Frozen Tears

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. 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.

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 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 vo-

cals for ‘Set Me Free’ and Stella La Rosa on ‘Can’t Stop’. I even had my local pastor lay down the bass on one of our tracks “You”. Who says pastor’s cant rock! Working on the album for mixdown remotely was a big ask but Ty was a pro and nailed the Frozen Tears sound that we wanted. Big drums, screaming guitars, big vocal sounds and a thick 80s arena mix. in its rawest form and did exceptionally well in Europe and is still selling to this day after over 20 years and we’ve also had some great reviews for it.

What was it like working on an album in the middle of a pandemic?

I’ve had some experience working remotely for quite a while on session jobs from keyboards to guitars (Darren Phillips, Dangerous Curves etc ). The big bonus is that having your own home studio and being predominately the main supply of all the musical parts from bass, keyboards and guitars does help. After having all the songs in demo format we enlisted a brilliant session drummer Glenn Welman from the UK to lay the drum tracks in the UK and he did a sensational job! Glenn has played with major players like Jordan Rudess (Dream Theatre)! We have changed and moved forward with ‘Brazen Whisper’, more so in musical growth and production, but it still has the Melodic Rock stamp we had on our first release.

Has Frozen Tears ever played live, or would you like to in future days?

Yes, we have played live and even done some TV shows. Especially when we were asked to provide a theme song for a popular ‘Football’ club name South Melbourne FC which included appearance on networks and our song played on game days. The song will also be featured in a full documentary about the great player ‘world cup star Ferenc Puskas’ who coached that team to title success.

Then once all the drum tracks arrived I then added all the instruments, including some string instruments (Violins/Violas) for our ballad (Can’t Stop) and a few extra parts that I thought would enhance the songs.

For the record, we didn’t know how long this pandemic and lockdowns would pan out so we actually layed down enough material for 2 albums (over 14 songs!) so in essence we already have 7 songs close to ready now and will have another few more to add for our next release later in 2022.

Brazen Whisper was more of a short form album to introduce the band again after all this time away since our 1997 release. As for playing live currently, well, the scene is in a standstill here in Melbourne, Australia so we will see how things pan out over the next few months.

Maybe in hindsight, it was a great idea on releasing a shortformed album to showcase our new style and sound inview of a full release album next year!

If Frozen Tears could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?

I would say, Whitesnake. We love the band and their sound. Who could deny the killer musicianship of John Sykes and the vocals of David Coverdale!

When you look back on your 1st album Silence Of The Night (released in 1997), what do you think of it now in retrospect?

We are very proud of that album. It was AOR/Melodic rock

Are you involved with any other bands or projects outside of Frozen Tears?

As for myself, I still do a lot of session projects playing keyboards or guitar for different artists and even composing/

arranging. Currently I do have a few side projects that I’m working on including one with ‘DELTA 7’ and have been offered to appear on a few others but Frozen Tears is the priority for us.

What’s up next for Frozen Tears?

Next for Frozen Tears is our FULL length album. I have currently finished arranging and tracking all the songs for the next album in which we have 7 songs musically finished. Once lockdowns end here Thanis will be coming in the studio to lay down all the vocals and then it will be ready for mixing and mastering. So its exciting times ahead for us.

Any final words of wisdom?

Thanis and myself can say one thing of wisdom. NEVER give up on what you love. Do what YOU think sounds right to YOU. We might have been away for nearly 24 years but the passion is and was always there and we stuck it out together and proved we can still produce great melodic rock songs that we hope the world can enjoy the same way we do.

www.facebook.com/frozentearsaustralia https://www.melodicrockrecords.com/

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