FEATURE: Spotlight: Frost Children — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Frost Children

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ONE of the acts defining the music of New York in 2023…

PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

Frost Children consist of siblings Angel and Lulu Prost. Originally from Missouri, they are now based in one of the busiest and most vibrant music hubs in all of the world. I am going to come to a series of interviews with Frost Children. DAZED spoke with the sisters in November last year. They started the interview with a rather intriguing fact:

“St Louis, Missouri is home to the longest outlet mall in the world. Situated just off Route 370, it was once a beacon of commerce: a multi-level metropolis of fast food and fashion chains, an antidote to the bleakness of suburban life. But, like thousands of malls across the country, decades of economic decline forced its closure in 2019. “There wasn’t anything to do,” says Angel Prost, “so we stayed indoors.” She’s referring to Lulu, her younger sibling and the other half of pop duo Frost Children. Together they were raised in St Louis, nicknamed by locals as the shopping outlet suburb of Missouri. But while other kids hung out at the mall, Frost Children found a new, spiritual home: the internet.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

Speaking over Zoom from their shared apartment in Ridgewood, Queens – “we use Lulu’s room as a studio”, they say – the pair are part of a new cohort of artists to come out of New York’s downtown scene. Emerging out of the pandemic, these extremely online creatives and tastemakers span the worlds of fashion, art and media, with savvy internet personalities that spill out across Substacks, podcasts and meme accounts. “I’m definitely a hyper-online person,” Angel says. “I’m really posting a lot on my story on Instagram these days; it’s almost like I live-journal every thought I have. I honestly don’t see any problem with it.” Her TikTok is also an extension of these daily reflections, laced with the sort of based and irony-pilled musings that flourish online. “These are real thoughts I’m having, it’s not like I’m being tarnished and my brain is dying from hyper-posting. It’s just a medium, like writing in a journal, but it’s going on to the internet.”

Balancing on the cusp of the underground electronic scene and the burgeoning indie revival, Frost Children’s music is hard to pin down. It’s the sort of terminally online, remix culture- influenced sound that in 2020 would have been labelled as hyperpop, but has since mutated into a fluid style that spans everything from synth pop to punk rock and hardstyle. “Lately when we’ve been asked what kind of music we make we just say it’s confidential,” says Angel, “but other times we’ll just say that we’re emerging pop artists.” Inspired in equal parts by golden-era YouTube and 00s kids’ TV shows like iCarly, their tracks are imbued with a playful Web 1.0 earnestness, with glitched-out soundbites and YouTube poop samples hurtling the listener into disorientating states of digital disarray”.

I am really excited about Frost Children. Whilst I still think they are finding their sound and will hit their peak an album or two from now, they are already offering up glimpses of what could come. This is evident on their new album, SPEED RUN. I shall end with a review of that album. It was released in April, and it highlights their eclectic and uplifting nature. There are a few more bits I want to get to before then. i-D spotlighted Angel and Lulu Prost in April. Forming the remarkable Frost Children, there are a few bits of the interview that are especially interesting and worth highlighting. It is revealed in the interview how they have some ardent and dedicated fans – often travelling miles city to city to see Frost Children play! It is testament to the quality of their music and the connection they have with their fans:

“Frost Children became a band in 2019. Before then, the pair were in different locations, “doing our own things”. Lulu was in Nashville studying music and producing for pop singers and songwriters around campus. Angel was in the Bronx, New York, studying neuroscience. She dropped out to pursue the band life instead. “Brain surgery during the day, music at night. They’re similar when you think about it,” Angel says half-joking, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. “I guess I had the realisation that, like… it’s risky to put yourself out there and do music. But it’s also risky to go to medical school. You might fail. So you may as well do the thing that you want to fail at.” They moved in together shortly afterwards, making tracks from their NYC apartment, quickly becoming well known in the Downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn creative scenes.

