If you’ve been following the live music scene around Wheeling over the last two or three years, there’s a chance you’ve caught wind of Stone Campus, one of the latest and most exciting bands to emerge from the Friendly City in recent memory. The group features the combined talents of vocalist and guitarist Melody Petras, bassist Levi Hill, drummer Dillon Richardson, and guitarist Brady Lytton. Since their official formation back in 2023, this local indie rock outfit has performed all throughout the greater Wheeling area and, in 2026–still fresh off the heels of their 2025 sophomore EP, Greener—the band shows no signs of slowing down. Ahead of another busy calendar year for the group—including performances at the Mustard Seed Mountain Relaunch Party and Wheeling Heritage’s FidoFest next weekend—let’s take a closer look at Stone Campus, and what brought them to where they are today.
Setting the Stage
Then still only a trio, Melody, Levi, and Dillon played their first show under the Stone Campus name just three years ago at the Clientele Art Studio on 15th Street, but, the story of the band, and how they came to be, extends back a little further. Dillon, Levi, and Brady had all known each other since High School before they met Melody on the campus of West Liberty University several years ago. “I just kind of walked into their lives,” says Petras on meeting her future bandmates.
It was a shared love of music that played a big role in immediately bonding her with the rest of the group. Melody had grown up singing and taking piano lessons, and eventually wound up playing alto saxophone in her high school marching band. Marching band became a fast passion of hers, and she followed it to Ohio University where she spent her first year of college before changing tune and moving to the Wheeling area to enroll at WLU. During this transitional moment, Petras found her musical horizons expanding, crediting an experience at a Two Door Cinema Club concert as the “epiphany” moment that inspired her to explore different ways of performing. Mel, Dillon, and Brady even collaborated in a band called Rivers around this time.
And as for her new friends, they’d all been involved in the local Hardcore scene in Wheeling, with Levi even throwing some shows himself during those days. Listening through Stone Campus’ catalog, you can hear faint echoes of these hardcore roots, which proved foundational in how the group would later develop their sound. Though much of the scene has since dissolved, Petras herself was quick to credit Stone Campus’ punk forebears as essential components in the band’s formation, “We’re really here because of Wheeling’s hardcore scene,” she says.
Getting the Band Back Together
After college, Melody and Brady both moved to Pittsburgh for a period of time, though the four friends remained in close contact with each other in spite of the distance. After a few years, enjoying life in Pittsburgh, but missing Wheeling too much, Mel and Brady moved back to the area, and a few years later, Petras approached Levi and Dillon with a handful of songs she’d written on her acoustic. These acoustic songs would eventually evolve into the first material from Stone Campus. Speaking with Melody, she recalled the lo-fi nature of their earlier rehearsals, with Dillon playing on a cajón rather than a full drum kit.
Looking to indie rock acts like Pinegrove and Alvvays, and modern hardcore staples like Turnstile as inspiration, Stone Campus honed their craft for nearly a year before first playing in front of a live audience. In December of 2023, they released their debut EP, Wallflower, with recording duties being helmed by Johnathon Porter.
Shortly after Wallflower’s release, Brady joined, splitting guitar duties with Melody and filling out the band’s sound. “I was trying to do everything”, she said of her guitar parts prior to Lytton’s arrival, but after Stone Campus became a four piece, she and Brady were able to bounce back and forth between playing lead and rhythm sections. Throughout 2024, the band collaborated with Wheeling punk veteran Jay Demko on a slew of singles including tracks like Rose Colored Shades, and Big Screen Movie. The band continued growing tighter over the course of time, both musically and as friends. “It’s like any relationship—of course there are hurtles,” says Melody, “but we’re all just such good friends, we always work through it.”
In 2025, the band made a big leap, heading to the Pittsburgh area to record their next EP with Matt Very of Very Tight Recordings. “That guy is a wizard,” says Petras, “He helped us so much in finding our sound.” With Matt to bounce ideas off of, Stone Campus continued iterating on their indie rock identity, including a structural overhaul of the title track to their debut EP. This time with a second guitarist in the mix, the new version of Wallflower kicks off Greener’s four track run, a perfect encapsulation of how the band has evolved over the past three years. And looking ahead to the future, Melody teased some new songs already in the works, and the potential of a split EP with another local act.
A Wheeling Band
Stone Campus has no qualms wearing their home-grown roots on their sleeve. “It’s just such a good home base for us,” says Melody on the importance of Wheeling in Stone Campus’ past, present and future. “It’s right between Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Morgantown if we have shows out there, but then we can always come home and play for our community. There’s shows all the time in Wheeling, and all of the bands can kind of fit on a bill together.”
For proof of what Melody’s talking about, look no further than the lineup for this year’s Bluesfest, where Stone Campus will be playing on the side stage. If you’d like to secure your ticket for the festival ahead of time, and support the band in the process, you can do so on the Heritage Music Fest website using the code BLUEJAY.
But, in the meantime, you can also catch Stone Campus live next weekend at FidoFest. They’ll also take the stage on Friday, May 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Urban Collective for a special fundraiser celebrating the relaunch of West Virginia’s first street paper, Mustard Seed Mountain, featuring live music, mocktails from Midge’s Kitchen, exclusive merch, and readings from the publication’s spring issue. You can also check out the new vinyl pressing of Greener, and follow the band on Instagram for more updates!
