Like A Storm have had a busy 2015 with numerous festival appearances, a headlining trek and being a part of a variety of tours. Now the New Zealand band is gearing up to kick off 2016 in a big way as they are one of the many bands set to play the ShipRocked Cruise featuring heavy hitters like Five Finger Death Punch, Halestorm, Seether and others.

We had the opportunity to catch up with the Brooks brothers Chris and Matt who chatted all about being on the road, their excitement about ShipRocked 2016, the power of the didgeridoo and much more. Check out our interview with vocalist Chris Brooks and guitarist Matt Brooks of Like A Storm below:

You guys have done major festivals and small club shows. What are you likes and dislikes about touring?

Matt Brooks: Well I don’t like Chris, does that count? [Laughs]

Chris Brooks: And Matt’s my favorite part of it all. So that gets very awkward.

MB: I mean I love getting to play every night, it sounds obvious but when you grow up as a kid with the dream to play as much music as you can that’s all you want to do. Now we get to travel the world playing music every night, it’s amazing.

Any pet peeves you have about touring as a whole?

CB: Once we got into a bus it was fine, it’s a lot more comfortable than a van.

MB: Yeah, I was going to say once you get a shower, it makes a huge improvement on your outlook on touring. A shower and coffee, I can do pretty much anything as long as I have those two things.

What are you looking forward to most about the ShipRocked experience?

CB: The warm weather, it’s such a cold time of the year for us [in the States], being from New Zealand, it never snows there. You come up here and it’s amazing in the summer time touring but in the winter it gets so cold  and we’re not made for that kind of temperature.

MB: We’re not cut out for that, we’re not polar bears! We’ve actually never been on a cruise before. We’ve done a lot of boating and stuff growing up in New Zealand but we’ve never been on a cruise ship so that’ll be cool.

What is one band you would love to go out on tour with that you haven’t been on the road with yet?

MB: We saw Breaking Benjamin for the first time recently and I’ve never seen them before and they were awesome. I’d love to tour with those guys.

CB: I mean a band like Metallica would be absolutely incredible to tour with.

Awaken the Fire is an album with new tracks and some re-worked songs. What is it about your music as a whole that causes fans to gravitate towards the music and Like A Storm’s live show?

CB: We throw out money onstage, it’s New Zealand money so it’s not worth anything here.

MB: We love playing live, we always have, so for us the live show is kind of the best representation of our band. It’s awesome to make records but when you play live you have that energy between you and the crowd and to me that’s the best feeling on earth.

CB: The didgeridoo, we hypnotize them. It’s all about mind control. The thing with the didgeridoo is that if you give it to someone to play they’ll struggle with it but if you give it to a kid or drunk person they pick it up, the thing is I’m sort of in between a kid and a drunk person.

MB: He’s like a drunk kid.

CB: [Laughs] Exactly I’m like a drunk kid. It’s totally different than any other instrument, I’ve ever played or heard so it was interesting figuring out how to play it but once you learn it, it’s kind of always with you.

Our thanks to Chris and Matt Brooks of Like A Storm. Be sure to pick up their latest album, 'Awaken the Fire,' via iTunes.

Check Out Like A Storm's "Become the Enemy" Video

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