This Mesa,Az band was brought together by songwriter Brian Stewart to play the growing catalog of pop wonders that filled his cheap demo tapes. Starting in late 1993 with jam sessions that included Brian, drummer Jay Klepinger, and original guitarist Marcus Couto, the band changed ranks rather quickly. Spartacus Jones joined on guitar, Marcus dropped out, Ray Anderson replaced Jay,and Tobey Ashcroft filled the 2nd guitar void. The band played shows all around the Phoenix area during 1996-1997. That summer their debut cd was recorded at Chaton by Otto D'Agnolo, but on the eve of the cd release show, Ray had to work! So at that moment Jay was back on the drummer's throne. Many more shows were played in support of the cd with even a song or two getting on the radio in Belgium.
After a year of more shows,
Stuart's Folly was ready to to work on the new CD. So what does Brian like about the new CD? “It
was free. Except of course for all the
recording gear I had to buy.” After
racking up some hefty recording costs to produce the debut Stuart’s Folly CD, the
band chose to retreat to the friendly confines of Brian’s humble studio, CopperDisc,
to write, perform, and produce SONIC RUIN. “It
turned out better than I thought it would, even though it took six months to do what I
could’ve done in three weeks in a conventional studio.
Why SONIC RUIN?
Stewart says “we all picked random numbers, and then went to those pages in
the dictionary. One of Jay’s pages had
the word ‘ruin’ on it, and I picked ‘sonic’ and presto! The CD had a name.” Rarely the optimist, Brian says the title was
meant for cover from over-inflated expectations. “In
case the recording ended up sounding awful, at least no one could convict us of false
advertising. ‘It’s supposed to sound like crap.’”
Is there anything redeeming in this
CD, Brian? Any ray of hope? “Jay would like to think so. I guess I’ll leave that up to the listeners.
Interestingly, all the members of Stuart's Folly are graduates of Westwood High School in
Mesa, AZ. Back in the Fall of 1993, Brian and
Jay were gathering weekly to jam in Jay’s brother-in-law’s landscaping company
office after closing time. “Not many
neighbors around to bother, you know?” Marcus
Couto, who provides some of the guitar solos on SONIC RUIN, also would jam with the two.
Any plans for a tour? “Yes,
we’ll try to do the typical miniature tour: Las
Vegas and L.A. It’s kind of tough to do
much more, with half of the band having wives and families.
But I’d love to go cross-country someday."
After
playing around the valley in support of Sonic Ruin, Stuart's Folly went the way of many
bands and hasn't played since their last show in Nov. 1999.
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