnect between friends and people that care about each other is the focal point: “Can I miss you, and it make me happy?” In the video, as if we were traveling through a memory, two droid friends traverse changing terrain, juxtaposing the yearning of the singer to maintain a connection with loved ones. In “House of Cards,” Bryant’s vocals broach the dilemma of America’s “really weird hypocritical institution.” Rosenberry assertively points out: “The hypocrisy of the state of immigration in the United States of America.” The song and video attempt to reach out and address immigration in a global sense as well, but Bryant’s inspiration was drawn from local headlines. “Even though our music is dark, we’re peace love hippies,” clarifies Rosenberry.

To celebrate the album, Stonerpop scheduled an Album Release Party and Masquerade at Sal’s Saloon in Monroe on December 28th, a venue they frequently use for performances. “Justin McCormick is probably one of the most undervalued members of our music scene,” says Bryant. “He’s been epically consistent and fair and gracious with artists. It’s so important to our community. Monroe has celebrated music venues, but they’re not all for “unpolished musicians,” explains Bryant. Sal’s Saloon gives an array of musicians a platform for their art, while still balancing talented acts, locally and regionally. As a mainly electronic show, Stonerpop’s performance backbone is their audio mixing console, accompanied by Rosenberry’s calming vocals, and Bryant’s instrumental interjections. The couple isn’t showy, allowing their loungy soundscapes to carry the show and listeners wherever they will.

“I just want us to go back to the beginning and see Maudie write the bones of another record,” exclaims Bryant. “I got it in me. I’m gonna bring it,” she replies. Already exploring possible material for a next music project, the duo is currently sketching details out, throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. “We’re waiting for the right idea to come,” says Rosenberry, revealing that 2020 is going to see some singles. Allowing the journey to guide their ideas to completion plays a pivotal role in their creative process. “Artists get hung up on a project and don’t get to access the full experience. I personally can struggle with that,” admits Bryant. “It’s scary, the experience of writing music and writing my own words, sharing it, and performing,” says Rosenberry. “It levels you up.”

At heart, American Dreams is about everyday paradoxes that, upon careful inspection, bemuse and inspire radical introspection. “The album is about confidence and the lack thereof. It’s about impostors, both real and fake. It’s about failure and the illusion of victory,” the couple proclaims in a press release. Whether or not that’s a listener’s takeaway, Stonerpop provides their audience with a unique experiential departure from the day-to-day.

For the complete Stonerpop experience, follow them on Facebook, Spotify, and Youtube. For more information and/or promo requests, visit their website: www.stonerpopculture.com.