The Flywire

"I just really try to concentrate on the feeling. I want people to feel my music through my voice," says Baltimore bred R&B crooner Scott Stone to fans on his MySpace page.Tracks from his soon to be released debut album are already getting radio play on 95.9 and 96.3 in the Baltimore/Washington area, and Stone is ready to take his soulful voice all over the world. No stranger to music, Stone grew up surrounded by it in the Featherstone household. Born Christopher Featherstone, he spent his younger years learning to play the piano and drums before sharpening his vocal skills. His older brother Justin came up with his stage name. "It's just his middle name and part of our last name," Justin told me as I sat with all three Featherstone brothers discussing music, spirituality, and their hopes for the future. This musical family began when their father, a drummer, and mother, a classically trained pianist, met and wed over 25 years ago. When Chris was just a toddler, his mother started giving piano lessons in their home. Now, twenty years later, they offer piano, drum, vocal and studio lessons to eager students of all ages. On a typical day when he was younger, Stone says his father could 24  The Flywire text: Dariece Jones photo: be giving drum lessons in the basement while his mother diligently worked with piano or dance students upstairs. Meanwhile, his two older brothers Justin and Matthew would be writing or working on tracks.The "noise" around the house became normal and eventually beautiful music that inspired him.Though it wasn't always easy, being around music all his life and hearing about his father's travels around the world as a musician inspired Stone to find a voice of his own. "I started singing around the house and people said my voice wasn't good," he recalls with a laugh. So he worked on perfecting his craft by practicing daily and by the time he reached high school his voice had developed. His vocals were even good enough to get him into the Baltimore School for the Arts, where the rigorous auditioning process deters even the most accomplished of students. Stone entered the institution as a vocal major and credits his high school career with the cultivation of his music theory skills and exposure to countless genres and periods of music. "I learned music theory, performance skills and the history of composers," he says. "I learned how to sing in German and French and had two recitals a year to perform what we had worked on." These skills have been beneficial to him personally and as a professional, and at 20, he feels like he is right on time to get his career started. When asked about the status of music today, Stone comments that "current artists lack a lot of grooming. Michael Jackson and James Brown were groomed.They knew music." Which is what he says will set him apart from the rest. Many of today's artists lack "development in vocals, and stage and interview charisma," he says. "You must know who you are as an artist to make music you feel and others can relate to." Stones brother Justin advises aspiring artists to "do your research. Find out who you are by studying other people. Pick out bits and pieces and find yourself." Though Stone classifies his music as "R&B and hip-hop-ish," he doesn't like to put his musical style in a box because he's been inspired by so many great artists including Michael Jackson, Prince, Donny Hathaway, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and rockers like Hoobastank and Coldplay. "Innovators use what's before them and make it into something," he says of

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