Hard Rock Hell Radio host of The Rule Breakers Show, Charlotte, caught up with rising star STORM following his Download debut, talking about his inspirations, future plans and what it has been like walking the grounds of Donington!
Charlotte: Welcome to Donington! You opened the avalanche stage earlier today, tell me about your set and some of the highlights from Download so far.
Storm: Wow. What should I start with? It’s all pretty crazy, like just arriving at the festival and it’s been great seeing the crowd, like people singing our lyrics. That’s, that’s its difference.
C: And you’ve obviously brought the weather with you
S: Yeah, the storm is coming!
C: So I think you’re one of the youngest performers at the Download Festival this weekend, can you talk me through how you got into performing?
S: It’s actually, I have music on both sides of my family, both my mom and dad. My dad played punk music for me. My mom played flamenco. So I was dancing a lot when I was a kid at my dad’s nightclub, dancing and singing and they let me dance on stage and one moment I became really, really shy. When I was about five years old, I became really shy. But I had a friend of mine who was like, you gotta sing, dude, you have to do it. So when I was about eight years old, we started our first band and it was called Escape the Riddle. My favourite band at the time was Escape the Fate, so we had basically the same name. But yeah, that was really when it started. And then I started writing my own songs and stuff. So that was when it started for real.
C: So from eight years old you had your first band? And now at 15 you’re performing a Download?
S: Yeah. It’s kind of crazy.
C: And what would you say are some of your biggest influences? So obviously, outside of your family encouraging you to get into music?
S: Falling In Reverse. They’ve inspired me so much. I discovered them when I was about eight years old and they quickly became my favorite. And the way they like, especially on the newer stuff, the way they like mix some hip hop and pop into [their] music, I thought that was so cool. So they’re obviously my biggest, biggest inspiration.
C: And you’ve recently released your single Die Young which is a blend of different genres, which going off what you’ve just said, you love the fact that you can bend different genres to make new sounds. So tell me about your writing style and how that influenced this track.
S: So this song [I] actually wrote with the guy who plays with us live. He’s called Erlen. I met him one year ago, and we’ve been working a lot together now, so we just get in the studio together and we often speak. Start with making the chorus, because I think that’s the most important part, a catchy chorus. So, yeah, just finding the perfect melodies, and then we’ll build everything around it. And we’re always, like, trying out stuff. Like, maybe we’re in the studio, I’m like, can we try to make a punk song? Because why not? And maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. But we like to, be creative and try out some crazy stuff.
C: So we’ve got this new single. When can we look forward to some more new music or potentially an EP or an album?
S: So we’re working on an album right now. We’ve been working a lot this winter, and it’s almost done now, but I think we’ll be releasing some more singles because I feel like the song should get the attention they deserve, you know? So I guess the album will be out at the start of 2025, and it’ll be pretty crazy. It is a lot of different stuff.
C: And I assume that a tour will soon follow after that as well.
S: I don’t know. I don’t know now, but that would be sick.
C: If you were given the chance to either tour with a certain band or collab with a certain band, give me some names of who you’d want to work.
S: Okay, I’ll give you some names. The biggest one is, of course, Falling In Reverse. I’ve always said since I was a kid that my biggest dream is playing warm up for Falling In Reverse. That would be crazy. But also artists like Yungblud, big inspiration, Bring Me The Horizon, of course. That would be it. That would be crazy.
C: So we’ve spoken about some new music, potentially a new album for next year. What else have you got planned for the rest of this year?
S: We have some festivals in Norway, about three or four more, and we’re planning on doing a mini tour this autumn. Like, not a lot of concerts. Some concerts. But we’ll see. I’m here for the rest of the weekend. I’ve dreamt of just being on this festival, and now I’m playing here.
C: Thank you so much for your time.
S: Thank you so much.
