Druid Stone | Interview | Exorcising the Underground with Bootleg Acid-Heavy Rock
Deep in the murky depths of today’s underground, Druid Stone digs into bootleg acid-heavy rock like it’s a wild, drug-crazed exorcism of the soul—definitely not trying to pretend to be “underground.”
This is as raw as it gets: blown-out noise recorded on busted Peavey amps and scumbag gear. The kind of sound that could wake the dead, only for them to stumble off into the next bender, thinking they’ve still got time to burn. It’s music that tastes like burnt rubber and stale beer—a slice of fucked-up teenage rebellion wrapped in chaos, feedback solos, and drums bleeding like battle scars. It’s their own brand of sweat-stained magic, a self-made cult screaming “Fuck it” at the man, the system, and the whole damn world.
A dark communion inviting lost souls to revel in chaotic incantations… every bootleg demo—and even a vinyl pressed by Saturn Eye Records—is a manifesto of the damned and pure fun. Oh yeah, that part… FUN!
“The vision for Druid Stone is to start a modern mystery cult of ecstasy and self-abandon”
You originally started with a band called Puke Mutes. Tell us how the band began and what became of it.
Demeter Capsalis: The Puke Mutes was such a fun band! It consisted of my two teenage best friends and me: Andrew Thaler on bass & vox, Mike Graham on drums, and myself on guitar & vox. I still consider Andrew and Mike my favorite bassist and drummer in the world! The band began because we were like-minded stoners with an obsession for early Black Sabbath bootlegs and acid-test-era Grateful Dead stuff. That’s really what fused us together. We were skate rats who would go skate together after school, but the shared musical experience, getting high and jamming out on heavy acid rock-type stuff—that set us going! So we decided to form a band, which was more influenced by the punk we were listening to stuff like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains. That was the Puke Mutes! We were hippie punks, hahaha.
I remember I posted our first demo to a Washington, D.C., hardcore forum online, and everyone was like, “Oh, fuck these dumb kids, and that band name SUCKS,” but then one person actually listened to the demo… and was like, “Hey everyone, you really gotta check this out.” Hahahaha. From there, we played some venues we were waaay too young to play, but we didn’t care. It was a lucky time, and we enjoyed fucking up people’s minds, hahaha. We were 15, 16 years old, this was 2010 going into 2011.
But when autumn of 2011 came along, we got really interested in doom, and the Puke Mutes actually morphed into Druid Stone. Same lineup, but I wrote the song ‘Druid Stone’ in autumn of 2011, and we liked it so much that we decided to change the name of the band to reflect our tastes becoming much darker. Before the Puke Mutes ended, we recorded two demos, one of which you can hear on YouTube to this day, courtesy of my dear friend Robert. The other demo… well, you’ll just have to contact me for that! Bootleg kult, hahahaha.
There seems to be quite a local scene in the town of Herndon with bands like Satan’s Satyrs, Dial-Up, and Brain Tree. Did the local scene influence you?
Yeah, for sure! The locals, we were just a bunch of like-minded kids, just a bunch of fuck-ups. We didn’t see any hope for ourselves in the world, so we found refuge in this crazy type of heavy music. It made us feel alive, and in a way that would have been too preternatural and emotional for us to admit, it made us feel whole. I think it was a type of love in a punishing life of teenage alienation that we felt for one another, manifesting in really scuzzy music, hahahaha.
But yeah, it was really cool! Satan’s Satyrs have long since lost their edge, but back in the day when we were just dumb stoners, they were really cool. What really made them cool was their original guitarist, The Ghoul. The Ghoul was one of my classmates, and one night we were getting high, and The Ghoul said, “I gotta show you my band…” I was like, “Oh hell yeah, let’s hear it!” And I remember just having this sudden realization like, wow, there are other kids in town doing this?! Making music like this, unafraid of nightmares and stuff like that… that’s what really shaped me, that feeling of identity. Like, oh, I know you, I understand what you do.
That’s what I chase as an adult, and that’s why I’m so anti-industry and anti-gatekeeping—’cause when we were kids, none of that shit mattered. It should never matter. I’m in this to meet people who understand what it’s like to be tormented and to share this grim communion, one and all. It’s free, and it should remain free.
Dial-Up kicked ass!!! I was a big fan of The Misspoken, one of my favorite Herndon bands, hahahaha. Brain Tree were our chums as well. It was really cool because we all had different tastes, but what brought us together was the fact that the world around us disgusted us. We were co-conspirators. Those were fun times!
Are there any recordings of Puke Mutes?