Frost Children’s early music leant towards maximalism and chaos. Scroll back two years on their YouTube channel, for example, and you’ll come across songs like “Sonic” and “Bl!nk” which sound like candy-coloured fever dreams pushed through arcade machines. Now, on third album Speed Run, their sound has become tighter, glossier and more refined, while still retaining their wild, idiosyncratic flavour. On album-opener “COUP”, their voices float, ice-clear and angelic over colourful, synth-cushioned beats: “Like, oh my god, what the fuck, who are you?” Later, on “LET IT BE (feat. EXUM)”, they talk-rap in a drawling vocal fry over hardcore techno. “It’s a club record,” Lulu says. “You could play the whole record front to back at a club if you wanted to.” Angel agrees: “The more music we make, the more we think about how it’s going to be performed.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Avery Norman

To that end, Angel offers to give me a “bracelet tour”. Each one of her bracelets was given to her by fans after shows. They’re odd – typical of the band’s heavily ironic humour. One bracelet simply reads “hehehehe” (“It’s based on our song ‘LAUGHINGLAUGHING’,” she says). Another one reads “Life be simpler when you nonchalant, as soon as you start chalanting, shit goes left,” alongside a cartoon of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy drinking a can of Monster Energy. Another one reads “Pony”. On her index finger is an enormous plastic green ring, princess style, like what you’d find in a toy shop. “It’s so vibrant – more vibrant than a real gem,” she says, sitting back proudly. “And that’s the whole set.”

Frost Children leave you feeling invigorated. They’re exciting – like all the more playful, creative, weirder corners of the internet smushed together into music that pulls you into its expansive sugary macrocosm. They’ve made a truly energetic club record, too. The kind of post-lockdown music that’ll make you want to log off and find somewhere with neon strobe lights and huge speakers and sweaty bodies to dance with. With Speed Run, it seems, they’ve created a mega-online soundtrack to their ultimate fantasy party – and everyone’s invited”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Cruz Valdez

I will come to the review of SPEED RUN next. There is another interview I’ll cover prior to that. This is a punchier one from The Face. Even if this is their third studio album, I still think Frost Children are building their sound and strengthening. The Face asked Frost Children ten questions. I have picked a few of them. It is clear that this duo have a very bright future ahead. They are one of the most captivating and colourful acts in New York right now:

“It’s been an eventful morning for Lulu and Angel Prost, the siblings who make up Frost Children, the hyperpop duo setting New York’s underground music scene ablaze.

“I just had to move our van for street cleaning and I had a freaking heart attack because I thought it had been stolen,” Angel says, breathlessly, over Zoom from the pair’s apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. “I called to see if it was towed and they said no, so I called 911. Then I saw the van was parked, like, two blocks away. But 1,000 per cent, I did not park it there. It makes no sense – I’m still rattled.”

“You must have just remembered it wrong,” Lulu replies dubiously, before they and Angel snap back into interview mode. “Anyway! At least there was a happy ending, right?” Angel says.

Fresh off the back of releasing their third album Speed Run, Lulu and Angel are riding high. Filled with DJ-friendly club tracks, the occasional burst of screamo and video-game samples, they started making it last May, right after they dropped the critically acclaimed Spiral.

“We started writing pop songs for dancing, specifically,” Angel says. “Then we linked up with our uncle, who used to make pop music back in the ’70s, and he gave us a ton of advice. We learned a lot from him and it really set us in motion.”

“10% Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?

Angel: We grew up in St Louis, Missouri.

Lulu: And we’ve been in New York for about two years.

20% What would you like for listeners to get out of your new album?

L: I hope they have fun with it. It’s a club record, just us having fun.

A: I hope they listen to it on their phone and plug it into the aux in their car, then they show it to their parents, and their parents are like: “I hate this.”

50% You rule the world for a day. What went down?

L: I’d make everyone take a nap.

A: That sounds like Big Brother. Forced passivity.

L: Not like that. I just mean for people to rest! A universal day off.

A: I would give every trans girl a gun to defend themselves. I would make producing meat, in the way that it is right now, illegal. I would make Elon Musk pay a bunch of money to the government. Maybe I’d make the White House look really cool. In this scenario, I live there, so I’d deck it out – put some CDJs [mixing decks] in there. Open up the lawn to people so they can hang out”.

