Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 965 - Frozen Soul's Chad Green Discusses No Place of Warmth and the Guests Who Helped Shape It

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 965 - Frozen Soul's Chad Green Discusses No Place of Warmth and the Guests Who Helped Shape It · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  I love death metal, I love hardcore.
• 0:01
  And I think like, you know, in the early days of Frozen Soul,
• 0:05
  we were like, OK, this is a old school death metal worship band.
• 0:08
  Like this is what we're going to do.
• 0:09
  Because, you know, this is like kind of like a side project away
• 0:12
  from our other band. And we're we're really worked
• 0:15
  hard on this other band. So this is the band.
• 0:17
  We're not going to take serious. We're just going to write some
• 0:19
  music and have some fun. And then what do you know, the
• 0:22
  thing that you're trying to have fun with is what does the best?
• 0:24
  Like, who would have thought, right?
• 0:26
  You know, I mean, it's just the way it goes in life and you
• 0:29
  know, it's like, I guess, you know, as we get further on, it's
• 0:33
  like we come into ourselves a little bit easier and, and
• 0:37
  better. And with our experiences, like
• 0:39
  now we're to the point where it's just like, This Is Us.
• 0:42
  We're here. You know, I'm going to make your
• 0:44
  ass do some push ups in the pit. I'm going to make you circle
• 0:47
  pit. I'm going to make you 2 step.
• 0:48
  I'm going to make you punch somebody probably.
• 0:50
  And then I'm going to make you play some Magic the gathering in
• 0:52
  the pit and you better just get over it.
• 0:53
  I don't know what to tell you. You know, that's just what it is
• 0:56
  like. That's who we are.
• 1:04
  This is Omar from Ghost Cult Magazine.
• 1:06
  I am joined this time by Chad Green of Frozen Soul.
• 1:10
  Welcome to the show, brother. Yeah, Let's see.
• 1:14
  Yeah. I think I met you in Irving
• 1:16
  Plaza a couple years ago from the last record.
• 1:19
  So yeah, Yeah, I'm very. I'm very happy to see you guys
• 1:23
  have disgustingly popped air quotes like you guys just like,
• 1:28
  wait a minute. Everybody's like Frozen Souls
• 1:30
  like this. It's like you're like the
• 1:32
  overnight sensation. I don't know, I don't know about
• 1:35
  that, man. I mean, you know, it's, it's
• 1:38
  been fun, dude. We just, you know, we're kind of
• 1:40
  just trying to keep it going, man.
• 1:42
  I mean, there's a lot of other bands doing crazier stuff
• 1:44
  popping off on the Internet than us.
• 1:46
  But you know, we, we've been having a lot of fun.
• 1:49
  You know, we're also very tired because we've been going
• 1:53
  nonstop, nonstop. And it's very, it's very like
• 1:59
  impressive and like I'm. Thanks man.
• 2:01
  So I want to talk about, like, the new record.
• 2:03
  No place for warmth. Great time.
• 2:05
  Very, very oddly, positively, sadly depressing.
• 2:10
  But it's like, it's like, it's like an American black metal
• 2:13
  title. Yeah.
• 2:16
  It's like it's, it's pretty different, pretty different.
• 2:21
  Yeah, You kind of just wrote the whole thing as you were
• 2:24
  recording it. How did that go for you guys,
• 2:27
  like versus like the way you've written your last two records
• 2:29
  where you had like, oh, we're gonna have like these songs
• 2:31
  before we go in the studio to let's just make it up on the
• 2:34
  spot. I mean, it was like a way
• 2:37
  different experience, man. Like it honestly.
• 2:40
  Like I, I was super scared going into the studio.
• 2:46
  I think we all were because we had maybe bits and pieces of
• 2:49
  songs, but we didn't have any like anything we really super
• 2:53
  liked. And a lot of the risks that we
• 2:55
  were like working on were risks we've literally had since like
• 2:58
  the Crypt of Ice days. So like we have a whole rift
• 3:02
  Bank of just stuff and then, you know, there's stuff we've wanted
• 3:06
  to use, but we just like didn't get to it because we didn't have
• 3:09
  time, you know? And so on this one, we like had
• 3:11
  a bunch of stuff that we were like, OK, let's take a look at
• 3:14
  this, you know, and see what we could do with it once we get
• 3:17
  into, you know, everything. And like, it basically was like,
• 3:23
  I guess like, I don't know, like probably like 2 weeks of just
• 3:32
  freaking out and trying to figure it out and not really
• 3:35
  knowing like what we're doing. And then about two weeks we kind
• 3:38
  of locked in. And then after we locked in, we
• 3:40
  were just, I don't know, man, like Josh just put us to work.
• 3:44
  And then next thing you know, like we were just cranking songs
• 3:46
  out that we were happier with than we've ever been.
• 3:49
  You know, it was, it was genuinely like, what the fuck,
• 3:53
  You know, Like genuinely became the best thing that could have
• 3:58
  ever happened to us. Honestly.
• 4:00
  I mean, I, I genuinely feel that like this record is probably the
• 4:04
  the first frozen soul record. Like not, it's not, I don't mean
• 4:08
  like the first one we recorded, but I feel like it's the first
• 4:11
  one that feels like absolute us, you know, if that makes sense.
• 4:17
  Yeah, I get it. I I, I kind of like.
• 4:19
  So I see it. I mentioned that gets like the
• 4:22
  the over. I think it was like the stop
• 4:24
  over thinking like mindset of like trying to, you know, write
• 4:28
  music and come up with stuff. So like I listened to it and it
• 4:31
  just kind of made me think of like, oh, it kind of reminded me
• 4:35
  back of those first days when you're in the jam room together
• 4:38
  writing your first songs period together.
• 4:41
  And yeah, it's like, Oh yeah, it's like that.
• 4:43
  But now you guys have all these extra years of experience on top
• 4:47
  of your shoulders, so it kind of give you a leg up.
• 4:51
  So you still have that. It still has that early, I guess
• 4:55
  that, hey, we're writing. If we're in a band, we're
• 4:57
  jamming out together. This is fun.
