Ice Breaker

“This is excellent music! Congratulations to you and the band. I have to confess to not being able to "Keep It At 10"...I cranked it to 11:). Keep it at 10 had a great mix of 80's rock with a nice clean modern rock sound a bit reminiscent of Survivor/Asia. I'm Your Lost Pearl was a welcome aural treat of punk rock pop with solid vocals and a catchy hook. Can very much see myself cranking this one out in the car on a Summer drive by the beach.” - - Steph Larouche, Morning Host/Account Executive, Moose FM 99.3

See link to hear radio interview. - Moose FM 99.3 - Indie Corner

A bunch of teachers and students have teamed up to make music in the Sudbury band, Ice Breaker.

See link to hear radio interview. - CBC Radio - Points North

Carter Morin, 12, has been helping his band Ice Breaker wow crowds around the city. The ‘guitar prodigy’ shines alongside the other youth and adults in the seven-piece cover band.

See link to view video. - Northern Life

Submitted by Paul Kazulak
Photo Credits: Paul Kazulak Photography

Saturday August 27, 2013 was a beautiful summer day in Sudbury, Ontario, during Greater Sudbury’s annual SummerFest Music Festival, a four day event full of music and fun in Bell Park on the shores of Ramsey Lake.

Ice Breaker took the stage and spectacularly covered a demanding mix of Rock and Classic Rock tunes such as Heart’s ‘Barracuda’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go your Own Way’, hard rockers like Def Leppard’s `Animal’, Motley Crue’s ‘Kickstart My Heart’ and Van Halen’s ‘Hot for Teacher’ where Carter Morin takes an Eddie Van Halen-ish inspired journey up and down the fret board, running scales and bending notes, totally wowing the audience. This up and coming group of talented musicians broke the ice at SummerFest.

The previous weekend Ice Breaker electrified the crowd at Rock and Roar Spanish as they opened for Coney Hatch, Lee Aaron, and Loverboy. They won that spot in the “Battle of the Bands” in April.

A mix of four adults, Allan Zoldy (keyboard/Lead and Background Vocals) Scott Zoldy (Drums), Denis Chaperon (Lead and Rythm Guitar) and three students, Cole Szantol (Bass) and Taylor Bovin-Brawley (Keyboards/Lead/Background Vocals) and prodigy, young Carter Morin (lead guitar).

The young wunderkind Carter Alexander Morin is 12 years old and going into Grade 8. He has been playing since the age of 7. He likes “hard rock, rock and classic rock”. Morin practices “literally hours per day” solo and with Ice Breaker 3 hours x 4-5 times a week. “The only way to improve is to practice,” says the young protégé. “Practice makes perfect, but one thing in guitar, you can never be perfect. My guitar teachers have always told me to be picky with the way that you play something. If you screw something up with your playing go back and fix it. That way you will always improve”. This lad is one dedicated dude.

Morin is very grateful for the love and support that he gets from his parents in following his dream. He has a music room, his Dad made, insulated with sound absorbent insulation, to be nice to the neighbours. There are drums, a keyboard, one acoustic hanging on the wall, and his 5 electric guitars including a Gibson Les Paul and an Edie Van Halen “Wolfgang”. He also gives credit to Scott Zoldy who is his teacher in school for “always being there for me.” Scott believes in responsible mentorship, and is doing a splendid job with this group of young students, and the “big kids”. Morin “feeds off of the adults in the group, recognizing the benefit of experience of his elders. But they are a musical group first where they are all equal and have a balanced rapport.

A future in the music business holds a promising place for Carter Morin, who is currently working on writing original material with the band, aspiring to polish his trade and play all his life and become professional. “Music is my life, guitar is what I do, and I want to go as far as I can with my music”.

Watch out for Carter Morin. Talent like this is rare and he is sure to be a future star of tomorrow. - Cashbox Canada

Scott Zoldy is constantly hit with the same comparison. Did you get the idea of Ice Breaker from Jack Black’s School Of Rock movie? His response is yes…sort of!

As a grade eight teacher at Sudbury’s Pinecrest Public School, Zoldy began mentoring some star students who performed in the school band. When Zoldy decided to form his own band, Ice Breaker, at the start of this year he thought it would be great for the kids if he could incorporate a few of them into an adult band and allow them to benefit from senior tutorage.

So Zoldy and two other teachers, brother Allan Zoldy, Andrea Therrien, who teaches at Chelmsford High School and truck driving friend Denis Chaperon recruited 12-year-old guitar whiz, Carter Morin, 16-year-old bassist Cole Szanto and 17-year-old keyboardist/vocalist Taylor Boivin-Brawley to formulate a unique lineup.

