MC Storm Interview

Imagine this: Your at your chosen party for the night, the place is packed and rockin’ the atmosphere is blindin. All your favourite tunes are being played, you look up at the stage and there amongst all the dancers is the MC. He’s jumping around, his energy is illuminating him, he is screaming at you to dance, your singing along with his lyrics - remember what is feels like? Remember the buzz? We all know how it makes us feel, but how does it make him feel? What is it that makes him get up there and perform in front of thousands of people? Where does his buzz come from? Well I caught up with one of the newest MC’s through the door who has without doubt taken the scene by storm, yes you’ve guess it. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the one and only MC Storm.

one of the thing that interested me was how he got into MCing in the first place. The stories I’d imagined was nothing like the real events that got him started on the road to success.

In 1991 a new PA called Brainstorm were formed and soon found themselves in need of a dancer. They approached a young lads by the name of Carl and asked him if he wanted to join them, which we did and toured the clubs around the country. At one of the clubs in Leicester the MC was absolutely crap and didn’t mention anything about the PA at all. So the newest member to the group said he could do better and from then on wouldn’t mind doing it. They didn’t actually do any more PA’s but they bought out the Red EP on Formation so they did a promotional tour. At one of the clubs the promoter asked each of them what their role was, when he turned to Carl he said “Oh I’m the dance and MC (a small white lie, but harmless - so he thought). About 10 minutes later Carl heard over the mic can the Brainstorm MC come to the stage please’.... Now he was in the shit - he’d never MC’s before in his life - but now he had to... This was the birth of MC Storm (as in the latter half of Brainstorm!!).

So how did his first performance ho? “It was alright, it.... I was crap, the geezer playing the tunes knew I wasn’t an MC because I was crap. I didn’t have any lyrics or anything, I was just saying the first thing that came into my head. I did enjoy it though and I had a good laugh. I’ve got an outgoing personality so at the end of the day it was alright”.

After that he decided that, that was what he wanted to do, he went home and started writing down and practising lyrics and became a bedroom CM for a while. The first flyer his name appeared on was Hyperbolic where he would go once a month. It was while he was there that he noticed and asked to join Pleasuredome (which of course he excepted). His first appearance for them was on April 1st 95 and the has been a resident ever since. He went on to say that for him Pleasuredome is now like a home from home. “I feel as though I’m a part of the club now.” So how would he feel if he lost that residency? “Gutted, with out a shadow of a doubt... I was talking to someone the other day and they asked me what I’d do if the Pleasuredome shut down and I stood there with the mic and had to tell the whole rave that it was never going to open again’, I said ‘I’d probably put the mic down and be extremely upset’, cause I tell you that place has looked after me, well it’s made me what I am. it’s as simple as that. If it wasn’t for Pleasuredome I wouldn't be where I am now! They have me a kick up the arse, took me from doing a once a month club in Kings Lynn which wasn’t really in the spotlight - to every single fortnight, flyers all over the country, they took me from nothing. They said ‘right get on with it, if you go stale we’re gonna tell ya and not once have they told me to sort it out.”

Six months later things were about to take off in a big way, he explained “I was on stage and I was Mcing with Magika when I’d finished Gus came up to me and said Dave Pratley from Helter Skelter was just talking to me about you and he wants to see you outside’. I thought ‘easy’ you’ve never seen a bloke get out of a raves so quick I tell ya! I walked up to him and said ‘Hello I’m Storm’ and he just said ‘right give me a call and come up to the next event’. I went and was put on the flyer for the one after that”. So how did that make him feel? “When I first saw my name on the flyer it was like ‘Yes!!’ Well it’s the big league isn’t it? Premier, so to get your name on one of their flyers you feel privileged you know cause it was then that I knew things were happening. When he first got to Helter Skelter he explained that he wasn’t that confident, “I didn’t have the experience, I went from Pleasuredome that get around 1000 on a good night to 3,500 people, you’ve trebled the rave, the vibe and the pressure”. So how did he cope with that amount of pressure? “Use the mic’, all that nervous energy - get rid of it through the mic”.

