Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Stolen

Alt-rock band The Stolen have come a long way in the past decade. They’ve gone from performing in the basement of a pizzeria to touring nationwide alongside artists like the All-American Rejects, Jake Miller, and Neon Trees. In 2019, they released their self-produced debut album, which charted at number 45 on Billboard’s Alternative New Artist chart, and were named by Alternative Press as an Artist to Watch.

Despite all the success, the band is still as humble and hungry as ever. They’re the same passionate musicians who fans fell in love with way back when. We sat down with Dom Cuce, Rob Chiarappa, Kevin Smart, and Mike Chiarappa to reflect on the past ten years and what this next chapter looks like.

PC: When we spoke with Kevin, he said that you guys have gone from playing in basements of pizzerias to now touring around the country. When you look back at this journey, what stands out to you guys?
Kevin: I don’t know if there’s one particular moment that stands out. We spoke about this before but the coolest thing is performing in that pizzeria for four people and coming back to Columbus and there are a hundred people now. There are typical cities that we’ll go to on tour and we’ll know the fans there. It’s like, “Oh. I look forward to seeing this fan in this city.” You get to know all the fans. It’s really cool. It’s like having friends in different cities.

Rob: I think it’s wild too because you really never know what the show is going to be like until the day of. You might have a sense of what the ticket sales are like or at least you think you do. But there are times where we’ll play cities that we haven’t played often and we’ll show up and so many people come through the door.

PC: You’re a band that continues to work day in and day out. What’s instilled that work ethic in all of you?
Dom: We’ve all been brought up in this mentality that if you want something, you have to work for it. There aren’t going to be any handouts.

Rob: I think communication too. Mike’s my brother. Dom’s my next-door neighbor. I knew Kevin in middle school. There’s been tons of communication. We all push each other. We all step into each other’s departments in a healthy way. But I do think we do know where each other’s strong points are. We bounce off each other and inspire one another.

Mike: When we started playing shows at a young age, we realized it was a good way to connect with people. We’re not a band that has tons of cash to dump on online advertising. Aside from that, being at a show and connecting with people is my favorite way to experience music. I love going to watch my favorite bands and watching them live. We realize how important it is to play live shows. As much as we can perform live, we’ll take advantage of it.

PC: Throughout your careers, you’ve made it a point to connect with your fans. Your concerts are more of an experience. As you continue to grow your fanbase, how challenging is that?
Rob: You never want to forget the kids who were there when there were only four of them. But at the same time, you want to make new fans feel that same level of attention. We’re not a band that sit around in the green room all night. We’re still at our merch table, even if we’re not selling anything. We’re chatting with people and walking around the venue. When other bands are playing, we all enjoy listening and watching music. That’s the coolest part of tour, and the bands that we tour with are great bands. We like to watch their sets. We’re with the kids in the crowd too.

Dom: We have a large group of people who do support us and travel to a bunch of different shows. I think all four of us are very observant. Like Rob said, we want to take time out to chat with everyone. When they continue to come to multiple shows, it allows us to connect with them on a whole other level.

PC: You’ve all said that your self-titled album is some of your most important work to date. What pressure does that add to this next body of work?
Rob: It’s kind of crazy. This is our first time doing a full-length release. If you want to go way back, we had another, what we could call full-length, in 2012, but that was before we started touring. But this is really our first full-length with a label and a whole team behind us. I wouldn’t say it was pressure, but you wanted to make the best album possible. Once you’ve done it that pressure is gone. It’s like your first time swimming in the deep end. It’s this big kind of fear, but once you’ve done it, you just dive in. I’m excited to make new music. I’m excited to be on the creative side of things. I care about creating new music, but I don’t care about the pressure to do so. We just want to make something that feels good to us. You can only hope that it connects with others. We hope our fans like it, but it has to feel good to us first.

Dom: If you put pressure on yourself, it’ll hinder your creative process. You have to let whatever flows to come out. If you enjoy making it and you enjoy the music that you’re putting out, you did your part.

PC: What do you hope to convey with this next release?
Rob: It’s really going to be a matter of what we want to talk about and our life experiences. There’s a big misconception that music is artists complaining. Music is a great expression of that. It’s a great forum for people who go through hardships or for people with a certain conviction. But I don’t always think music needs to be that way. There may be songs where things go wrong, but speaking for myself, my life’s been going pretty great. You can talk about things without having to go through hardships. I think that’s one angle that we can take.

There are so many things that we can chat about. Our #1 goal is just that it has to be genuine. To try and write something to make a hit is stupid. You have to write something that means something and matters.