Appearing on stage Saturday August 17th as the local Battle Of The Band champions at the two-day Rock And Roar festival in Spanish Ontario, Ice Breaker opened for Coney Hatch by performing a challenging set that included Heart’s `Barracuda,’ an interesting mash-up of the Police’s` Message In A Bottle’ with Blonde’s ` One Way Or Another’, Fleetwood Mac’s `Go Your Own Way’, Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer’ and solid rockers like Def Leppard’s `Animal’, Whitesnake’s `Here I Go Again’ as well as a set-closing cover of Motley Crue’s `Kickstart My Heart’.

WE ARE ON STAGE, WORKING WITH THE KIDS, PASSING ON OUR OWN EXPERIENCE IN A LIVE SETTING. THIS EXPERIENCE IS INVALUABLE.True Thierrien and Allan Zoldy handled most of the lead vocals but Boivin-Brawley got her chance in the spotlight handling Blondie’s `One Way Or Another’ and a lead on Fleetwood Mac’s `Go Your Own Way’ while guitar ace Morin, dazzled with his Eddie Van Halen prowess on `Hot For Teacher’.
“When I started this project, I had a lot of people say it would never fly,” noted Scott Zoldy who also doubles as the band’s drummer. “But as you can see, this is not a gimmick, what we did was prove we could perform together.”

“The idea of the band was for the teachers to mentor the students while performing in a real life environment. I wanted to promote youth and empower and give self-confidence to them,” continued Zoldy. “These kids are too good not to be playing on these stages. Where are you going to find an outlet for Carter to perform at the level he’s currently at. Kids his age just don’t play like him.”

Ice Breaker has evolved into a serious enough entity to command dates at festivals and even bar gigs with the CBC interviewing the band on Thursday August 22nd as well as Moose FM 99.3 interviewing the band in June. At Spanish, Icebreaker beat out four other bands; Thrill Junkies, The Nye-Nye’s, Jekyll’s Secret and Broad Daylight who all performed in sequence prior to them taking the stage before a healthy audience, there to watch Coney Hatch, Lee Aaron and Loverboy.

“The adults have all been in bands before, we’ve all had past experience but now we want to pass that experience on to the kids,” offered co-lead vocalist Therrien. “I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. We are on stage, working with the kids, passing on our own experience in a live setting. This experience is invaluable.”

Zoldy hopes that the band can now start working on writing original songs and possibly even go into the recording studio. “We have the musicianship, we are singing some pretty challenging songs so it’s not out of the question that we can take that experience and write our own songs,” concluded Zoldy. “It would be great if we could come back to this festival next year and perform our own material.”

Back in the Waterfront Complex, Icebreaker is mingling with the big stars; Coney Hatch, Lee Aaron and Loverboy. “So you’re the guitar player in the band?,” gasps Aaron incredulously as she chats with Morin, who, having taken off his rock star sunglasses, really does look like a 12-year-old kid. “Wow! Incredible.” - The Music Express

Then it was off back to Spanish to catch the last couple of acts in the festival’s Battle of Band’s contest. In an effort to retain a local element to the festival, 10 local bands are selected to compete for five coveted spots at concert. The five winning entries all played back to back with the fifth place band going first. The running order being Thrill Junkies, The Nye-Nyes, Jekyll’s Secret, Broad Daylight and contest winners; Sudbury’s Icebreaker.

All were cover bands of varying degrees of musicianship and ability with one or two actually trying original material but only one exhibited any degree of showmanship, that being contest winners Icebreaker. Think of Jack Black’s School Of Rock movie but instead of one teacher, Icebreaker has three teachers (plus a truck driver) joining forces with three students; 17-year old Taylor Boivin-Brawley, 16-year-old bassist Cole Szanto and 12-year-old guitar wiz, Carter Morin.

And these guys were really good. Their covers were challenging, Heart’s `Barracuda’ and interesting mash-up of The Police’s Message In A Bottle with Blondie’s `One Way Or Another’ along with hard rockers like Def Leppard’s `Animal’, Whitesnake’s `Here I Go Again’ and their set finale – Motley Crue’s `Kickstart My Heart’. Their cover of Van Halen’s `Hot For Teacher’ allowed Morin to show his Eddie Van Halen prowess and it also doesn’t hurt that teachers; Andrea Therrien, drummer Scott Zoldy, keyboardist Allan Zoldy and guitarist Denis Chaperon also provided experienced tutorage on stage. - The Music Express