• 4:59
  It kind of had that Sonic vibe for me where I kind of pick up
• 5:03
  on like, Oh yeah, this feels like a bunch of cats that just
• 5:06
  know each other forever. That just like, yeah, this is it
• 5:09
  just felt it's, it's a weird, like fun weirdness to it.
• 5:14
  I guess that's the right way. Yeah, You know, it's like weird
• 5:18
  'cause like it's funny. It's it, it's, it's funny that
• 5:22
  you say weird because that's how like, that's how I feel about it
• 5:25
  too. It's like when we were writing
• 5:28
  Cryptovise, you know, we had a lot of pressure on us because we
• 5:33
  we don't know what we're doing and we got scientists century
• 5:35
  media. And so we're just like, man, we
• 5:37
  got to make the most badass old school sounding record as
• 5:40
  possible. We need more reverb, we need
• 5:42
  more delay, we need more like this has got to sound like it
• 5:45
  was like recorded in a butt hole.
• 5:46
  Let's go. Like, you know, like and that
• 5:49
  and and that worked and that was great, but like there were some
• 5:51
  things we weren't happy about. Then we got to Glacial and we
• 5:54
  decided to like experiment with some things and I think we did
• 5:58
  it a little bit too clean in the end result.
• 6:01
  And it was a little too clean and I think it was missing some
• 6:03
  of the heaviness. And so when we went to this one,
• 6:06
  there was always a comment that I would see people leave on
• 6:10
  videos and stuff like that that really stuck with me.
• 6:14
  And not in a negative way, but just like, I took it as like,
• 6:17
  constructive, kind of like criticism in a way.
• 6:20
  Like there'd be people that would be like, well, like,
• 6:23
  they'd be shitting on us, right? Like somebody would be like
• 6:25
  talking like shit about us or whatever.
• 6:28
  And then someone would chime in to like, defend us.
• 6:30
  And they'd be like, well, if you don't like the record, you
• 6:33
  should see him live. And like, I've seen that comment
• 6:37
  100 plus times. Like, I, I mean, I've seen so
• 6:40
  many people talk about it and like, that's always stuck with
• 6:42
  me. And like, OK, so obviously
• 6:45
  there's like a disconnect from like our recorded sound and our
• 6:50
  live sound. And it makes sense.
• 6:51
  And it goes back to kind of what the reason I'm mentioning all
• 6:53
  this is because you said like the years of experience of
• 6:55
  touring and stuff like that. You know, I started thinking
• 6:58
  like our live show man is like a lot different than like our
• 7:01
  records because we normally write and record kind of like in
• 7:07
  similar time frames. So basically like we, we pretty
• 7:12
  much like we write and record in like very similar time frames.
• 7:17
  And we don't get a lot of experience like playing, if that
• 7:21
  makes sense, like playing them beforehand.
• 7:24
  But see, now we've been on the road so much that we've kind of
• 7:29
  like changed how we originally wrote the songs that we had
• 7:33
  already recorded, if that makes sense.
• 7:35
  So like, we have all of that experience of the road mixed
• 7:41
  with like, seeing and kind of taking in the criticism and
• 7:45
  being like, how could we make this more match like what we're
• 7:48
  doing live? And so we went into this record
• 7:51
  for the first time with like, we want this record to be like a
• 7:54
  sledgehammer to hit you in the face.
• 7:56
  It be the best of both worlds of like the old school and also
• 8:00
  modern like techniques, but just be more fun and just just have
• 8:05
  that big explosive fun this that we have live where I'm yelling
• 8:08
  at the crowd constantly to mosh or whatever.
• 8:11
  It's like we wanted to feel like the kind of music that is like
• 8:14
  fun and weird and not just like hyper, like tuned and hyper
• 8:19
  programmed and stuff like that. And, you know, it like, it has
• 8:23
  like a little bit of like a weird vibe to it compared to
• 8:25
  like the rest of us, the rest of our stuff.
• 8:27
  So it's, it's funny that you say that because I like, I, I kind
• 8:31
  of like think of the record as the same thing, You know, I
• 8:34
  think really highly of it, man. Like I for the first time, I
• 8:37
  don't have a lot of my own criticism, you know, like I'm
• 8:40
  just like, hell yeah, this rules.
• 8:44
  I, I, I've been in bands before too, so like, I also have the,
• 8:49
  that internal criticism. It's like you kind of, and it's
• 8:52
  like, oh, when I play somebody one of my songs, it's like, Oh
• 8:55
  yeah, oh, what do you think of? Oh, it's oh, I like this and
• 8:57
  that I'm like, great. But you know what I hate about
• 8:59
  this? This, you know, it's like we
• 9:01
  have the eternal habit of pointing out all our flaws on
• 9:04
  the piece when somebody says, oh, this is really great.
• 9:06
  So I've learned to just shut up and just say thank you.
• 9:10
  And you know, cuz sometimes it just like, even though it's a
• 9:14
  good piece of music, sometimes there's oh this man, I've had in
• 9:17
  fact one more take of this. I could have did this better.
• 9:20
  And sometimes that's the one thing I've learned of like to
• 9:24
  let go. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 9:27
  Going from Matt Heavey, who produced your last record, he's
• 9:30
  a musician and he's like, you know, performer guy.
• 9:33
  So he comes with a certain, a certain style from the
• 9:39
  performer, performer, producer area.
• 9:42
  How did, like, how did that differ for you when you brought
• 9:46
  Josh in? Like how did they, how did their
• 9:49
  two different approaches affect the way you guys arrange stuff?
• 9:54
  Well, arranging it, it actually affected a lot.
• 9:59
  So with Matt, Matt, Matt helped produce the record, but Matt
• 10:07
  wasn't like the producer overall.
• 10:11
  Like essentially the last two records were recorded and
• 10:15
  engineered by Daniel Schmuck, who used to be in Frozen Soul
• 10:21
  and is in a band called Myth Carver right now.
• 10:23
  I've played with him for 20 years like he's one of my best
• 10:25
  friends. And we all went out to meet Matt
• 10:31
  at their at their where they practice their hangar in
• 10:34
  Florida. And we pre proed like 9 songs
• 10:38
  that we basically already had written.
