The Unbreakable Alan Frew Releases New Album

Mike Crisolago | November 5th, 2015

Award-winning singer/songwriter Alan Frew releases his new album 80290 on Nov. 6. Listen to this exclusive preview, plus we chat with Frew about his new release!

In August, award-winning singer/songwriter Alan Frew – frontman for the classic 80s Canadian rock band Glass Tiger – laid down the final vocals for his latest solo album, 80290, in which he strips down and covers a number of the greatest rock standards of the 1980s.

Listen to an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!

As most of us do after a long day at work, the 58-year-old headed home from the studio, relaxed and went to bed. As he slept, he suffered a stroke – right-side trauma from which the recovery, he noted on social media, will prove “the fight of my life.”

Still, Frew is determined to make a triumphant comeback, setting Christmas as his goal to return to the stage. And today, the release of 80290 marks a major step toward that goal.

Frew recently spoke with Zoomer magazine.

MIKE CRISOLAGO: It was noted that this album was inspired partly by Rod Stewart’s work with the Great American Songbook. As time and generations go by, do you envision classic songs like these from the 1980s becoming engrained and revered in the musical lexicon like those works from the Great American Songbook?

ALAN FREW: Absolutely. The 80’s are now just primed and ready to be accepted as a pivotal and classic period in musical history. I remember living through the 60’s and hearing much of the music that we now consider epic and classic, being very much ridiculed, maligned and written off as “bubble-gum”. So too with the 80’s. People are starting to realize just how wonderful and complex these brilliantly crafted pop songs really are.

MC: Tell us about the process of choosing the songs that make up the album and how you narrowed it down to these twelve. Are there any that hold a personal meaning for you?

AF: It really begins as somewhat of a needle in a haystack because when you bring them all up you begin in the hundreds. You then write off the ones you just don’t like; then come the ones you like but you just know your voice won’t want to go there; then we decided we wanted just the ones we felt truly transcended generations perhaps because of an iconic movie or video; then you go for ones you simply are a fan of. In other words? It was a long process.

MC: The songs on this album, of course, have a different feel than the original 1980s tracks, but at the same time retain a remarkable familiarity. What do you hope fans of the original songs take from your covers?

AF: That they recognize how much I was able to “own” these songs as if I had written them, yet allow them to stay attached to the essence and purity of the originals and all that they love about them.

MC: You also reinterpreted your own work on 80290 with a new version of the Glass Tiger hit “Someday.” How did that feel, revisiting one of your biggest hits and re-tuning it, so to speak, and re-introducing it to fans?

AF: It was a blast. It was living proof that a great song is indeed just that; a GREAT song. [They] pass the test regardless of the format or the tempo or the production.

MC: You suffered your stroke literally hours after finishing your vocals for the album. Obviously the songs on this album hold a certain meaning for you but, since your stroke, have there been certain songs or specific music that has helped propel and inspire your recovery?

AF: Not a certain song per se but rather the need to recover and get back to being the vocalist who performed these songs at this level is helping propel and inspire my recovery. I have set the bar high and I won’t settle for anything less so now the challenge is set and the mountain has to be climbed.

MC: You have a tattoo that reads, “No surrender.” How does that mantra play into your stroke recovery and your ultimate goal, to be back up and playing on stage by Christmas?

AF: Well it’s been a motto I have lived by all my life and of course even if don’t hit the stage by Christmas the mantra will still stand.

Click on the next page for an exclusive stream of Frew’s new album!

You can WIN a prize pack with a Tshirt and autographed Alan Frew album. Enter HERE.