Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Stolen

Alt-rock band, The Stolen, have come a long way since first forming almost a decade ago. The quartet, made up of Mike Chiarappa (drums), Rob Chiarappa (guitar), Dominick Cuce (vocal/guitar), and Kevin Smart (bass), grew up as childhood friends who discovered a shared passion for music. They hit the local music scene in their hometown of Old Bridge, New Jersey, performing covers of classic rock anthems. Since then, they’ve dropped two EPs (Adults, I’m So Dead), one album (Fragile Heart), and countless singles. In between writing, recording, and producing, the band is constantly on the road, playing several shows a year, and trust us, you definitely want to make your way to one! Pop Culturalist spoke with Rob of The Stolen about the band’s new single, “Rooftop”, what’s ahead for The Stolen in 2019, and played a game of “Who in the Band is”.

PC: You guys have been a band for over ten years, which is pretty rare in the music industry. What’s been the key to that success?
Rob: For us, we grew up as neighborhood friends. Dom, the singer was my next-door neighbor growing up, Mike, the drummer, is my brother, and we’ve known Kevin since middle school. So, it happened pretty naturally. We’re practically family.

PC: When you look back at the past decade, is there a moment that sticks out to you?
Rob: There have been quite a few moments that have stuck out to us, but one moment that I would say really, really sticks out is when we put out our EP, I’m So Dead, in 2016. That was one of our first fully self-produced records and it was a completely different sound from what we were doing before. I remember we were all in the van on tour the night that it charted on iTunes, which was such a big deal for us. We were out playing these small shows on tour, and to see something we did ourselves chart at #21 was completely wild to us.

PC: What is the creative process like and has that changed over the years?
Rob: It has changed a bit, but it’s predominately the same. The creative process for us is usually that I’ll write a song and make a little demo in Pro Tools or I’ll record acoustic guitar and vocals. I’ll send it over to the guys and everyone at that point has their own kind of thing that they bring to the table, whether it’s Dom changing around the vocal parts, Mike changing the drum groove, or Kevin with the bass. How it’s changed over the years is that, more than ever, we’re all very comfortable in each others areas where we don’t feel like we’re stepping on each others’ toes.

Like Mike may come to me and say, “Hey, why don’t you do this on guitar?” or Dom might bright up something about the drums. We’ve been friends for so long that we feel comfortable saying these things to each other.

PC: Was there a moment when you collectively decided you wanted to pursue music as a career?
Rob: It’s crazy to say, but even from a very young age we’ve always wanted it. We started out as a cover band, because when you’re fourteen/fifteen, you don’t have the life experiences to write about.


There was a point at that age when we were playing a local show in New Jersey at The Stone Pony, which is a music venue in Asbury Park where they did this thing called “Sunday Showcase”. We were there playing a bunch of covers. There was another band there called Write the Stars, and while they were only a few years older than us, they were playing all their own music. It was All Time Low, pop, punk, and I remember we were all super inspired by it. I think that’s when we decided that we knew we wanted to create our own music.

PC: Your latest single, “Rooftop”, dropped in November. What was the inspiration behind that track?
Rob: The week that Anthony Bourdain died, there were two other notable people who died of suicide. It was really kind of disturbing. It came in threes; it felt like an epidemic. So, I had this idea and I wrote it on acoustic guitar and vocals, which funny enough, are completely different now. The lyrics are the same, but the melody has changed. Dom came over to my house and we sat on the back deck and worked on it. We liked it, but we really wanted to do this song justice.


We kept it in our back pocket and knew we’d dig into it more. A few weeks later, we were jamming at band practice and came up with a guitar riff for it, which led us to revamping the song.

When you look at Anthony Bourdain, you see him traveling all over the world. You see him doing all these amazing things. He had the perfect life, so he must have been happy. I wanted the song to be up-tempo and dance-y. I wanted to capture that feeling and the illusion that everything is fine.

We went back to the song and really dug in so it matched that feeling. When it was basically done, we talked about how it would be cool if we had someone else on the second verse, similar to the ’80s in songs like “We Are the World”. A lot of artists came together for one common cause. When we were thinking about who that could be, Jake Miller instantly came to mind. He’s a friend of ours and Kevin, our bassist, actually plays drums for Jake.

Jake had a song a few years ago called “Steven”, which touched on similar issues. It was about a kid who committed suicide and he’s almost telling his story. So, I texted Jake and said, “Hey man. What do you think of this song? Here’s what it’s about. Here are the lyrics.” Within 20 minutes, he sent me a text, “Check your email. You got mail.” He sent back a vocal track instantly. His work ethic is absolutely incredible.

PC: You guys dropped a new music video, “Stuck”. Tell us about it.
Rob: It’s a song that a lot of fans have told us that they connected with. We wanted to make a video about the fans, predominately using a lot of footage from our most recent tour. We put it all together between the shows and interactions from it. For this song, we wanted to do a very live video, capturing our personalities and everything. It’s not a directed storyline video, which we’ve done in the past, and will do in the future. We just wanted this one to be about our show and fans.

PC: You guys go above and beyond for your fans. You do a lot of really innovative things from pop-ups to acoustic sets. How do you guys come up with these events?
Rob: I’ve been going to shows since I was in middle school. I wasn’t going to the big stadium shows—I didn’t have money for that. I was a kid who wasn’t working. But, when I was growing up in New Jersey, there were a lot of smaller shows that you could see for eight to ten bucks. They were decent sized shows, and you’d see a band. Some of the bands would do things that made you feel appreciated.

We wanted to do the same thing. We wanted to come up with things that a fan of music would enjoy. We like to have this connection with our fans where they can get to know us and understand our music. Our ideas are really spur of the moment. We have an iPhone group chat where we spark out ideas all day. We’ll be like, “Hey, what do you think of this? How are we going to pull it off?” One of us may have an idea and our manager, Matt, is great at building on our ideas and making them happen.

PC: When you look back at your career, what’s been the most surprising thing about it?
Rob: I think one of the most surprising things is the level of loyalty and commitment of our fans. We’re by no means this big band. We’re not a band that’s going out and bringing thousands of people. I think what’s absolutely amazing to me is how they’ve gone above and beyond. We have fans who have flown across the country or sometimes out of the country to come see us. On one tour, two girls went to every show. We’ve also had 50 or so fan tattoos. Again, we’re not this big band, and when I think of the measures I would go for my favorite band, it’s probably driving an hour and half to a show. I’ve never gone nearly as far as what our fans have done. It’s hard to describe how much it means to us and it’s just so humbling. That’s one thing that I would never have expected in a million years.

PC: As we look ahead to 2019, what does the year hold for The Stolen?
Rob: We’re putting out a record in the spring. You can expect a lot of new music and it’s pretty much all over the map, sonically. It feels like some of our most important music yet. We’ll definitely be on the road; we try to be on the road as much as possible.

Who in the Band is…

PC: Most likely forget the lyrics?
Rob: Mike

PC: Most likely to be late?
Rob: Oh, me. Absolutely me!

PC: Most likely to party too hard?
Rob: Dom

PC: Most likely to get lost?
Rob: Me

PC: Most likely to order pizza after midnight?
Rob: Kevin. He’s the pizza king.

PC: Most likely to break hearts?
Rob: Mike

PC: Most likely to fall on stage?
Rob: Ah that’s a tough one. Maybe me? That’s a tough one. We’re all clumsy in our own way.

PC: Best with advice?
Rob: Mike! He’s the most logical person on the planet.

Make sure to follow The Stolen on Twitter and Instagram. Pick up “Rooftop” on iTunes.