Photo via Weird Storm
While the world waits to return to some semblance of normalcy, Milwaukee band Weird Storm were getting their feet under themselves. The band formed in late 2019, and only managed to play one show before the pandemic canceled live music altogether for some time. While that would hinder many, the band went to work on their debut EP, Alone on Meat Beach, which is out today. The five-track release is, for many, their first taste of a band that is both new and over a year into their existence.
The tracks on Alone on Meat Beach were in many ways the product of songwriter and guitarist Charlie Hoehnen, who recruited brothers Nick and Chris Ouchie and drummer Bob Schaab with his initial demos. The band then fleshed those tracks out in early rehearsals, before ultimately crafting the shoegaze-meets-dream pop sound that you hear on the EP.
“Charlie was actually asking people, like ‘hey, I have a bunch of songs that I’ve written,’ and Chris told him ‘oh, Nick knows how to play guitar and drums.’ That lead to the initial jam session” recalls Nick Ouchie. “Actually the four of us all worked together at the UWM box office like ten years ago, so we all vaguely knew each other. So I called Bob and said ‘hey, do you want to throw some better drums on this than I can play’ and we went from there.”
The record was recorded at Schaab’s basement studio, where he also engineered and mixed the sessions. Aside from mastering by Justin Perkins at Mystery Room Mastering, the project has been an in-house project. Being at home during quarantine allowed for time to perfect the record.
“We had a chance to take our time with it” said Schaab. “At the beginning, we only met once a week, and just slowly pieced things together, because we obviously weren’t in a rush for anything. We’d listen to mixes for like a week straight, and then either be happy with it or completely redo something until we were. It was kind of nice to have that flexibility.”
|
|
The band’s video for “Brittle Pastimes” was also recorded at Schaab’s basement, with initial plans being scrapped just minutes before shooting.
“We were moving our stuff into the studio for the video, and we had footage from recording, then we were just like ‘what if we just shot it in here?’ 20 minutes before we made it” said Chris Ouchie.
“The video was the work of the Ouchie brothers. They’re kind of the filmmaking powerhouse of the group” said Hoehnen. “Well, we have cameras” joked Chris Ouchie.
You can check out Alone on Meat Beach today on all streaming services and purchase it on Bandcamp, and the video for “Brittle Pastimes” below:
