Artist Glimpse: Mississauga's Sticks and Stones
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Sticks and Stones have steadily built a reputation in Mississauga’s music scene for their high-energy performances and emotionally driven songwriting. Their blend of hard rock and metal influences has earned them recognition, including the Mississauga Music Award for Best Live Band. With tracks like Dead Memories and their latest single Feel Again, the band continues to explore personal themes while pushing their sound forward.
I caught up with Nick and Rob Lisanti—the brothers behind the band’s driving force—to talk about how their music evolves, what inspires them, and what’s next.
Rob Aguiar - Your live shows have earned you the Mississauga Music Award for Best Live Band, and it’s clear your songs take on a whole new life on stage. How do your tracks evolve from the studio to the live setting? Are there moments where the energy of the crowd or the spontaneity of performance reshapes the way a song feels or even sounds?
Rob Lisanti - Yeah it was a huge honour to be recognized by Mississauga Music Awards for our live act as we spend a lot time and effort making sure we put on the best show possible. As for the song's evolution from studio to stage -- the tracks are written with the intent to make the best sounding song possible and the mindset usually is “we will figure out how to do this live”. And the great thing about having the technology we have now is that most sounds from the studio can be replicated in the live scenario, and the intensity of the recording can be captured and performed live to the audience. And the best thing about performing live is having an exchange in energy with the audience so the more the audience gives us the more we are able to reciprocate back to them in energy and in our performance which can reshape the intensity of songs.
RA - “Dead Memories” hits hard with lines like ‘You narcissistic self-afflicted waste of life’ and ‘Don’t come looking for dead memories.’ It feels like a raw confrontation with someone from the past. Was this song born out of a personal experience with a toxic relationship or breakup? How did that emotional intensity shape the writing and performance of the track?
Nick Lisanti - Yes I don’t want to go into specific details but this song was written about someone in my life who I trusted. They ended up stabbing me in the back which left me feeling betrayed. I channeled those emotions and they shaped their way into a song which became “Dead Memories” which gives the song a more intense grounded feeling that everyone has experienced before which I hope connected with the listeners.
RA - Your new track “Feel Again” just dropped recently. What inspired the song, and what do you hope listeners take away from it?
RL - Yeah for sure! “Feel Again” is a song about trying to find a way out of being in a state of numbness and is a song that is a cry out for change from being in a perpetual state of a mechanical routine and just wanting to feel something again. What I hope listeners take away from it is that those people who are programmed into a routine and feel like everyday goes by feeling the same. I hope listening to this song can elicit an escape of some sort of emotion, since to me that is the purpose of music. And being someone who is in university I can sometimes feel like days go by without me noticing, but the time I spend in the car rides home listening to music is when I can escape being wrapped up in endless deadlines and stress and just feel the emotion behind some of my favourite songs.
RA - Your sound blends classic rock grit with modern metal intensity. Can you share which artists or genres have most influenced your style—both individually and as a band?
NL - Overall as a band we draw a lot of influence from early 2000s active rock and classic rock. The early 2000s rock influence comes from watching WWE as kids and hearing bands like Alter bridge, Saliva, Three days grace, and many more, while the classic rock influence comes from our parents at a young age downloading some of their favourite 80s bands onto our IPOD nanos and blasting bands like Metallica and Guns N’ Roses in the car. Personally, I am influenced by bands like Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, Seether and the other artists mentioned above.
RL - For my influences as a drummer and song writer I would say some of my influences are; the 2000s rock bands my brother mentioned, The Roots (especially Questlove), 50s groups like The Platters, and groups like Chicago, Toto, and Steely Dan.
RA - If you could collaborate with any artist—past or present—who would it be, and what kind of track would you want to create together?
RL - As a band we would love to work with a metal band to make a hard rock/metal blended track (in the vein of Mayday by Coldrain if you are familiar). As to which metal artist that would be I would say working with Joe Duplantier from Gojira would be awesome or even a Canadian Artist like maybe Spiritbox.
RA - You’ve built serious momentum with new releases and high-profile gigs. What’s next for Sticks and Stones? Any upcoming projects, tours, or sonic shifts we should be watching for?
RL - Well we just released the second single “Saviour” off our second full length album that will be coming out next spring. And before the album drops in spring starting in January you can look for a new Sticks N’ Stones release every six weeks until the album drops around May 2026.
RA - Sticks and Stones continue to grow their sound and connect with audiences through honest songwriting and dynamic performances. With new music on the horizon and a solid foundation in their local scene, they’re a band worth keeping an eye on as they take their next steps.
