Finding a home in the alternative scene at a young age, when Cody Frost first stumbled upon the heart-wrenching emotion and dark dramatics of My Chemical Romance – it stirred something deep within them.
Raised in a household where The Specials and dance classics dominated the speakers, the raw intensity of the New Jersey natives struck them, swiftly becoming a lifeline.
Embarking on their own creative journey, their blend of punk, electronic, and alt-rock sounds with deeply personal, unfiltered lyrics has taken the alt. world by storm. Exploring themes of heartbreak, mental health, and the chaos of navigating adult life within high-energy electronic-influenced punk songs, their latest EP opens up further about their experiences as a neurodivergent individual, and their lifelong struggle to feel understood.
Recently collaborating with UK scene legends Enter Shikari, You Me At Six, and Bury Tomorrow, in 2024 Cody is forging a defiant path whilst staying true to everything that caused them to fall in love with the alt. scene.
To celebrate the release of explosive new single ‘Process’, we caught up with Cody to discuss the inspirations behind their new music, the impact of collaborating with their heroes, and how they’re transforming their live shows into a vibrant hub of community.
ROCK SOUND: You’ve been immersed in the alternative scene for a long time, what drew you to it as a teenager?
CODY FROST: “When I was around 10 years old, my mum got me a second-hand computer from a teenager. I opened the music player to see if there was anything on it, and the only thing left was a compilation of tracks. It had ‘In The End’ by Linkin Park, ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’ by Green Day, ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ by My Chemical Romance, and a Paramore song. Listening to those four songs was the start of it all, and I listened to them on repeat every day before school. I showed my best friend, and we would go on YouTube in the early hours of the morning to find new alternative bands.
I was already super into vampires by then, and once I found My Chemical Romance there was no going back. They became one of my biggest special interests, and I used to go up to people in school and be like, ‘Hi, my name is Cody. What’s your favourite My Chemical Romance song?!’ The first album that I got for Christmas was ‘Welcome to The Black Parade’ live, and so I know the live version way better than I know the regular version. I used to take it everywhere I went and listened to it on repeat. I’d watch the DVD and think, ‘How can I be a rockstar like this man?’”
RS: The alternative scene has always drawn in people who feel like outcasts, who struggle to find anyone that understands how they truly feel… Did you see parts of yourself in the artists you discovered?
CODY: “It’s a mix, because when I was growing up, I listened to predominantly male bands. Within that though, I found myself as an alternative person. My dad listens to a lot of pop and ska, and my mum is into dance and psychedelia, but I was never really exposed to rock. I didn’t have a lot of friends as a kid, and my world was very insular, so I found myself through alternative bands and internet culture. There was nobody else that understood me as a young, neurodivergent tween, and I found it hard to make friends or feel understood for a long time. The only way that I could find anyone I related to was through alternative music, and a lot of the bands that I found had such a good ethos around them. That helped me get into politics, and it helped me understand the world around me. The alt. community is much more forgiving and open than others. We all like weird shit, and at least we found some common ground in that.”
RS: Especially when it comes to being neurodivergent, there have been more artists talking about their experiences recently than ever before…
CODY: “Definitely. I’m not this mysterious, rock ‘n’ roll person in real life. I love watching band members on stage and seeing how they have taken things from other artists. It’s not fabricated, but it is observed. For me, as a neurodivergent person, I spent a long time collecting information on how to be a rockstar, because in real life I’m a bumbling fool. To some extent, you have to summon the divine audacity by watching other artists and seeing how they do it.”
RS: Coming into the new EP then, what vision did you have in mind?
CODY: “My new EP is coming off the back of a breakup, losing my house, and having to readjust to this adult life of dating and reconnecting with people. I was in a long-term relationship for six years, and while I didn’t write much about the actual breakup, I wrote about what was happening during the time afterwards. I went a little bit crazy, so a lot of the songs are very heat of the moment anger and sadness. I never want to just make an angry or sad tune though, and I like to disguise my lyrics with a fun beat. I would get depressed if I didn’t add in some bright things sonically, but these songs are some of the most honest and raw things I’ve written. I find it hard to lie in songs, so I typically write honest things. With this next project and with ‘Process’, especially, I touch on being a neurodivergent child and the aftermath of that.”
RS: What stands out about ‘Process’, and what has become a theme in your songs, is just how raw it is. Have you always been drawn to artists who are unafraid to lay themselves bare in their music?
CODY: “It’s a little bit of the opposite, because a lot of the artists I listen to are poets. They shroud everything in metaphor, and they are very deep. I love to listen to that kind of music because I love world-building and the soundscapes. However, I also love Enter Shikari, and whilst they dabble with metaphors, they also deal in fact. That’s what I try to do. I’ll go in with a fact and then follow it up with a joke… I need to have a balance.
‘Process’ is almost like a note that I wrote to my younger self, and something that I wish I’d heard back then. I wrote it in the hopes that other younger people who think that they’re lost and stuck realise that they’re not rubbish or lazy, they’re just struggling. It’s also about being on antidepressants and wanting to medicate yourself so much that you can’t feel. Sometimes you numb your emotions because you’re embarrassed about being neurodivergent, and it can get to a point where you forget how to feel properly.”
RS: By opening up about your mental health, neurodivergence, and identity, are you hoping that you’re able to encourage people to be a little more accepting of themselves?