Yes! I am very pro-bootleg, so I will gladly send any unreleased stuff to anyone who asks, really. The kult knows, hahaha. But yeah, our second demo, which was three songs, is currently on YouTube, thanks to my hometown friend Robert! And our first demo, which was five songs, is currently unreleased, although it was circulated via CD back in 2010. I have those files, though, so if you want it, you got it, hahahaha. It’s very innocent and fucked-up teenage basement punk on black pills. It sounds like completely blown-out obscure riff abuse, hahaha. Played very badly. Just as it ought to be, hahaha. We only recorded those demos with a small Tascam handheld recording device. I try my best to stick to that method of simplicity to this day.
What made you transform to Druid Stone? Did the lineup change as well?
When I wrote the song ‘Druid Stone’ during my senior year of high school, I brought it to my bandmates after school. I was really excited about it, like, “You guys gotta hear this, it sounds… mystical almost,” hahaha. And they loved it! We all loved it so unanimously that we knew without even needing to articulate it that the band would be changed to Druid Stone to reflect the change in sound. The lineup was the same! This was about September 2011, and at the time, I was reading a lot of Nietzsche and works of folklore, so I was consumed with feelings of dissidence and mythology. The new band was gonna reflect all of that, and with a careless darkness. We were gonna say “fuck it” and just express ourselves in this new dark way that brought us a new feeling of being high, being free, and mentally tuned in to something older than the hills. That’s how it felt at the time— to us, it was totally serious, in that intuitive way that only kids can tap into, not a second of hesitation. I’m really grateful that happened, ’cause it shaped the course of the rest of my life!
What’s the overall vision or, should I say, concept behind Druid Stone?
The overall vision is orgasm, but not solitary orgasm—not solipsism. It is the dream of the forests of Athens when Dionysus first came from the seas and instructed his cult in the ways of release. Before the first amphitheater was erected in his honor, when his mysteries were still conducted in the liberated cover of ancient trees. That’s a bunch of gibberish, maybe, hahaha, but what I mean is that the vision is that Dionysus Lives! I want people to come to Druid Stone shows and have a consenting romantic experience with someone. When I perform, I go into the twilight zone— is the best way I can describe it. It’s like Les Rallizes Denudes…their name means “the air heads,” which is a pun on being a space-case, while also being a vehicle for something greater. They are just the willing translators of some kind of music from another world. I feel that Druid Stone is similar; I am just a willing translator of something greater than my devices could ever put together. I think what I’m trying to say is, the vision for Druid Stone is to start a modern mystery cult of ecstasy and self-abandon.
Tell us how you first met Stephen Fairfield of Satan’s Satyrs? I guess he was originally a member of Dial-Up?
I love Stephen dearly, he is my best friend. Everyone should check out his band An Invitation, heheheh. But yes, Stephen and I grew up 5 minutes walking distance from each other and went to the same schools from Grade 1 and up. I don’t recall an exact moment when we met, but the first times I remember seeing Stephen around and thinking, “That person rocks,” was when Stephen was in Dial-Up! At that time, I was in the Puke Mutes – and we were just two kids in the same circus of punks and stoners, hahaha. We really started to become close around 2018 or so, when Stephen left Satyrs, and we’ve been pretty much inseparable ever since, hahaha. If you’re reading this, Stephen, bazinga.
Saturn Eye Records issued a vinyl version of your debut album. What’s the story behind it, and what can you tell us about the tracks themselves?
Yeah! So the story behind that record is that all of the songs except for one were written during the original 2011 era of Druid Stone; the one that was written in 2021 was ‘My Sunshine.’ It was, in my mind, the record I wanted to do but never had the smarts to do when I was in high school (I was too busy getting high and not going to school or to band practice either, for that matter, hahaha). In hindsight, I produced and mixed that album very badly, but it still has a charm that I will always love. I of course love the songs! And it was a whole lot of fun to record. It was recorded solo in my basement studio, Necrofuzz Studio. I started by recording the drums from memory, no click track, and then layered the instruments one by one. Alex from Saturn Eye Records (thanks for being my friend even though I am cursed, hahaha) is a dear friend of mine that I’ve known since we were teenage skate-rats! Alex is from the same area as me and grew up a few towns over from Herndon, where I still reside to this day. But Alex basically formed Saturn Eye Records as like… a joke label so that we could put Druid Stone to physical editions, hahahaha. And look where Alex is now! So god damn cool, hahahaha. But yes, we did a small run of 10″ records for the first Druid Stone demo in 2021 – a three-song EP – and that of course got the orgiastic fire raging again! So we were like, okay, we gotta do a full-length now! And I knew I had to draw on the old material from the original era, and that felt like the perfect place to start really – ten years later! My life has been shaped by weird cycles like that. There were a lot of other songs from the original 2011 era, some of which I’ve since forgotten (thanks, weed) or others have ended up on different albums & demos. But the songs for the debut LP felt like the right bunch! I wanted to do my best to approximate what I would’ve done at 16.