• 10:41
  And there was like 2 songs in there that like we wrote with
• 10:44
  Matt. So like that was glacial
• 10:47
  domination and abominable. So those songs like those had a
• 10:52
  lot of his input on him and overall he had a lot of like
• 10:55
  guidance and techniques and things to show us.
• 10:57
  So that's really where he had like the, the push and then and
• 11:03
  really a lot of it, we, we kind of, we ran through everything on
• 11:06
  those 9 songs and then we got, we got home and then we, we kind
• 11:10
  of like went over all them and changed some things here and
• 11:13
  there. And then we went to the studio
• 11:15
  with Daniel. But Daniel was there with us
• 11:16
  when we were in Florida. So we kind of already had like,
• 11:20
  you know, that set up. And, and when it came to the
• 11:23
  actual recording process and putting the songs together in a
• 11:26
  studio setting, Matt wasn't actually there because he had to
• 11:28
  go on tour and stuff. So we did that back in Texas and
• 11:33
  we didn't know what the hell we were doing.
• 11:35
  I mean, just straight up, we still don't, but we definitely
• 11:37
  didn't know at that point. And we were in like $1,000,000
• 11:41
  studio. So essentially like we, we just
• 11:46
  kind of threw things together. It's like Arsenal of War, like
• 11:49
  that song wasn't finished. And then we essentially just
• 11:52
  like put it together in the studio and it became what it is.
• 11:56
  And I wrote the lyrics in the studio.
• 11:58
  So some of it was written in the studio, but not a lot.
• 12:01
  And, you know, there's a lot about the the record I wish I
• 12:04
  could have changed. But all of that differs with the
• 12:07
  new record. Because the thing about Josh
• 12:10
  Schroeder is, is he's a mastermind.
• 12:13
  Like a mastermind. Like he, he has, he has been
• 12:16
  under the gun a lot, a lot more at times than we have as a band,
• 12:19
  a lot more times than Daniel has as a producer, you know, So he
• 12:24
  knew everything that we were about to face.
• 12:26
  Like, even if, even if he didn't know what we were going to do,
• 12:29
  he ended up knowing what we were going to do.
• 12:33
  And so it's like anytime we came into something, he was like that
• 12:36
  reassuring voice that was like, don't worry, don't worry, don't
• 12:40
  get in your head, don't worry, we got this.
• 12:43
  It'll, it'll work out. And so it made things a lot
• 12:45
  easier when we were arranging songs and stuff, especially like
• 12:49
  no Place of warmth. The actual song, we wrote that
• 12:52
  in the studio in one day. Like that song, the only thing
• 12:55
  that didn't get written in one day was the lyrics.
• 12:59
  I I wrote those separate. But like, yeah, I mean that,
• 13:03
  that the instruments came together in like 1 day.
• 13:05
  And like, we couldn't have done that without Josh.
• 13:08
  Like he just, we're, we're all cave cave people, you know, we
• 13:12
  don't know how to use computers to record stuff and then add
• 13:15
  stuff to it and, you know, really vibe with it.
• 13:18
  We just, we basically just beat it into the ground until it
• 13:22
  makes sense to us. And that is like dying, sweating
• 13:25
  to death behind the drums because we've made him play the
• 13:27
  same drum part 50 million times, you know?
• 13:31
  So this record was like, a lot different because we were able
• 13:33
  to do things faster. We were able to try something.
• 13:36
  And then Matt could or, you know, Josh could just like,
• 13:39
  swing some drums on it real quick to see if the idea was
• 13:43
  even remotely possible, you know, before Matt had to go in
• 13:47
  and actually record and practice it, you know, So it just overall
• 13:51
  just made things like, so much cleaner and better and easier.
• 13:55
  I mean, honestly, I feel like we could go to the studio right now
• 13:58
  and write another record. That's how, that's how confident
• 14:02
  I am after that process. I feel like the next record
• 14:05
  would probably be better than this one in my, in our eyes,
• 14:08
  just because like now we're like, oh shit.
• 14:10
  It's like we could just go have fun and write a record and we
• 14:14
  don't have to stress because we're trying to learn as we go.
• 14:16
  Like we just, you know. And so, yeah, it, it mattered a
• 14:19
  lot. Josh really brought like a whole
• 14:21
  arsenal of tools, you know, that we didn't have before.
• 14:24
  So. That's that's pretty odd.
• 14:26
  That's pretty awesome. What was the thing that Josh,
• 14:29
  that you guys resisted that at 1st and was like, Oh yeah,
• 14:31
  you're right, Josh, because I know everybody's protective of
• 14:34
  their babies. Like I have this kind of rift.
• 14:35
  Like that rift worked. If you move this over or it's
• 14:39
  got to, there must have been at least one thing where you're
• 14:40
  like, Nah, I don't want to, I don't like your idea.
• 14:43
  And then like, OK, you're right. I mean, a lot of that happened.
• 14:47
  A lot of that happened actually, you know, I'll tell you this,
• 14:50
  you know? OK, so I got two things with
• 14:53
  this, this that that that are great.
• 14:55
  OK. The first one is the last song
• 14:58
  on the record. OK.
• 14:59
  It's called killing time until it's time to kill.
• 15:01
  What's important about this song is I really did not like the
• 15:07
  risks in that song in the context that they were in before
• 15:12
  we wrote the song, if that makes sense.
• 15:14
  I felt like it was a little bit too song and dancey, you know, a
• 15:18
  little bit outside of the what we were looking for as far as
• 15:21
  like the impact goes on this record.
• 15:24
  So it's crazy to me that things came together with the way they
• 15:31
  did because I disliked it. But we all got together and I
• 15:36
  had written some lyrics that were for a joke band, a country
• 15:41
  death metal band. So is essentially like a solo
• 15:45
  project that I was thinking about doing where I wear like my
• 15:47
  cowboy hat and I have my bracers on.
• 15:50
  And then, you know, like the the classic George Strait style
• 15:54
  album covers that have them with a cowboy hat on, like, and then
• 15:57
  it has their name in cursive. That's what I was going to do is
• 16:00
  going to be so fucking ridiculous.
• 16:02
  OK, I was literally going to do that.
• 16:05
  I never was going to do that. Actually.
