Sophie’s Scoop: Stories Through Storms

Sophia Oswald

Stories Through Storms is a metalcore band from Topeka. Members include Storm Ruby and Austin Spencer-Andreos on vocals, River Dunaway on guitar, Zachary Smith on bass and Jonathan Ostler on drums.

The guys say they play metalcore music because “it’s what hits home.”

“It’s everything we love about music,” Ruby said. “Everybody else does like rock and that kind of thing. There’s nobody else really in Topeka that does it.”

Originally the band was going to be a thrash metal band, but when Ruby joined up with the guys he influenced them and it developed into metalcore.

There are many artists that influence their sound. Andreos listens to a lot of pop-punk.

“Blink-182 is my number one,” Andreos said.

Ostler tends to listen to heavier music. Ruby is the same way and said, “For me personally, I guess the people that got me started into music are Slipknot and Bullet For My Valentine.” Dunaway’s main influences are Slipknot and Pantera, while Zach listens to a lot of Crown the Empire and Blessthefall. All of these bands have an impact on the kind of music Stories Through Storms creates.

The band members have different dreams and goals as a group. Ruby said that his main goal is “to make a name for ourselves and do this as a career.” Andreos said “I would be happy just being able to do music… You know just to make enough to survive but not be like rich or anything. But the dream is selling out stadiums.”

According to Ruby, it’s getting harder to promote their band. They used to advertise their band by hanging up flyers around town, but Ruby claims “cops rip things down now. You can’t post anywhere.” Mostly they stick to posting their upcoming shows on Facebook and promote their music on ReverbNation. For those who like this kind of music make sure to check out their Facebook page to stay updated on upcoming shows.

Their recorded music can be found on ReverbNation and YouTube and soon it will be available on iTunes and Spotify. The band also has an upcoming tour.

Ruby, explaining why people should come out to their shows, said, “We make it fun. People should come see us because unlike most other local bands we are very energetic and we have the professionalism of stage presence. We try to provide the audience with a show, not just playing music. We’re there to have fun and get crazy and feel like we’re one in the crowd. We want them to feel like they are a part of us as much as we are a part of them.”

They have a few shows coming up in April. They will be playing at The Allstar in Kansas City on April 1st, The Roxy in Kansas City on April 13th, and The Aftershock April 19th. If Stories Through Storms sounds interesting to you, try and make it out to one of their shows.