Where did you record it? What kind of gear do you have in the band?
I recorded it in my basement studio, Necrofuzz Studio, in Herndon – my hometown where I still reside! No budget recording – not just low budget, NO budget, hahaha. The way it ought to be!
Gear for Druid Stone is really just a matter of the cheapest stuff I can get, or sometimes I get really lucky – people know I love Peavey amps, so sometimes I just end up with free Peavey stuff ’cause people want to throw it away and they think, “Well, this crazy girl would want to use this,” hahaha – and they’re right! I do. But I recorded the bass tracks on a small Peavey combo amp that I got as a hand-me-down – and it’s not even a bass amp, hahahaha – and for a bass pedal, I used a bass Big Muff Pi. I used that same pedal for guitar on the debut LP, and recorded all guitar tracks through an old Peavey tube amp – mid-60s – that I got insanely lucky enough to buy for wayyyy too cheap a few years before recording. Drums… well, let’s just say I used all of Stephen’s old drum equipment, ’cause to be honest I don’t know anything about drums, hahahaha.
And what is important is that I only own two microphones! An SM-57, and an SM-58! Between those two microphones, I recorded everything Druid Stone ever did. Not just low budget – NO budget, hahahaha. Keep it raw, fuck the hi-fi stuff, heh.
For a recording console – I am really bad with computers – I used a Zoom recording console. It records onto an SD card, so it’s technically digital – but it functions in an analogue way, which is to say, if you can’t do it in real time, it won’t happen! So that also forces me to just play and say “fuck it” to any inclinations for refinement, hahaha. I like it that way though.
What about ‘The Grateful Undead’?
Yeah! Oh wow, “The Grateful Undead” was so fun to record. Two songs, “Analogue Bitch” and “Doom Witch,” were recorded first—around September of 2022, following the release of the Dionysus Lives EP. I shelved those two songs until December of 2022, and then I was like… okay… at the time I was on a really deranged Roky Erickson kick (I usually have one every two years or so, hahaha), and I was like, okay, I want to do a doom album that is like The Grateful Dead, but on heroin and brown acid instead of good LSD, hahaha. I want the songs to be WAY too long, and just completely fucked up—depressing, violent noise, feedback solos, just way over the top, downer freak-out music influenced by the Dead. So I started recording some songs I had in the vaults, like “Wiped Out” and “Drug World,” and before I knew it, the album just started to come to life. I’m still not a very good drummer, but in the winter of 2022, I was REALLY not a good drummer. Hahaha, I had no technique, and those are really long songs that I had to play all the way through with no computer tricks. So on songs like “I Walked with a Zombie,” by like the fifth minute, my hands would be bleeding profusely, hahaha, and I would be forcing myself to play through it, like, “COME ON GIRL, YOU’RE ONLY GONNA GET ONE GOOD DRUM TAKE, YOU SUCK!” Hahaha. I had a good time honestly, it really comes out in the finished product—the album is so carefree. Just like, “Fuck you, here’s an unmarketable album of punishing acid rock!” Hahaha. Funny thing is, “Wiped Out” was not supposed to be the first song—it was supposed to be the penultimate song, before “Nuclear War.” But I remember hearing the mix for “Wiped Out” (all the songs on The Grateful Undead were mixed by friends, which at the time was a first for the band!) and I was like, “Wow, this would be the worst opening song ever. It’s so long and so fucking brutal.” Hahaha. So I made it the opening song. A lot of decisions for Druid Stone are done in this way. “That’s a horrible idea—let’s do it!” Hahaha.
I recorded ‘The Grateful Undead’ solo in my basement studio, and I actually recorded all bass and guitar parts on the same shitty hand-me-down Peavey combo amp, hahahaha. It’s falling apart and I love it. I had an Epiphone P90 SG as my guitar at that time, which was really essential to the sound on the album… that and a Hyperfuzz FZ2, which I have since exchanged for other equipment… alas. Hahaha.
Then there are several singles and EPs you also released. I’d love it if you could chronologically name them, as the Discogs page is a bit confusing.
Oh boy, here we go! Hahaha. I will do my best to arrange things in the correct order—even I get lost sometimes! I will say that the Druid Stoners on Encyclopaedia Metallum have made a much more complete—although not totally complete (it’s a fool’s errand to make a complete list of Druid Stone releases, hahaha)—list. Thank you, friends! That means the world to me.
