Interview with FRENATRON
!!!THRASH METAL MANIACS!!!
Welcome to the FILTHY DOGS OF METAL Webzine.
Tell us a few things about FRENATRON (Members, Starting Year etc).
Frenatron was formed in late 2015 after drunken night of me and our former guitarist Igor Zaprzala in Szczecin, Poland as five piece band. We were pretty young that time so we didn't take anything seriously and we played shows and rehearsals most often just to get wasted for free and have a lot of fun hahaha. After couple of months Frenatron entered the studio and recorded an EP "Back 'Em Up With MORE METAL" in autumn 2016, played couple of gigs across Poland and Germany and then split up in 2018 due to my moving to Germany (Bavaria). I've tried to find a right people to continue playing here in Germany, but sadly without a positive result until like late 2019 when I started to hang out more in Leipzig. I found two guys (Both named Andre, hahaha) and we played together for a while, played some gigs, but it didn't last for a long time as the Drumming Andre proved to be a fucking asshole who stole my amplifier and disappeared for over a year. My stuff was luckily taken back, my good old friend and a bass player from Poland "Ciapek" moved to Leipzig and we started to search for a drummer until we met the damned crazy maniac named Tonnio and then things started. Everything was going pretty quick and very promising, chemistry was on point from very first reh, we played our first gig as a trio just after four months of jamming and learning material together We wrote couple of new songs and entered the studio in August 2023 to record "Seeking for Death" in the line up consisting of:
Tonnio - Drums
Mleko - Guitars/Vocals
Ciapek - Bass
Then we self released the album... and yea I think that's it for now!!
You have recently released your album ''Seeking for Death''. What is the feedback from your audience as well as from the press?
The Feedback is pretty good to be completely honest. We received a lot of emails, messages and orders from all around Europe Our expectations were much smaller in the beginning, as we were not the most active band in the world during those last years of trying to build up a promising lineup, so we are definitely satisfied with reception of the album by the underground scene!!
Label or DIY and why?
We were struggling with couple of nonsense deals with labels after recording Seeking for Death and we just decided to release DIY completely as we wanted to do. There is still a lot of help and promotion from our friends from the scene, our boys of MPFF (Metal Power Fighting Force) aswell as Destruktion Records so its still fine for us, but hopefully we will sign some nice deal soon cause the self-distribution of our album and preparing those damn packages driving us nuts, hahaha.
Is there any funny or weird story from the recordings or from your live shows that you would like to share with us?
Well I think the most crazy and funniest story so far happened last year march after our gig in Warsaw, when Ciapek left the after-party completely wasted, lost himself, get his face pepper-sprayed from the Police (ACAB) and ended up closed in sober-station for over 26 hours without chance to contact anyone. Our equipments were still in the club, we haven't got keys to the car and we started to worry as we saw him for a last time like 15 hours ago. He came back to the place where we slept after over 24 hours and realized that all the gig money was stolen from his wallet aswell... but the weekend inspirated us to write the song Scumfuck Crew so at least we achieved something from that hahaha.
Do you prefer Vinyl, Tape, CD or Digital Format and why is that?
I'm personally collecting and buying tapes, vinyls, CDs and listen to them at home daily, but I'm also using streaming platforms like Spotify when I'm outside.
Your music style is Thrash Metal. Which are your main influences (Favourite Artists / Bands etc.)
I think its hard to pick one, two or three bands that are inspirating us while creating music as we are all listening to ALOT of different music beginning on 50s rock n roll, punk, heavy metal and ending up on black metal stuff. But definitely 80s/90s Thrash/Death/Punk scene. But if I would be forced to pick three bands to listen for the rest of my life on desert island I will straight away pick Motorhead, Judas Priest and Polish punk band Sedes.
Which things do you think a band should sacrifice in order to succeed? Have you ever sacrificed anything in your life for a better future for your band?
I personally do not think about playing music in form of being "biggest band on the planet". I think the most important thing for you as a musician should be just love to music and heavy metal in general, staying honest with what you do without following sucking pussy-ass trends etc. Of course we do "sacrifice" money, our free time and other stuff, but in the end of the day we do it all for pleasure. Time shows where we end up in the next couple of years, but If we would of play in small clubs in front of 100 maniacs til end of our life - I'm totally fine with that.
Describe your ideal live show as a performance band. Have you already experienced that?
Dirty basement filled of maniacs and the smell of cigarettes, blood and alcohol, hahaha. But for real I think when the audience gets mad, crazy and enjoy the performance - that's the definition of ideal show.
What attributes do you think that a new Thrash Metal Band should have in order to gain identity and be unique?
Firstable beeing honest with what you do while putting the music on the top instead of thinking about chicks, fame, copying other bands styles and other senseless bullshit. You can always find something unique and "new" in sound of a lot of new bands nowadays as I personally thing that the last decade is completely fucking dope and crazy when it goes to metal underground itself, but I personally think that trying to be AS UNIQUE AS POSSIBLE is not a necessary.
Do you believe that Digital Platforms help the new Thrash Metal Bands? Which, do you think, is the ideal way for a band to promote its work?
I think it helps a lot for new bands as you can spread the music all over the world using just few platforms, but otherwise it wont help the band gain any money for their hard work they deserve. Signing labels, spreading the music all over, sending CDs for a reviews and proving yourself with good live performance is be the best promotion I guess.
Tell us a few things about the New Underground Metal Scene in your area (Bands, Fanzines, Webzines, Metal Clubs etc.)
The metal scene in general is not that huge in Leipzig anymore as it used to be couple of years ago, but I will completely recommend for every maniac to check out bands from the underground like: Sphinx, Frightful, Species, Schafott, Sexmag, Deathrite or Karloff - you wont be disappointed!!
Do you know anything about the Hellenic Metal Scene?
I do not really know much about the Greek scene in general as I was in Greece once, but I heard from many that the scene is huge and great. However my personal favourite bands from Greece are: Rotting Christ, Satans Wrath and Dead Congregation for sure!!
The last 4 years, worldwide in the world, we have faced many dark, strange & new situations in our everyday life (covid, lock-down etc.) Did all of this affect you positively or negatively?
Fuck yeaah... definitely tough times for all of us. Having no possibility to go for gigs, festivals or at least to get fucked up in a bar was definitely not positive at all (thanks its all gone) hahaha. It had some negative affects on everyone I know, but the affect for us as a band was totally devastated as we had an opportunity to play six shows in the UK which were planed and booked for June 2020. All of the shows were postponted and then canceled due to long fucking covid time existence, then we split up as a band and that upportunity never happend again. Hopefully we could of play in the UK in the future - that would be fucking awesome.
What are your future plans?
We are recently working on new material to jump into the studio somewhere next year to hopefully record an 2nd album as the creativity is pretty much on a good level right now. We've got some gigs in plan for this year summer time, autumn and winter, but in general - spitting the music out, playing loud and having fun!!
Thank you very much for your time & keep up the good work! The closure is yours.
Thanks a lot for that interview!! Greetings to all Greek Maniacs!! And for everyone who'll read that interview: Remember to support your local scene and bands in general with ACTS not just WORDS!! Cheers! Mleko.
By Steve the Filthy Dog.
FRENATRON CONTACT:
https://www.facebook.com/frenatron/
https://www.instagram.com/frenatron_band/
https://frenatron.bandcamp.com/music