Storm reckons that on the ladder of success he considers himself about half way up = “I’ve come quite a way , last year I came on quite a lot, I’ve still got quite a bit to learn. I’m still quire new to the big rave scene really, clubs are no problem cause I’m used to them”.

On the subject of what makes a good MC Storm believes that you’ve got to have talent and you’ve got to get on with, and manage, a crowd “You’ve got to know when to shut up and you’ve got to have something to say. Every MC has his own style, say’s his own things. Not everybody likes every MC. He continued to say that you’ve got to be able to take the rough with the smooth. “At the end of the day if you’re having a bad night, you know if you’ve had a lot of stress during the week, you can’t let it show too much, the ravers can pick up on the vibes. It’s like when I first started MCing I was really nervous and the nerves got the better of me, I never used to smiley or anything like that I used to be in like a mood all the time, and people would say why don’t you smiley and it would just be the nerves, at the end of the day you’ve got to have a lot of front to do this job”.

When an MC is on stage he’s in the front line, that in itself would be enough to make me curl up and die, but what does Storm do if he fucks up? “Every MC fucks up, you can’t have an MC that doesn’t say something wrong or does a lyric the wrong way round. If you do fuck you’ve got just got to put it behind you and move on” Is it that easy? Can you just put it behind you? “You’ve got to, if you’re having a bad night and you sound crap, you’ve got to sort it out. You can have one crap night and get away with it, but if you have 3 or 4 in succession, ravers pick up on it and it soon gets around”. Talking from a personal point of view I know that if I made a few mistakes I would to leave the stage, so I put this suggestion to Storm = “No you can’t hide, you can’t do that. I’ve never dropped the mic’ and just wake off”. Well yeah OK i supposed that would be a bad thing for an MC to do!

Storm love’s MC’ing saying how much enjoyment he gets out of it, - “it’s weird, you know to have an effect on people life that, it’s wicked to get the ravers going. I can’t go to a do without MC’ing really, If I do to a Drum n Bass event obviously I can't MC, I don't touch it at all because I haven't got the right voice for it really so I don't miss it. I'm there to listen to the music and have a good laugh with my mates but if I'm at a Hardcore do I feel as though I should be saying something on the mic’”.

One thing that really winds Storm up is the fact that MC’s don’t get the coverage or recognition they deserve. A lot of the time the MC’s are missed out all together in reviews and the DJ;s get all the credit for a set that the MC contributed to. I hold my hands up to being on of those reviewers but Storm say’s “We put just as much effort into it. It’s different all together what DJ’s and MC’s do. I respect DJ’s because at the end of the day I’ve tried mixing and I can’t do it. I haven’t got the time or patience, and if the beat hoes out, I don’t know what to do to bring it back in again, so DJ’s do have to work hard, but MC’s work that little bit harder - physically harder, you know what I mean, and I think we should get the respect, but reviews don’t seem to mention us”. After being made to feel rather guilty I’ll try and explain why I don’t mention the MC’s. I’ll only pay attention to the MC if I’m in the crowd at the front of the stage. If I can see the MC and he’s really going for it then I will get a fuckin of lot out of it. I feed of what I can see. I really get hyped up, but if I’m dancing anywhere else I don’t feed off what I can hear. Storm thought for a moment and said he thought it was down to the sound system more than anything else, which I think he’s probably right about and maybe that’s why they don't get the coverage because only a small percentage of the crowd get’s involved , I may be wrong of course but that’s just the way I see it.

Apparently the ultimate aim of an MC is to get the crowd rocking, but how do they know when they’ve got ‘crowd’, is there a point when he thinks ‘yeah I’ve got em?’ “No it’s not so much that, it’s”....... with the long silence I assumed that he was reliving a moment.......”when it’s noisy an and the look on their faces and you say ‘do you want it?’ and they’re like ‘yeah’!! When they’re looking at you when you're doing your lyrics they’re talking back to you. It’s eye contact. If you really want it at the end of the day if you’ve got something to say and you’re rockin off the vibe you’ll get them off on it - you can tell when they want it”.