Demo 1, December 2011
Doom Kid Generation, summer 2021
Split with Mortal, summer 2021
Demo 2021, autumn 2021
Radiation Green (EP), autumn 2021
Radiation Green (single), winter 2021
Demo Comp ’21, winter 2021
Dance of Poseidon (single), early 2022
Debut LP, spring 2022
Dionysus Lives, summer 2022
Split with Phaelin, summer 2022
Midnight demo / Mother of Serpents jam, autumn 2022
Various bootlegs, autumn 2022
Wah Disease, autumn 2022
The Corpse Vanishes, autumn 2022
The Grateful Undead, winter 2022
An Angel for Satan, early 2023
Various bootlegs, early 2023
Split with Wicked Trip, spring 2023
F.T.D.M.I., summer 2023
Elf-Friend, summer 2023
Devil’s Night demo, summer 2023
Eryngo (single), summer 2023
Split with Lavender Town Syndrome, winter 2023
Various demos, spring 2024
Tell the Truth (Wicked Lady cover), spring 2024
Depeche Mode Is Cooler Than Electric Wizard, summer 2024
Undead Poets Society, summer 2024
Various bootlegs, summer 2024
Night of the Living Dead (live single), summer 2024
Macabress (single), summer 2024
Missing Girl, autumn 2024
Lust Metal, autumn 2024
Various bootlegs, autumn 2024
I might be forgetting some stuff… hahahaha. It’s a pretty crazy list! Sometimes people ask me how I release so much or where the music comes from. My best explanation is that it’s the only way I know how to process my life. It’s what I live for—I am naught but the masochist to the sadist named the Stone.
Are you involved with any other projects?
Not currently, although I do a lot of volunteering for my beloved community of queers and furries!
Do you play a lot of shows?
Yes! Druid Stone is full-time active again and will be for the duration. Thank the dark lord Santa Claus. The current lineup is my favorite lineup yet! It’s all transgender girls—my dear friend Emy on drums, our girl Carrie on bass, and myself on guitar, vox, and fx. It’s so much fun, and I haven’t felt so free with the band ever before this lineup. I feel fully alive, like a strange beast with an appetite finally fully realized. I’m so thankful for my girls! We play a lot and are ready to go abroad as soon as the opportunity arises. We can’t wait to bring the orgiastic mystery cult to you, hehehe.
What would be the craziest story that happened to the band so far?
We’ll have to talk about this privately, cause it’s a little too fucked for the web, hahahaha.
What are some future plans for you?
The girls and I are planning on recording a new Druid Stone album sometime over the next 6 months or so. It’s going to be called Helsinki, and it will be very influenced by HIM and Les Rallizes Denudes. We’ll be incorporating those new songs into our upcoming performances, along with songs like ‘Drug World’ and ‘Undead Poets Society’! Can’t wait to see you out there, friends!
Let’s end this interview with some of your favorite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Oh cool! Right now I am listening to The Cure while typing my replies! ‘Disintegration’ is a lovely album for concentration and self-release. I also love to read very much; I am an avid reader. I am currently reading It by Stephen King for the first time—it’s great! I read the LOTR trilogy once a year (because that’s what Christopher Lee did, hahaha), and my favorite novelist is Toni Morrison. I also love reading about physics! Some of my other favorite albums are ‘Climbing!’ by Mountain, ‘Meddle’ by Pink Floyd, ‘The Return…’ by Bathory, ‘Hatful of Hollow’ by The Smiths, ‘Satanic Blood’ demo by VON, ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ by Black Sabbath, ‘Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666’ by HIM, ‘Thy Mighty Contract’ by Rotting Christ, ‘Let Us Prey’ by Electric Wizard, ‘Family Man’ by Black Flag, ‘Stronger Than Pride’ by Sade. Hmmm… I think that’s a pretty good list of stuff I like to listen to repetitively! I love listening to really obscure demos. Parson Sound is a good example (thanks for the rec, Carrie), and some black metal stuff which really belongs in the rubbish bin, ugh… hahahaha. I spent much of my teenage life collecting Black Sabbath bootlegs (the era when they first began to down-tune but still played pre-down-tuning material is my favorite), and I prefer to listen to live versions of songs (inventories by my favorite moments of total self-release on the part of the performer) over the studio versions!
Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.
Trans is beautiful! Thanks everyone for showing me the way. Let’s stick around.
Klemen Breznikar
Druid Stone Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Saturn Eye Records Website / Instagram
