Abbey Stone on unusual beginnings and the biggest guitar show in the southern hemisphere

The Melbourne Guitar Show is back again this year with another massive lineup of performers and guitars on display, and Melbourne artist Abbey Stone is pretty stoked to be part of the show for the second year in a row.
“It’s really exciting,” Stone beams, “this time I’m there for a full day on the Saturday, doing the set on the main stage and then I’m with the boys at Link Audio and the guys over at Fender as well – just showing people what they do and the relationship they have as companies with their artists; how we all work hand in hand, and how we have to work hand in hand. It’s really cool.”
Endorsed by Fender at the age of 15 before she had ever even plucked the strings on a guitar, Stone’s story has a very unlikely beginning. Attending a Fender Guitar event in Melbourne back in 2009, Stone was invited to join Jeff Martin, lead singer and guitarist of the iconic Canadian band The Tea Party on stage. Not one to pass up a golden opportunity, Stone accepted.
“I didn’t actually play guitar at all at this stage,” she laughs. “I had one! I had a little acoustic guitar that I got as a gift a couple of years beforehand, but I never picked it up.
“Jeff got me up to sing with him, and my microphone wasn’t even switched on but I had a little bit of a jam with him up there, and as my mum and I were leaving the day, my manager ran after me and he said ‘Margaret from Fender has just ran up to me asking if we can sign you’. I was like, I’ve never picked up a guitar in my life and I looked at him, absolutely shitting myself, and he was just like, ‘well you’re going to have to learn now’.
Signing the deal with Fender, Stone has been working with the the World’s leading guitar manufacturer ever since.
“I love that they’re so supportive of just music in general. I didn’t even know how to play guitar and they wanted to nurture me; you don’t really get that any more,” she reveals. “But that is how I got into guitar. I feel kind of bad telling that story though; most people don’t stumble across opportunities like that, but it’s really made me want to work even harder at it because I’ve got these incredible people who are really supporting me and I don’t want to let them down, I don’t want to let myself down.”

With a blend of pop, soul and rock music, the now 24 year old has spent the past few years honing in on her craft between New York, Nashville, Los Angeles and Australia, writing and recording her own music, as well as performing headline sets, playing venues such as the iconic Bluebird Cafe, Antiques Archaeology in Nashville as well as the Apollo Theatre in New York. Stone has also made a name for herself with support slots for artists such as John Farnham, Andy Grammar, Leo Sayer, 10CC, Renee Gayer, John Stevens, The Black Sorrows, Russel Morris, Daryl Braithwaite and The Badloves – just to name a few.
Releasing her five track debut EP Doorways in 2014 which saw Stone collaborating to co-producers and session musicians in Nashville, she followed this up with her sophomore release ‘Complete’ in 2017 where she took things into her own hands.
“As a young musician, your first experience recording properly isn’t necessarily in Nashville on Music Road and with an incredible producer. I felt like I was very spoiled by doing that, but it was so cool for me to learn how to do things in that sense,” she explains. “When recording the second EP, I ended up doing the opposite thing and figuring it out for myself; learning how to work the studio on my own, and take that kind of approach.”
Now, drawing on experiences from her previous releases, the young musician is spending her time working on her third EP in her Melbourne based studio.
“Next time around I want to incorporate both experiences; I’ve had the best of both worlds and learnt different things from both experiences,” Stone explains. “I’m still writing the next project though. Honestly, so many things change and you never know musically what’s going to happen. You spend hours in the studio and come up with so many different things. The next things I do, I definitely want to take aspects from both experiences and include new things like co-writing, other musicians, and getting fresh ears on all the material and just having fun with it.
“I just really want to get stuck into writing fresh songs that sound different to what I’ve written in the past,” she continues. “There’s an excitement in changing things up a little, and I think that’s something everyone should strive to do in everything really.”
With her next performance being at the Melbourne Guitar Show, it is an exciting opportunity for any music lover, and an opportunity that isn’t wasted on Stone.
“It’s really just getting a bunch of like-minded people in the same room and just allowing them to explore their creativity,” she says of the upcoming event. “There’s not really a place people can go to have a look at what’s coming out and what’s on offer. Everything is in one spot; everyone goes there with the same intention which is just to be creative for the day and see what comes out of it.
“It’s such a cool environment and everyone is so positive. It’s just really nice to be apart of it and I’m so glad I get to come back and do it again because I had a great time last year,” she smiles. “It’s honestly just people wanting to have fun with music and that is the most exciting thing to me; I can’t wait to go back.
Abbey Stone will be performing at the Acoustic Stage at 11am on Saturday August 4.
Don’t miss the Melbourne Guitar Show at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday August 4 and Sunday August 5.
Tickets here.
Written by Talia Rinaldo