The best experiences that Storm can recall are the last United States of Hardcore, his first Helter Skelter and the first time he did United Dance. “I wasn’t supposed to be MCing, I was just there for a night out, Magika was on the mic’ and he passed it to me and asked me if I wanted a go”. It’s times like that that Storm realises that he’s made it. Before, people would pass the mic around him to someone else which he admits really used to piss him off, as you can imagine.

When i asked him about his worst experience he couldn’t quite make his mind up. After a few minutes he told me about a night Helter Skelter. he was there with Charlie B who was down for Sy's set. Storm kept on at him all night to let me do it (as he enjoys MCing with Sy more than any one else). Charlie finally agreed. Sy was due on at 3.15am, at 5 past Charlie persuaded him to go on a fair ride (something which he hates, but he did it all the same). I was feeling dodgy to say the least. I had my head down inside my jacket, Charlie was really laughing he knew what he'd done. When I got off of the ride I was staggering all over the place and felt as though I was still moving with the ride. Charlie said ‘ Right you’re doing Sy’ and I was like ‘ No I can’t’. he took me up to the stage and after about 15mins I was feeling sick - big time sick. I tried to get Charlie to come to the stage to take over but he wouldn’t come. I looked at him behind the stage and he just pointed at me and pissed himself laughing. I still owe him for that one, and I will get him back”. I certainly hope I’m there to see it although Storm admits that you have to get up early to catch Charlie out.

When you think of Storm’s style ()or at least when I do) the first thing that comes into my head is his scratching (as I find this extremely fascinating) but he describes his styles as being fast and unique, “No one else sounds like me, I’ve got my own style and everything. I have quick lyrics”, I wondered if he plans what he’s going to say next but apparently there isn’t time to do that, so most of his lyrics are prepared, I write them down and work on them. I just change them about to sound fresh all the time. I don’t want to go stale ‘cause at the end of the day that’s what does you in”. There are certain lyrics that he will say all the time, but reckons that’s a good thing as that saying will become like a trade mark - “That’s your stamp, there’s lyrics that you say that ravers can get into, but it’s good to come out with new things. Over the last couple of years I’ve tried to come out with something different every 3 or 4 months, like with scratching 3 months ago it was crap, but since then it’s gone ‘bang’ spot on. It was weird one night I stood there and I thought about doing something different and I just did it and it came out crystal clear and since then it’s just got better and better”.

We got into a discussion about the different atmosphere’s that each event creates, and when I asked him if he excepts the level that the atmosphere reaches he said “No because it’s up to you to raise it”. So I put to him that your not going to get the same atmosphere say in Diehard as you would in Helter Skelter so you must have to except where you’re gonna take it to which he replied “Oh yeah, you’ve got to fit in haven’t you and know what’s going on”. When you watch Storm on stage the one thing that’s obvious is that he get just as much out of the crowd as they get out of him...... “Yeah when you’re dropping the lyrics and you know you’ve hit the crowd, that’s a good buzz, ‘cause you know you’re doing something right, something constructive, that’s the way I see it. You can have a laugh with a crowd”.

He went on to say that there are certain crowds that you can’t have a laugh with because they are so into their music and they don’t really want to respond which makes him feel as though he’s not doing his job properly, “You feel as though their not listening to you even though they are it’s weird definitely. I’ve got to have a crowd”. So what would he do if he had to give the MC’ing up? “To be honest with you I don’t know. If I was forced to stop, you know if it wasn’t my decision say if someone said if you don’t stop I’m gonna blow your brains out, or if I had to stop because of the pressure I really don’t know what I would do. If I get to the stage where I’d gone as far as I could go I wouldn’t try and drag it out, I don’t want to be remembered as ‘matey that used to be good, but then went down”. Storm believes that you’ve only got a certain amount of life in this game saying that a DJ can last for ‘time’ - “When you’re an MC you have to move with it or it will just roll over you, it’s as simple as that”.

Written by Kate