Frost Children: ​“Nothing can tear us apart”

It’s been an eventful morning for Lulu and Angel Prost, the siblings who make up Frost Children, the hyperpop duo setting New York’s underground music scene ablaze.

“I just had to move our van for street cleaning and I had a freaking heart attack because I thought it had been stolen,” Angel says, breathlessly, over Zoom from the pair’s apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. ​“I called to see if it was towed and they said no, so I called 911. Then I saw the van was parked, like, two blocks away. But 1,000 per cent, I did not park it there. It makes no sense – I’m still rattled.”

“You must have just remembered it wrong,” Lulu replies dubiously, before they and Angel snap back into interview mode. ​“Anyway! At least there was a happy ending, right?” Angel says.

Fresh off the back of releasing their third album Speed Run, Lulu and Angel are riding high. Filled with DJ-friendly club tracks, the occasional burst of screamo and video-game samples, they started making it last May, right after they dropped the critically acclaimed Spiral.

“We started writing pop songs for dancing, specifically,” Angel says. ​“Then we linked up with our uncle, who used to make pop music back in the ​’70s, and he gave us a ton of advice. We learned a lot from him and it really set us in motion.”

Born and raised in St Louis, Missouri, traditional music-making never really appealed to the Prost siblings. Piano lessons didn’t gel – it was all about the drums. But before Angel and Lulu put their all into making music that sounded like it’d been plucked straight from a web server, they were busy studying: psychology for Angel, music business for Lulu.

“Music was central to our lives but we were doing it on the side,” Angel says. ​“The moment I was pushed to fully commit to it was around 2021, when I’d dropped out of school in Nashville and was so close to becoming a student at CUNY in New York,” Lulu continues. ​“At the final stage of my interview, the admissions guy told me I shouldn’t consider myself a full-time musician because it would take up too much time. He told me to stop. Then he went to the bathroom and I walked out.”

“I heard he’s still waiting for you!” Angel replies, laughing. ​“Within a year, we were full-time musicians,” Lulu says with a shrug.

As for the pair’s symbiotic relationship? Other than sharing parents and growing up in the same home, ​“we’re both pretty patient people”, as Angel puts it. ​“We’re able to express our deepest, most weird thoughts to each other,” Lulu says, glancing over at Angel with a knowing smile. ​“And I know there wouldn’t be an ounce of judgement. It’s a ​‘this kitchen isn’t the same without you’ type of thing, like Spongebob and Mr. Krabs. Nothing can tear us apart.”

10% Where were you born, where were you raised and where are you now based?

Angel: We grew up in St Louis, Missouri.

Lulu: And we’ve been in New York for about two years.

20% What would you like for listeners to get out of your new album?

L: I hope they have fun with it. It’s a club record, just us having fun.

A: I hope they listen to it on their phone and plug it into the aux in their car, then they show it to their parents, and their parents are like: ​“I hate this.”

30% If you’re cooking to impress someone, what food would you make?

L: Bánh mì. It’s a beautiful fusion of two worlds and no one can resist it. Everyone loves a sandwich, as American research has shown.

A: Sandwiches are in. Their IPO is super high.

L: They’re up. Business is booming with sandwiches. But at the same time, bánh mì is fancy because it’s Vietnamese and French. With tofu, so it’s vegetarian. I wouldn’t be trying to impress anybody that eats meat, ever.

A: I would probably go for a puttanesca. It’s the sauce that Italian prostitutes would make because it would bring in extra customers way back in the day, which is sick. It’s a maximalist tomato sauce.

40% What’s a piece of advice that changed your life?

A: When we were starting to do Frost Children full time, not making much money, living hand-to-mouth, our dad was just like: ​“I don’t really understand this. I would advise you to have a much safer job. But if you’re going to go for this music thing, do it all the way. Fully commit.” I always think about that.

L: I always think about that guy from the admissions department that day. Him telling me I shouldn’t do it made me want it way more. And I did.

50% You rule the world for a day. What went down?

L: I’d make everyone take a nap.

A: That sounds like Big Brother. Forced passivity.

L: Not like that. I just mean for people to rest! A universal day off.

A: I would give every trans girl a gun to defend themselves. I would make producing meat, in the way that it is right now, illegal. I would make Elon Musk pay a bunch of money to the government. Maybe I’d make the White House look really cool. In this scenario, I live there, so I’d deck it out – put some CDJs [mixing decks] in there. Open up the lawn to people so they can hang out.

60% What’s the weirdest DM you’ve ever received?

L: One time, this person DM’d me and said: ​“Have you ever experienced true fear?” It kind of sounded like a Batman threat.

A: Someone sent me an Instagram Reel of a DJ board at a live gig and a person was pouring water all over it. It was getting destroyed – it was a tragic video. And then they were like: ​“I’m coming for you to do this.” I was like, what the hell? If you’re reading this, whoever sent that, I’m not scared of you.

70% What’s the most pointless fact you can share?

A: You could argue that all facts have a point, though.

L: A circle has infinite sides.

A: I just found out that Caesar salad was invented in Mexico, not Italy [though it was created by an Italian chef, Caesar Cardini]. That’s pretty crazy.

L: I read recently that the guitar in Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye is a sample from Luiz Bonfá, a Brazilian guitarist.

80% Where do you think Gotye is right now?

A: I feel like he’s on the beach in Tulum [in Mexico] or something. He’s wearing a really nice hotel robe, he’s got his feet kicked up and he’s smoking a 1940s pipe. He’s got a fedora on and he’s puffing away. He has a dog and he’s throwing a ball.

L: The ball – I can see that. That’s very Gotye.

90% Love, like, hate?

L: I love mallard ducks. I like coffee. I hate hate.

A: I really love oats. I have a love affair with them. I like… I’m a love or hate person, usually. There’s nothing I include in my life that I don’t love. OK, I like coconut water. And I hate being too serious.

100% If you could go back and watch an iconic music act perform, who would it be and why?

L: Blossom Dearie, a Fifties Manhattan cabaret artist. She would shred on the road and sing beautiful songs. She never really made it to the top and usually played residencies. She’s my favourite artist. She’s so cool.

A: Probably our uncle Theo’s band from back in the day.