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Well hello everyone! I know it’s been quite awhile since you’ve heard much from us, especially on the website here in any ‘official’ capacity. But we’re still around, and in fact, I'm back in the studio working on the next album. I’m really excited about the material I’ve been working on, and even though we don’t have any new audio right now to share with everyone, I wanted to at least offer a more substantive update – especially since I’ve been kind of slacking on keeping up with the website over the last few years. 

I took a long personal break from working on this project for a number of years after spending about a year and half working on the material for the follow-up album to Looking Backward. I never intended to be away from my own music for so long, but sometimes life just gets in the way, and I got a little sidetracked with some other endeavors and circumstances. But last year, I returned to the studio after the COVID pandemic set in and began making some rather substantial changes to some of the existing “new” material I’d started 7 years ago.    

Of course, the problem with taking so long in between albums is that musical influences and preferences can change as artists evolve, grow, etc. When I first started working on the second album shortly after we released Looking Backward, I was all pumped up on many of my progressive rock influences and writing/recording pieces that are like 8-13 minutes in length and a bit more involved. But I’m in a completely different head space these days and have a lot of new ideas that I’m excited about implementing, but I’m finding it challenging to try and make the things I want to do now fit within the framework of the songs I established 6-7 years ago. My focus now is on creating more concise songs with strong melodies and killer hooks. Lots of layers still, but I'm trying to simplify certain aspects of the writing. So I’ve set most of those older songs aside for now (except for one) and I’ve started writing completely new material that is more in line with where my head is at now. My thinking here is that I can likely get quite a few new songs finished a lot sooner than I would the older songs if I were solely focused on trying to totally rework those songs into something I’m comfortable releasing. But that said, for the proggier supporters out there -- there are at least two longer pieces from the earlier batch that I still want include on the next full album, so I expect to double back around to those a little later in the year (I’ve done a ton of work on the two longer pieces already, but a lot of tweaking and re-working still needs to be done to get these songs where they need to be). 

Overall, if I had to characterize where I’m headed musically, I think it’s probably fair to say there will be a significantly greater synthesizer/electronic component/presence on the next album(s). I’m having a blast experimenting with different kinds of synth sounds than I’ve personally worked with before in my own music or than were prevalent on Looking Backward (and in ways I’ve never used them). The next release will likely look like some form of synth rock/progressive pop/synth pop. Though I’m not abandoning guitars, so don’t get the wrong idea! If anything, I’d like to do more with guitar than we did for Looking Backward. Just not sure what that aspect totally looks like yet. 

Which brings us to I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind: When are we going to (finally) release another album? Hopefully at some point inside of the next 2 years. It really just depends on how much I’m able to accomplish in the coming months. And I’m considering a couple different options to potentially get some new music out there sooner than later, including either an EP or maybe just releasing an interim single or two while we finish the next album. But I’d like to get some new music out to everyone one way or another within the next year or two. 

Admittedly, this can be a very time-consuming process for me, even when I’m going at it full bore. There’s a lot of programming involved, and I just don’t work as quickly as some of these seasoned studio pros… and maybe even sometimes allow a little perfectionism to get the best of me. But in the near future I do plan to bring in some other key musicians (guitar, drums, bass) to help with the album so that I’m not trying to do so much of everything by myself (vocals aside of course). These musicians would also constitute the core of what will eventually become a live Storm Chronicles band. So my hope is the process will speed up a bit more once we bring in these musicians to help on the recordings (especially drums and guitar - which I’ll be working to find within the next few months). 

Finally, a note about the Looking Backward CDs, if anyone is looking to purchase one at some point: We will not be pressing any future copies of Looking Backward on physical CD media once our current stock is depleted (though digital versions in both MP3 and CD-quality FLAC formats will continue to be available for purchase/download from our website). We only did one small pressing of Looking Backward on CD (300 copies), so I suppose that makes it a bit of a “limited edition” now. That said, we still have some copies left, and you can purchase one directly from our website here. But once they’re gone, they’re gone! Also, as of this writing, the only place you can purchase our physical CD from is this website. We are working to restock on Amazon as well, but right now, our website is the quickest and most direct way to obtain your copy. 

I want to thank everyone for your continued patience and support. We really appreciate it, and we will be back with some great new music. And I’ll try to update everyone a bit more often as we progress.   

-- David Burr