Interviews: Frozen Sand

In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the Progressive Metal band Frozen Sand, from Italy. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

We spent a lot of time in search of a name that could fit our band and most of all our music. At first we had to think of what we were both as musicians and as a band. So, trying to figure out what we were, we had to face a simple question: "what music means for us?"… and an image came to mind: "lost somewhere in the vastness of human soul, there lies a special place, a secret and recondite Eden where everything can happen. This is the place where the most beautiful among the greatest gifts that were primordially given to humans can reveal itself, turning into imagination… fantasy… art. And this is also the place where, sometimes, the collision between two different forms of art releases a sparkle with a tremendous force, whose power is capable to freeze the sands of time within the great hourglass of life". This is a picture of what music and art are capable of… and we simply tried to capture that precious moment, turning it into our band’s name.

2.Why did you want to play this genre?

Progressive metal is a genre that gives us certain flexibility in order to exploit our creativity at maximum, music-wise. It really has no boundaries; it's like a good environment to raise the seed of creativity, the best we could find and fit us better. It is perfect for the lyrics we write and for the ambients and moods we aim to build with our music, which can be very heterogeneous at times. Last but not least, it is the great common point within our musical tastes, as we are all huge fans of the progressive metal scene.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Yes! We have two brothers in the band: Federico (guitar) and Simone (drums) are brothers. Tiziano and Mattia were classmates at high school, the same one attended by Simone when they met and decided to start a band together. It was around 2009... And like most of the teenagers, we were just a bunch of kids messing around with their instruments, driven by a strong urge to play and make some noise together! About a year later we met singer Luca, the brother of a Simone's friend. As soon as he entered the band, we started writing our first songs. It's somehow funny that Federico joined us only in August 2010, but that's life! With his arrival we reached the current line-up. Consequently, our music finally took shape, gradually concretizing into notes…words…emotions.

4. Each band member favourite band?

Luca (vocals): uh, I listen to more than 250 bands/musicians and I have collected something like 700 records up to now. That’s why it is so difficult for me to pick out a name. Fine, let’s mention 5 bands: Breaking Benjamin, Avantasia, Yellowcard, Escape the Fate, Nightwish.

Simone (drums): Porcupine Tree, Infected Mushroom, Sleeping at Last.

Federico (guitars): Dream Theater, Periphery.

Tiziano (bass guitar): Karnivool, Agent Fresco, Haisuiononasa, Hidden Orchestra.

Mattia (guitars): I have many, on the same level and for different reason. I'd go for these four: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Dream Theater, Pantera.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Basically, inspiration comes from different points. Music-wise, we write songs thinking about a story, so if you have to put a story into music, how would it sound? Which is the kind of effect you want to reach and how? Trying to find an answer to these questions, our music flows out. So, the story is a good source definitively. Also improvisation and study are good tools to find out great musical ideas to develop. Sometimes when you just jam on your instrument, ideas come to mind.

6. Where was your last gig?

The last gig played at was with our good friends and progsters MirrorMaze at Bros Valhalla (Borgo Ticino, ITALY), on January 28th. We had such a good time with our mates, and public shared the same good vibe with us: response was very good! Hopefully we will have more chances to share the stage with such good bands and public, both in the near and far future!

7. Where would you like to act?

Well, basically everywhere on the globe where our music may be appreciated! In the end, entertaining people (and ourselves, of course) is the aim of what we do. So we guess it's not very important where.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

There are many people who we would like to feature on our records, both singers and musicians. An interesting collaboration may be with some of nowadays young artists of the guitar universe such as Sithu Aye, Plini, Aaron Marshall and many others... Who knows, maybe one day!

9. Whom not?

Ahahah funny question! We guess people like Gigi d'Agostino and Bob Sinclar are on the top of the list!

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Sure everyone is afraid of the stage, at least at the beginning, and there are three things that can help you overcoming this fright. First of all, be very well prepared for what you are going to do!: having self-confidence of your instrument, the music you are going to play and your gear is a must. Good practice is to play on metronome, the same piece you will be playing with your band at different speed, and record yourself to really understand where you need to work on. Second: do as many live shows as you can. The more you play live, the more you get used to the stage, and the less shy and frightened you will feel next time. Third: do rehearsal to check the overall result, because you are not alone when you are on stage, and you are (maybe) not playing on metronome. So it is a fundamental step to practice together. Possibly, try to record also the rehearsals in order to check how your overall performance was.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

We have always tried to create something with a personal identity ... a "sound Frozen Sand"! Of course this is not easy, but our final goal has always been originality. As mentioned before, our music influences are many and varied. Let’s say that most of our grooves and rhythmic patterns come mainly from alternative metal (bands like Karnivool, Tool or Breaking Benjamin), but contaminated by influences from Djent and technical metal, as Periphery, Protest the Hero, BTBAM, SikTh, Tesseract and Scar Symmetry. On the contrary, our guitar riffs have a more classic origins, taken by traditional metal, blues-rock and prog rock/metal: to name a few, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Frank Zappa, Dream Theater and Symphony X. Finally, the vocal styles have very varied forms, coming mainly from metalcore and melodic post-hardcore in the way of switching clean and harsh voice (Bullet for My Valentine, A Day to Remember), with some reminiscences from power metal (Sonata Arctica, Avantasia), passing through choirs that try to re-echo the symphonic styles (Rhapsody, Nightwish or Sabaton), to end up with soft and clean parts taken from pop and classic rock.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

Nothing special actually. Unfortunately, we have no particular memory of strange requests by fans.

13. What do you think of your fans?

Our fanbase is made of very heterogeneous and open-minded people. Since we play a miscellaneous kind of music, consequently many kinds of people come to our concerts and buy our music. Starting from the classic metalheads who like our heavy metal influence most, or the prog guy who wants to get into odd time signatures, ending up with the one who wants to hear clean and spacey music. Playing a very wide range music, without losing cohesiveness, allows us to connect a lot of different individuals together, and that's one of the things we love most from this global metal scene.

14. What do you think of our site?

It's a very good one, specialized and well-made. Definitely a nice discover for us! You feature a lot of good bands that deserve more than what they get, and that's really cool.

15. Something to add?

Yes, thanks for having us here at Breathing The Core. Hope you guys will have a good time while listening to our music and follwing us, both live and here on the web. Of course you can find our music on the main digital platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, ITunes, Bandcamp and you can follow the whole story of our album of our official page www.frozensandband.com (section “Stories”). Thanks guys. See you soon!