New rumors have surfaced regarding Stone Temple Pilots’ singer search, and a top candidate that has not been previously discussed has been revealed.
As we reported last year, Stone Temple Pilots have filmed the audition process for a documentary project. Einar Vilberg, a Kurt Cobain lookalike who auditioned for STP last year and was told he wouldn’t be moving forward with the band, was the first to inform us about this last year.
An anonymous source has indicated to Alternative Nation that John Borja and Jeff Gutt have worked with STP, but that the band have tried out many other singers. Gutt rehearsed with STP back in May with former Filter guitarist Geno Lenardo present. J. Lynn Johnston from Mad At Gravity was tried out, but he apparently didn’t work out. The biggest name to try out that this source is aware of was Death From Above 1979 frontman Jesse Keeler. Keeler wrote material with the band, but he has now gotten Death From Above 1979 going again.
A singer STP really like is Pete Murray from Lo-Pro, Life On Planet 9, and currently White Noise Owl. Murray has written music with STP. Murray lives relatively close to where STP work, and he’s friends with Tommy Lee.
Murray also sang in the band Ultraspank in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and they played shows with Linkin Park. Stone Temple Pilots recently confirmed they have been working with a singer, but wouldn’t confirm their identity, outside of stating that the singer is male. In a Rolling Stone article earlier this week, Robert DeLeo discussed the singer.
“We’ve been working with someone – I don’t want to name names yet – and we’re making music,” Robert says. “I don’t know if he’s well-known or unknown; I don’t look at him as ‘well-known.’ But we’re writing music and we’re hopefully looking at finishing a record and putting it out soon.”
Dean DeLeo told Loudwire the singer they are working with did not come from the online auditions.
“I would just be behind the computer for like six hours straight going through them. It got to the point where I could tell. I could listen to the first five seconds of a song and know if I could proceed. There was some criteria that had to be met to send an audition and if people followed it correctly we asked for them to kindly sing on two songs and send some of their original material and some photos, video, whatever they can send us. If they did send it all, it was a process to go through one audition. But it got to the point where I could tell in five seconds whether this person is even worthwhile. That was quite an event but needless to say we did not find anybody in all the submissions.”
“We got a lot in our pockets right now. Just wait.”
Keep in mind nobody in Stone Temple Pilots or any of the singers mentioned in this article have confirmed any of this, these are from a second hand source, so take these latest rumors with a grain of salt until official word comes out from STP’s camp.
