It is a few days before the tour together with Ad Infinitum and Blackbriar in support of Kamelot kicks-off. During the first days of the tour, Frozen Crown’s new album “War Hearts” will be released. I meet Federico Mondelli, guitarist and founder of Frozen Crown for an interview. We have already scheduled it for double the time than usual and I have quite a list of topics… We are both no native English speakers, and the questions were not scripted but to keep it as authentic as possible, I left most of grammar mistakes untouched though. I also broke it up into two pages for a better reading.
Chatting with Federico of Frozen Crown
Hi Federico, I guess you already had a busy day?
“Yeah, always busy days lately because of the album promotion and also tour preparation and merchandise shipping, a lot of stuff going on, absolutely.”
Yeah, but come on, that’s the artist’s life.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s absolutely amazing, if you ask me, so nothing to complain about.”
Absolutely, it especially is much better than having a boring nine to five job.
“Yes, definitely. The worst side is, I mean, the bad side of this is that this is a 24/7 job. So, it’s not a five to nine, a nine to five job, but it’s cool. I love it. Yeah, that’s good.”
We had already met after your show in Frankfurt last year, when you’ve been on tour with Nanowar of Steel. And there I already started to ask you some questions about guitars and strings and tuning and these things.
“Yeah, I remember, when I was standing outside and smoking a cigarette.”
At that time, you were not officially signed by Napalm, at least it wasn’t published.
“Yeah, but I mean, we were signed with Napalm, we were dealing with Napalm, but of course we weren’t yet with them officially!”
The funny thing is that I sent a message to my contact at Napalm, to Sarah, and I told her, look, I’ve seen Nanowar of Steel, but you know, the support band Frozen Crown, they were so great, they should be a band for you. And she told me, yes, they have just signed, which was amazing for me.
So far, so good. This already was a nice start to begin the interview with, but now it is time for the real interview. We will talk about “War Hearts”, guitar stuff, finding members and a common favourite band of our youth. So, get ready now.
Recording time
The recordings of your album “War Hearts”, how much time did you spend in the studio for recording?
“Well, that’s a pretty hard question to reply to for the simple fact that as soon as we finished recording our previous album, at the end of 2022, we started writing songs for “War Hearts”. So, we have been writing and recording for pretty much the whole year2023 and also the first months of 2024. So, it’s so hard to calculate because, for example, we laid down most of the rhythm guitars during 2023 and pretty much most of the drums and some of the vocal lines. So, we just, I can say we spent one, I mean, half a month to record the vocals, the guitar solos, and some final touch.”
OK, and the aftermath work, the mixing, and the production of it, how long did it take then?
“I think it took half a month as well.”
That’s not that much. That means you could be able to produce an album, given that you have the lyrics and the songs already written, you could produce an album in between six weeks or something like that?
“Absolutely, absolutely. We were quite fast because we had everything laid down.”
How was it to work with three guitarists this time?
“You mean, you mean why we have three guitarists now?”
we already had got a ton of guitar layers
No, no, no. During the previous albums, you have been two guitar players. And now you have three guitar players. How was it to combine all three of you?
“It was extremely cool, but I have to say we added the third guitar player because we already had got a ton of guitar layers in our songs. So, I mean, we didn’t have to adapt to that. We just had a third guitar player because we could have had our sound more easily in a live environment because, you know, we have got a lot of harmonized lead guitar parts. And if you play those with two guitars, then you are not having the rhythm going. You’re not having that beefy, heavy sound going. So, for that reason, not having, you know, rhythm guitars going there, there was sounding pretty thin, you know, pretty weak, so to speak. So having a third guitar just allowed us to be live exactly what we are in the studio. That’s it. Main reason for the third guitar player is the live shows and not the studio work. In studio you can record as many guitars as you want, you know.”
By the way, how many guitar layers do your songs have in average?
“How many guitars? I would say, yeah, let me check. We have got four rhythms going on all the time. So left, right, left, right. And then we have got two to four leads, so maybe eight. And then other two for solos. So at least 10 going on all the time, mostly.”
Which was the least number of guitar layers so far?
“I think probably on some albums we used just one guitar left and right. So, two.”
And which song in particular has the most layers so far of all your songs?
“Well, for what concerns the last album, I think all of them. Because, you know, in the previous albums, there were songs like the title track of “Call of the North”, that have got probably the most layers of guitars. But in songs where those guitars weren’t needed, we simply weren’t putting them, we weren’t adding them. But since we decided to physically add another guitar player on the new album, “War Hearts”, we just wanted to record all songs having three guitars in mind. So, all songs have got that same amount of guitars going all the time.”
we don’t want to use backing tracks
Talking about your live experience, how do you decide of all these layers that you have on the studio tracks, which one you will play live? You once told me, you don’t use backtracks.
