Stormm

Stormm’s debut album, Electrik Sex Musik, merges hip hop, house, drum ‘n’ bass with a centre core of real songs that were composed on acoustic guitar. Self-produced and performed by the Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist, he set out to create a sound like no other. “I almost think of myself as a musical revolutionary in the sense of what I’m trying to do — to accomplish something that no one has heard before, but big,” says Stormm “I grew up in Jamaica and everyone will say, ‘Do something like Bob Marley,’ or do one of my inspirations, but I do my own sound because I grew up in Toronto, so I have to combine the past and present to get this whole next thing.” He addresses the whole next thing on one song in particular, the bold declaration “R&B Killed Hip Hop.” On the Trip Hop track, he sings: “There goes another style stylin all the while / It used 2 B hip / It used 2 b fly & cool & all that Jazz. Now it’s gone / Now it’s sold out, stale crusty and mold out / Jus plain outta style.” “It’s one of the fastest songs I wrote,” says Stormm. “I threw in almost every Jamaican swear word at the beginning [laughs] just as the beat came in. The ‘that’s the way love goes’ is a dig at Janet Jackson. Hip hop started as rebel music and went out like baby formula. It’s no longer revolutionary.” The emphasis track, which opens the album, is “Long Hot Summer.” It appropriately has that long hot summer vibe, chilled-out like a stroll with no destination. “In My Solitude” is another slow number, inspired musically by INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” vs a Wu Tang beat is about a girl leaving her boyfriend for another girl. On the other end of the spectrum, vibe-wise, is the buzzing Drum and Bass of “Love 69” and funky House of “DR4R,” cut from the same cloth. “For ‘Dreams Are For Real,’ I knew I wanted to combine the drum machine and the electronic sound with real instruments,” says Stormm, “and I got the idea for the album by working with that one.” Stormm took his sweet time making Electrik Sex Musik – 6 years, in fact, between a steady acting career (Exit Wounds, Don’t Say A Word, Witchblade) and commercials (Nike, Budweiser), which paid for the music venture. “I decided to do it the hard way, fund it myself. That way no one’s going to tell me how to sound,” explains Stormm. “From the minute I’m writing a song on guitar, I start hearing the other parts. I even fill out the visual for the video.” From writing the first song, “Messin’ With The Law,” on four-track a decade ago to the five-albums worth of material he has since amassed, Stormm is now on a roll. His next album he says will be called Acoustik Love and will follow the path of the drumless song “Rosy” on Electrik Sex Musik.. “I write so that regardless of what happens, I can sit down at the guitar and play the song, instead of going for a sound where suddenly the power goes out and you’re stuck. So they’re real songs first. Live, it would take a 6 piece band or me and a laptop on stage to replicate the album, so I’m going to have to change them a bit. I’ve been playing them mostly with an open mike concept, so it’s completely different.” Stormm recognizes what he’s produced is unconventional. “Seriously, when I was done, I was like what the f**k have I done ‘cause how do I market this? Some people say all is said and done, but I believe if that were true, I wouldn’t be here. It would be game over I really believe it. If you listen to my album, it’s between worlds.” by Karen Bliss