• 16:06
  It's just a stupid idea I had when I was like fucking, I don't
• 16:11
  know, I guess or something. But when I started like singing
• 16:16
  the tune, because I had the lyrics already, I had the I had
• 16:19
  most of the lyrics to that song already.
• 16:21
  I had the lyrics like born to chill, but bred to kill.
• 16:25
  I'm killing time until it's time to kill.
• 16:28
  And so I like I was like listening to that, that those
• 16:31
  riffs that Mike wrote when they did like the little like they
• 16:35
  ran through the song and in the studio with Josh and they had
• 16:37
  recorded it right. So like, I had like a pretty
• 16:40
  clean version of it to listen to and I was like, Oh my God, these
• 16:43
  lyrics like match up perfectly, you know.
• 16:46
  And so when we, we, I talked to everybody and I'm like, why
• 16:49
  don't we just lean into the fact that it's, it's, it's a song,
• 16:52
  it's, it's a singing song, you know, why don't we make it
• 16:55
  chorus focused and we go with my, my fun lyrics And we just
• 16:59
  write like a traditional funny death metal song that is still
• 17:03
  heavy, but kind of leans in the way of like country and
• 17:06
  rock'n'roll, you know, and it just came together, you know,
• 17:10
  it's like that easy. But there was like, we did not,
• 17:13
  we got to a second, we got to a moment where we were not going
• 17:15
  to put that on the record. Like I was like, we got to just
• 17:18
  figure something else out. But we ended up doing it, man.
• 17:21
  And it was like, you know, coming together after like so
• 17:24
  many different differences and opinions.
• 17:27
  And then other than that, like, man, like there were times where
• 17:29
  I was recording lyrics because I spent like, there were days
• 17:34
  where I stayed out of the studio and I would walk for 10 miles,
• 17:38
  not even kidding, 10 miles. I'd start my freaking workout on
• 17:41
  my watch and just go walking, listening to the songs, writing.
• 17:45
  And when it got down to actually like recording lyrics, I sat
• 17:49
  down with Josh and we went over my patterns and we went over my
• 17:52
  lyrics and, you know, we'd fine tune things to actually fit
• 17:55
  what's best for the song, you know, And he kind of helped
• 17:58
  guide that based on his experience too.
• 18:00
  And, and there were times like we were arguing, me and Josh,
• 18:04
  like, no man, it's got to be this way.
• 18:06
  And I'm like, oh man, it just doesn't have to be that way.
• 18:08
  We, we could do whatever we want.
• 18:09
  We don't have to do it that way. And he's like, no man, it's got
• 18:12
  to be this way, trust me. And I didn't believe him.
• 18:14
  And then I recorded it. And after I recorded it, I got
• 18:18
  it, you know, I understood. I understood like, his
• 18:22
  perspective and like, he's just a great dude.
• 18:24
  And there were times where like, I was like, really pushing for
• 18:27
  something. And he was like, And then I
• 18:29
  recorded. He was like, OK, I feel it, you
• 18:31
  know? And so there's just a lot of
• 18:33
  like a lot of little moments in the studio with this experience
• 18:37
  in particular that we're just like, man, it made the record so
• 18:40
  much better. You know, it's, it's crazy.
• 18:43
  I feel like we worked hard on this record, but in retrospect,
• 18:46
  I feel like we worked harder on the last two records.
• 18:49
  Honestly, like more stress. This one, like after we were
• 18:54
  worried because we didn't have much material, we weren't as
• 18:56
  prepared, but like we had a better time actually recording
• 19:00
  it. And it was because of all of
• 19:03
  this stuff with Josh and the environment we were in.
• 19:05
  So I know that's way more than what the question was, but you
• 19:08
  know, it's it's. Really like 3 questions in one.
• 19:13
  That's my ADHD brain talking right there dude.
• 19:16
  I love it to finish up the producer, the producer stuff.
• 19:19
  What's the one thing like you you got from from the studios
• 19:23
  and working with all these producers over the years from
• 19:26
  three records, 3 different mindsets, helping you craft your
• 19:30
  new babies? What's the one thing that you
• 19:32
  learned that you didn't have before?
• 19:34
  I mean, honestly, I think the biggest thing is probably just
• 19:37
  like, I guess confidence in ourselves with every record and
• 19:44
  stuff, we have definitely gained like more confidence.
• 19:46
  But like with this one, being so unprepared and then going there
• 19:50
  and writing what we consider to be the best record that we've
• 19:54
  written it, It like has honestly made us feel a lot more like
• 19:59
  capable musicians. Like it just, it just, we just
• 20:02
  have more confidence in our ability to like ride a record.
• 20:05
  Because before this record, man, I'll be honest, like, you know,
• 20:08
  I can't speak for everybody, you know, but for myself, like I
• 20:12
  genuinely, I don't know, man, I didn't, I didn't know we would
• 20:17
  be able to really ride another record.
• 20:19
  You know, I had a lot of stuff happen right before that last
• 20:23
  record came out. And it, it was rough, you know,
• 20:28
  and I put like every ounce of my heart into it.
• 20:31
  And I had my brother helping me write song, my, my other brother
• 20:34
  helping me write songs, you know, and stuff for lyrics for
• 20:37
  songs and stuff. And I and come up with concepts.
• 20:40
  And I, I couldn't do it on my own, you know, with the, with
• 20:43
  the last record and at least from the lyrical standpoint.
• 20:47
  And with this, I was really worried about this record
• 20:49
  because I put so much into the lyrics for like Arsenal war and
• 20:52
  stuff on the last record and everything that I felt like, you
• 20:56
  know, like that was the best I could do, you know?
• 20:59
  And with this one, it really opened up this door to hone in
• 21:04
  like a lot of the stuff that, you know, has always been in our
• 21:09
  music, but not always been on the forefront of it, you know.
• 21:12
  So it really like opened those doors and like gave me gave me
• 21:17
  and the rest of the band confidence, you know.
• 21:19
  And so that's that. I guess that's the the most is
• 21:21
  the confidence part, you know? So you said that you had your
• 21:26
  brother and you know, you had a little help writing lyrics.
