Storyum

„STORYUM is not just a band, it’s a feeling of life, a dream that finds a home in our songs.”

Our story

Who are we?

STORYUM

To understand what STORYUM is, we invite you to take a little trip back in time! 

The first stop is the first year of the millennium. There’s a guy in a village who’s all about football, techno and chicks. One day his father bought a stereo that was a little different from the usual music players of the time: it had a built-in subwoofer. This stereo came with a record that had been dreamed up by a band in England, and on this record was a song that almost came to life when played on the right thing. That band was the Prodigy and the song was Breathe. After listening to this song a million times, he had an invincible desire to create music with such elemental power and energy! And the right instrument for this was the drum. And so our story begins on 5 September 2000, when the young man sat down on the first drum kit of his life. This boy’s name was Joe Janik. After a few months of learning and practicing, he joined the first band of his life.

The next stop is the very early ’10s. “After trying out in many bands and playing hundreds of gigs, he wanted to do more than just play music written by others. So the idea of starting his own band was born. With the project put together at the time, they went into the studio to record a DEMO and the studio manager asked what the band name should be because the project needed to be saved somehow. “Let’s make it STORYUM,” Joe said, and that’s when the big dream was born.

Our story

2011

By 2011, the first album, INSOMNIA, was finished and the band managed to get on track, as Hammer Records (Hungary) released the album first, then RavenHeart Records (UK) took over the rights and took over the band’s business. Their career built like a dream, with more and more opportunities falling into their laps: a song was on the playlist of NeoFM radio (Hungary), a few songs were played on American radio, the album was written about all over the world and more and more discs were sold in Japan. Until a new year dawned.

2012

In 2012, all the successes achieved up to then collapsed like dominoes. The owner of the publisher had a heart attack and the company itself went out of business for a while, there was a huge tsunami in Japan that hit the area where the Japanese partner was based (they were unfortunately never heard from again), NeoFM went out of business.

2013

In 2013, only two things remained of STORYUM: Joe Janik and a finished album. It was as if the last few years had never happened. Nevertheless, Joe started writing new songs and saw the solution in rebuilding the band.

2014

2014 is a very important date in the life of the band. Joe stepped up from behind the drums and picked up the guitar, and Norber “Sifu” Csáno joined the band. The rebuilding of STORYUM finally began.

2015

2015 was spent looking for the right way to do it and how to do it, and looking for the right people, already with Sifu. Joe also started writing a new album. He wanted to create songs that didn’t try to be like anything else, but that really showed people the STORYUM world.

2016

In 2016, the band finally got back on its feet. They found the perfect person to play bass. That’s when Tie Malik became a pillar of the band. Thanks to Tie, they also got to know Raw Flaskar. From the very first rehearsal, it was clear to them that they had the right people in the band. Sifu is a very precise and technical drummer, Tie is a precise, creative and fast bass player, and Raw has an almost otherworldly voice.

2016 - 2017

These two years have been about making the We Are The Fire album, concerts, getting together.

2018

STORYUM is alive again! The album We Are The Fire, STORYUM’s second album, has been released, but it is the year the band started. The 8 years since 2010 have been a period of constant experimentation, learning and searching for new members. Two things have remained since the band was founded: Joe and the name of the band. With the release of the album We Are The Fire, the band’s sound was born and the musical world of the band was completely cleaned up. Later that year, they managed to agree with a British label to distribute the album and prepare a contract with an Italian management company. Also that year, they won the European Dance and Song Contest Championship with the song ALL-IN.

2019

It was a relatively quiet year. With concerts, lots of joint activities and anticipation of what 2020 will bring, when hopefully they will finally get to play on the big stages of Europe.

2020

We know exactly what it brought.On 15 March, the covid was announced, the English publisher went bankrupt by the end of the summer and the Italian management could not start our operations for the year. It was such a mental ordeal in the life of the band that by the second half of 2020 they were already thinking of calling it quits. They couldn’t really see a way out, they had invested all their money and energy in the ‘big opportunity’ and there was simply nowhere else to go. Even local small parties were banned, let alone a major tour. In fact! They even had to cancel rehearsals because of the curfew.

2021

They started 2021 as they finished 2020. Without advice, without prospects. Nevertheless, even though the curfew was still in force, they went down to the rehearsal room and started playing their songs. It was the best decision they could have made, because that was when they realised that they couldn’t live without STORYUM. As they played those songs, they felt alive again! They started working on a new show, but realised that the songs needed two more members. So in 2021, Claire Zsigrai became a permanent member of the band, adding beautiful vocals, and the band found their last missing link in Görő Kiss. Later that year, concerts and preparations for a new album resumed. Görő gave a huge boost to the whole project, as by the end of the summer a bunch of gigs had been booked until 2022.

2022

In 2022, the third album in a row, Freedom, was released. This album, like We Are The Fire, was very consciously constructed. There are no compromises in the songs, they interpret their own world in it, and the sound is something wonderful. In the first half of the year, they managed to return with a worthy big concert, the footage of which is recalled in the Generations video. A couple of Freedom songs made the playlist of Radio Patria in Slovakia. A radio station in New York also put some of their songs on their playlist. And the group has now expanded beyond the musicians playing on stage to include other important people. Rebi Sido, who is responsible for the band’s PR, put us in touch with Isao Yoshimura. And that started a major avalanche. Thanks to Isao, our music reached the US and practically a significant number of states in South America.
At the end of the year, he managed to get on television programmes in Hungary and Slovakia.

2023

In 2023, the band began writing their most monumental single to date, Remiel, which was recorded in March. By the beginning of February, the band had also undergone a face-lift, with the mood and imagery taking on neo-noir and cyberpunk characteristics. In June, the band held its landmark concert in Nagymeren, which included a number of new elements, and this month began negotiations with the Hungarian Handball Federation.
The band worked non-stop on the song “Between Us There Are No Borders” until the end of the year, putting all other work on the back burner. And by mid-December, a deal with the H-Music label was signed, so the album Freedom was officially released.

2024

On 5 January 2024, the band performed their song Köztünk nincs Grenzen (Between us there are no borders) in front of more than 4000 people in the Multifunctional Sports Hall in Tatabánya. And from 6 January, the band started working on their first Hungarian-language album at the Denevér Sound Studio in Szolnok.

The Storyum team

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