From the recording Onward
"Before the Storm" is my interpretation of the calm we often feel after making a decision to do something we know or think will benefit us, regardless of how difficult the process will be. It is proceeded by the difficult trials that seem to always lay ahead.
Just because something is right, doesn't mean it will be easy. In fact, in my life experience, it is often the harder decisions that become the correct ones.
The intro contains the first 20 seconds to the old popular song "Cherish The Love" by Kool and the Gang. My parents used to listen to this all the time and it was always stuck in my head - a good example of the influential impact music can have on us as children.
" The storm will rage; the quicksand, swift. And to every thunder there is a silence " - LK
*Interesting side note: About a year after I wrote Before the Storm, I was emailed a link to a Discovery Channel - type documentary in Japan about the Yakuza Mafia. It was an interview with an ex Yakuza soldier who was telling the story of how he lost his finger. The ex-soldier was silhouetted in the background with cigar smoke floating in front of the camera while my piece of music was playing in the background. The subtitles described how he lost his finger, which he held up into the light.
The reason he lost his finger was because he had been caught eyeing the wife or girlfriend of one of his superiors. So, they chopped it off. I was blown away!
I contacted the company that made the film, thanking them for at least giving me credit for the music, but asking them if they'd please contact me in the future if they wanted to use my music.
Shortly after that, I was never able to find that clip. Perhaps I scared them or gave them the wrong impression that I was going to seek legal action for using my music without permission?
To this day, I regret sending that email, because I'd rather have the music and video of that moment to look back on.
So, there you have it. Before the Storm was used in a Yakuza documentary about a guy who got his finger chopped off for looking too closely at his superiors girl. What a story!