The unpredictable Frost* are again with Life In The Wires, a daring double idea album that revisits the temper of their first report Milliontown. Band chief Jem Godfrey tells Prog why he rolled out the solos on a report he describes as essentially the most enjoyable since their dazzling debut.
Continuity of exercise is the hallmark of numerous profitable bands, prog or not – however guidelines have exceptions, and continuity has by no means been a dominant function of Frost* – their profession has been punctuated by many stops and begins. Their dazzling debut, Milliontown, launched them onto the progressive scene in 2006, however prime mover Jem Godfrey determined to name an abrupt halt to proceedings later that 12 months.
He then executed a spectacular volte-face just a few months later, leading to 2008’s considerably underwhelming and sarcastically titled Experiments In Mass Attraction. After that second album, Frost* went on hiatus, which was interrupted with 2016’s Falling Satellites. Then (2020 field set and EP apart) they downed instruments once more earlier than returning in 2021 with fourth album, Day And Age.
By Frost*’s irregular requirements, releasing Life In The Wires comfortably inside 4 years of its predecessor seems virtually unduly hasty and really threatens to supply the band’s beforehand haphazard profession arc with some continuity. Chatting with Prog from his studio, The Dice, in Kent, Godfrey chuckles as he references the band’s “glacial work price.”
So what prompted this comparatively swift follow-up? “I had one thing to say for as soon as, so it wrote itself, actually,” he explains. “It was an concepts I had that was floating round and does really comply with on from Day And Age. They’re in the identical universe as a result of the top of that album begins with the start of this one. I did that intentionally as a result of I already had a little bit of an concept once we did Day And Age that this was a factor that would have legs.
“Day And Age felt very cinematic when it comes to the completely different songs; every of these songs involved characters inside a sure universe. It lent itself to having a much bigger story advised.” This in itself is way faraway from Frost*’s normal method; as evidenced by their first 4 albums, and certainly 2020’s Others EP, their ethos has been by no means to do the identical factor twice.
“That’s one of many causes I did it,” Godfrey explains. “The modus operandi of this band is to at all times do the other of what individuals anticipate.” Given their earlier non-repetition method, and the sharp turns Godfrey and his bandmates have taken, a return in lots of respects to the fashion of Milliontown is probably the very last thing followers anticipated.
Godfrey admits he hadn’t anticipated to make a brand new album so comparatively swiftly. “As a result of there was no expectation with Milliontown, it was really fairly straightforward to make, and super enjoyable. And truly this album has been essentially the most enjoyable I’ve had making a Frost* report since Milliontown. There have been no boundaries.
It’s a type of Pilgrim’s Progress-type journey: everybody dies. The same old factor, actually!
“Individuals weren’t anticipating an album so rapidly – and I don’t suppose they have been anticipating a double album, which is one other factor that’s enjoyable about it. I’d at all times needed to do a double idea album, as a result of we’re a prog band and you must try this.”
With greater than 80 minutes of music, the topic of Life In The Wires is AI. “It’s probably not an anti-AI factor,” Godfrey says. “It’s this character in a world the place AI is dominant and pushing in opposition to that, to not be subsumed by it. It’s a type of Pilgrim’s Progress-type journey: everybody dies. The same old factor, actually!”
Whereas Day And Age noticed the band embark on a extra collaborative method – with Godfrey and guitarist John Mitchell writing collectively – Life In The Wires is closely dominated by Godfrey alone. “As a result of John had numerous different commitments, I’ve written 98 per cent of this. I needed to return to that extra singular method of pulling one thing out myself. I completely perceive why John does Lonely Robotic; I really like that you could management the entire thing. The whole lot that occurs is because of you doing it, and that’s good.”
However certainly with Godfrey taking again inventive management so considerably, the dynamic inside Frost* has moved on once more? “I don’t suppose it’s modified something,” he says. “The others have at all times stated it’s my band, which it’s. Generally I’ve come to writing classes a bit half-arsed, enthusiastic about three different jobs on the similar time. It’s good to write down with any individual whenever you’re in that state of mind. However I didn’t discover I had any gaps that wanted filling. They performed on this album. It’s not like me taking part in every thing. Everybody’s a part of it.”
