Someone Tried to Calm the Storm by Sterling Spence

For Sterling Spence, music is so much more than just what meets the ears. Rather, it’s an amalgamation of reflection and honour, two sentiments the artist and avid performer, hailing from between the Micronesian Islands and the East Bay, explores in his latest EP, Someone Tried to Calm the Storm, out today.

Before the start of the global pandemic, Sterling Spence relocated to Los Angeles to pursue his then-partner’s aspirations, though not long after, that relationship was lost. The EP stems from a personal turmoil, reflecting on a relationship lost and returning to his San Fransisco home in need of reuniting with the community he had once left behind. This inspired the artist to put pen to paper and produce something cathartic, which became, Someone Tried to Calm the Storm.

At the centre of the EP sits the collection’s focus track, ‘What You Mean by Home’, a song he wrote while in Missouri as the pandemic spread. The single talks through the positives and negatives of the places he grew up in, missing family, moving away and feeling lost and how, with time, as you grow older you carry a “peculiar trauma” into later life. “Someone Tried to Calm the Storm”, Sterling Spence explains to us, “is a celebration of the labours of love and an embrace of the people who remind us of our place in their hearts.”

The EP conveys sentiments of honesty and sensitivity, and feeling vulnerable to your own emotions in a positive manner. For Sterling Spence, it’s all about realisation and how recognising the smaller details in life help you to grow and start over. Take one step back to take two forward, if you catch our drift.