MM Exclusive: In Conversation with Frozemode

London has plenty of volume. Frozemode bring intent. Since forming in 2022, I.V.GATLIN, Cho-Hollo and Lisong have treated genre as a toolkit, not a border, and built a live show that moves like a trigger. DEMODE 3, out 12 September 2025, is the hard close to their trilogy, tighter in its architecture and heavier in its hit rate. The Brixton O2 support for Denzel Curry confirmed it in real time, two clips breaking loose, a room turning on contact.

“LOOKING AT US” set the tone earlier in the summer, a hook built for direct eye lines and a chorus you can hear bounce off concrete. It took BBC Introducing Rock Track of the Week with Alyx Holcombe and ran clean through the playlists at Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Deezer. The credits point to intent too: Olly Burden, Sam Matlock and Charlie Russell helping the band tilt their hybrid further toward impact without losing air around the vocals.

What Frozemode sell is physical permission. The records invite bodies to move first and think later. The shows prove it. Reading and Leeds, Download, 2000trees, Face Down at Scala, the energy holds. With DEMODE 3 they are not chasing categories, they are refining a language of noise, space and release that belongs to them.

We spoke about how they stage that release, what they kept and burned from the first two chapters, and where the next risk lives once a trilogy is sealed.

Brixton O2, Denzel support, two viral moments. What actually triggered those in the room song choice, drop timing, or how you worked the pauses between sections?

A lot of what we do currently sits in the live setting, so when we make a lot of our tracks this is definitely in our minds.  A lot of the drop timings and pauses are stuff we’ve planned and tested but we’re always adding and experimenting with different ideas.  When choosing the tracklist for the show we also kept in mind the fact that this would be both an alternative and rap leaning show/audience.

“Music is movement” sits at the core of your brief. When you map a track, where do you place the first true release for the crowd, and what do you refuse to give them early?

To be honest with you we don’t really over intellectualise it like that. We just feel it through in the room and it either feels right or it doesn’t. And then we transfer that to a live audience reaction and they either enjoy it or they don’t and we go from there. 

“LOOKING AT US” hits like a dare. The hook feels built for eye contact. Did that start as a live test in rehearsal or was the crowd call baked in at demo stage?

Actually the idea for the hook started in the room with us and the producer Tylr Rydr. We went into it wanting to make something anthemic that the audience could easily rap back and turn up to. We then tested the track  a few times live on tour and it went crazy so we knew we had something there.

Alyx Holcombe made it BBC Introducing Rock Track of the Week. Rock framing for an alt-rap trio changes expectations. Did that tag free anything up in your production choices make you sharpen edges further?

We’ve always played around with different genres and styles since the inception of Frozemode. It’s sick how we can live in different pockets and spaces. I think with this EP we definitely wanted to sharpen those rock edges further, bringing in more live instrumentation than our previous tracks.

On stage you push the room into a purge. Off stage there’s a duty of care. How do you design chaos without crossing your own safety lines?

A lot of practice and creating. Not everything sticks but we’re always trying to improve and through the mistakes you end up finding the hidden gems.

The trilogy ends here. What rule from DEMODE 1 and 2 did you carry into 3, and which one did you burn?

The main thing we tried to do more in this EP was have more of a  through line and  consistency in how it sounded. The other 2 were almost like a collection of singles where this is a whole complete project. We still carried over our core as rappers but doubled down on this Rock-Rap hybrid genre we have been working on. 

Olly Burden, Sam Matlock, Charlie Russell. Three very different toolkits. Name one decision each of them pushed that you wouldn’t have made on your own.

They are all such talented producers and what we love about working with them is they let us do our own thing and feel it out and make decisions and take risks, and then we throw all the shit at the wall and their talent helps it to stick. 

You said if people stare, you’ll give them something to look at. What’s the smallest visual detail fit choice, mic tape, lighting cue that changes how the pit behaves?

Lighting is a very powerful tool and we definitely notice when the person in charge of it is locked in. With the fits one thing that naturally has become a moment is when it gets too hot and the outer layers have to come off. It’s unintentional but creates a ‘lets really get into it now’ kind of vibe haha. 

Guitar riffs and explosive drums are doing a lot of heavy lifting. Where did you cut out space in the low mids so the vocal still hits like a lead instrument, not just a shout over noise?

The guitar riffs have intentional space within them and they are played with a percussive technique, rather than being full on chords. We also used super low tuning to make room for other stuff, Allowing our vocals to drive through in the mid range

Reading & Leeds vs 2000trees vs Face Down at Scala. Three rooms, three tempos. What song shifted rank in the setlist once you felt those crowds up close?

