North Shore Boston’s Cold Engines is the retro-wave, power pop, and melody driven rock project of radio darling touring machine, The Brew’s founder David Drouin and drummer Aaron Zaroulis along with Geoff Pilkington and Eric Reingold. The group emerged in 2015 with a prolific run of five full length albums and over 140 shows a year supporting the likes of Los Lobos, Blues Traveler, Bobby Keyes, Rustic Overtones, and Soule Mounde. Officially launched in 2015 with the debut record in the can, the band was started in the ashes of The Brew. Drouin pivoted quickly to capture something special. With the relentless pop hooks of The Police, Queen, The Killers and The Beatles serving as inspiration, the band knew exactly what they was after. Capturing the urgency and catchiness of the golden era of pop music, Drouin garnered an obsession. Honing the band with additions of journeyman Boston heavyweights was necessary. Geoff Pilkington from Soul Rebel Project and Eric Reingold from Jamantics joined full time along with a slew of guest stars like Amelia Gormley, Matt Pynn, Jon Persson, John Funkhouser, Emily Garcia, Chris Plante, Seth Campbell, Jordan Holt, Adam Ezra, Audrey Ryan, Adam Saylor, Johnny Bluehorn, Andrew Fogliano, and Ben Alleman with Tim Phillips in NYC heading up the recording team. Winning “Rock Band Of The Year” at the New England Music Awards and subsequent nominations for “Song Of The Year” and “New Act Of The Year” in Northeast award shows, the industry took notice. Now five years in, the band has found itself fully and without apology as a new wave power pop force releasing their most anticipated 6th record, “The Last Resort” on Jan 1st, 2021. This is by far their most ambitious record to date. This project is a vivid 15 track fully realized rock opera based on Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 epic sci-fi masterpiece, Total Recall.
Cold Engines mesmerise me yet again with their new release ‘The Last Resort’. Furthermore, the vocal is top class as always. Musically, ‘The Last Resort’ comes with a unique angle when comparing it to the rest of the noise in the current chart. As a result, it boasts a texture which comes just that little bit different. Also, the arrangement is refreshing with the shape changing regularly. So much so, the track almost flips towards the latter with it become even more piercing with David providing a more theatrical performance.
Overall, this new track can do no wrong in my eyes. I relish the guitar tone, and the rhythm has me swaying to its timeless foundation. But, is this is the best yet from Cold Engines? It is certainly up there. Also, it proves that the band are just as relevant today as they were when indie was talk of the town.
We decided to catch up with Cold Engines for an interview…
What inspired you to get into music?
Music saved my life. From my earliest memories it’s all I wanted to do and I absorbed all the music I heard like a sponge. Being a musician now is just destiny.
How would you describe your music?
Our music has many touchstones from the pop great of the 60’s through the 80’s to the deepest B-sides of Ray Charles catalogue. Yo describe where we are now i’d call it new-wave, dream pop and singer/songwriter.
What would you say is your recording and song writing style?
Our style goes from Prince style groove based pop and dance to slow burning lyric based writing.
Where would you like to see your music career in 5 years time?
I just hope the music industry still has an infrastructure in 5 years.
Where can music fans listen your music?
Coldengines.com for all the goods!
