Storm: Just Be Yourself
STORM broke onto the metalcore scene in 2022 with his debut EP, Invincible, released at the tender age of 13. Now, three years later, aged 16, the Norwegian singer – real name Leo Davadi Sundli – is back with his debut album, Join The Storm.
“I’ve been writing a lot of songs for a long time now, but in late 2023, I was in the studio with a friend of mine, we were writing two songs every day. When we were done with our sessions and I had to go back to school, we were like, ‘wow, we have plenty of songs right now.’ At first I just wanted to keep dropping singles as it’s easier, but then I was thinking that we have a lot of songs, let’s make an album,” Sundli explains.
The songs are in so many different genres, which made music producers wary at first, but Sundli decided to make that the selling point of the album. “We took out about twenty songs, and in the end we were left with the ten best songs of the writing process. Also, it’s just a cool thing to drop an album. I feel like with an album, you can have something bigger to listen to. I’m much more proud of the album as it’s so much more work than is put into one song. I’ve thought so much thought into this. If a single is bad, then people are going to forget about it, but with an album, it’s a lot harder to forget.”
The most memorable thing about an album, apart from the music, is the cover. And the cover for Join The Storm is exceptionally striking. It’s a black-and-white photo of the singer laying on top of a white table with black and white ink coming out of his eyes and mixing on the table.
“I’ve been working with a photographer called Elizabeth. She’s great, and first of all, I just wanted to make a sick picture, so we got some ideas down. But afterwards, I was thinking it was cool because we were doing the black-and-white opposite colours. It’s hard to explain, but that’s what I’m doing with this album as well. There are songs that are the completely different sides of music, but there are songs which are the same. The message is to do what you want to do.”
A lot can happen in three years, especially when you’re a teenager. But for Sundli, he’s had the same mindset since he started, which is “I’m going to make the music that I want to make. But the music is what has changed over the years. At first, I was writing songs that started with a guitar riff, which was the most important part for me. Now, I’m more focused on the chorus and melodies, and that’ll probably change with time as well. There’s a lot of things going on and there’s a lot of different things that I want to do.” He jokes that his producer sometimes gets tired of him as he calls him up and says he wants to be a rapper one day, and then the next day, he wants to write a pop-punk EP. “I want to try so many different things, and I’m not afraid to do it. That’s what makes me proud of the album.”
He decided to name the album Join The Storm because “all the songs can connect in the fact that they’re about being yourself. It’s really hard for people as we’re human and we like to fit in. That’s how we’re made. But I think a lot of people can relate to that, whether you’re at school or work. It’s hard to speak out. So, for me, Join The Storm just means join the chaos. Let’s say ‘fuck that shit!’ So long as you’re not hurting anyone else, you can do whatever you want.”
One of the songs on the album that talks about this is Suffocating, which features fellow Norwegian band FIXATION. “I’ve known the band since I started STORM. We played gigs together, and they helped me a lot with producing my music and teaching me about vocals. I sent them the whole album and told them that they could pick any song they want, and they chose Suffocating, and they added a super heavy breakdown and put their vibe into it.”
The other collaboration is on the closing song Fever Dreams featuring SNAK THE RIPPER, a Canadian rapper that Sundli knows through his dad, who used to book him to play at his nightclub when Sundli was around five years old. “The first time he did it, SNAK‘s plane got cancelled, so him and his girlfriend had to stay at our house. They both slept in my little race car bed,” he laughs. “But him and my dad became friends, so every time he played in Europe, he always came to our small town in Norway. After I played a show with him last year, we collaborated on a song together after saying we would for the longest time. We did a song that’s over five minutes long and is probably the heaviest song I’ve ever made.”
Join The Storm is a magnetic debut album by a brilliant new voice who is proving that the greatest thing you can do is to be yourself and own it. Although he’s only 16, Sundli‘s passion for music is obvious throughout the conversation, and it’s great to see someone so driven with their career. The way is only up for the next leader in metalcore music.
Join The Storm is out now via Indie Recordings. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS123 here:
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