I shall come to a review of SPEED RUN. If some have said that the album is a little scattershot and there is too much happening – and there is a need for clarity and focus -, I feel it is a perfect club record that has something for everyone. Small wonder Frost Children have such a passionate and loyal fanbase! This is what Ones to Watch wrote in their review of one of this year’s most exciting and dancefloor-ready albums:

“Hyperpop wunderkind duo Frost Children, comprised of siblings Angel and Lulu Prost, continue to get our blood pumping with the release of their new album, SPEED RUN. The adrenaline-infused 11-track body of work is a barrage of endorphin-releasing music that explores the highs and lows of love and life wrapped in avant-garde pop sonics.

The record opener, "COUP," begins with an almost ethereal instrumental intro. Then, Angel's vocals usher the listener into a world of otherworldly synths before launching them into a complex plane of sonic existence. Beats and instrumentation drenched in glitter and oxytocin hook us in and demand our attention, prepping us for an acid trip of an album-listening experience.

The foundation of the previously released "FLATLINE" is built on a pounding, squelching house beat and vocals that oscillate between misty bedroom-pop and quasi-rap chanting. In addition, there's an assortment of racing alien drums, police sirens, and short-circuiting buzzes. Between the track's pulsating bass signals, mechanical production, and harmonious vocal layers, "FLATLINE" is simultaneously high-energy, hypnotic, and oozing with personality... and Yoshi sounds. As the track enters its final act, synth patterns briefly take center stage before Frost Children erupt, screaming their lyrics with fiery rage. "Cut the shit, are you fucking with me?" I hope not, Frost Children. "Step away, I can feel your disease!"

"SICK TRIP" and "ALL I GOT" are perfect for new listeners of the pair who are dipping their toes into club-ready hyperpop. With pulsing beats and addictive vocals that inspire dancing like no one is watching, the glossy tunes pull the listener further into a world of experimental soundscapes the duo craft with reckless and gleeful abandon. "'ALL I GOT' is Frost Children's radio-ready single designed for maximum listenability," Lulu and Angel Prost shared in a statement. "At this moment, 'ALL I GOT' is the Universal Tune, and you should be comforted by its all-encompassing ubiquity. It's everything you want and everything you need."

"HI 5" is a gorgeous, hi-fi track that blends the world of hyperpop and rap into a radio-friendly beat reminiscent of everything Y2K. Filled with memorable lyrics like, "I'll sing this shit 'til you sing along," and "I don't even give a fuck if you get it wrong," the track is a bright-eyed effort that scratches your brain in the best way. The siblings shared in a statement, "'HI 5' is like breathing, a simple exercise, an internal victory lap in which all your cells congratulate each other in unison."

Other notable tracks on the album include the raging "OBSESSED" and "SERPENT," both of which feature mosh-inducing guitar riffs, crashing percussion, and face-melting screams. Listeners should also take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship of "LET IT BE" featuring EXUM and "ANGEL'S THOUGHTS." Both are, for lack of a better word, simply mind-blowing.

The album's focus track, "WONDERLAND," is a sweetly whimsical love song full of soft vocals and adoring lyrics. Angel sings of her "babydoll," hoping to "hold her hand" and "take it slow." The tender tune also features the talents of Blaketheman1000 and May Rio, adding texture to the breezy ballad, making it a dynamic breath of fresh air in a high-octane record full of intricate layers of Alice In Wonderland-themed lyrics, lilting piano lines, and head-bobbing beats. The album's closer, "NOTICE ME," featuring 8485, is a five-minute magnum opus that finishes the listener's journey through the proverbial rabbit hole with passionate, iridescent vocals, celestial synths, and delicate instrumentation, ending on one hell of a chaotic, angst-fueled mind trip.

SPEED RUN, and by proxy Frost Children, are the future of hyperpop and whatever comes next. The album is omnivorous in its influences, slinging the listener between the worlds of pop, screamo, glitchcore, and even video game samples. Later this month, the duo begin a string of US tour dates. This includes headlining dates, co-headlines with labelmates Model/Actriz, and supporting slots for Yves Tumor”.

If you have not discovered Frost Children yet, I hope you spend some time with their music. They are coming to the U.K. on 12th July and playing Corsica Studios in London. Before then, they have North American dates, and I am sure that they will have other dates in the calendar soon. Go and explore their work and experience their wonderful sound. I think that Frost Children are going to go very far, so it is a perfect time to…