Brother Hawk and StoneRider talk Atlanta rock

Spend an evening with Brother Hawk and StoneRider at the Basement on Saturday

By Johnnie Sanchez Friday June 7, 2013 12:51 PM EDT

When I heard that Brother Hawk and StoneRider were playing a show together I wondered why it hadn’t happened before. If you’ve been to either of the last two packed concerts for the band Graveyard, you’ve seen one of the bands open for them. It’s been a while since we last heard from StoneRider, and with good reason. They’ll be premiering eight new demos at the Basement this Saturday despite losing them in a hard drive crash last week. Brother Hawk will be premiering three of ‘em. I sat down with Matt Tanner (aka Dreamy Matt of CL’s Lust List and lead singer of StoneRider), JB Brisendine (lead singer of Brother Hawk), and Jason Krutzky (drummer of StoneRider) in the back of a truck at Thunderbox Studios late one night. We talked about the hilarious homeless man that inspired one of JB’s best songs, StoneRider’s Europe

2 tour, and why rock ‘n’ roll is becoming more important in the Atlanta music scene.

So how did y’all meet?

Matt: I think the first time I met you it was outside on that chicken farm that housed shows and you still had dreads. You were probably 14. I remember stepping in a lot of shit, like literal shit. And it sounded like shit. And then we started to work together at Outback Steakhouse.

JB: I remember we both were trying not to eat meat back then and these guys in the back made these chicken tenders that were off the chain that weren’t on the menu. I remember both of us breaking down and feeling sorry about ourselves after. I used to be a vegan for six years but then I started dabbling here and there gateway drug−style. Before I knew it I was eating barbecue every day.

So tell me a little bit about your Europe

2 tour, Matt. I call it the Europe squared tour because you were in Europe, playing with the band also called Europe. What do you think of Europe as a band?

Matt: They do what they do very well and have sort of transcended that ’80s hair metal stigma. You know when you sell 14 million copies of a single you’re sort of obliged to play it, but they’ve recorded a lot.

And you were playing with your new bass player, Adam McIntyre, right?

Jason: Yep! He’s in Puerto Rico right now. You know, I was talking to my buddy and I guess that if you go to Puerto Rico on a new moon there’s this lagoon that you can go to and there will be bio-luminescent creatures living in the water. You can jump in the water, it’s like 10 feet deep, and there are just trails and trails of bio-luminescent creatures that you can run your hands through.

So they’re like glow in the dark?

JB: Avatar shit.