bio

Stephen Frost has multiple bodies. One stands in the corner yelling for a bottle of Dr. Sylvius' finest. Another writes soft poetry on bathroom tissue. Stephen number three directs a deflowering ceremony with a bass guitar, stopping periodically to give mid-coital advice. Number Four delivers an opera comique to a whimpering dog and the final Stephen stands on stage in the heart of metal city playing all of the instruments stolen from his inner doppelgangers.

Defecting from Richmond's stifled music scene with nothing but the clothes on his slight back and a 1994 Toyota Corolla, Stephen Frost has given life to a genre that settles itself somewhere between cabaret and the oral transmission of a firearm. Whether weaving dreamscapes taken from classic films such as Luis Buñuel's L'âge d'or or writing laudable scores for some of Chicago's finest upcoming play writes, Stephen has an art of decomposition rivaling that of potpourri.

Recognized by BMI as a notable emerging film composer, Stephen Frost participated in the Film Scoring Mentorship Program – "Composing for the Screen 2009," shortly after composing and recording the soundtrack for the acclaimed drama Everything Freezes: Another Winter's Tale produced by the Chicago-based Sideshow Theatre Company. Stephen Frost is currently playing the keys for the New York alternative pop group Ayler Young and the Reason, pounding the eardrums of an invite-only crowd. Six years prior to joining Ayler Young, Stephen manhandled the bass in the groups Against Grace, the Jared Fiske Trio and Clockwork Grace.

These projects, while musically impressive, stray away from Stephen's natural yearning to create bloody-lip love songs with the force to stir cadavers. Having mastered the art of the abrasive intellectual caress, you might not notice Stephen's gaudy and jagged ring while he whispers in your ear a caramelized passage from Justine, until you get home to find crimson spots on your undergarments.

Beyond the nuances of Stephen's work, he has become an innovative voice in the nouveau jazz scene. In early 2001, Stephen produced the Magic Triangle jazz concert series, with the celebrated Uri Caine ensemble as well as Brew, consisting of Miya Masaoka, Gerry Hemmingway, Reggie Workman, and the William Parker Ensemble. Stephen has also performed for the Curtis Mayfield project which included the likes of Amiri Baraka, Dave Burrell, Hamid Drake, all recorded by Eremite Records.

Stephen summed up his artistic platform best in a casual email, "I wrote this for Joe and his damn printing press to try and prove to him that I could be a hip young writer, up and coming with all sorts of idears in my head, because they really emphasize people pretending to say things and they all nod and agree and have nothing to say in all their big words, words for the sake of filling up space, they are. This, I think, goes beyond that. It's gimmicky, but I honestly think it works."

by Traci Michele Byrne

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Richmond musician Stephen Frost literally can't live without making music.

"It's really like breathing for me, that if I don't do it enough, my health gets shaky, some people say they can't live without music, but it's not a figure of speech when I say it."

While playing piano, bass, drums and guitar, Stephen takes nods from various indie rock and classical styles and makes it his own. But really, he just wants to make good dance-rock music, because there's nothing like being in a dingy club when the walls are shaking, and everyone's dancing and singing.

"I've been told I sound like Feist as a male, Sufjan Stevens and John Lennon. And the style I fit into? Indie, or baroque-pop or post-vaudevillian or some other such meaningless term, but once I was turned onto the contemporary Chanson genre, that's when I finally felt like my music has a home...despite singing very little and very poorly in French."

Stephen got into opera when he was 3 and was reading music and playing piano before he could even speak a discernible language. He began experimenting with recording techniques at age 9, and by 12, started his first band. Since then, he's played in all sorts of bands, including rock, jazz groups, traditional Indian music, noise, as well as composing film soundtracks and music for theater companies in Chicago and DC.

His first and last influences are the Beatles, but he's not ashamed to listen to anything.

"Whatever it is you listen to, they're one of my influences, not only the obscure groups that haven't made it out of Sweden, but even Christina and Justin." Stephen explains, "And when I get mocked for spending six months with ABBA's greatest hits, I'm happy to ask 'well, you must be familiar with the five elements of music according to Leonard Bernstein, so, would you like to go through one of ABBA's songs with me and explain how they fail?'"

Stephen is currently working on six short albums right now. Partially this is to dispute the argument 'you seem to lack direction' by putting like-mooded songs together, and partially this is because, seriously, who listens to albums anymore?

-Andrew Cothern

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