There has always been something strangely comforting about summer storms.
Not the dangerous kind. Not the destructive kind. I mean the big rolling afternoon storms that seem to swallow the horizon whole before finally breaking open over old rooftops and hot bitumen roads. The kind where the air changes first. The light changes. Everything goes quiet for a moment, like the world is holding its breath.
That feeling has stayed with me since I was a kid.
“Summer Storms” came from those memories of sitting on a verandah or near an open window watching dark clouds slowly take control of the sky. Screen doors rattling. Windows shaking in their frames. Dogs pacing around the house before the rain arrives. That strange green-grey colour the world turns just before the storm finally breaks.
I wanted the song to feel physical and familiar. Not polished or poetic for the sake of it. More like memories stitched together.
The storm in the song is not really a threat. It is almost a visitor. An old friend arriving unexpectedly. Something exciting that wakes up that part of you that still feels like a child when thunder rolls across the sky.
A lot of the imagery came from very ordinary Australian suburban moments. Tin roofs roaring under heavy rain. Gutters overflowing. Puddles gathering in potholes. Streets shimmering afterwards beneath orange streetlights. The smell that hangs in the air after everything cools down.
At its core, the song is really about escape.
There is something calming about sitting inside during a storm while chaos moves around you. For a little while, normal life stops. The noise disappears. Deadlines, stress, pressure, all of it fades into the background. You just sit there listening to the rain and thunder and watching the sky tear itself apart.
And somehow you feel safe in the middle of it.
That is what the final verse is about for me. The sadness when the storm finally moves on and silence returns. That strange disappointment when something beautiful passes too quickly.
Some people hate storms.
I have always loved them.