Sid Stone, is one of the UK’s most exciting new artists and multi-instrumentalists. Poised to help guide the UK through these dark times, Sid’s poignant debut single ‘Better Alone’ is the lead track from his auspicious ‘Inside/Outside’ mixtape, out now on Hotspring Music.
Recorded at Mick Jones’ (The Clash) studio in North Acton with his best mates and long-time collaborators Joy Anonymous and man of the moment Fred Again (Stormzy, Ed Sheeran, Headie One), lead single ‘Better Alone’ came as an idea on a late walk back from a shift at Bush Hall. The piano driven, jazz influenced track is a chameleon-like pop vibe, sitting as perfectly on a stereo in lockdown, as it does at a sun blushed sunrise party.
Shot at Sid’s Local pub The White Horse in Shepherds Bush and the Somerset Hills, the accompanying video, captured both before and during lockdown manifests the stark contrasts of how life has changed over recent months. The stunning video was directed by Sid and produced by Tom Pomphrey and Fergus Haughton, with animations by Laura N-Tamara.
“It’s all about making peace with being alone, but also it came out of situations built on friendship and love.” Sid said of the track. “So who knows: the truth is sometimes hidden between two opposites!”
A sum greater than its individual parts, ‘Inside/Outside’ mixtape is a rhapsody of isolation, a heartfelt elegy to the process of withdrawing/going within as a necessary means to personal and artistic fulfilment. Composed of 6-tracks intertwined by real-world interludes and bookended by the tender ‘Now I’m Alone’ and euphoric ‘Know Well’, the mixtape is brimming with vocals drenched in soul, heartfelt lyrics, emotional pianos and distant drums. ‘Giving us an insight into Sid’s world ‘Inside/Outside’ leads the listener through Sid’s reality of raw perfection and on a journey of self-isolation relevant to the world’s current climate.
Speaking of ‘Inside/Outside’ Sid said, “it’s like a document of my life as a songwriter in London: the sounds of Shepherds Bush, the frustrations of trying to be good at writing songs, the internal world that gets explored parallel to the outside world around us.” He continues, “the pressure, the emotional strain, all of that filtering in from the city and out from me and back again in this hyper loop of man and surrounding.” A mixtape that is as timely as it is necessary right now.
Hailing from Somerset, Sid Stone is a seasoned songwriter and a true artist of his craft. With influences taken from a large gene pool borrowing elements from soul, jazz, pop, rap & dance music, his raw and eloquently disheveled vocals bring together a remarkably diverse, but accessible sound. The multifaceted musician is also co-producing the forthcoming Kurupt FM album with Fred Again and Joy Anonymous and is a regular collaborator with pop starlets and underground legends alike. Sid Stone is poised for greatness and is an artist that is as exciting as he is essential.
