Fun, Games and Joy – An Interview with STORM SEEKER

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Sometimes you come across bands that you could talk to for hours… STORM SEEKER are definitely one of them for us. You can really lose track of time! That’s all the more dramatic when you have to write down the conversation somehow… So here’s a shorter version of what was discussed with singer Timo in the tunnels of the Moritzbastei. So much in advance: STORM SEEKER is what it says on the outside and that’s a whole lot of fun!

Once again, huge thanks to lightinmirror.de for the awesome pictures!

Shieldmaiden’s Voice: Assuming you were at sea for a longer period of time, which land amenity would you miss the most?

Timo: Definitely going for a walk! You can’t just start walking at sea and I think I would miss something if I could only walk up and down the ship. It just gets boring at some point when you’ve run the circle into the ground like Miraculix.

SV: You’ve been on tour with you latest album. What sets it apart from its predecessors?

Timo: It’s a better mix! That came out immediately, because I’ve been asked that before! We’ve had a dark album before, we’ve had a fun album and the current album is a good mix of that. It’s also somehow more accessible and there’s more of an original feel to the songs. I would say it’s the best mix we’ve done so far.

SV: Why should anyone listen to that album?

Timo: Because it’s the best mix! In fact, that’s also one of our introductions. If you’re just starting to listen to STORM SEEKER, Nautic Force is a good place to start! Then if you like the heavier songs you can listen to Beneath in the Cold and for the party stuff I would recommend Guns don’t cry!

SV: In 2023 you also released a live album. Where did you get the idea to do something like that?

Timo: To be honest, it was a „perfect storm“: We had the opportunity to do it because we were on tour with MONO INC. and the tour recording is from the tour date in Stuttgart, where we played in the Porsche Arena. We just thought, if we’re going to play the Porsche Arena, then we have to record it! We then scraped together all our cameras, put them in all the ranks and told our sound engineer to press „record“. That’s how the live album was created! We had already decided during the tour that we wanted to record it and this was the best time.

SV: While we’re at it: Today is the last day for this tour. What has this Headliner-Tour been like for you

Timo: It was very multifaceted and it was an incredible experience! It’s just amazing that people come when we invite people to the party and that’s something we’ve never experienced before. We have an average of over 150 people who come together in the venues and it’s a great feeling that people think you’re cool and are actually there! It’s just 150 people in a random place in Germany who say: „Yes, I’m coming by!“. The fact that it’s our tour also gives us more freedom and we don’t have to adapt to anyone, which we usually have to do as support or at festivals. This time everything is ours! We have our own technicians and our stage set-up is our stage set-up.  All in all, it’s a very good experience! But you also have a different view of the concert when you’re responsible for making sure the evening runs smoothly. If you’re not responsible, you just do your sound check and that’s that. If it’s your own evening, then it’s a completely different motivation!

SV: What was one of your personal highlights on this tour?

Timo: One of my big highlights was when I was on stage with one of our support bands [laughs]. Their bass player, Mark, has his own festival, the MEAD AND GREED FESTIVAL. This festival also fell on the last weekend and that’s why he couldn’t be there in Hanover, because he had to organize a few things at his festival. But he played this one song on which I’m also featured and I wanted to be on stage with them anyway. Mark was missing anyway and then I just took his place! It was also a super cool experience because every band has its own peculiarities on stage. Normally I’m only on stage with STORM SEEKER and then to disrupt the ecosystem of another band was great fun! I was very disruptive there! I also exploited everything mercilessly. I took a selfie from the stage, I bumped into the guitarist when I stormed onto the stage and just had fun! 

SV: Now that we’re more or less among ourselves here: Are there any tour pranks you’re going to play on each other today?

Timo: We had a few ideas, but I don’t think we’re going to do any pranks. But I’m afraid that we’ll fall victim to a few pranks because our light person has announced that something might happen… But of course I don’t know exactly. 

SV: Every tour comes to an end eventually. What is something you’re looking forward to once you’re home?

Timo: A bed! You get surprisingly little sleep on a tour like this. In general, I’m also looking forward to relaxing and, as silly and bureaucratic as it sounds, I’m also looking forward to reviewing the whole thing! You don’t really have the opportunity to do that on the tour. It’s time to think about what went well and perhaps not so well and, on the whole, to simply work through what you’ve experienced. It’s all very fever dream-like, even if it is a very positive fever dream! There was one weekend where we had four gigs in a row, so Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Monday after that was the return journey, because we had the last gig in Stuttgart. So we spent the whole day on Monday traveling back and then started again the next Thursday. At the end of that weekend, I was simply exhausted. We had 7 gigs in 10 days and that was just absurd. That’s why I’m looking forward to just calming down again and reviewing everything in peace. 

SV: After the tour is before the festival summer! What do you have planned for the rest of the year?

Timo: ROCKHARZ is coming up again for us, it’s going to be really cool again! This time we’re playing a bit later, which I’m very happy about. Of course, we also have a few other festival gigs coming up over the summer. At the end of the year we’re going on tour with D’ARTAGNAN, which is a personal highlight for me. We already played a concert with them last year and that was so much fun that they asked us if we wanted to go on tour with them this year. Of course we couldn’t say no! Apart from that, we’re still writing songs, we’ll see what else happens, but there’s nothing concrete yet.

SV: When you look into the future, what would you like people to remember about you in the future?

Timo: I can only answer that personally! I always hope that you can bring joy to people in some way, that it’s simply fun. We make music and we want to arouse people’s emotions and our aim is always to have fun. People should keep that in mind and it’s also the feedback we often get. You can only convey what you feel yourself. I just want to bring fun to people. 

SV: If you could give your fans out there one message, what would it be?

Timo: I used to say „Come to our tour!“, but that’s over now… Come to our gigs! We are a live band and we are happy to see you there! That’s also what I’ve learned on tour: We have super cool fans and I’m always happy to talk to people. So come along and have fun with us!