The Storyline, an up-and-coming band from Jonesboro, Arkansas, recently released a debut single, “Secrets”, and a music video to go along with it. If this song is any indication, this band has a bright future ahead.
Members of The Storyline include Adam Stormes (lead vocals, rhythm guitar); Brent Holcomb (backing vocals, lead guitar); Travis Smith (drums); and Carson Hewett (bass). The band describes itself as post-hardcore, EMO, pop-punk. Basically, several genres mixed together to form an awesome sound that would appeal to a lot of listeners.
How did The Storyline begin? Adam wanted to start a band that wrote original music and use the influences of his favorite high-school bands. As he says, “being an elder EMO guy”, he wanted some flavors of emo, post-hardcore and pop-punk. After gathering a few members in March 2022, the project wasn’t moving forward very fast, until May when Brent and Travis became “free agents” after the band they were in disbanded, and they joined The Storyline. The band started writing, and it became clear that they all worked well together. They played their first show together just a month after Brent and Travis came on board. The Storyline caught the eye of Joel Gillihan, guitarist and vocalist of Memphis band Twelve Spies, and they became friends with him. They accepted his offer to record their EP with him at his home studio in Memphis. They have made several trips to the studio and are working on recording songs for their first EP. When founding member Buddy had to leave The Storyline due to personal reasons, Carson recently joined the band as the bass player. Carson is a multi-instrumentalist, and the band is excited to have his skill and creativity.
“Secrets” was the first song the band wrote. It came together quickly, which made it apparent how well the band writes together. The song structure was developed by Adam, Brent, and Travis, along with former bass player Buddy. Adam got lyrical inspiration from the pain of real-life experiences, and Brent added lyrics for the bridge to help bring out the dark and intense vibe of the song.
The band members of The Storyline give credit for production and audio quality of “Secrets” to Joel from Twelve Spies, who has been a phenomenal producer and friend. The band agrees that the music video turned out excellent, and Joe Lane from Anointed Media made it a super fun process for them. The stars of the video are Keragan and Gavin. They did a wonderful job portraying the painful, chaotic spiral of failed relationships.
Most of the song is very fast-paced and high energy. There are two catchy guitar riffs that I really like – one in the chorus and one in the verses. Adam has a tremendous vocal range. The bridge of the song has a slower tempo, but it builds back up to hard vocals – Brent’s screams layered with Adam’s yells — that reflect the raw emotion of the song’s theme.
My interpretation of “Secrets” is that it is a song about a relationship that is based on lies and secrets and is about to fall apart. It’s also emotionally devastating, especially to one person in the relationship. Adam shares, “We think the song is about something a lot of people have experienced. It is a darker song about a dark time in my life. The song has personally helped me process and move past some of my own pain. Hopefully it will do that for someone else.”
Regarding the video, the band wanted something that fit the theme, and decided an abandoned structure was a perfect reflection of the dark vibe of the song. The video loosely narrates the events laid out in the lyrics. You can see in the video examples of how lies and deceit cause the main character pain and lead him to spiral into hopelessness and self-destructive behavior.
What’s coming up for The Storyline? The band will be performing at a local festival in Jonesboro scheduled for September 8th and 9th. They’re planning an EP release show in November at The Foundation Of Arts Forum. The band would definitely like to break into the Little Rock music scene. Another new song, “Mistakes”, will be released June 23rd.
The Storyline can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Linktree.
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