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There’s a certain thrill in sneaking into places you’re not supposed to be—whether it’s hopping a fence on a hike, breaking into a mall at night, or smooth-talking your way into a VIP-only afterparty. For the members of Kelowna trio Freeze the Fall, that’s the case almost every time they play live.
“There are certain shows where we’re only allowed to be in there until we finish our set,” says bass player Aria Becker over a Zoom call, “and then we have to leave.”
“It’s fun though,” adds lead singer and guitarist Quinn Mitzel, “because you get to go to places that other people you hang out with wouldn’t get to go to.”
Freeze’s the Fall’s members, rounded out by drummer Jonah Goncalves, range in age from 16 to 18—so they’re not technically allowed to be in most of the venues they’re playing. Not that a little thing like being below the legal drinking age stops them from rocking out.
Pairing soaring, ethereal vocals with heavy guitars and swaggering rhythm, the music straddles the line between hard rock and symphonic metal. It’s a bit grunge, a bit theatrical, and a lot heavy, all delivered with the confidence that comes from solid musicianship.
Mitzel and Becker originally met in middle school, when they developed a mutual appreciation of each other’s band tees. (If memory serves correctly, Mitzel says, it was probably My Chemical Romance and Bring Me the Horizon.) The two started jamming, and Becker recruited Goncalves a month later to create a three-piece originally called Broken Glass. Their first show together? A school performance showcase at the end of 2022.
“All of our music was too heavy for that kind of setting,” recalls Becker. “We wrote ‘One Left Standing’ and we were like, ‘We can just scrap it after, but it’s more suited for this kind of show.’ And we ended up keeping it.”
“One Left Standing” is a melodic slow-burn, which made a perfect closer for the band’s debut EP, Thrones, released last summer. While the release was a success—even helping the group get signed to 604 Records—the teens weren’t content to sit still, and immediately began work on an even more ambitious follow-up project: a seven-track concept EP titled The Red Garden.
“We’ve always been a fan of storytelling, and with The Red Garden, there is a bigger story,” Becker says. “It was quite a process to learn how to do it—but once we learned, I think we’re not going back.”
The Red Garden is set within the eponymous world, where each song is associated with a specific character and flower. Tracks blossomed from different inspirations. The inspiration behind recent single “Hypothermia”, for instance, came from a visual juxtaposition.
“We wanted to write a song that was the contrast of a really ice blue with red,” Mitzel explains. “The iciness would be the snow, and this angelic thing would be vocals. Then the blood is darker and deeper, and that could be the heavy instrumentals.”
“VHS”, meanwhile, was inspired by a love of found-footage horror movies like The Poughkeepsie Tapes—resulting in a syncopated, teetering banger that crackles with tension. The melancholic closing track “Lace” is a version of a song that Mitzel has spent years toying with.
The Red Garden isn’t just a collection of linked songs: it’s a whole interconnected project, weaving together music and storytelling with the bandmembers’ other passions. The striking covers of the last four singles, for instance—each showing the profile of a different character surrounded by their associated blossoms and symbols—is something that Becker helped work on.
“One of my interests is other forms of art, like painting and designing clothing,” Becker says. “There are lots of little Easter eggs in the artwork and the merch designs.”
Mitzel, meanwhile, is a fan of language learning. That comes across most notably in “Oubliette”, with the second verse being sung in French. The narrator (“The Prisoner”) feels paralyzed by memories of their younger self. “Et quand tes poumons ne poussent plus l’air/Avec la tresse de mots je t’enterre” doesn’t just encapsulate the feeling of holding onto something that’s long-gone—the linguistic shift also adds a layer of disconnection that reflects the character’s fractured state of mind.
“Being able to throw in little hidden things in other languages,” Mitzel adds, “it’s so much more fun to do that with a concept album, because you can hide things throughout.”
The heavy music scene isn’t always kind to women or young people—and teenage girls, to boot, have to deal with a double-dose of misogyny and condescension. Luckily, Freeze the Fall has found a way to deal with the disbelievers: simply blow them away.
“I can think of probably less than five women we’ve shared the stage with as a band,” Mitzel reflects. “It’s definitely a different feeling to show up at a venue and you’re the only girls there. Maybe it’s because we’re younger, too. Sometimes I think people doubt us, and they’re a bit skeptical, like ‘What are you doing here?’ But then we get to play, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, that was crazy.’ ”
It’s clear the members of Freeze the Fall belong on stage—even if they have to sneak past security to get there.
The Red Garden is out on 604 Records on June 18. Freeze the Fall plays the Fox Cabaret on June 27.