[Interview] Exclusive Details About a Universe Still in Formation: FRIG ‣ CVLTARTES

FRIG (translated as cold from the Romanian language) is a band from Bucharest, Romania, and they craft their unique blend of metal and electronic music to create a new creative fusion of modern metal with avant-garde, doom, techno and industrial influences devoted to the theme of Cosmos.

Alex quite much has happened in the band only this year, you now have new band members. Does it feel like a restart just like it’s FRIG 2.0? Tell me about this transition.

Hi! First of all, I will like to give gratitude to all of your online supportive presence which we found remarkable from the first created sounds to this real present.

Also to give credits to all that I had to collaborate with and mostly to their involvement spirit as guides in genOm’s microcosmic journey.

It seems to be like leaves in the wind but in our musical spectrum it is more weighted than we thought we may experience from assembling lines towards act performance, and it is not a transition, I found it is as a complete communication between live expectations and horizon’s motion of next album.

I know it feels from outer views like it is a radically change, but we have agreed on the fact that paths of a next journey will get to another dimension and it hasn’t entirely met us together as followers from its concept line to the extension of its sound membranes in different attitudes. When we create deserves transposing to a latitude which doesn’t have anything to do with digital rules of a fictional environment or a false system which involves following its straightness, this phenomenon require an airy breath through its guides nature as a sphere, sure we have different visual universes, but here those needs to be interconnected on a musical scale without interfering with another field.

It will be a new insertion of something that vid nocturn’’ still explore, in a way of another fragment of another page in our stellar journey, might feel dark, might feel a return you’ll get through its passages and decide whatever to take it from nor find you as an existing traveler in its motion.

Regarding new astral guides, it is not a restart but it will add a new color to the current micro-lenses and a new dynamic tone of this musical pulse. They found here a new dwelling chapter and wanted to get together under mood circumstances of an entire and exclusive vibe, of a form of connection at a different artistic level, no filters involved, just the dedication to perform in its natural conditions, we continue if you want to see it as 2.0 feel free, actually as one phenomenon: FRIG.

What Is It About FRIG That You Find Appealing?

Dexter: I would say that the most appealing would be the vibe that is transmitted, along with the seriosity that is showed for the project itself.

Wrecker: The fact that it’s a whole new ‘universe’ for me you could say, ‘cause that’s the main theme around here.

ROTTA: I always had a soft spot for instrumental music, but seeing the ambition Alex brought to the project was the selling point for me, and also having to challenge myself to play Sergio Ponti’s drum parts made me decide to join the band.

Have you had any rehearsals yet? How did it go?

Dexter: We did have rehearsals and they went pretty good, to be honest. There is a lot of groove in the songs and the chemistry with the synth as already almost spot on.

Wrecker: Yes, we had a few and I tried to keep up as much as I could because I wanted to help Alex, even though all this was unexpected and in a busy time for me.

ROTTA: I am tough on the guys so basically I am never satisfied or maybe I just don’t settle for the level we are currently at. Either way I believe that you should always be practicing as the pursuit of getting better at your craft does never truly end.

You guys are performing at Unclaimed Wreckage, respectively nevergoinghome. A side-project serves as an escape from the ordinary. A chance to flex a different musical muscle. Is FRIG your escape?

Dexter: I am not considering it an escape because then I would treat it with relaxed muscles. – It’s more of an extra focus point – a different experience that offers the chance not only to flex but also to work the other musical muscles.

Wrecker: I’m just keep it short and sweet for you. No, FRIG ain’t the escape for me. It s just different in an interesting way. I have never listened to music such as this, but I’ve been shown what I’ll get myself into and I wanna see how good I’ll be at making it.

ROTTA: This is more of a given answer but I don’t see it as an escape as much as I don’t see anything worthwhile as being something comfortable or escaping into a comfort zone. It is a chance to try something different and a challenge to become better so in a selfish kind of way at the end of the day I am still doing this for myself.

Do you guys have any artists that you remember latching onto growing up? Kind of as your first influence?

