www.facebook.com/frozensandband
From: Borgomanero, Italy
Sounds like: Progressive Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Frozen Sand" and is there any meaning behind it?
Everything began in Winter 2010, almost as a joke: five students coming from different background and experiences, but bond by friendship, enthusiasm and a deep passion to share: MUSIC. This is how probably most of the bands start, of course. We spent a lot of time in search of a name that could fit our band and most of all our music. At first, we had to think of what we were both as musicians and as a band. So, trying to figure out our potentials, we had to face a simple question: "what does music mean for us?"… and then, all of a sudden, an image came to mind: imagination, fantasy, art… all these things standing still together in the FROZEN SAND of an hourglass. So this is it: music for us is a tremendous force, capable to freeze time and space within the huge hourglass of human life. Rather than “musicians”, we refer to ourselves as “the Narrators”, since we try to transmit such concepts not only by our lyrics but also by means of our instruments, atmospheres and voice. This is Frozen Sand.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
Being original has always been our primal goal. We really hope the audience could appreciate our style and the way we merge different moods and musical influences, driving everything along the path of a complex story we wrote, called “Fractals”. It is incredibly gratifying for us knowing that, maybe right now there is someone at the other side of the world listening to our music, who gets inspired and carried away by the atmospheres our songs evoke, leaving only for a while the earthly boundaries of time and space with his imagination.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
What we do is merging two different and unique forms of art: splaceless music and timeless stories, into a genre we call STORYTELLING PROG METAL. In fact, our music is a kind of modern progressive melodic metal, enriched with contaminations and influences coming from various music backgrounds. Our stories are concepts, conveyed by an opera-structure, ranging among different cultures, languages and historical periods.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Well… hard question… Maybe… Periphery, Karnivool and Breaking Benjamin.
5. What are your three desert island albums that you'd never get tired of listening to?
"Black Clouds and Silver Linings" by Dream Theater had surely have a huge impact on the overall sound of our band. Thinking about our rhythmic parts, "Altered State" by Tesseract is definitively a pivotal muse for us. Lyrics-wise “Metal Opera” from Avantasia certainly gave us great inspirations. These are the 3 desert island albums for Frozen Sand, even if we could put thousands!!
6. What’s your take on the current state of Progressive Metal?
In the last few years Prog. Metal has evolved a lot worldwide. The web gave new chances to underground band or single musicians (to name a few: Sithu Aye, Plini, Aaron Marshall) to emerge, make web-collaborations and even influence major groups. All these artist somehow also helped to shape our sound, style and songs. We really hope to be able to do so to other bands. That’s the real power of music!!
7. What’s the current music scene like there in Italy both locally and country wide?
Ahah, that’s not a good question... Actually the current metal scene in Italy is literally down the tube. Every year is more and more difficult to play at decent gigs and promote our music. First of all, let’s say that metal music is certainly not a trendy genre in Italy! That’s the reason why in small local live-shows there is always a lack of public: six or seven bands pressed in a show of two or three hours, in pubs and bars where the total number of musicians almost exceeds the number of spectators. That’s the underground metal scene in Italy. A market smothered by taxes and restrictions, where “the offer” (number of bands and number of bars offering live music) far exceeds “the demand” (number of people who are interested in and ask for live metal music). And for an underground metal band like us, it is definitively difficult to enter larger shows and metal festival, where you have to pay a lot in order to play as open-act of important international bands. By the way, in the upcoming months we will try to do our best to expand our audience and play more. One thing is certain: we will never give up!!
8. What’s your take on legal/illegal music downloading?
Music downloading is simply the results of how things have evolved during the last decades: democracy has found its true way to spread with internet, but this has ended up as a double-edged sword. Of course, the situation is very hard for both international major artists, but first and foremost for underground bands. Our latest album “FRACTALS: A SHADOW OUT OF LIGHTS” is available for digital download on the web, as well as it is possible to acquire the printed copy (as well as the t-shirts and merch) during our gigs or directly on the web. That is the only way for an underground metal band like us to survive and really promote ourselves!!
9. What’s next for Frozen Sand?
We are currently planning a few local gigs for Spring 2018 and also some small tour abroad for the end of the year. Meanwhile we are already working on the first drafts for the next album, which will complete our saga “Fractals”. Something will be disclosed soon on our socials!!
10. Any shoutouts?
Thanks for having us here and thanks a lot to The Depths Entertainment for its constant support!! Hope you guys will have a good time while listening to our music and following us, both live and here on the web. You can read our whole saga on Frozen Sand’s official webpage www.frozensandband.com (section: Stories) and of course you can follow us on the main socials, checking for Frozen Sand on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Bandcamp, Itunes, Amazon, Spotify. Thanks again and see you on the road!
