INTRODUCING: Storm Orchestra
French trio STORM ORCHESTRA were birthed from the underground Paris alternative scene, where they spent time creating their own take on modern alt-rock, combining intricate riffs, catchy choruses and a whole lot of meaning.
Consisting of singer and guitarist Maxime Goudara, bassist Adrien Richard and drummer Loïc Fouquet, STORM ORCHESTRA came out of the gate swinging with their album Get Better featuring both CHUNK! NO! CAPTAIN CHUNK! and JJ WILDE.
Speaking to Max and Loïc from their studio (their camera was literally propped up on a snare drum) they delved into the creation of the band, the album, and how they ended up with two insane features on their album.
The band initially formed due to Max and Adrien meeting as they studied to become sound engineers, but it wasn’t until 2019 when they met Loïc that STORM ORCHESTRA really started to take shape; to the point where only months after joining the band, they won a competition to open a festival stage in France to an audience of thousands. Reminiscing, Max called Loïc joining the ‘real birth’ of the band.
The name itself came from the band listening to Brainstorm by ARCTIC MONKEYS, deciding to take the ‘storm’ section and combine it with ‘orchestra’ to create their name “we chose to add orchestra as a joke, because there’s only three of us, but we want to create the noise of a whole orchestra,” Max laughs.
The band lean quite a lot into the orchestra section of their name, “when you listen, we use violin sounds quite a lot in our work,” Loíc points out, “it’s actually a dream of ours to put on a big show with a full orchestra,” he adds excitedly, “but it has to be at the Royal Albert Hall!” Interjects Max excitedly, leading them to launch into impassioned discourse on their favourite artists that have performed there.
When asked on how a young band have already got two albums and an EP out, Loïc was quick to say “COVID meant we had a lot of time. We weren’t touring, so we were in the studio, it helped us get our emotions out in the first album.” Since then, they have signed with Mascot Records in 2023, which was a game changer for them. “We had real support through creating our second album, it let us push ourselves to give them something to work on,” Loïc explains.
Their latest album Get Better, was released in 2025, with track Drummer hitting particular success online “that’s the thing with social media and Spotify, this new industry we navigate now, a track just has to be on the right playlist and it can get attention, this is what happened for us,” comments the drummer. “Our music video was a bit more funny, it was a new side of the band for fans, the label helped promoting it too, we didn’t expect it.” Max adds, “we faked me leaving the band and it caused a lot of panic!”
Rest assured, the trio are still going strong. “This album is our strongest music, we have a great mix of strong choruses and deeper songs,” Max praises. “There are no fillers, just showcasing different musical parts of the band.”
The album features Bert Poncet of CHUNK! NO, CAPTAIN CHUNK! on Crash the Mirrors and JJ Wilde on Désolé. The collaboration with Bert is described as a “natural progression” by the pair, as he has worked on all of their releases so far and is a “long time collaborator and friend”. “We wanted to start opening up the possibility of collabs, so it was perfect for him to be first,” Loïc comments, “who better than him to help us showcase the heavier side of our band!”
Désolé on the other hand was originally written and recorded with just Max’s vocals, but the band turned to their label and suggested a female voice, to which the label responded with the recommendation of JJ WILDE. “My girlfriend is a huge fan of JJ WILDE, and I wrote this song thinking about her [the girlfriend] so it just fit,” Max chuckles. “She added her own lyrics and harmonies, it was a great combination!”
Though the band don’t have specific messages per songs, their second album overall focuses on the state of the world, global warming, wars and how we have to either be part of the solution or just learn to live through it. “I believe that changing the world starts with changing yourself,” proclaims Max.
As for favourite tracks, Max waxes poetic that his is Superplayer due to the experience of playing it live and having that connection with the audience “there’s a football chant and heavy riffs, we love it, the fans love it, what more do you want?” Loïc’s favourite? Crash the Mirrors and why? “It’s the heaviest!”
Get Better is out now via Mascot Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS126 here:
Like STORM ORCHESTRA on Facebook.