From spontaneous songwriting sparks to collaborating with incredible musicians, discover the creative process behind their latest album, Reflectivity.
GHR: Great to have you here both! What inspired you to start writing music?
Frozen Inertia: When we were younger, it was just easier to write our own music than play cover songs in bands. From there, we just found it more fun to make up our own stuff.
GHR: Can you tell us more about your experience performing live at gigs and what was the most memorable experience you had?
Frozen Inertia: We used to play live gigs occasionally, but because I now live on the West Coast and Brad lives in the Midwest, Frozen Inertia is only a recording project at the moment. However, if the opportunity would present itself (i.e. time, interest), it could be really fun to translate these recordings into a live set, especially from the last couple albums. I’d love to hear what “The Northern Lights” would sound like live.
GHR: How is your process of songwriting set around?
Frozen Inertia: The process is always beginning with a blank slate and then seeing what styles begin to emerge. From there, the music usually arrives before the lyrics, but I’ve also played around with writing song titles first—then the music, then lyrics. Also, sometimes getting a new instrument opens doors to creative ideas. For example, this past record, I got a baritone guitar, and created some fantastic ideas for this album.
GHR: What motivates you to create music and bring awareness to different situations through your songs?
Frozen Inertia: I love the creative process of making something new, maybe a combination of instruments or sounds used in a different way. Also feeling as if you’ve gone on a journey with the music has become really important over the last couple albums, some of the tracks have a cinematic flare, which is something I love in some of my favorite artists. The songs don’t work too well if you’re looking for background music, like I’d have a hard time picturing our music being played in the backseat of an Uber ride or in an elevator.
GHR: Could you share some insights into Reflectivity, how the album came to be?
Frozen Inertia: About a week after finishing our last album After the Circus, our bass player, Ryan, asked me if I had any new music to play around with. We just wrote an album, so I was kind of out of ideas, but I didn’t want to break the creative momentum so I sketched something out in a few hours, which later became “Dogs in Space.” That was the first spark, and from there it opened up a bunch of new ideas that all came about pretty quickly. The songs themselves took a bit of time, there are quite a few versions of the same songs, different lyrics, and then adding in guest musicians. We were really lucky to get so many amazing guest musicians on this album—from beautiful vocalists, jazz musicians, classical musicians, and out of this world award-winning rock and rollers.
Don't Forget To Follow Frozen Inertia and Listen To Their Newest Album "Reflectivity" available now on all streaming platforms.