I think rather than shifting rank, we often test all our songs live so by doing that we end up crafting the best set from experience. We then make minor adjustments depending on the type of festival we’re playing or if there is a new favourite song we have just made.. 

The press line calls this “genre-obliterating.” Fine. Under the hood, what are the boring technical decisions: tempo maps, click or no click, bus compression that actually let you move like that live?

When we can, having a click in ears definitely helps keep it all locked in for us. Rehearsals are also great for keeping us up to scratch and testing new ideas. In terms of technical decisions we leave that in the hands of the band guys and producers. We like to act on feel rather than specific tempos and energy rather than things like compression. We are surrounded by amazing people who all contribute to our sound in multiple ways.

You talk about granting permission. When did you first feel that happen back at you to someone in the crowd showing you a way to move that changed the song for you?

I think the first time we really understood that we had the crowd in the palm of our hands was when we supported Joey Valence and Brae. 

The single landed across Spotify, Apple, Amazon. Streaming loves repeatable shapes. Your live set does not. What compromises will you never make to stay playlist friendly?

Becoming generic and forced to fit in a box.

There’s a pocket in “LOOKING AT US” where the drums hold a fraction longer than feels safe. Was that restraint to tee up the next section or a mistake you chose to keep? You’ve got three distinct voices in the band. Who calls the cut mid-song if a section isn’t landing, and what’s the non-verbal cue?

Most great songs are usually happy mistakes, we often find these imperfections become signatures of each track.I think we can all read each other both verbally and non verbally by now. We also always make sure to feel comfortable in whatever environment we are working in. This allows us to be honest and open. Egos left at the door.

If DEMODE 3 is built to make bodies move, what’s the slowest track you fought to keep because the set needed a different kind of tension?

Hollowman ting is a much slower paced song but still gritty and dark and heavy in its own way. It’s breath of fresh air putting it in the middle of the track in some way but it doesn’t dissipate the tension. 

You’ve stepped into spaces with very different codes Download, Big Weekend, DIY club nights. What’s one piece of etiquette from heavy shows that rap crowds should steal, and one from rap shows that heavy kids need to learn?

Honestly both crowds are great and there’s loads of crossover. When we supported both Denzel Curry and SiM the crowds both went crazy and were moshing and moving and responding in all the ways we wanted them too even though both artists are very different genres. 

A lot of artists chase “energy” then flatten it in the mix. Where did you deliberately leave grit in the final bounce, and why?

All our demos go through Lee, our guitarist, who finishes the tracks with the band. This is the closest we have found to replicating our live sound. Then Phil Gornell (Mix Engineer), who is a master of his craft in that specific live rock genre gets the tracks to where you hear them now!

The line “music isn’t just heard, it’s felt” gets repeated in your world. Give me one moment in the last month where you felt that in your own body and reconsidered an arrangement because of it.

We were just making a new demo and there was a bit in the track that was laid down as an intro verse but as the session went off that intro verse was stuck in our heads so we decided it should become a hook because regardless of what we thought at first we couldn’t deny the feeling it created in the room.

Merch and partners are part of the ecosystem now. What would a brand have to bring to be useful in your space beyond budget so it doesn’t blunt what you’re building?

Something that accentuates the uniqueness between the 3 of us. Collaboration and creativity. Honestly we’re open to work with brands in figuring all of this stuff out, i think the audience knows when its not authentic.

You’ve said the sound creates a chain reaction. Walk me through the first 90 seconds of your ideal set opener. Staging, count-in, first lyric, first look at each other.

Shot, group huddle, intro music.

Studio question. When you tracked with Charlie Russell, what was the last-minute change at mix that unlocked width without losing punch?

Ironically, this happened outside the studio. We decided later on in the process to record all our Drums live. Having the variety of choice from a full 12 channel drum recording allowed us to really make it huge. As well as keeping the original drum loop blended in.

When the cameras come out mid-mosh, does that change your pacing or do you treat phones as just another strobe?

We don’t let cameras change our performance but we do sometimes give love here and there to individual ones. They’re part of the modern show so sometimes it’s good to lean into it. Now that fan has their own special takeaway and memory. 

After the trilogy closes, what habits in your writing room are you actively unlearning so you don’t loop back to safe choices?

All of them. We want to go in completely reset with no preconceptions or ideas of what we need to create. This process now will be all about feeling our way through and seeing what works for us through experimentation. There are loads of routes we could take now so we need to be open in order to find the right one.

If we muted the crowd mic on a live recording, what would we miss that is essential to understanding Frozemode?

The energy that the crowd brings in creating the atmosphere of the show. They’re part of it 100%.