• 21:30
  Do you have a couple of songs written ahead of time or you
• 21:32
  just like I have to write in the moment?
• 21:34
  What what? What's the catalyst for your
• 21:37
  creativity to park? I mean, like I've already
• 21:41
  mentioned on here, I'm like super ADHD man.
• 21:43
  So I need kind of the pressure to get shit done.
• 21:48
  I'm like very much like always thinking about everything and
• 21:51
  always over analyzing everything.
• 21:53
  But I also like, it's like I think about it so much and don't
• 21:57
  do it, you know? And then and then it gets
• 22:01
  exhausting. So like then it'll get down to
• 22:03
  the wire and I'm like, Oh well, I got to get this done now.
• 22:07
  And it's like, I thought so much about it that like, it comes
• 22:10
  fast, you know? But like, for this, I did spend
• 22:15
  some time like over the, you know, several months, like just
• 22:18
  thinking about things and coming up with stuff and, you know,
• 22:22
  concepts. And I had this whole like, whole
• 22:25
  thing, right? Of like, OK, this song is going
• 22:28
  to kind of be influenced by like Predator.
• 22:30
  This song is going to be influenced by the thing Again,
• 22:33
  this is going to be influenced by Ninja Scroll and Dragon Ball
• 22:38
  Z. This one's going to be
• 22:39
  influenced by Cannibal Corpse. Like, you know, I mean, like I
• 22:42
  had all these ideas, right? And I wrote all these lines of
• 22:45
  lyrics and stuff. I had all these names.
• 22:48
  I had like 60 or 70 song names and stuff.
• 22:51
  Like I really tried to prepare ahead of time and I used like
• 22:54
  fucking none of it. I used none of it except for
• 22:58
  Skin by the Wind pretty much. And then the country song that I
• 23:02
  wrote, I almost scrapped just about everything.
• 23:06
  And there were some things that I used, you know, like in Death
• 23:11
  Weaver I used some of the concepts from like the stuff I
• 23:14
  came up with, thinking about Ninja Scroll and stuff.
• 23:17
  But like my process has changed a lot in like everything leading
• 23:23
  up to this record. And for this one, I just like
• 23:28
  would walk and listen to the songs and I was trying to put
• 23:31
  stuff to it out of my notes and stuff and I just couldn't.
• 23:35
  So I just I just walked and I walked and I walked and I walked
• 23:38
  until my legs were hurting and I couldn't walk anymore.
• 23:42
  And I would just think and emotion just came out, you know,
• 23:45
  I'm let I'm trying to feel the emotion of the song.
• 23:48
  And I just started thinking about my brother that passed
• 23:51
  away and my grandfather and Chris's mom.
• 23:53
  And I'm just like thinking about all this stuff.
• 23:55
  And I'm thinking about life and getting older, you know, and I'm
• 23:58
  thinking about like the fact that like when things happen in
• 24:03
  our lives, you know, when we're kids, we could just brush it off
• 24:06
  and we don't care, you know, because we're invincible.
• 24:09
  We, we got all this time in the world and it doesn't matter.
• 24:11
  We're young, we don't care. But the older you get, your time
• 24:14
  is running out and all this stuff starts to matter so much
• 24:17
  more. And you forget who you were when
• 24:20
  you were a kid and who you were when you were 20 and when you
• 24:22
  were 30. And it's just like you're always
• 24:25
  trying to figure out who you are.
• 24:26
  So I'm thinking of all this stuff as I'm listening to these
• 24:28
  songs and then things start coming together.
• 24:31
  So then, you know, I go get me a fucking notepad from Target and
• 24:36
  I just like I'm walking and writing shit down, you know, And
• 24:40
  I just start writing them down. And then I'm then I'm going back
• 24:44
  to my notes based off of the emotion that I was feeling like
• 24:47
  while I was walking, listen to this song 300 times, you know,
• 24:51
  and then, I don't know, things just started slapping out.
• 24:54
  So I mean, it's a weird question to answer because like, I don't,
• 24:59
  it's so much different than the way I wrote lyrics before, you
• 25:02
  know. So I, I wrote lyrics in a way
• 25:06
  that we're like real general because I as a kid, like I
• 25:11
  didn't have like a lot of money and stuff.
• 25:13
  So I couldn't like buy CDs all the time and I didn't have a way
• 25:16
  to really look up lyrics. I would hear lyrics and I would
• 25:18
  pinpoint a word and I would like, I would like, I would make
• 25:24
  my own meaning up to the song, you know, And then I, I would, I
• 25:28
  would need that song to be like my theme song, you know, like my
• 25:32
  theme song to get through the day from being bullied and not
• 25:36
  just wishing I didn't have to go to school to face it and just
• 25:39
  everything, you know. And so like I've always kind of
• 25:42
  written lyrics to where they're like general, but they have my
• 25:44
  personal thing and I my personal thing about them, but I don't
• 25:47
  really talk about that on the forefront of the song.
• 25:50
  And it's all changed to now it's just like I'm just rolling with
• 25:54
  it. Like if the song is about
• 25:56
  battling depression, that's what it is.
• 25:59
  But of course our music is, is based out of fun and fantasy and
• 26:04
  you know, sci-fi and games and movies, because those are the
• 26:08
  things that drive us as people. We love that stuff.
• 26:10
  We love movies. I love magic the gathering.
• 26:12
  I love Wizards and Dragons and, and fighting and I love an
• 26:17
  underdog story. So we we kind of pin it in a way
• 26:20
  where it's like this is revenge. This is this is, this is
• 26:23
  standing up for the bat. This is standing up against an
• 26:26
  unbeatable force no matter what, you know, and, and crushing them
• 26:30
  and killing them in a death metal fashion, you know, But
• 26:33
  it's much more about like self empowerment, you know, and it's
• 26:36
  much more about dealing with loss, dealing with the fact that
• 26:40
  you're getting older and your time is running shorter on this
• 26:43
  planet and you have to choose how you're going to spend it
• 26:45
  while you're here, you know, and stuff like that.
• 26:48
  And all that went into play with the new record.
• 26:51
  And it never, it never was like the, the full driving force of
• 26:56
  the previous stuff. And so now my technique and all
• 26:59
  that shit has just kind of been thrown out the damn window, man.
