In today’s modern rock landscape, Canada’s Freeze The Fall stands out for their raw intensity and emotional depth. The dynamic trio—Quinn Mitzel, Jonah Goncalves, and Aria Becker—fuses metalcore, nu metal, and hard rock into a bold, genre-blurring sound. Their second EP, “The Red Garden” (via 604 Records), marks a leap forward in both sound and vision. Known for their storytelling through music, the band crafts each track as a chapter in a larger narrative, exploring themes like misinformation, digital anonymity, and personal introspection. Freeze The Fall isn’t just making music—they’re making statements.
So, welcome to Femme Metal Webzine! I hope you had a great day today. It’s a beautiful day. I know you’re doing an acoustic recording today—I hope it’s not too hectic. How are you guys doing?
Jonah: Yeah, we’re good.
Quinn: Yeah, we’re doing great. We drove to Vancouver this morning—it’s about four hours from home—so we had to wake up pretty early to get here.
The beginning of Freeze the Fall
Wow, well, kudos for the commitment! So, I wanted to ask how the band came together. I know you’re about to release your second EP this June. What’s the story behind Freeze The Fall?
Quinn: So, Aria and I went to the same middle school, and we used to notice each other in the hallways because we were wearing band T-shirts we both liked. One day, toward the end of the school year, we decided to talk to each other because I was going to switch schools, and we weren’t sure if we’d see each other again. We hit it off and thought, “Maybe we should jam sometime,” since I knew she played bass and she knew I played guitar.
Aria: Yeah, and then Jonah and I met about a month later. He was playing a solo gig, and I went to see him. We connected, and the three of us started jamming together.
Nice! I’m glad those band T-shirts worked their magic!
Jonah: Yeah, that was about two years ago. Maybe two and a half.
Aria: Yeah, it’ll be three years soon.
The new EP “The Red Garden” by Freeze the Fall
Now, you’re about to release your second EP, “The Red Garden”. I’d love to hear more about it—how you started developing the ideas, what the production process was like this time around. I mean, it’s your second experience now, so maybe you’ve learned a few things since the first EP.
Quinn: Yeah, definitely. After making our first EP, “Thrones“, we all felt more comfortable with the writing process, recording, and collaborating with artists and videographers. This time, we wanted to branch out and experiment more with our sound and our art in general.
The key difference with this EP is that it’s a concept album—each song is part of a larger story. That’s been a really fun, creative challenge for us.
The album concept behind “The Red Garden”
Okay. What can you tell me about the concept or the story? I’ve listened to the EP, and I feel like it really speaks to me. You touch on themes like misinformation, digital anonymity, and personal introspection. I mean, I’m 35, but I felt like you were singing about my life. You’ve captured something very real, and that’s impressive for such a young band. How did you start working with those themes?
Jonah: Wow, thank you! That means a lot. We always hope people can take their own meaning from the songs, so it’s amazing to hear that it resonated with you.
Basically, with this EP, each song features a different character and a different flower. Each character represents a societal theme or idea.
“Social media overload is a huge issue.”
Yeah, I mean, social media overload is a huge issue. We’re constantly flooded with information—our brains are built to handle one thing at a time, but now we’re scrolling through dozens, even hundreds, of inputs nonstop. It sounds silly when I say it out loud, but it really is overwhelming.
Quinn: Exactly. Each character reflects something like that. And none of them are strictly good or bad—they’re all meant to be complex and human. We want people to see themselves in these characters, whether it’s through something positive or something darker. That duality is at the heart of what we’re exploring.
The videos from “The Red Garden”
Okay, so I know you’ve already released three videos—”Hypothermia”, “VHS”, and “Aurora”. I really enjoyed all three. You mentioned earlier that you’ve learned how to work with videographers and communicate your vision more clearly. What was it like shooting these videos?
Aria: Yeah, we work really closely with a videographer named Evan from Orphanarium. He helps translate our music into visuals, even though the videos don’t necessarily follow the same storyline as the EP. They’re more like different interpretations or extensions of the music.
Especially with “Hypothermia“ and “VHS“, the shoots were pretty intense. “Hypothermia” involved a lot of cold weather—it was a long process, but also really fun. We love making them.
Keep on experimenting
Yeah, I saw you guys out in the cold for Hypothermia. So, chapeau to you—it’s not easy filming in those kinds of conditions! There’s another track I love—”Oubliette” and “Rot“. Could you talk a bit about that one? Difficult question, I know!
Quinn: Yeah, it’s a tough one because it’s such a broad question! For Oubliette, I had a lot of fun writing the French part. I’ve wanted to incorporate French into a song for a long time because it’s been a part of my life for years.
We’re from Canada, where English and French are both official languages, so it felt natural to bring that into our music. Now that we feel more confident in our songwriting and artistic direction, we wanted to experiment more—language included. Writing in French was a really meaningful part of that exploration for me. So it was fun for me to be able to add that little French section to the lyrics.
“Yeah, it has a lot of emotion.”
Well, I love experimentation, and I hope you continue exploring that direction in the future. I studied French in school as well. It’s such a melodic language—it has this extra… I don’t even know what the word is, that extra something.
Quinn: Yeah, it has a lot of emotion to it, I find. It’s a very emotional language.
Freeze the fall working with 604 Records
Yeah, absolutely. So I know the album was released on June 18th through 604 Records. This time, you’ve decided to work with a label. How has that experience been for you, especially since your previous EP was released independently?
Jonah: It’s been really interesting working with a label. We have a distribution deal with them, and we’ve been collaborating with them since last April. It’s been cool to see how people react to our music and how the label supports us. Having them handle distribution helps—it takes some of the pressure off us. We usually work with our parents to manage everything aside from actually making the music, so having the label there helps lighten the load.
It’s like having some backup—it makes things a bit lighter. Well, thank you so much for the interview, guys. I hope you enjoyed it.
Quinn, Aria & Jonah: Yes, we did. It was very nice. Thank you!