by LORRAINE CARPENTER

For a local indie artist promoting a debut album and nursing a young label, a whack of Web site hits should be great news. Unfortunately for Eva Stone, most of her visitors were downloading photos, not music. However, although she’s recently (temporarily) reverted to her natural hair colour after many years as a platinum blonde, attracting attention is part of the master plan, a plan that ends with her conquering Montreal with subterranean sounds, where glam meets post-punk meets jazz.

“The glamorous image is very important to me, it provides a link from me to my music,” says Stone, “but it has to be punchy.”

Drawing on vocal influences like David Bowie and Siouxsie Sioux, Stone also brings seven years of university-level guitar training to the table, but don’t expect any pained-faced solos.

“I’m a guitar-crazy girl, but Santana is not my bag,” she says. “I’ve always liked underground guitar sounds. If you want an instrument to survive, you have to experiment.”

Among the team of musicians featured on her album The Hunted (none of whom are currently in her band), is le Parking’s DJ Frigid on keys. In turn, Stone may lend her talents to his debut album, due sometime next year.

That’s if she’s not too busy with Bloody Mary, the label/multimedia production company she founded in 2000 with her brother, filmmaker Roméo Stone. The siblings are equal partners, meaning she has to approve his scripts along with all their other potential projects, and he has the same say in her career.

“My brother hears my songs before anyone else, and if he doesn’t like it, nobody’s gonna hear it. We have a lot of confidence in each other,” says Stone. Roméo is also her artistic director, while the photography/graphic art team Blais & Bilinski handle the mechanics of promotion. Those wheels will start turning again this winter as Stone’s new album gets underway.

As for her upcoming show, “People can bring non-perishable food items for Sun Youth, and it’s also a comeback for Chiwawa, they haven’t played shows in two years,” she says.

“It’s a Christmas party! It’s gonna be fun, but don’t worry - I’m not going to come out with a big white beard.” :

With Chiwawa at l’Alizé on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 9pm, $8

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