“Yes, we don’t want to use backing tracks. Well, how we decide? Mostly, you know, on the album we have got this lower guitar riffs, guitar rhythm, which is produced by my seven strings. So, I’m playing that. The two other guitar players are playing one octave higher rhythms all the time. And when we play leads, we simply… I mean, since I am also singing, I leave all the dual leads to the other two guitar players. And therefore, what concerns the solos, we just play whichever solo we recorded in the studio. So, everybody plays his own solo.”
Do you have a favourite track so far on the new album, which you like the most?
“Yeah, probably the last one, Ice Dragon.”
You will laugh, I guessed so, because it is so complex.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s also because it’s very intimate and personal, probably.”
Understanding the style
Your sound generally is very epic for me, for my ears. And it sounds very crisp and tight. A lot of people like to call it progressive sometimes. I think I don’t quite agree with it because it became so common to say, oh, it’s progressive when people don’t think about it too much. How would you describe your sound?
“I would absolutely say, first of all, that we have got a huge part of Swedish Death Metal coming from bands like Dark Tranquillity or In Flames. And that also, if you think about it, a lot of people have been making comparisons between our last song, “Steel and Gold”, and Hammerfall. If you think about it, Hammerfall have got that kind of power metal style that is mostly tied to Swedish Death Metal, because there are also the same people sharing the bands, between them and In Flames, with Jasper Strongblood, etc. So, I would say we have got a lot of Melodic Death Metal and more extreme genres influences in our riffs. But still, it is power metal because it sounds epic. It has got neo classical parts and also very clean and mostly high vocals. So that pretty much makes that power metal. But I think we are also influenced by classic metal as well.”
I had just finished the first draft of the album review, so I feel the urge to express my thoughts to hear Federico’s mind and correct it where I might be wrong.
Yes, I think there is a lot of even classic music in your harmonies. That’s what people must understand when they listen to classic music. I think it’s so complex to listen, especially to the new songs. For my ears, they are much more complex than “Call of the North”. It’s nothing against this album, but in comparison, it nearly sounds like a simple album. Because there’s so much more to listen to. I was listening to it again and again in a row and compared it with “Call of the North”. And really, by listening the songs one by one again and again and again, I understood how difficult and how different they are. It’s amazing. One thing which I didn’t understand is the sense of the song King of the Sky as the ninth song of the album, because it’s more like an opener.
“Yes, it is. I mean, that was exactly the reason why we put that song there, because we just wanted to prepare people, to make people prepared to listen to the next track. Also, in these times, mostly people skip songs on the albums, and they maybe aren’t always liking intros and stuff like that. Thus, we split that intro from the song because it just sounded too long. And maybe you could choose and just not listen to that. You know what I mean?”
Yeah. So, you mean you could also make the last song nine minutes long and already include this intro to the song. So now you split it.
“Yes, I prefer to do that for several reasons, but also for the fact that that intro to me can be listened separately from the song, because it’s not a different part. It’s just the same melody of the song repeated, but in a short and different version. So, it’s just a prelude of what you’re about to listen.”
No Beauty and the Beast thing
This time you didn’t sing any of the songs. At least there was no growling from you. “Well, I didn’t sing any growling part, but I am singing probably 80% of the songs anyway. I mean, I’m singing all the backing vocals. So pretty much, you know, all of them. And I this time had got a couple of lead parts in two songs, “I Am The Wind” and also “Ice Dragon”.
You know, you’re really a pretty good singer and I didn’t really notice that it was not Jade singing these lead parts that you were singing. I really must check it again.
“I know, you know, we have got a pretty similar voice sometimes and that’s exactly what we were. So, I can say when we started the band, you know, all the bands were having this kind of different vocals, you know, male singers and female singers were singing like, you know, Beauty and the Beast kind of. But for what concerns us, we found just interesting that we were singing pretty much the same things and our voices were pretty much, you know, mixing together. In fact, sometimes people listen to our albums and tell us, oh, but you’re never singing. But then when they come to see us live, they see I’m singing all the time, you know, I mean, making vocals, of 80% of songs, and then they say, wow, you sing a lot, but you didn’t do that in the album. And I say, yeah, I did it.” One could hear a kind of pride in his voice.
Inspirations
Funny side fact, most of your song lyrics are fantasy and video games inspired. Do you have a favourite game which inspires you?
“Oh, I think, well, nowadays, I’m not playing that much anymore. I think none of us really play video games. I mean, just every now and then we play something, but mostly casual stuff, you know, like, you know, Street Fighter or stuff like that. Very, very quick. But actually, to me, “World of Warcraft” and “Warcraft” in general from Blizzard Entertainment have been a huge influence as a game on this band, you know, I mean, really, really huge. And also, there are some songs in the album that were inspired by video games, for example, “Bloodline”, which is inspired by Legacy of Cain, Soul Reaver, which is a saga from the 90s, if I’m not wrong, 90s, 2000, probably.”
