Today I am super thrilled to introduce you to Birmingham-based trio Storm: Season. Just like their name suggests, they entered my world like a storm and I got a feeling their music will stay with me. They are taking inspiration from different genres and two singles later I got totally hooked on their cinematic sound.
Storm: Season create a perfect soundtrack to the pandemic
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I’m grateful that Calvert, Martyn & Will were open to talk about their journey! Without further ado, let me introduce you to one and only Storm: Season.
Congratulations, what a way to start a new year! You just released your second single. I’d love to hear about the journey you had up until the moment ‘My Lover’s’ saw the light of day.
Calvert: It has been challenging starting afresh, with a new project, especially when we’ve not been able to meet up as regularly as a new project would’ve. We were not really sure how the release would go with it being during the lockdown, so there was great trepidation.
Do you remember when was the moment that you all knew – we can do music together?
Calvert: On Martyn’s birthday last year, I sent him a song I wrote just for him to use as a track to play drums over for his Instagram. I just bought a ukulele so I wanted to use it. However, when he sent the recording back and we both listened to it, it sounded so good! So we ended up sending more to each other. That’s when we got Will involved to do production and he contributed so much more to the songs that we had to ask him to be a permanent member.
2020 will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. How did it impact your creativity and how you work as a band?
Martyn: The funny thing is with us it was the events of 2020 that brought us all together. As all our other projects came to a halt we had to find another outlet to carry on musically, which was sending recordings to another. So creatively we thrived as it was all new. In fact, we wrote a lot of our catalogue without being in the same room together.
What does ‘My Lover’s’ mean to you? How did you know that this is the song you need to introduce yourself to the world with?
Calvert: The song started off as just an idea, an expression of recent hardships that I had been through. I didn’t think much of the song but William was determined to realize his sonic vision for the track, and after months of arduous work he finalized his vision, the result of which blew me away.
What was the inspiration behind the ‘Catch Z’s’? (You are talking about the disease and that you wish to die). In the world of a global pandemic, I gotta a feeling that there is more behind the surface here.
*calverts depression intensifies* Calvert: But seriously I’ve always had underlying issues with… less than savory thoughts on my own health, but after having girl problems on top of said negative thoughts and well, you get the perfect recipe to write a song like ‘Catch Z’s’.
Tell us more about your creative process? How do you create songs as a band?
Will: We currently work independently on glimpses or sections of tracks in order to brainstorm the direction we want the tracks to go in, sending each other ideas back and forth until the tracks are complete. With my creative incite, Calvert’s pure talent, and Martyn, we have been able to collaborate on tracks with varying styles that just MAKE the very essence that Storm: Season represents.
Your music is the best soundtrack to the apocalyptic world we are experiencing. It is also very cinematic. Imagine if it could be played on any movie or TV Series, do you have a favorite that would fit the mood for your music?
Martyn: I think that’s because it was written as a result of everything going on, as we were experiencing the quiet loneliness of it all, So our music reflects that. I’m a big Sci-fi fan and With that all in mind, I can see our music fitting the themes and mood of the Bladerunner films quite well! Especially ‘Catch Z’s’.
How do you make decisions in a band? How do you know when the song is finished?
Will: We have a great relationship, we enjoy hearing each other’s feedback on tracks to the point that a Storm: Season track isn’t Storm: Season unless all of our inputs have been included. As the producer, it can be overwhelming receiving fresh projects due to the amount of different ways I see a track going.
With a solid schedule on releases it has been a saviour to me, almost like being in a crystal maze episode, there’s so much you can do before the timer is up. And with deadlines, the looming pressure and a few meltdowns in between, it’s nevertheless been easier for me to declare a song as a finished product.
You were inspired by different genres. How did you manage to come up with such a haunting cinematic sound?
Will: Having taken some influence from the film-making world, and speaking for all three of us as avid watchers of the media, we take great enjoyment from incorporating cinematic traits as a way of accentuating our sound. And as unfinalized our style can be, we aim to always surprise and reference our inspirations from all art forms.
Can you tell us about how you came up with the name for the band?
Calvert: when I was first writing songs on the ukulele it was one hecking stormy week. The rain was nonstop and honestly so soothing but at the same time unpleasant, dour and foreboding. It was a storm season, and I figured it encapsulated the vibe and aesthetic of what I was going for then and what we’re going for now.
What needs to happen so you would be able to say “We made it in the music industry”?
Calvert: If we all got to shake hands with Kanye and him actually knowing who we were, I’m 90% sure none of us listen to Kanye, but still imagine if Kanye knew who you were, you’d be like “Damn, we made it to the big leagues bois”
Will: what Calvert said, but with Damon Albarn, not Kanye.
What can we expect from you next?
Martyn: We have big plans for the rest of this year. We are only getting started and have a lot more songs we are eagerly working on which we can’t wait to release. Along with a few surprises along the way, Let’s just say nothing is off the table and we don’t want to restrict ourselves musically. Another big thing which we are working towards is taking our band live which hopefully we may be able to do towards the end of the year.
Close your eyes. Imagine it’s the 20th of January 2022. How would you summarize 2021?
Will: The beginning of something great, that has provided me with as much joy as it has laughter, dread, and determination for the future.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience?
Will: Outside of what we create, I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read about us and who we are, it’s been incredibly fun being provided this platform to announce ourselves to you all. Hopefully, you enjoy our music as much as we do making it in the future.
That said, with this only being the beginning, expect many roller coaster rides along the way in terms of what we release. As dynamic as we come, we aim to bring excitement to as many ears as we can through music, featuring and supporting as many artists we can in order to support our fellow creatives within the industry. Anything goes! Let’s get this bread or something like that.
Make sure to connect with Storm: Season
Introducing » Artists We Interviewed
This coverage was created in collaboration with Musosoup as part of the #SustainableCurator movement.