• 27:03
  And I just had to like start from scratch with like who I am
• 27:06
  as a metal vocalist and lyricist.
• 27:09
  Cuz I'm not, I'm a drummer and I'm a dumb ass.
• 27:11
  So I don't know what I'm doing. So like it's, it really does.
• 27:17
  Maybe that's one of the reasons why to me it feels like the best
• 27:19
  record we've done, you know, because it feels like the best
• 27:22
  record I've done in my personal like performance and stuff, you
• 27:25
  know? I almost look at it as it's
• 27:27
  motivational. Motivational in the darkness.
• 27:31
  Yeah. And I feel like, you know, like
• 27:33
  originally I wasn't sure if it was like it was very direct.
• 27:35
  Your other, your other records were very direct.
• 27:37
  And I found this one. It's like it felt like it was
• 27:40
  intentional. Like I was wondering if it if
• 27:42
  you went in with the intention of making it like that way.
• 27:45
  But I feel like here you talk about it just to me, it sounds
• 27:48
  like everything just kind of emerged and evolved on its own
• 27:52
  to be this dark posit. It's like a dark positivity,
• 27:57
  just like it's like it's death matter.
• 27:59
  Oh no, no, it's just like, it's almost like the it's like the
• 28:03
  death matter equivalent of the hardcore uplifting hardcore
• 28:05
  songs in a in the in thematic that like word for word, but
• 28:10
  just the approach. Yeah, I, I mean, that's exactly
• 28:14
  it. You know, it really is.
• 28:16
  Like, I love hardcore. We've all, you know, Chris Tod
• 28:19
  and hardcore punk bands for many years all over the world.
• 28:22
  You know, I was in hardcore bands, you know, Matt too.
• 28:27
  Like, you know, it's we all, we all love that I love, I love the
• 28:31
  unity and hardcore. I love the like, I found that
• 28:34
  music at like the lowest point in my life, you know, and like
• 28:39
  when I, I really didn't see any worth in myself, you know, I
• 28:44
  didn't have what other kids had. I didn't, I didn't have, you
• 28:47
  know, a girlfriend or anything. I was just just like, I just saw
• 28:52
  myself as this fat, worthless idiot, you know, And so when I
• 28:56
  found hardcore and I met people like Riley Gale from Power Trip
• 29:00
  and they showed me like, you can, you can, you can fucking
• 29:03
  love this and it'll love you back.
• 29:05
  You know, it became a part of me that I'll never get rid of, no
• 29:08
  matter if I'm a death metal guy or whatever.
• 29:10
  Like I just love this shit in general.
• 29:12
  I love death metal. I love hardcore and I think
• 29:15
  like, you know, in the early days of Frozen Soul, we were
• 29:18
  like, OK, this is a old school death metal worship band.
• 29:21
  Like this is what we're going to do.
• 29:22
  Because, you know, this is like kind of like a side project away
• 29:25
  from our other band. And we're we're really worked
• 29:28
  hard on this other band. So this is the band we're not
• 29:30
  going to take serious. We're just going to write some
• 29:31
  music and have some fun. And then what do you know, the
• 29:34
  thing that you're trying to have fun with is what does the best?
• 29:37
  Like who would have fought, right?
• 29:38
  You know, I mean, it's just the way it goes in life and you
• 29:41
  know, it's like, I guess, you know, as we get further on, it's
• 29:46
  like we come into ourselves a little bit easier and, and
• 29:50
  better. And with our experiences, like
• 29:52
  now we're to the point where it's just like, This Is Us.
• 29:54
  We're here. You know, I'm going to make your
• 29:57
  ass do some push ups in the pit. I'm going to make you circle
• 29:59
  pit. I'm going to make you 2 step.
• 30:01
  I'm going to make you punch somebody probably.
• 30:03
  And then I'm going to make you play some Magic the gathering in
• 30:05
  the pit and you better just get over it.
• 30:06
  I don't know what to tell you. You know, that's just what it is
• 30:09
  like, that's who we are. And and you know, I don't know,
• 30:13
  it just is now. It's just like a part of us as a
• 30:16
  band. And, you know, I tried to make
• 30:18
  my lyrics and everything seem a little bit more fun and, you
• 30:22
  know, and then we made the music more fun and it just all, you
• 30:26
  know, I don't know, ADD rant, boom.
• 30:31
  With the writing now, did you write the lyrics for like
• 30:35
  Gerard, Gerard, Rob and Devin ahead of time or was it like,
• 30:39
  oh, these are our I know these are guys going to do the vocals
• 30:42
  or, or or the songs already like these are the lyrics for this
• 30:45
  section. Who's going to sing it?
• 30:48
  Yeah, we, most of the, so we had the songs finished before all
• 30:54
  those features were figured out, but the only the, the, the, the
• 31:00
  difference, I guess the recording, their individual
• 31:05
  recordings. Like Gerard did more than what I
• 31:08
  asked him to do because he's just a friend and he's like,
• 31:12
  we're super stoked on the song. So he wanted to record extra
• 31:16
  stuff. So I had it to use if I wanted
• 31:18
  to. And then Rob actually wrote all
• 31:23
  of his lyrics up until where we start singing together.
• 31:29
  And because it's just, but originally I had just the
• 31:32
  beginning part where I say invoke war and stuff.
• 31:34
  That's all it was right there. Because I was planning on that
• 31:37
  being like kind of like a wall of death part, you know, for a
• 31:40
  live show, which has been, I've been doing like, it's like, I
• 31:44
  still don't sing Rob's lyrics because one day we're going to
• 31:48
  perform that with Rob on stage. And those are his lyrics that
• 31:52
  are his heart that he needs to perform and not me, you know?
• 31:56
  And so like, I'm just doing a wall of death there.
• 32:01
  I just do a damn wall of death and it works every time.
• 32:04
  It's awesome. But Devin, it was the same, like
• 32:09
  it was a part of the song that when I wrote the lyrics though,
• 32:12
  I kind of wrote them in a fashion that would fit Devin's
• 32:16
  style, you know, so that he wouldn't have to like worry
• 32:19
  about it 'cause I knew he was going on tour soon.