And what about TV shows or films which inspire you? Or are your favourites and inspire you?
“Yeah, you know, the ones I love are not, cannot be seen in Frozen Crown music. But for example, Jade’s, our singer, favourites are, of course, Game of Thrones. And of course, you know, all the Lord of the Rings saga, but she’s mostly a fan of the books. So yeah, that can be seen a lot, you know. I think not much of my favourite movies, except for, for example, Conan the Barbarian, because I’m mostly into that kind of dark fantasy where you don’t have elves, orcs, and stuff, but just men fighting with brutal strength and witches or whatever, you know, that’s pretty much it.”
So, you must like that Xenia stuff or something like that of the 2000s? Interesting to know, but you don’t put it into the lyrics?
No, I think most of Conan is there. There is also some specific reference to that. So, I mean, in the lyrics. So yeah, I put some Conan definitely in there. But, you know, most of the references come maybe from music itself. So maybe from Celtic Frost. bands like that, or even Satyricon, which is, of course, a black metal band. But as I said, we are really influenced by extreme bands. For example, our second album, “Crowned in Frost” was actually a reference to the album “Crowned in Terror” by the band The Crown. And “Winterbane” was actually a song inspired by Abbath from Immortal. So yeah, we dig pretty much into heavier sides of heavy metal.”
So, you really have an inspiration which is much heavier than your own music. But it makes it a good mix in the end.
The video singles
I’ve watched the two videos of the album’s singles and was impressed by the surroundings.
The videos of “War Hearts”, which was filmed in some ruins and the video of “Steel and Gold”, where were they filmed?
“So, the video of “War Hearts” was filmed in… I mean, they were both filmed in Northwestern Italy. The video for “War Hearts” was filmed in a place where I was, where I spent some years of my life, which is Piemont, Torino, Torino city. And that place is close to Avigliana. It’s a place with an old castle ruin on a cliff. And the “Steel and Gold” video was recorded, was filmed, sorry, in the region… How do you call that? I don’t know how you call that in English, but anyway, in Liguria. It was filmed there, Genova, exactly. I mean, it was filmed there, and it was, yeah, absolutely crazy. The place was called Castello dei Doria and it was in a place called Dolceacqua.”
Now, there is a throwback to some Living History stuff I did in the 90s.
Funny enough, I know this town. We once had some historical events in the 90s, some Napoleonic stuff. And I think we also have visited this village once, with a parade or a defile or something like that. So, it’s funny because I thought I know it from somewhere but couldn’t remember.
“ It’s a pretty, I think it’s a pretty popular place. And also, there were a ton of, I mean, really a ton of tourists there as well.”
So, it was difficult to make the video there with all the tourists?
“No, because strangely enough, the city major… actually made us go there with a license and kept all the people away from there.”
The tour
On your tour with Kamelot, Ad Infinitum, and Blackbriar, you are the fourth band. Does that mean you’re going to be the opener or who will be the opener?
“Yes, absolutely. We are going to be the opener. We joined last, so I mean, we didn’t have any choice. I mean, we joined last and yes, we were meant to be the opener.”
What do you think, how long will be your slot?
“I think between 30 and 40 minutes, probably.”
So, it might be quite difficult to choose the right songs. How do you choose the setlist?
“Yes, but we are just choosing probably the most popular songs. I mean, at least one song from each album. Just to showcase our entire discography or at least a bit of it, of every single album.”
So that means five songs plus a second song from the new album or a third song from the new album?
“Yeah, absolutely. Probably something like that. We already have the songs and setlist in mind and rehearsed, but of course I cannot tell you. But we already set up the setlist.”
Some weeks ago, I’ve seen a band which was really good and I was quite frustrated that they played only 30 minutes because they had so many good songs they could have played. So, I really hope you can play 40 minutes instead of only 30. Honestly, it’s always so frustrating when you see the good band playing short time.
“Well, I know, but you know, those are the rules, you know, I mean, we are not making the rules, of course. And again, we joined this tour as last band because, it was happening during our album release. So, of course, it was very convenient for us. I mean, it was very cool to actually be part of that and to promote our album. And yeah, we’re playing as much time as Kamelot will allow us. And yeah, if we’re not playing enough, of course, we are going to have our own headlining tour someday or another, you know.”
That means headlining tour maybe next year?
“Yeah, maybe, maybe. Hopefully.”
Still more interviews to do
We had already talked a while and it looks like I got all the answers I wanted in regard of the album. Normally, that would mean, most of the interview was done, but remember, it had been scheduled for double the time…
So, these were the questions I had about the tour and the new album so far. I also have another part which is more about the band and guitar stuff and these things. Do you want to have a little break in between?
“No, no, no. I would prefer to go on so we can stay. So, let’s go on.”
Sure, I guess I’m the last one today?
“No, we have got others later. We have interviews until half past ten, actually.”
Oh, gosh, that’s a lot.