Dexter: Pff, where to start… In my school years I went all-in with thrash & heavy metal – Slayer, Megadeth & Iron Maiden I would as some of the first influences.

Wrecker: So I learned guitar by myself, never learned theory or scales. And metronome? What’s that? Still have no idea not even today. Never learned covers. That is a big promise I made to myself at the beginning of this long journey 8 years ago. I said I’ll never learn a song made by someone because I wanna be my unique individual. But listening to a whole lot of Pantera, Black Label Society, Lamb Of God, Korn, and Testament… they sure had influenced me even without my consent, smh.

ROTTA: Funny you should ask but I never had the idea of being like somebody or like some other drummer I heard, I’ve always considered the fact of sitting behind the drumset more of a privilege than of a given fact so rather than looking up to somebody I just always loved the sound and power of the drums themselves. That is not to say that there is not a great number of very good drummers out there.

What gives a musical group its identity? Is it the name on the poster or the people on the stage?

Dexter: It’s both of the above, but the main part is what the people transmit on stage.

Wrecker: I think a musician will tell you that the people on the stage is the right answer, as well as a businessman, will tell you the first one. Either way, I’m neither of them. I just like making cool ass riffs and just playing with cool ass people.

ROTTA: I believe it is both as musicians now more than ever need to know how to make a great impression both musically as well as visually.

Alex, tell us about genOm, where can we purchase the biodegradable package? How open are people to this campaign?

Physical handcrafted limited to 20 biodegradable ep’s can be pre-order online via merchandise e-mail address: frigbandmerch@frigband.com or messaging on the social media page, there will also be a storage option shortly, but for further information please visit our webpage: https://frigband.com/

‘genOm’, the band’s latest release, proposes one of the most ambitious projects of refreshing nature. It is well known that here in Romania the virgin forests disappear alarmingly, so basically with ‘genOm’ FRIG started a great campaign of reforesting the country.

How does this work? All of these lead to a unique design and a biodegradable package, including exotic varieties of seeds, the necessaries instructions for plantation and a generated QR code for the final EP, for you to listen on Digital. Once you plant the seeds you get to look for a brighter, greener future.

Where can fans see you perform the first time with this formula? What do you think makes an ideal show for this group?

For the moment as we all know conditions for a live performance are limited but sure not impossible, so please expect and consider that a live microcosmic act may happen soon with normal restrictions.

For the metal scene in those unexpected moments, it is necessary our physical presence to live acts so we can sustain the change of the near future maybe we are the solution of equilibrium and innovation with respect and care to each other.

In regards of scene arrangement for a possible open-air live act we think that the most energy fact and one that can roll our arts below a sub-zero atmosphere in those microcosmic sound sequences it represents not only we as one representing a natural phenomenon on stage but the auditory’s spirit itself, faces expressions and visual interaction makes us continue to another escapes and dimensions, so let your joy became our mood.

Alex, you also have a great new design for your website. Are you reinventing the whole concept of FRIG, changing the aspect or so, or is it just a job needed to be done? What’s next?

The phenomenon remains in our image to continue the same idea, but we try to generate and draw new lines behind this concept.

We have stepped in the digital era where science and creative sounds reach the same peak of research and innovation as I previously mention it and I think one of the climbing methods to exprime what we intent to develop in preparation of sounds and absolute for the group presentation it is a design that can fuse with our journeys and here we are to send frozen appreciation to the one that makes this happen, the man with wheels on his hands – Nicolae.

Natures of sounds interfering with the motivation of creation (the desire of will) where our listeners will have the opportunity to experience live (online or on stage) our experiments, in which forms this will happen? – space keeps this unknown and untouchable information in light-years, temperatures, distances, and in our visual perceptions not at least in our universes.

‘genOm’ is available Digital only – with care for our environment. No plastic used, all is biodegradable.

FRIG are:
• Alex Deak – synthesizer/programming
• Marius Andrei Ionescu ‘Dexter’ – bass
• Alexandru Ionuț Manole ‘Wrecker’ – rhythm guitar
• Alexandru-Mihai Balmos ‘ROTTA’ – drums