Stormin’ Normin Louis and the Cyclones (1989)

Bass, lead guitar, background vocals, keyboards

Produced by Tiran Porter and Ken Kraft

This album was a lot of fun to make, just playing with the guys! The “guys” being Norman Louis, Ken Kraft, Jimmy Norris, and Slippery John Weston. We recorded it at the Music Art Recording Studio (MARS) in Aptos. This is the first album we recorded. I played with Stormin Normin for 20 years in the bay area. I started in the late 80s during some time off from The Doobies and played with them until I joined The White Album Ensemble in 2004. We had quite the following in the Santa Cruz area. People just loved to come out to dance to Stormin’ Normin! It was always a celebration time playing with them.

Ken Kraft and I produced this album (among many others) and have been friends for 46 years. Here we are during an interview talking about working together as a production team:

Ken Kraft - Tiran and I used to work together. We worked together as a production team. He went by “The Lone Arranger.”

Tiran Porter - I stole that from The Eagles…

Ken Kraft - Hahaha…yes you did! Well, I'd been doing a lot independently and had done records with my group Snail, and I just…I loved it. I really like helping musicians produce and record their music. It’s something about the arranging of the music. Tiran had invested in his own recording stuff at his house and had all this experience being in The Doobies, and he knew what recording was and how it works. I think it was in 1980 when we became friends.

Tiran Porter - The first time I played with you was up at George Lucas' studio. You were doing a Snail recording and I happened to be around, so I sang and played on it. We were just yakking away and they invited me in.

Ken Kraft - He was the bass player I liked. Tiran had been my favorite rock bass player before I knew him. He makes it work. People don't know that. I'm looking at it from the point of view of how you would produce something or put the palette together to make the picture, and that was Tiran in the Doobie Brothers. You can't play a Doobie Brothers song without playing his bass lines. It sucks if you don't.

Tiran Porter - Those were just demos at Lucas’s studio,... but it’s what got Ken and I connected. Later I played with Snail at The Catalyst. We played in six bands together. Who knows how many live performances we’ve done together! We did a lot of driving together, back and forth to gigs. Remember my car was just big enough to fit your gear and mine in it…..

Ken Kraft - We just had really great conversations, a lot of it not having to do with music, you know, just having to do with life and love.