Interview: Stoic Frame

STOIC FRAME – interview by mia west

Three years ago I made the decision to go on hiatus from Modern Fix, opting for some corporate digs and a suit. Call me a sell out, but I’d had enough of the manufactured noise being cranked out by record labels and honestly looked forward to the constant hum of my hard drive. Now, with a bit of an attitude adjustment, I’m back and pleased to bring you the first band I’ve actually felt compelled to write about.

Recently,I had the misfortune of being dragged to the Viper Room by a friend who swore the band we were about to see would make the painful trip to Sunset Blvd. worthwhile. Thankfully she was right. LA newcomers, Stoic Frame (www.stoicframe.com), offer the same creative and socially conscious ingénue that bands like Rage and System of a Down once took to a new a level. For those of you out there who still crave music with meaning, this fiercely polemical band offers lyrics that blend a call for political activism with their own cauterized version of rock and Latin beats. Drawn from their beginnings in El Salvador, a country savaged by warfare and natural disaster; Stoic rolls a politically charged message out on a carpet of brusque guitar licks and a variety of drum textiles. Like-minded bands such as Puya and Soulfly come to mind, however, Stoic’s sound is a bit more wistful and still possesses the raw edge that comes with a garage band yet to be diecast and mass-produced by a label.

Theirs is a show that leaves one spiritually moved and I encourage you to seek them out should they land in your neighborhood. Not easily pigeon holed, Stoic has successfully developed a sundry of ethnically diverse and aggressive arrangements that has re-opened the door to an era of conscientious artists.