• 32:22
  And Devons, like Devons a homie. He's always like, we've been
• 32:25
  friends forever and, you know, our bands came up at a similar
• 32:28
  time and stuff, so, you know, we toured together and everything
• 32:31
  and I knew it was going to be easy.
• 32:33
  And, you know, he said before he'd be down.
• 32:35
  So, you know, I wrote it and he banged it out and sent it to me
• 32:38
  in a couple days or something. It was awesome.
• 32:41
  But yeah, I mean, overall, like it was a really good experience
• 32:44
  with those guys and it was kind of effortless, honestly.
• 32:47
  I appreciate the fact that they're all three different
• 32:50
  vocal. They you know, they're they're
• 32:52
  they're all in the metal, heavy, Hard Rock, whatever genre you
• 32:56
  they're all all in the same umbrella, but they're all
• 32:58
  different. They're just different branches
• 33:01
  of the same style. So I find it cool.
• 33:04
  I appreciate the crossover appeal that I don't say very it
• 33:09
  expands to the fan base, especially like like the way
• 33:14
  like your current tour right now, It's like cool, like
• 33:17
  Avatar, it's like cool. That's different.
• 33:20
  And yeah, you know, flesh got Apocalypse is Flesh got
• 33:23
  Apocalypse. And yeah, yeah.
• 33:25
  And I feel like all like, just like those two bands and those
• 33:28
  three singers all together, it's like you guys have managed to
• 33:33
  branch out in different areas of the same, you know, you managed
• 33:38
  to just branch out and just expose yourself to more
• 33:42
  audiences. And I think that's a very smart
• 33:44
  thing and it's a very healthy thing for a lot of bands to do.
• 33:46
  It's like you can't just keep playing with the same 30 brutal
• 33:50
  death metal bands all day long. You know It's fun.
• 33:54
  I would. Yeah, I would.
• 33:57
  Me too. But sometimes you sometimes you
• 34:01
  just need the dynamics of, of, of the change.
• 34:03
  Sometimes it's just too straightforward.
• 34:05
  Yeah, that's just a thing I really appreciate about what,
• 34:08
  what I've noticed about you guys over the years, cuz I've seen
• 34:11
  you on so many like not random tours, but just different tours,
• 34:15
  like, oh, what are what are they doing there?
• 34:17
  Like, OK, good for them. And it's like always happy to
• 34:19
  see you guys like slowly creeping up the, the list of
• 34:23
  bands that are like that get known because like I have a huge
• 34:26
  collection of T-shirts. And then it's like I when I saw
• 34:29
  you guys in New York for the first time like couple years
• 34:32
  back and I was like, yeah, this music, this feels like a long
• 34:36
  sleeve, like a long sleeve hood, like a long sleeve sweater.
• 34:39
  So I got like the long sleeve T-shirt and I was like, Yo, this
• 34:42
  is like your music just feels like I don't want a short sleeve
• 34:45
  on your shit. I your music just has long
• 34:48
  sleeve. I need sleeves.
• 34:50
  I listen to your to your shit. Yeah, yeah.
• 34:53
  I mean we're big. We're big on the the four sided
• 34:56
  death metal Tees anyway. It's like the first thing we
• 34:59
  thought of and we were like we got to make merch 4 sided death
• 35:03
  metal tee. It feels so like to see it feels
• 35:07
  like organic to the way you guys do things.
• 35:10
  Yeah. It goes with the whole visual
• 35:11
  concept, even from like the way your music videos are shot it
• 35:15
  all kind of it all kind of it just blends well together, you
• 35:19
  know, I'm like, yeah. And like, so what's the next
• 35:24
  step for you? Like I know you're like you
• 35:26
  said, we just talked about like the record and whatever, but
• 35:29
  like I could kind of see a future where you or the you guys
• 35:33
  collectively produce the next record or branch out and produce
• 35:37
  other people's bands. Is that something that anybody
• 35:39
  thinks of, or do you? Just, I mean, we've never
• 35:42
  thought of doing that. We've never thought of doing
• 35:45
  that, you know, branching off and helping other people.
• 35:48
  That's like not something we're all, we're just like, we're
• 35:51
  still trying to figure out how the hell we're going to keep
• 35:53
  doing it, you know? But I think, like, you know, the
• 35:58
  next step for us is just like, you know, with this record,
• 36:03
  like, we put a lot, a lot more into it.
• 36:06
  And I think that, you know, we really want to work on, like,
• 36:10
  our online content and bring people more into the life of the
• 36:16
  band, you know, and not just posting stuff like, here's a
• 36:19
  live picture of us rocking out. You know, it's like, no, this is
• 36:24
  what it's like a day in the life of, you know, a metal band on
• 36:27
  tour with Avatar, you know, and stuff like just more real shit.
• 36:32
  You know, everything's so fake on the Internet nowadays.
• 36:34
  It's sickening. So, you know, it's just it's
• 36:37
  hard. But that's the next step, I
• 36:39
  think is, is like getting more in tune with the crowd and like
• 36:43
  in in just being more invested in the people that invest in US,
• 36:47
  you know, and then continuing on.
• 36:50
  Write another record. Honestly, I really hope that we
• 36:55
  can ride a record sooner than than three years, like the last
• 36:59
  one since the last record. So yeah, we've got some time off
• 37:05
  this year before we just start going super heavy on the touring
• 37:08
  cycle for this record. So we got like a little thing
• 37:12
  we're doing in the summer that's like few shows and then we have
• 37:16
  a huge tour in the fall winter. So that's it's it's probably one
• 37:22
  of the biggest ones we've done yet.
• 37:23
  So and then we have a ton of headliner stuff all over the
• 37:27
  world in 27 so. I'm super pumped and excited for
• 37:31
  all your guys success and what's and whatever pops up next, you
• 37:34
  know, And it's like like one thing about this jump real
• 37:37
  quick, my little ADHD, I'm just swirling it before we wrap it
• 37:41
  up. It's like like this record is
• 37:43
  really fun. It's like, yeah, it's like,
• 37:45
  yeah, it's a tribute to old school death metal, as you said.
