Like a Storm Excited About Creed Tour, Move to Canada

New Zealand rockers Like a Storm were preparing for a club tour when they got the call that their jaunt had been slightly upgraded.

"We got the phone call saying there was a possibility of opening for Creed," Chris Brooks, vocals/guitar/programming/didgeridoo, told Noisecreep. "This has been amazing. We're a month into [the Creed tour] and it's been awesome, playing arenas and outdoor pavilions. It's definitely a dream come true."

Brooks and the rest of his band -- Matt Brooks (vocals/guitar/programming), Kent Brooks (bass/vocals/programming) and Thomas Karanasos (drums) -- are currently rehearsing for their second batch of dates with Creed, which begins Oct. 2.

"We've just done a month, then we've been in L.A. for a couple weeks, rehearsing and doing some acoustic bonus tracks for the record, and then we meet up with the tour again in Salt Lake City," said the Canadian Brooks, whose band is now based in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The record about which Brooks is speaking is 'The End of the Beginning.' Produced by multi-platinum producer/mixer/engineer Mike Plotnikoff (Three Days Grace, My Chemical Romance, Buckcherry), 'The End of the Beginning' melds warm electronics and massive hard rock.

"We recorded it in L.A.," Brooks said. "We spent 16 months down here basically immersing ourselves in this project. We tracked the drums this studio called Stage and Sound, the heavy guitars and bass, too. Then we did all the vocals, the programming and overdubs at our producer Mike Plotnikoff's studio in Calabasas [Calif.]"

The record hits stores in early 2010, but fans who pre-order the CD via Republic Project will have access to behind-the-scenes video during the pre-order period, including footage from the studio and the road.

"We'll also be selling it on the next leg of the Creed and Staind tour," Brook said of the album. "On the first leg, we just sold the tour EP, which was four songs and an acoustic version of 'Chemical (Infatuation).' You don't know how they're going to sell or how people are going to react to it, but we sold out of them every single night. We thought, 'We have to get the full-length to people.'"

'The End of the Beginning' represents the sum of all the band's experiences during the past four years, since the quartet moved to Canada from New Zealand.

"We moved to Canada, away from all our family and friends," Brooks said. "We had to start at the bottom again. Everything we went through -- losing friends -- that's what the record's about, capturing that moment in time. Now we reach the next stage, which is going out there and touring."

Moving hasn't been all that bad, though, except for a quick jaunt to Toronto, Ontario.

"New Zealand and Vancouver are pretty similar," said Brooks, whose band will tour with Framing Hanley and Veer Union when the Creed trip is over. "Vancouver, of all the Canadian cities, is the most like Auckland in New Zealand, where we're from. You got the harbor and the ocean right there. The people are laid back. It's really green and that kind of thing. It's been great, really. We lived in Toronto for a month, and it was like 30 below zero. That was a culture shock for sure. It's much more of a city. But Vancouver is laid back. It's beautiful. It's really nice."