We sat down with Tarek Jafar of The Blue Stones, a Canadian rock band that blends blues, alternative, and indie influences on their new album, Hidden Gems. Produced by Mutemath frontman, Paul Meany, the album colors the band’s rock n’ roll sound with this fusion of influences and new lyrical approaches.

Amongst some awesome insight on the album, Jafar also opened up to us about “Careless”, one of the new songs off of Hidden Gems. Drawing on a unique influence of pop and RnB sounds, “Careless” stands out from the rest of The Blue Stones’ discography in the best way. It’s an ode to their songwriting versatility and the true range of the band, unbound by the “limitations” of genre. Jafar admitted that they were nervous about the change in sound, but Justin Tessier, Jafar’s counterpart in the band, convinced him that “Careless” was a step in the right direction:

“He mentioned it’s more of a sell out move to not release a song that you actually care about. So if we were to hold that song back from being released because we didn’t think it would do well, then isn’t that what selling out is?”

After spending a lot of time in quarantine writing for other artists, Jafar also expressed a huge interest in collaborating with other bands and songwriters in the future. We’re rooting for an iconic rock n’ roll collab sometime soon…

Check out the full episode of “Music You’re Missing” with The Blue Stones on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! You can also find our favorite jams off of Hidden Gems on our Spotify playlist.