We’ve all been there. We’ve all stood before a gig, amongst friends and strangers, amid clouds of stage smoke and body odour, just waiting and waiting for what seems like an eternity for some kind of movement on the darkened stage.
We’ve cheered at roadies and sound technicians as they prepare guitars and microphones. We’ve made the awkward small talk with strangers that surround us. Okay. So far so good.
The lights dim. The crowd turns toward the stage. And out from the mysterious backstage area, steps the support act.
It was as a support act that I first discovered ‘Story Books’. A five piece from Kent, consisting of Kristofer Harris (vocals / guitar), Robert Wilks (drums), Joseph Whitnell (bass), Andrew Parry (keyboards), and Jack Tarrant (guitar).
Their début EP ‘Too Much A Hunter’ consists of four alternative rock tracks, and was released on Communion Records in 2013. The EP itself is a beautiful object, with an elegant and intriguing sleeve design, a creation of Japanese artist Megumi Yamaguchi (great name).
The EP opens with ‘Simple Kids’. The track is promising from the off, it’s harrowing piano chords and piercing drum beat meander over the ear drum. Within thirty seconds, the unique serenity of Kristofer Harris’s vocals smother you completely, and with the line “You’re not the man you could’ve been” the lusciously melancholic lyrics begin to sweep through the listeners mind.
With quiet, tranquil verses, and a chorus that induces a steady head nod, the track is a good one. The lyrics are thought provoking, and the individual talents of each musician can be heard.
The second track, ‘Knot’, begins to unravel with a staggered chord progression, and quickly delves into a riff-fuelled musical cocktail. The strumming and picking fades into the first lyrics. Again, the sublimity of Kristofer’s voice is wonderful; echoing and glassy. Hairs are standing on end.
With a final reverb-infused stammer, the song fades to quiet.
Track 3 envelopes the silence with a series of flowing acoustic plucks. ‘Glory and Growth’ is pure and smooth. The first verse is an effectively unadulterated combination of piano and acoustic guitar, glossed together with quiet but confident vocals. ‘Story Books’ unique amalgamation of sliding riffs and idyllic drums (thanks to the insanely talented Robert Wilks) lead up to a heavy chorus. Symbols explode with the Velvet Undergroundesque use of distortion to ultimately create a moody and atmospheric piece. It closes with the emotively poetic line “Won’t you play the villain so I can sleep” which only adds to the melancholic themes of the EP.
The final track, ‘All those Arrows’, my personal favourite of the EP, has a wonderfully desolate opening. The slickness and tranquility of the frontman’s vocals are accompanied only by the slow paced echoing of Parry’s keyboard chords. As the other band members pile in, and with the increasingly feisty drums of Wilks and a blissful bass riff from Whitnell, the track reaches it’s climax. The chorus is almost a melodic storm spiralling in the listener’s ear canal, a cocktail of all that is good about this band.
The track fades out all too soon, and only silence remains.
All in all, “Too Much A Hunter” is an incredible début piece from a band which are as good live as they are on record. The lyrics that Kristopher creates are beautiful, atmospheric, sultry even. In the months or years to come, I expect to be seeing much more of Story Books.
If you ever get a chance to see this band perform live, take it.
A really good debut EP.
LUKE’S RATING = 7 / 10
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