Frozen Tears Unveils Brazen Whisper Interview by Ken Morton
Frozen Tears from Australia has returned to present their vibrant melodic rock reveries upon the world at large. Brazen Whisper is the name of their latest magnum opus now available via MR Records, featuring dynamic originals plus an inspiring cover of the classic KISS song C’mon And Love Me. Highwire Daze recently checked in with Frozen Tears mastermind Jon Powers to discuss the grand and intriguing soundscapes of Brazen Whisper, writing and recording in the middle of a pandemic, feedback from a former member of KISS on their rendition of C’mon And Love Me, and a whole lot more! Read on... Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Frozen Tears, and how long the band has been together. Hi, I’m Jon Powers. Guitarist, Keyboardist and songwriter for Melodic Rock Band Frozen Tears. Frozen Tears have been together amazingly for over 25 years but we did have a long hiatus away as life got in the way with kids, work and life. We never broke up and we still are childhood friends from playing music in various bands, from Thanis playing in more hard rock bands and myself playing in harder edged bands. But we both always had a love & passion for AOR & Melodic Rock. Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there? We are based out of Melbourne, Australia. Leaving the effects of Covid out of the conversation the hard rock melodic scene is very healthy. With established bands like White Widdow who have flown the Aussie flag for a few years we have emerging bands like Wicked Smile & Ablaze to name a few now coming onto the scene. Its great to have some great Aussie bands enter the melodic rock world! How did you wind up signing with MR Records? The guys and MR Records had a listen to our pre-production of some of the songs and after a conversation with them they wanted to sign us and thus have been great supporters of the band. I think we surprised them with the final product as we were very particular on what sound we wanted to have. Is there any overall story or concept behind the Brazen Whisper album title? Well we were so happy with the how our first single ‘Brazen Whisper’ came to its overall sound and we also loved the name. It actually seemed like a perfect continuation from our 1st album titled ‘Silence of the Night’ which in itself, the title track ‘Silence of the Night’ was our first single too. Select two songs from Brazen Whisper and what inspired the lyrics. BRAZEN WHISPER – It’s a dark story about a dream of having broken up with someone you were with for a long time and having gone through the trauma of questioning how, why 38
and where you dealt with it ... HOLD ON TIGHT – This is an uplifting story about believing in being in a positive relationship with your partner and holding tight to all the dreams and aspirations you might have for the future. Uplifting Positivity Has anyone in KISS heard or commented on your C’mon And Love Me cover and what made you decide to cover that song? Yes, we have! Ex KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick loved the version of the song which, as one of my guitar influences, was a great accolade to have. Who produced Brazen Whisper and what was it like working with them? I mainly produced the initial stage of the album as it was difficult with lockdowns and once Thanis was in my studio to lay down his vocals we both finalized the vision of the tracks. I still kept going with some initial parts. After finally tracking all the parts of the album I got in touch with ‘House Of Lords’ engineer Ty Sims to mix and master the album as I know he had done a massive job on past albums from Tango Down, Romeo Riot and of course House of Lords. Ty also enlisted Erik Johnson from ‘Bombay Black’ to add some backing vocals to some songs as well. We also had our good friend ‘Bobby Miller’ on backing voOctober/November 2021
HIGHWIRE DAZE
