Attila Frontman Chris ‘Fronz’ Fronzak Discusses Smoking Down & ‘About That Life’ [INTERVIEW]

Ask Chris “Fronz” Fronzak how to party properly and he could go on for days. Ask him how to cave to music industry pressure and he’ll be at a loss for words. The front man for Atlanta-based party metal band, Attila, Fronzak has a knack for putting his party lifestyle at center stage and just not giving a crap.

Hot off its European tour, Attila is putting out its fifth release today, as well as jumping onto the legendary Vans Warped Tour. I phoned Fronz to get his perspective on the upcoming tour, if it was weird celebrating 4/20 in Germany (Hitler’s birthday), and sticking to your guns in the recording industry.

Currently based in the southern enclave of Myrtle Beach, Fronz had plenty to say off its metal scene, or lack thereof.

You got a decent metal scene in Myrtle Beach? I’ve only been down there twice.

Not really to be honest. It’s more just touristy. My band has only played here one time before and it was good but there are no shows here ever.

So you’ve been touring non-stop for the past two years, I just came back from being in a car for 9 days in Iceland with 3 other people and I practically wanted to murder half of them at least once during the trip. How do you keep the peace?

Exactly. It’s really stressful to be honest. When you’re on tour nonstop with the same group of people side by side and a lack of personal space, it does get to points where you argue and you do feel like you’re going to kill each other. I don’t even know how we cope with it and make it happen. It’s stressful at times. That’s why traveling in a bus is really nice when the opportunity is there because everyone can kind of have their own little personal zone to get away.

I guess traveling in a four-door hatchback was our first mistake.

What did you do for 4/20 to commemorate the prelaunch of your album, 'About that Life?'

We put up preorders that day, we put up a new song and we smoked down really hard in celebration, but that’s no different than any other day.

Did you play a show that day?

Yes, we did. I believe we played in Germany that day.

That’s pretty appropriate for 4/20. Was anyone also celebrating Hitler’s birthday?

No, not that I know of. I think all that stuff is pretty funny but I’m too scared to joke about it out there. I met a German in Iceland who had a pretty good sense of humor about it but that was the first time I’ve ever gotten a rise out of anyone.

Attila has been around since 2005. What can your die-hard fans expect from you guys in the new album? Is it going to be a departure or more of a return to older stuff?

Yeah we’ve been around for quite a while. We’ve kept our sound and our style. We’re not straying away or departing from our sound. We’re making it newer and better and heavier. The new album is the heaviest album we’ve done and we’ve explored with a little bit more rap influence. Other than that it’s still the Attila that everyone has grown to love.

Do you find that you’ve gotten a lot of crap for including the rap aspect or has it been pretty embraced?

For the most part it’s all been pretty well embraced. But, just like anything, we catch a lot of sh*t for a lot of various things and I’ve just become very good at embracing the sh*t and not really giving a f*ck about it. It’s a good thing.

I’m a musician myself. I’ve played saxophone in a lot of funk and afrobeat bands. I know people in the industry try to pull you in other, more marketable directions. Do you think you’ve successfully bucked that trend or are there things you wish you’d done differently in terms of sticking to your guns?

Luckily for us no one has ever tried to pull us in any one direction or influence our music at all. A lot of bands willingly make a choice to go lighter and become more main stream. And I’m happy to say we’ve done the opposite if anything. With this album we went less main stream and went heavier and more offensive and raunchier and I think the fans will be happy with that.

AttilaBand.com

Do you find that people get your dark, fun, party lifestyle better in Atlanta, or is it pretty universal?

It’s pretty universal. Atlanta was definitely an amazing scene to start off as a local band in. That helped towards our success. But overall the vibe of the band is a universal thing because we have fans in every state and every country and all corners of the globe and everyone seems to enjoy it. I tell people you either get it or you don’t. If you don’t get what we’re doing and you don’t enjoy the fun aspect of it, then that’s fine. Don’t listen to it. There are a lot of people who do get it and it’s an amazing thing and also really fun.

Speaking of all corners of the globe, where do you go on tour that you always love coming back to because the crowd is just so awesome?

I feel that way about most everywhere in Texas and the Northeast like New York City and Boston. Shows in Germany are all pretty wild as well.

Have you ever done anywhere in Latin America or Asia and been totally shocked that people are into your music and know the words?

We haven’t ventured there yet. We’re going to Australia right after Warped Tour, which is going to be exciting. We went to Israel recently, which was a shock and I never thought I’d be in the Middle East. I was pleasantly surprised. The people were really nice and they definitely love metal. You’d be really surprised at all the places in the world where you have huge, dedicated fans in. It’s amazing.