Avalon Stone Stuns with New Single “Cliffhanger,” Highlighting Her Rise in the Post-Grunge Scene
Clutching onto a doomed relationship until your fingernails start to crack is a feeling a lot us can all too easily recognize. But nobody can convey the sensation of dangling from a high precipice of the heart quite like Avalon Stone, the consistently astounding post-grunge heavy rocker who’s rendered just such a predicament in typically dizzying style on her new single, “Cliffhanger.”
Drawing a picture of imminent romantic freefall that’s equal parts despair and acrophobia, Stone casts herself in a position in which there’s simply nowhere to go—whether up or down.
You step toward me
I take another one back
Cant see the water below
But I hear the waves crash
Broken by battle
Bruised to the bone
Will I end up on this bed of stone
Cliffhanger
Waiting for the fall
Do I let go or hang on
Cliffhanger
Clinging to the wall
Didn’t know I’d been here so long
In a paradoxical approach to musical arrangement that’s become nearly synonymous with her genius, Stone has elected to express that deep unease in a way that’s anything but ambivalent. If you slowed down “Cliffhanger” a bit, its dramatic chord changes and minor-key melody might make it a classic torch song. Instead, she’s chosen the path of no compromise, keeping the song a hard-charging rocker that’s driven by the pummeling rhythms of drummer Tyler Shea and bassist Donovan McKinley and the string-skipping rifferama of guitarist Caleb Bourgeois. The key ingredient, of course, is Stone’s own trademark, Fiona-Apple-if-she-could-kick-your-ass voice, which elevates the track to the same wuthering heights she’s singing about. By the time the oxygen-infused chorus kicks in, you feel like you’re listening to the main-title number of a James Bond movie nobody’s gotten around to writing yet.
It’s all in a day’s work for this preternaturally gifted native of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, who at age 10 attended a School of Rock camp and was performing professionally within the year. Having passed up a university education to pursue a full-time career in music, she’s spent the ensuing near-decade playing on more than 300 stages in Ontario and the U.S., in everything from bar gigs to festival appearances that have attracted crowds of 15,000 and up.
An even bigger audience latched onto the first singles from her debut album, Chained – a bracingly mature and unflinching exploration of inner darkness and hoped-for liberation that will be fully released this winter. Those qualities have been in abundance on previous singles like “Forget You,” a deceptively defiant-sounding portrait of a toxic relationship that’s logged more than 200,000 streams worldwide; “Harder,” a mournful acknowledgment of the crippling effects of depression; and “Shaking Me Up,” which portrayed two people amplifying each other’s worst traits: uncontrollable anger and profound sadness.
Confronting difficult emotions is a challenge Stone has consistently refused to shrink from. She responded to the widespread disorientation and alienation of the 2020 pandemic by hosting a series of socially distanced outdoor concerts that became a popular livestream. That in turn gave her the idea for Music for Mental Health Canada, a nonprofit that raises money through events like Rock the Halls, a platform for local musicians to perform originals and custom arrangements of holiday songs. Watch for this year’s dates.
Next on her concert calendar is Oct. 18 in Sarnia and an Oct. 25 Halloween show at the world-famous El Mocambo club in downtown Toronto—site of a history-making 1977 engagement that proved pivotal in the rejuvenation of the Rolling Stones. Avalon Stone, of course, needs no shot in the arm at this thrilling point in her creative genesis. She may sing of cliffhangers, but the trajectory of her career is plain to see: onward and upward, into ever-friendlier skies. Why bother looking down?
Hi Avalon! Good to see you again and what have you been up to since we last talked?
Great to be here as always! I have been doing a lot of behind the scenes work preparing for the album release, headlined a festival and opened up for The Beaches, JJ Wilde and Softcult. Been keeping super busy! But I love it.
You’ve been described as having a “Fiona-Apple-if-she-could-kick-your-ass” voice. How do you balance the emotional intensity of your vocals with the hard-hitting rock sound of the band?
I believe that all hard-hitting rock bands should have vocals that compliment the intensity of the sound. I also love to create delicate moments in order to let that soft vulnerability have its moment when it makes sense. Maintaining that balance usually means connecting with the lyrics of the song while feeling the energy of the melody and the music.
Having performed over 300 shows across Ontario and the U.S., how has your live experience shaped the energy and intensity of your music?
Live shows are where the music takes on its own life. When we arrange a new song, we play it live many many times before we take it into the studio so we can let it evolve naturally with input from the crowds. The heavier the song, the more we rock out on stage. The softer the song, the more we dive into that feeling. The biggest part is learning to communicate with the audience. Feeling more comfortable on stage also means we are less in our head about being in a performance setting, and are able to spend more time connecting with the fans.
Your lyrics often dive into difficult emotions like toxic relationships, depression, and inner struggles. How do you find catharsis through writing and performing these themes?
For the majority of my life, I have felt a sense of shame around the intensity of my emotions and the things that I struggle with or have struggled with in the past. Then turning those feelings into melody and art allowed me to turn all of that hardship into something that is beautiful and meaningful. Writing and performing my music has helped me embrace and celebrate my thoughts and feelings, and has taught me that there is power in expression and in vulnerability.
Your nonprofit, Music for Mental Health Canada, has been making a big impact. How has your passion for mental health advocacy influenced your music and career?
Now that I am paying more attention to my music career, Music for Mental Health has taken a backseat, but we are planning to bring it back very shortly, our next event is Rock The Halls Nov 28th at Maxwell’s Waterloo. It can be and has been said that I have and still do struggle with mental health. I have always been passionate about the subject, which is why I write about it and is also why I started this small-scale nonprofit back in 2020. I don’t think my music would sound even close to how it does if I didn’t feel this way. I want to show people that there is strength to be found throughout struggle.