CoolTop20’s New Release – Her Crime by Storm of Crows feat. Alison Johnson

by Lean at CoolTop20

https://cooltop20.com

Storm of Crows is a rock band based in Sheffield and Stockport (UK). Originally in various bands at the end of the 1990s, they reformed during COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 to record some of their old songs, and write a few new ones as well. 

Their new release ‘Her Crime’ was written by Matt’s step-cousin Kathy, who was the rhythm guitarist in their band Second Storm over twenty years ago, and that’s about when she wrote it. 

What inspired this song?

“When asked about it recently she said she wrote it at a time when she was watching loads of trashy soap operas so the depressing lyrics were mostly inspired by that. We decided to record this song because our friend Alison expressed an interest in singing a song with us and we remembered this one from years ago. As we were used to it being sung by a female vocalist it made the most sense.”

What are you hoping to achieve with this release?

“We’ve not released much lately. Our last release was a collaboration with the Godzilla Attacks Tokyo Kamikaze Blues Band, and the one before that was a cover of a Gozer Goodspeed song, so our last 100% Storm of Crows effort was actually ‘You Decide’ in March 2021! Ever since then we’ve been working on our first album but it is finally almost ready. At the time of writing, ten of the twelve tracks are in the bag so we just have two to finish recording, and then all the design and promotional fun that comes with making an album. However, this song was done for a couple of reasons. First, Alison has an amazing voice and we’d have been crazy not to do something with her and second, this song fills that void between releases very nicely. While we’ve not released much so far, it’s all been quite rocky so this song also shows people that we’re not one trick ponies, we’re capable of stretching ourselves a bit, and this will also be demonstrated with the album when you finally get to hear it too.”

Is this release different from your previous releases?

“This song is very different from anything we’ve released so far as it’s completely acoustic. When Matt first suggested this song, Paul had ideas straight away as to where we could take it to make the it a total departure from what we’ve done before. The prospect and challenge of that made the experience quite exciting. The original demo had a full drum kit which gave the song a little drive but we decided that the use of a Cajon drum would sound better and give the song more intimacy.”

“Jimmy provided the cajon rhythm and bass line, and Matt and Paul recorded separate guitar parts. We had an idea to play the song finger style which would give it a more delicate sound but in the end, Matt decided to strum the rhythm part and mix that in with finger style by Paul which worked very well. The guitar solo and fills were classically inspired which is a style of playing Paul has become quite interested in. When playing in this style, you can’t hide behind distorted effects like you can with electric guitar. You are very exposed so every note and phrase has to be perfect. This change in direction shows that we can play more than just rock music. We don’t like the idea of being trapped in one genre and found the opportunity to try something different exciting.”

“This song went through quite a process from start to finish but works very well with the instruments we’ve chosen mixed with Alison’s delightful vocal. When we heard her singing it, we knew it was the missing piece of the puzzle. She has a wonderful smoky jazz club type of tone in her voice which is very emotive and injects the right amount of emotion that the song needed, and we think she did a fantastic job. Hopefully she’ll join us again for another song in the future.”

‘Her Crime’ is already available on Bandcamp, but will be out on streaming on other platforms on August 5th. A pre-save is available here.

https://www.stormofcrows.com

(This article first appeared on https://cooltop20.com on 2 August 2022.)