Getting to Know… Fires of Freya | Interview 🎤

For interview #49, Cheryl Reynolds (vocals and keys) provides The Musical Hype with the scoop on her eclectic rock band, Fires of Freya.

“We’re a rock band but our songs are very eclectic! We write songs that we think sound good and do not restrict ourselves to a certain set genre or sub-genre of rock…” No restrictions! Sounds good, Cheryl Reynolds! In case you aren’t familiar, Reynolds is the frontwoman and keyboard player for the afore-referenced rock band, Fires of Freya.  Via their Facebook page, FOF are described as “an electrifying rock band with exhilarating monster guitar riffs and powerful raw vocals. Their supercharged emotive music is an eclectic mix of rock songs which create a live performance that’s engaging from the very first note to the last.” Reynolds was kind of enough to provide The Musical Hype with our 49^th interview, which gives us the scoop on the band.  Without further ado, let’s get into Getting to Know… Fires of Freya, Interview #49. 

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype (Faulkner): Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with Fires of Freya, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?  

Cheryl Reynolds, Fires of Freya (Reynolds): We’re a rock band but our songs are very eclectic! We write songs that we think sound good and do not restrict ourselves to a certain set genre or sub-genre of rock and so, songs can range from grunge, to blues rock to hard rock to soft rock ballads and even punk rock-ish on occasions. This eclectic mix of tracks means no live performance could ever be considered dull, we change it up and keep our fans engaged from start to end. We entered a huge competition last year (Soundwaves music competition) where we managed to get to the finals and the judges said our energy reminded them of band such as Bring me the Horizon which we were rather flattered by!

Faulkner: Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Fires of Freya form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

Reynolds: The initial idea for the band was to create an all-female grunge band but after searching far and wide for a female bassist (do they exist?) we decided to be mixed. We’ve had a few member changes, Dan [Baldwin] (drummer) and me consider ourselves the original members of the band (post all female grunge idea), Dan joined at the end of 2017. Shaun [Evans] (guitarist) came in around May 2018 and the latest member is James [Withington] (bassist) who joined around May 2018. Early sounds where more pop punk rock (I was obsessed, again, with Alkaline Trio at the time, this is probably why!) but our sound has since developed and became much more diverse.

Faulkner: Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Reynolds: We’ve always wanted to create an album; we are currently working on our debut album and just recorded the 3^rd track for this so that goal has never changed. We’ve always wanted to branch out of the North East of England and start playing more out of town gigs which is in the pipeline for this year and we have played a few gigs outside the North East (Leeds, Hawick, Edinburgh) and we want to reach more people with our music, which we feel is going well as our debut single now has over 30k streams and we’ve had radio play worldwide including on the iconic Planet Rock… twice! Our goals have always remained relatively the same, so we just continue to push on to achieve them.

Faulkner: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Reynolds: As a singer I pay close attention to the vocals when listening to other bands and artists. Halestorm are one of my biggest influences, purely because I love Lzzy Hale’s voice! It’s spectacular! I love bands such as Shinedown, Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry and older bands such as Bon Jovi, Roxette (cheesy but still soo good!). Queen, Fleetwood Mack etc. The band members all have their own influences, and these vary massively which also helps us achieve our eclectic sound from track to track. I also love bands such as Evanescence and HIM, bands that use keyboards to enhance their sound and make themselves come across as epic! We use keyboards in a similar way in some tracks.

Faulkner: Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Reynolds: We played Rock the Point in Berwick last year, this was an amazing gig! A huge tent on the beach front where I thought a teepee would be a good idea (it wasn’t, it wasn’t waterproof and the wind blew it down, multiple times! I woke up in a puddle). We ended up staying up to silly o’clock (I think Shaun and I were still up at 5am) playing music with other musicians that had performed at the festival and Mike the organizer! There was much alcohol, there was many instruments being played (I spent hours playing what I can only describe as a wooden log that you hit, like a small drum) and just was such an amazing experience! Probably not wacky in the rock and roll sense but defiantly was a highlight gig!

Faulkner: Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?  

Reynolds: My favorite song changes often as I love all our songs (I mean I wrote them firstly for me to enjoy so I would do!) The song with the most meaning is probably “Give a Reason”. This is an emotional song that tries to tell 2 people’s side of heartache and the idea behind it is based on actual life events. We worked on this track a lot, changes it a lot to get to a place where we are happy with it! We must have done a decent job to tap into peoples emotions and deliver our message as the track has been picked to be featured in 2 short films to date (that’s our current claim to fame!) one of them being “Without Light” directed by Velton J Lishke. 

Faulkner: Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about Fires of Freya? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Reynolds: That’s a hard question. We aren’t very cool haha we’re rather geeky and immature mostly so that options out! Shaun once turned up to the recording studio dressed up as a T-Rex in a blow-up T-Rex costume and then began trying to play guitar in this outfit. He wears the most shit shirts on stage you’ve ever seen! Someone once asked him where he gets his shirts and he said “I google shit shirts” haha. Interesting fact about me is probably the fact I didn’t start performing in a band or any musical capacity until I was 27 years old. I used to be so nervous that my knees would shake violently and so going on stage just wasn’t an option. After a very difficult break up, this fear seemed to be numbed and ever since, I’ve played in bands and loved it! Don’t get nervous at all anymore!

Faulkner: Closing this thing out, what is Fires of Freya currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

Reynolds: We’re about to release our 2^nd single, “Complicated,” at the end of February and have just been in the studio recording our 3^rd track. Our debut single “Take a Bow” is currently available to stream, download in all the usual places with an accompanying music video on YouTube that was made by us! And we are aiming to release our debut album by the end of the ear so keep an eye out for that! 

Faulkner: Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype, Fires of Freya