It’s not often I’d voluntarily drive an hour and a half to see a show or interview a band, I live in L.A. and already spend half my life contained in a car in gridlock style traffic- but Like A Storm was coming to town and sacrifices must be made in pursuit of good music. Three freeways and one long ass lecture from the GPS lady later and I was pulling into the Grove of Anaheim ready to rock with four guys of Like A Storm!

You’d think it would be insanely easy to spot a guy with red and black hair- but there’s a lot of stuff happening backstage! So four email exchanges later and I was instructed to knock on an RV door and hopefully I’d find myself in the right place at the right time. (If not I was more than prepared to ding dong ditch the dudes that answered!) Lucky for me it was in fact the correct location and I was invited in to get up close and personal with Like A Storm!

LN: You guys are playing tonight at the Grove of Anaheim with Alter Bridge- how’s the tour going?

LAS: Yeah! This is our second tour with Alter Bridge- the first one around January/December.

LN: So you guys became bffs

LAS: Yeah, exactly- Alter Bridge for president!

LN: Does that make you Vice President?

LAS: Secretary of Awesomeness!

LN: So where’s the next stop on the tour?

LAS: Well our next show’s in Salt Lake City

LN: Wonderful- right around the corner!

LAS: Relatively speaking- I mean, I think we’re driving the entire length of the country we’re from which is New Zealand.

 

LN: Any radio wars going on? What’s playing on the ipod/cd/radio right now?

LAS: Ipod shuffle’s where it’s at! I think we rode in today cruising to some reggae.

LN: Definitely get’s you in the mood for summer!

LAS: Exactly, it’s definitely feeling like summer out here! Other than that Metallica is always on heavy rotation.

LN: They just played the Big 4!

LAS: I would have loved to have seen that!

 

LN: Main musical influences?

LAS: Hmm- we grew up listening to a lot of 90s alternative rock- Nirvana, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots- we’re also really big fans of Metallica, Tool, NIN

LN: Pretty eclectic!

LAS: We try to be- we just like stuff that has a good melody- anything with good heavy riffs- that’s what we love about Alter Bridge!

 

LN: You guys are just kick-starting your tour- any pre-show vices or rituals you guys always do as a band?

LAS: Nothing too scandalous! You’ve gotta have a couple of beers to almost put you back to normal because your adrenaline is so high getting amped for the show! You’ve gotta have a couple of drinks just to bring you back down to the rhythm of a normal person!

 

LN: I know we’re only four shows in- but anything crazy happen on tour thus far?

LAS: This girl Sara had these Like A Storm shoes and I was like I didn’t know we had those! And she showed them to me and turns out her friend had hand painted our logos on each of the toes- with SUCH detail, it looked like it was professionally done! That’s always great when fans do stuff like that! There were other fans Jenny and Steve from Chicago who flew out for our show in Vegas and they had custom tshirts!

LN: I have to say I think it’s insanely awesome that you guys remember everybody’s name and stuff- that’s REALLY great!

LAS: Well when you come up from New Zealand you’re just really grateful- and the cool thing about Facebook is that you can keep in touch. We hang out with them more than anyone else really!

LN: Yeah during my Like A Storm cyberstalking session I saw that you guys were going to say hi to your fans when you pulled up today!

LAS: Yeah- we just did! The thing is we’re fans of other bands too- and fans are just like us, just normal people- and it’s really cool for us to see familiar faces when we’re constantly moving and touring!

 

LN: Favorite show so far?

LAS: The one we just played in San Fransisco was AWESOME. We played in this theater- I can’t remember the name right now- but it was just an awesome show! We’d driven through there a bunch of times.

LN: So you finally got a little up close and personal with SF.

LAS: Yeah, we also played the House of Blues in Vegas which was great- and Portland we’ve played maybe 5 or 6 times now- to me they’re just all great, there hasn’t really been just one!

 

LN: How does it compare playing in Canada as opposed to playing in the states?

LAS: We haven’t done too much extensive touring in Canada yet- and we’ve built a local following in Vancouver just from the years of playing there- but we probably play here more than anywhere else. We live in Calabasas for a couple of years while recording our album. Rock music just really seems to be in the blood of American people!

 

LN: Fest season in Europe and the U.K. is fast approaching- any plans to play there?

LAS: Not YET- but we would LOVE too. We actually have quite a few fans in Europe that always write to us on Facebook saying “man, when are you guys coming over?!” And the Alter Bridge guys tell us that it’s wicked over there!

LN: Well I’ll keep my fingers crossed because I’ll be there for fest season!

LAS: Wicked! Do you want to bring a band in your suitcase?

LN: Totally- you guys can be my carry on!

 

LN: So three of you guys are brothers- how’d you meet the other member? Craigslist?

LAS: In the back alley! No, we moved to Vancouver and started playing a lot, and became friends with a lot of other musicians and Tommy was playing in a band with a lot of our best friends, and we’d always thought he was an awesome drummer- but we’d had a drummer at the time. So our friend said to us why don’t you jam with Tommy, see what happens. We had a long audition process when we were making the record- we probably spent about a year looking for the right drummer.

LN: Well you can’t take it lightly- it’s gotta be the right fit!

LAS: Exactly- we had to find a guy to get on with us, three brothers, and Tommy’s just awesome we got on great musically, and as a dude!

 

LN: Closing remarks to friends, fans, and music fiends?

LAS: Thank you so much for supporting us, and following us, and understanding the passion that we put into our music!

I left them to resume their pre-show vices and rituals and was surprised to see the line for the show had already multiplied by several feet! These fans weren’t messing around at all- and were more than a little prepared to brave the merciless So Cal sun to ensure their spot.

The guys rocked and the entire evening was a high energy onstage collaboration of riffs and vocals that meshed seamlessly with each other! I have my fingers crossed that they’ll make it over for fest season this summer so I can get a repeat performance, stat! To stay updated on the latest and greatest with Like A Storm head to their Facebook Page HERE!