It was a type of issues the place you take heed to an album and want you can do it once more… there’s numerous these questions answered right here
Having cleared his diary of all different inventive commitments, Godfrey ensconced himself in The Dice between January and Could 2024 and set to work. “When John does his Lonely Robotic albums, he holes himself up at residence for a month and doesn’t come out till it’s completed. So I believed I’d do the identical – I cancelled every thing else, stopped doing different work, and it was completely good. However, in fact, as a result of I work half as quick as John, it took me 5 months relatively than one!”
These 5 months seem to have been very productive, with a end result that’s indubitably closest to Milliontown. Truthful or unfair? “Particularly reasonable – and fairly deliberate,” says Godfrey. “However compositionally this can be a stronger set of songs. And being 18 to twenty years later, the manufacturing is extra up-to-date.
“I listened to Milliontown lately. It was wonderful for its time, however does sound slightly bit dated in locations. It was a type of issues the place you take heed to an album and want you can do it once more so you are able to do that bit higher. And there’s numerous these questions answered right here.
“I get advised quite a bit that it’s the most effective factor we’ve ever completed, so it was good to acknowledge it and say, ‘Alright, right here’s a bit extra of that.’ However that’s additionally us being completely different: we’ve at all times completed one thing completely different, so to do one thing completely different by doing the identical factor can also be doing one thing completely different!”
Moreover, having embraced a ‘no solos’ mantra for Day And Age, there are solos – and specifically keyboard solos – aplenty on Life In The Wires. “There wasn’t a diktat that we’d by no means solo once more; it was only for one album and gave it an attention-grabbing sound.”
Godfrey maintains that his contrarian method made the band extra inventive and cites the center part of Terrestrial to assist his place: “We might have simply had a rinse, however it was good to have that little vocal bit and dropping stuff out and in and the way it all modified. I realised that the final time we did an album with solos was Falling Satellites, which was eight years in the past. That’s a very long time to ask individuals in a prog band to place up with not having any solos.
Principally you must be bloody minded sufficient to take a little bit of a success financially – which I did
“So I believed it’s good to row again a bit. A few of us are pretty helpful as soloists; I believed, ‘Fuck it! I’m going to go for it.’ I simply did what I needed. It was actually good enjoyable to be barely freer of the restrictions we’ve imposed upon ourselves earlier than. Everyone needs that bit in a tune the place you let rip a bit. So I simply did a complete double album of it.”
It’s abundantly clear that Godfrey revelled in each second of his expertise of Life In The Wires. “I perceive now how a lot enjoyable it will need to have been within the previous days when individuals have been in bands full time they usually really might do it as a profession,” he displays. “I pissed fairly a number of individuals off by saying, ‘I’ll see you in 5 months.’ Principally you must be bloody minded sufficient to take a little bit of a success financially – which I did.”
Frost* have by no means been a full-time endeavour for any of the important thing protagonists, although. Godfrey continues to be extremely in demand on the earth of radio and lately labored on the relaunch of BBC Radio Two’s sonic branding. Whereas It Bites seem consigned to the historical past books, Mitchell’s present commitments embrace Asia, Lonely Robotic, the David Cross Band and Enviornment. In the meantime, bassist Nathan King retains busy on the highway with Degree 42 and drummer Craig Blundell juggles reside commitments between Steve Hackett and Steven Wilson.
Frost* did handle a handful of UK exhibits on the again finish of 2022, and adopted these up with an look on the Midsummer Prog competition within the Netherlands final 12 months. “I’m ticking issues off,” Godfrey says of his musical want checklist. “I at all times needed to play at being a correct rock star and have this as my solely job, which I did for 5 months. It was utterly good and it’s been an actual pleasure doing this album. I used to be very unhappy when it was completed and I had to return to the true world.”
