The first time Michael Alden saw the music video for his
group’s country Billboard chart single, he was in Dykstra
Hall.
Alden, a third-year music student, along with his sisters,
identical twins Lauren Mills and Dana Burke, who graduated from
UCLA in 2002, make up Malibu Storm ““ a country group whose
success has snowballed in the past few months. They currently have
a single that has climbed as high as No. 3 on the Billboard Country
chart, they just performed in Nashville’s Grand Ole Oprey,
and they are about to release a new single and start filming
another music video.
And although Alden is achieving many of the musical
accomplishments he has wished for every birthday since he was a
kid, he is still stunned by the rapid success of the group.
“I woke up in the morning on the day that the Billboard
chart was coming out and prayed for top 100. Then my phone started
ringing like crazy with people saying congratulations and I knew
that it was big,” Alden said.
The group is proud of their hometown, as reflected in the name
Malibu Storm. In addition, the blond-haired, blue-eyed California
trio embraces the fact that their beachy looks, as well as their
willingness to be country artists covering the 1983 Def Leppard
rock song, “Photograph,” make them stand out from their
Nashville competition.
Growing up in a musical household, they often welcomed the
opportunity to turn sitting around in their living room into a jam
session, with the siblings grabbing anything they could find to
play as well as harmonizing vocally together.
But the moment Burke stumbled upon her father’s dusty
banjo from his college days destined her fate as a country music
artist. She immediately fell in love with the sound of the
instrument and reveled in the fact that she could be unique and
play the banjo while her friends were all learning guitar or piano.
Mills learned how to play fiddle so she could play with her sister,
and Alden eventually joined them on acoustic bass.
Banjo and fiddle lent themselves most naturally to country, and
despite growing up thousands of miles from Nashville, the siblings
had always been interested in country music.
“I always liked country,” Burke said. “I
remember being like 5 years old and listening to Dolly Parton. I
would listen to her records and imitate her.”
Alden acknowledges that country music wasn’t a popular
genre amongst his peers.
“I was a complete outcast ““ no one in their right
mind listened to country,” he said.
They first performed as a bluegrass group, touring and even
releasing an independent album with a single that enabled them to
land a deal for Malibu Storm.
Their bluegrass background and use of a banjo in their
commercial country music have drawn comparisons to the Dixie
Chicks. It’s an association the group takes as a compliment,
as they aspire to create music that, like the Dixie Chicks, reaches
to a broad audience, not just country fans.
All of the siblings are no stranger to juggling school and a
musical career. While most students have the weekend to study for
an exam, Burke said that during college, she had to make set lists,
do radio interviews, and perform, finally getting a chance to study
for the exam on the flight home Sunday night.
While most UCLA students are hoping their degree will earn them
a career, Alden already has that. But he still chooses to be a UCLA
student because of the invaluable social skills that he says people
learn in college.
“I feel like I have two different lives,” Alden
said. “Tonight I’m going to a UCLA party and last night
I was at a party with Teen People Magazine talking to Clay
Aiken.”
On a recent trip to Nashville, the members of Malibu Storm were
shocked to find that they had celebrity status in the city, their
faces plastered over everything from billboards to bathroom stalls
and fans often approaching them for autographs.
But the group is learning that fame has its ups and downs. While
they get invitations to Hollywood parties and premiers,
they’ve also become the target of gossip. Alden has read
rumors about everything from their love lives to plastic surgery
claims. And learning how to handle public attention is a topic UCLA
doesn’t have a class for.
“I read so many rumors that aren’t true,”
Alden said. “The whole celebrity lifestyle is something that
no one can prepare you for. But I enjoy it ““ I like the
attention.”
Despite their success, the members of Malibu Storm do their best
to remain down to earth and welcome the opportunity to help other
aspiring artists by passing on demos.
“We’re very grateful,” Alden said. “No
one says that we’re conceited or divas.”
Alden says one of his favorite aspects of country music is that
artists can have careers at 40, while pop and rock are more eager
to drop an aging artist ““ showing his desire to stay on the
radar for a long time.
“This is what I’ve always wanted,” Alden said.
“It’s not like that Britney Spears song,
“˜Lucky’ where she’s sad every night. We’ve
worked really hard and it’s been a passion and a goal for so
long.”