• 37:47
  The whole overall the arc of the band is like a, you know, it's
• 37:51
  like, Oh yeah, it reminds me of Bolt Thrower and like the
• 37:54
  happiest, not in a negative way. It's like, oh man.
• 37:57
  It's like if they were still around, they would probably
• 37:59
  sound something like this nowadays.
• 38:01
  So it's like, it makes me happy to hear you guys.
• 38:04
  Whatever, you guys, come on. And I gotta say, God damn, man.
• 38:07
  Like the shortest songs on this record can.
• 38:10
  It became my favorite songs and it's like, damn, I wish they
• 38:13
  were longer, but it's like they just felt like, oh, I see like
• 38:15
  another minute for each of those for for absolute 0 and skinned
• 38:22
  by the wind. Like I love them both.
• 38:23
  They're just oh, and what's pissing me off about what's I'd
• 38:27
  say one thing pissing me off about skin?
• 38:30
  Like I feel like I listen. I'm a big harb sci-fi nerd.
• 38:34
  I can't place that sample and it's pissing me off.
• 38:39
  What is the sample at the? Beginning, I'll tell you right
• 38:42
  now, you will never place that sample.
• 38:44
  You will never place that sample.
• 38:47
  You will never place what that is all from.
• 38:51
  OK, and I can't tell you. You can message me and I'll tell
• 38:56
  you, but I cannot tell you online.
• 38:59
  You can message me. I'll tell you where it's from.
• 39:01
  It is something that you have never seen.
• 39:04
  Nobody has ever seen it, and it's all thanks to Josh.
• 39:09
  He is. He was very stoked about it.
• 39:11
  It was honestly the most perfect thing that we could have ever
• 39:14
  put together. But it's very an unheard of
• 39:17
  thing. Like it's only someone that's
• 39:20
  from his original town in Canada would know what this is.
• 39:23
  So yeah, it's not something that like, it's like a horror movie
• 39:28
  or something like that. Yeah.
• 39:30
  It's like, yeah, where where we got the idea for that.
• 39:33
  It's just crazy. But but yeah.
• 39:39
  All right, all right, man. Well, I know you got to get
• 39:42
  ready to go, but dude, thank you so much for your time, man.
• 39:45
  It's been. Very.
• 39:46
  Yeah, man. That was enjoyable.
• 39:48
  So I know you're in Texas and I know you guys seem to be very
• 39:52
  incestuous in your circle between the hardcore and the
• 39:54
  metal guys. You you also have a project with
• 39:58
  my boy Trey. Is there is is End Times ever
• 40:01
  going to come out with anything new?
• 40:04
  So like earlier in the interview when I was like talking about a
• 40:07
  band that we were in, that was like we worked really hard on
• 40:11
  and it never came to fruition and we wrote a whole record and
• 40:14
  yeah, that's the band with Trey in it.
• 40:17
  That's End Times. And we wrote an 11 song record
• 40:20
  and recorded it. And I don't think I as of right
• 40:26
  now, I don't think it'll ever come to light, unfortunately.
• 40:32
  There was, I think there's a little bit of weirdness in it
• 40:36
  and the fact that like, I think something might have happened
• 40:39
  with Daniel's computer and most of that stuff was lost.
• 40:44
  And so I don't, I think we'd have to re record a lot of
• 40:47
  stuff. And I think like at this point
• 40:50
  as musicians, we would be better off just writing a whole new
• 40:53
  record than trying to re record that stuff.
• 40:56
  Because I feel like we're a lot better than we were when we did
• 40:58
  that. But I love Trey and I love being
• 41:02
  in a band with him. And I would love to like do that
• 41:06
  and, and finalize it and stuff because I put a lot of love into
• 41:09
  it. I wrote this big story, you
• 41:12
  know, and, and I wrote like I wrote, you know, probably 3
• 41:15
  pages worth of stories worth of each.
• 41:19
  Like each chapter was like 2 to 3 pages long and each song was a
• 41:23
  chapter. That's why there was 11 songs on
• 41:26
  the record. And we were, I was getting a
• 41:29
  painting done for everyone, you know, because we were going to
• 41:33
  release each one in this like, Chronicle.
• 41:35
  Like it just put so much work into it and so much effort.
• 41:39
  And then, like, you know, it was taking so long.
• 41:42
  And then my brother was going through a lot of stuff.
• 41:44
  So he was the singer of the band.
• 41:46
  And then I, you know, we had to like, move forward without him.
• 41:49
  And then I had to like, learn how to do vocals.
• 41:52
  So I recorded all, wrote most like, majority of the stuff for
• 41:55
  it and like, you know, and recorded it.
• 41:59
  And then yeah, I just never, we never ended up getting, we
• 42:02
  wasted so much money on it. And in the meantime, that's why
• 42:05
  we started up Frozen Soul. And then Frozen Soul just kind
• 42:08
  of started popping off and it just like never came back to it.
• 42:12
  And now Daniel has Myth Carver, which is a super good, like
• 42:17
  heavy metal kind of crossover band.
• 42:19
  Still have some hardcore in it. But you know, it's like, I don't
• 42:23
  know. I hope one day, just because it
• 42:26
  was a fun time and I was in that band, I started that band in
• 42:30
  2007. So you know, it went it hadn't
• 42:34
  it used to have members of Power Trip in it.
• 42:36
  Like that band is so deeply rooted in the DFW like hardcore
• 42:41
  scene. Like, I really wish we could do
• 42:43
  something with it, but with Frozen Soul doing what we're
• 42:47
  doing, it's really hard to break off a compartment of my brain
• 42:52
  and put it in any other band, you know?
• 42:53
  It's like, I feel like it's impossible, but maybe one day.
• 42:56
  I'll never say never, I guess. And there you have it, Chad from
• 43:02
  Frozen Soul. Thank you so much again for your
• 43:05
  time, brother. Yeah, no.
• 43:06
  Face. For warmth, it's out May 8th
• 43:09
  through Century Media Records, and they're all to it right now
• 43:12
  with Avatar and Flesh God Apocalypse.
• 43:15
  Go see. Yeah, yeah.
• 43:17
  Thanks for having me dude.