national frost

National Frost has wasted little time establishing that they are prepared and dedicated to making an impact on the Canadian independent music scene. Since forming in May of 2007 the group has already completed two national tours, two additional West coast tours, and are currently anticipating a series of sold out shows for their February 2008 Western Canadian tour. They have shared the stage with industry heavyweights including The Sadies and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. In addition they were invited to play Sled Island Festival (with Spoon, Cat Power, The Constantines), the Pop Montreal stage at the Montreal Fringe Festival, and a NXNE showcase at Lee’s Palace in Toronto. The group has signed a publishing deal with Runaway Music who are currently shopping their music for soundtrack and commercial use. In Fall of 2007 National Frost released Lost Gospels online and in stores with distribution through Sonic Unyon. The album is being serviced to all college radio markets and has already begun to chart in most western centers.

National Frost is, for lack of a better term, a collective of musicians from the great plains of Saskatchewan. Although fully aware they are just another rock band, the group attempts to move beyond the traditional confines of two guitars, a bass, and drums by incorporating a rhodes piano, organs, a saxophone, a trumpet, field recordings, synthesized sound, a modest army of effects pedals, and virtually anything else they can get to make a noise.

Our story begins with an unlikely reunion of childhood friends in the sleepy little coal mining community of Estevan. The city, known more for a CBC special entitled 'Drugs, Guns, and Oil' than for any commitment to the arts, proved an unlikely setting to create a hopeful album about new beginnings.

National Frost rented a teetering old warehouse that once served as a lumberyard, filled it to the roof with wires and microphones and began tracking drums, guitars, and organs. In the weeks that followed a procession of contributors made their way through a tiny one bedroom apartment and left behind a trail of melodies, harmonies, and percussive oddities. The project later relocated to Regina where they rented a hundred year old character home in the heart of the city and swiftly converted into a studio space to finish tracking and mixing the album. The move allowed for an all new cast of friends. Tristan Helgason (Ghosts of Modern Man), Leif Thorsyth (Geronimo/Despistado), and Erin Passmore (Rah Rah/Sylvie) contributed back-up vocals.

The songs of Lost Gospels were surgically crafted on top a body of field recordings, manipulated audio, and questionable rhythms. The album is as atmostpheric as it is angular. It's as gloomy as it is pop. It's an honest introduction to a group who has already begun work on a follow up full length. Lost Gospels begins with a gentle hush of birds and waves and concludes with a rapture of voices declaring "All is well that ends well."

National Frost currently is:

Carl Johnson – Vocals.Guitar

Rob Morrison – Engineer, Guitars, Ebow, Field Recordings, Vocals

Mike Theiven – Drums & Percussion, Vocals

Michael Dawson – Bontempi, Synths, Field Recordings, Text

Liam Bryant – Bass, Bass Synth, Vocals

Michelle Britton – Piano, Rhodes, Vocals

Paul Gutheil – Saxophone, Vocals