CODY: “The EP is so colourful, because it’s showing every aspect of my emotions. Each song is a different moment on the spectrum of emotions that I can feel, and when I write music, I’m looking for people to understand me. I’ve felt misunderstood for a long time, and when people do understand it, it reminds me that there are others out there who also feel like this. It’s about feeling seen. I’m a very loud and gregarious person, but I don’t always feel that people understand why I’m like that. Sonically, some of the songs hark back to my childhood and growing up in a household that was blasting happy hardcore and dance music. I want to touch on all the things that make me feel happy, but also nostalgic. Sometimes nostalgia doesn’t feel like a good thing, and I like playing with it being uncomfortable. If people understand me in the process of all that… that’s an extra beautiful thing. When people come up to me and say that a song I wrote has helped them, I can’t believe it.”
RS: It’s not just about music, it’s about art and fashion too. How much of a connection do those three things have when we think about sub-culture and identity?
CODY: “I create music that is genreless, and I do want to be in the alt. scene, but there’s a lot of genres within that. I don’t know where it fits, and I’m like that about fashion too. Fashion heavily coincides with politics. I dress like myself, and I wear what I want to wear, but it does correlate with what’s going on with the economy and in politics. On fashion runways, you see people robbing alternative aesthetics, but having that style often comes from not being able to afford what’s in trend and not being able to be normal. When I was younger, I couldn’t afford the latest trainers. I didn’t have anything that was in fashion, so I just made my own. It came out weird, and I got bullied for it, but I couldn’t afford to keep up with the fast, ever-changing stream of what was popular. Expressing yourself creatively is also linked to expressing what you want to look like. That’s not to say that your average looking person can’t listen to alt. music, but a big reason we all feel linked is because we like things that aren’t within the mainstream. Fashion is intrinsic to the scene, and so is art. I couldn’t live without doing tattoos or paintings.”
RS: Working with the likes of Enter Shikari, You Me At Six, and Bury Tomorrow, all bands with long, established careers in the UK scene, what were they able to teach you about the path you want to take going forward with this?
CODY: “They’ve taught me a lot about the ability to be free. The whole point of the alt. scene is that we are doing something different, but there’s still an element of gatekeeping. People feel protective over it, which I understand, but it all started with being different. Why can’t we just keep doing that? I wanted to work with those bands specifically because they paved the way for me in times where I thought nobody understood me. I literally had posters of You Me At Six on my bedroom wall, I listened to Bury Tomorrow when I was a teenager, and I have huge respect for those bands because they were doing it like nobody else was.
Collaboration is important to me, and I want to do more collabs in the future. Learning about the different ways bands record their tracks and write their lyrics is so important, and working with other artists is a lot of fun. I’m a huge Shikari stan, and working with those guys was such a big deal for me. They were genre jumpers from the start, and they were doing something that immediately caught my eye. I was into rock music, but I grew up on dance music. Having synths in a janky post-hardcore tune was the perfect blend for me, but it was so revolutionary. All the bands that I’ve had a deep love for have been unafraid of stepping over different boundaries. Emo wasn’t even a word when My Chemical Romance formed, and that puts it into context. When you get shit for liking something that’s different, don’t worry, those bands are going to be legends. They’re the ones that were forward-thinking, and if they can do it, then I can do it too.”
RS: Having had the chance to play a bunch of shows, especially with the likes of Shikari and Skindred, how have those experiences shaped the way you make music now? Do you put more thought into how your songs will connect with people in a live space?
CODY: “Yeah, because I ended up writing loads of songs that were incredibly hard to sing live! I need more time to breathe, but also to dance with people. With this next EP, there are some dancing moments. I want to feel that connection through dance, and I love messing about on stage, running about and being silly. I often feel a bit scared about releasing songs because I don’t know if they will connect with people, but when you play it live, every negative thought in my head just disappears. That’s what it’s all for.”
RS: Growing up in the scene and having those bands who felt so important to your identity, how much of being an artist revolves around community for you?
CODY: “I sell all my own merch just so that I can meet everybody! Sometimes it’s a little bit stressful, but I love meeting people. I also have a Discord, and everybody’s chats to each other there every day. They share art and paintings that they’ve made, and I’m on the edge of tears whenever I talk about it. It’s so cool that people can connect over my music, and I still have friends that I met that way. With everybody chatting to each other online, maybe they can meet each other at a show and hang out. That’s important to me, because it’s about feeling safe and cultivating a community that is kind and caring towards each other. The people that listen to my music are great, and some of them have become my friends too. Cultivating a community like that is important to me, because we’re missing community quite a lot in this world. Being in your twenties is tough because generally you don’t have a big friend group anymore, so if I can feel like I’ve got my own little scene… I feel less alone.”
RS: Looking back on the days where you were busking on the streets of Manchester, did you ever expect that you’d be working with the artists who inspired you as a teenager?
CODY: “It is crazy, but I almost had no other choice. Being a musician is integral to me as a person, and I don’t know who I am without music. I dreamt about going on tour with Shikari and writing a song with them, but I never thought it would happen. However, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be doing music in the future, because I just had to make it work.
As a kid, I was programmed to believe that I wasn’t worth anything. The only time I got any kind of recognition was when I opened my mouth and sang. Now, I don’t know what I’d do if I wasn’t doing this. It feels like a core trait of mine, just like it does with painting… I know these things better than I know maths or how to spell. I know it better than anything. I live and breathe music, so I could never stop, but I manifested it hard. I did everything in my power to make it work, and it’s been a long road to finally get to where I am.”
Cody Frost’s latest single ‘Process’ is out now.