PC: Having been a group for over a decade, what’s one thing that fans would be surprised to learn about the person to the left of you?
Rob: When Mike was five, he was a figure skater.

Dom: That’s a good one.

Rob: He had an ice skating teacher from Russia that he took private lessons from.

Mike: Kevin went through multiple phases in his life. He had a gangster phase and a super pop-punk phase. In high school, I think he had an identity crisis up until senior year. It was hilarious. I’ve witnessed Kevin through all his stages.

Kevin: I used to wear baggy pants with chains.

Rob: I remember red mohawk Kevin. I also remember you showed up to a music festival in a grape costume.

Kevin: Dom and I were on the same baseball team. His dad was our coach. I don’t think people know that Dom’s dad is a coach. Coach Mike!

Rob: His dad is also a great grill master.

Dom: He is. He grills a great steak.

Rob: Yeah!

Dom: Rob, this is tough. He’s an open book.

Kevin: But he can also be very mysterious.

Dom: Actually! I’ll take it to something recent and his success. He’s been working on a handful of Latin tracks. I think anyone who knows Rob knows he’s a fantastic songwriter and producer, but Rob working with Latin artists is really cool. It’s not all he does, but I think it’s very, very rad.

Rob: It’s crazy! My knowledge of Spanish is from my high school class where my high school teacher had fiestas every Friday. So we didn’t learn much. I get these vocals back in my email and I’ll be Google Translating them.

Dom: Rob is a Latin icon now.

PC: When you look at this next chapter in your careers, what do you still hope to accomplish?
Dom: It’s going to sound cliché, but keep doing what we’re doing. We just want to enjoy what we do, whether that’s performing to forty kids or 400. We want to create the best music possible and enjoy what we do. If you don’t enjoy it, then it’s like any job.

Kevin: We could be baristas. Though there’s nothing wrong with that.

Rob: I love coffee. I love Dunkin’.

Kevin: I think sometimes when you’re part of a band, you can get caught up with the politics and the business side of things, and we’re guilty of doing so, but right now we’re in the process of bringing it back to what we’re doing as a young band. Let’s go sit in a room for six hours and jam. Let’s get excited about what it’s all about: the music. I think that’s something we want to hold in our hearts in the next chapter.

PC: If you could tell yourself one thing from ten years ago, what would it be?
Dom: That’s tough.

Rob: Stop worrying about who’s going to print you the coolest merchandise. Worry about the songs because if you don’t have great music, what’s the point? Are you trying to be a musician? Are you trying to be a songwriter? Are you trying to be a band? Or are you trying to impress someone? I think when we were sixteen, we were so impressionable. I think everyone is at that age. It’s an impressionable age for anyone. Now being twenty-six, this is the most important part. Songs live on forever. You may not know the artist’s face, but you hear that song on the radio, and ten years later, you’re like “Wow, that’s still an amazing song.” That’s far more important. That has a deeper history than the band who had the cool stage scrims.

Dom: There’s a lot that you can tell yourself. But like Rob said, it always comes back to the music. That’s where the focus should be.

Mike: I would also teach myself how to book a nice hotel on a budget. Last night, I did a great job at that. That’s a joke.

Dom: Oh, I have a good one! I would tell myself not to be afraid to try new things. Push yourself outside your comfort zone. I think now we enjoy being outside our comfort zone. But when you’re a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old kid, you feel comfortable there. You feel safe. I wish I could go back and say, “Go take a risk.”

Mike: Like Rob and Dom said, I think being more open to music in general. Ten years ago, it was just AC/DC. Now to me, if it’s a good song, it’s a good song. I haven’t really thought that way in the past couple of years. Obviously, you have vibes, but you can take something from all genres of music that’s just good, whether that’s punk, country, metal, and so on and so on. Listen to everything and expand your horizons.

Rob: Like Mike said about picking up something new, try new instruments. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, there was so much structure, “You’re the guitar player in the band. You’re the bass player in the band.” It was very, “This is your role.” Things don’t need to be so cut and dry. I think rock music doesn’t have to be defined as a guitar anymore. I think that Lorde record that came out, not the most recent one, but the one prior to that, was such a rock record, and there’s not a single guitar. Dom picked up guitar two months before we left for a tour. At the time, it was hard for us to find consistent tour members who wanted to be out, and Dom picked it up and learned it. The open-mindedness of it all is really good.

To keep up with The Stolen, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and pick up their self-titled debut album on Amazon Music, iTunes, or stream it on Spotify.