I Am the Storm
Here the song here. My last week at Undulata, I was in charge of the day-campers, which meant that I didn't have to sleep with any campers. So I was all alone at night. I'm pretty sure I wrote this one night while listening to a thunderstorm. I can't say that I'm the best judge of my own music, but it kills me that at fifteen (and as early as fourteen), I was writing songs that are as good as any I've written since. I remember playing "With the Wind" with Dan for the Showcase auditions, and some cool senior sat next to me and asked if I had any other songs. I played her this, and she was impressed. In no other way would I ever be considered "cool," but I could make songs that were cool.
There's a weird darkness to the song, and you wouldn't be crazy for thinking that I had a real dark side, but I don't. Only when I'm being creative do I create things that are really dark. Still, the song is true if only on a fantasy level. The song is inhabited with all sorts of villains: torturers, killers, but as bad as they are, I am the worst. I am pure evil. At least in the song I am. I think a part of me felt like I was more likely to be attacked by villains. I often felt defenseless, and I would often take meaningless slights very seriously. Not that anyone else would know it. By the time I reached high-school my tactic had been to create the facade of someone who can't be fazed by the actions of others. I pretended to be impervious to harm, but really I just buried the pain deep below. Of course, it would always come back up in zombie form, and music was a great way to turn anger in hurt into something that wouldn't hurt other people.
Downpour later played this song. I mean, between this song and "Four in the Morning", you'd think we were a theme band, but actually the name has nothing to do with these songs. At any rate, it was one of our go-to songs from the beginning. I'm pretty sure we played it at every show, so if you saw us play live, you heard it. It was one of the songs that I brought to the band already finished that everyone liked. Most of my other songs got rejected. They were a tough audience. I first tried recording it my junior year in high school, with a synth-string background, and a lead acoustic on top with a storm in the background (obviously had to wait for a storm). I know, the synth strings sound very 80s, but to me they sounded like Dire Straits- the coolest 80s band at that time.
I kept the song briefly in my next band, Blue Fuse, and then the song went into hiding for a while. I resurrected it years later in a log cabin in St. Matthews. It was just me and a four-track. And then the song disappeared again until now. While there is a distorted electric guitar, the song wouldn't have fit on this album if I had recorded it the way Downpour would have played it. We definitely wouldn't have had backing vocals, which is crazy because Bill Greene is a phenomenal singer.
Some are creepers,
Some are leapers,
Some are people sleeping in their mind,
Some are changers,
Most are strangers,
Chained in pain- I've met all kinds,
But me, I'm not like all the rest,
I won't say that I'm the best,
But one like me, I know you’ll never find
I am the storm,
I am the storm,
Watch out here I come,
I am the storm,
Ready to swarm,
There'll be nothing left when I'm done.
He's a swinger,
She's a stinger,
See the fling a thing of such misuse,
Now the dawn,
Has come and gone,
I hear the song of wrong and much abuse,
I am the storm,
I am the storm,
Things won't be the same,
I am the storm,
I am the storm,
The bringer of the blue eternal flame
He's the scorcher she's the torture,
They'll try to thwart you if there's anyway,
He's the gamer,
She's the tamer,
They kill and main with no thought of yesterday,
I am the storm,
I am the hurricane,
I know when you've been bad,
I am the storm,
I am the torment,
I'm all the nightmares that you've ever had,
I am the storm,
I am the storm ,
I am the firelight,
I am the storm,
I am the storm,
It's time to say goodnight.
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