New Jersey is the beginnings of many great bands. Fire ’N Ice is looking to add their name to the long list of greats from The Garden State. John Torra handles lead vocals, Sparrow is on lead guitar, Marc Spyder on bass and the drummer is Mike Gemini. The brand released the 4 song EP Hypnotized in 2024, they followed that up in 2025 with the release of the album High Roller. The band draws inspiration from many of the iconic bands of the 80’s such as Van Halen, W.A.S.P. and others. Fans of 80’s rock will find a familiarity in Fire ’N Ice’s music. Don’t let the familiarity fool you, the band is out charting its own path. Marc and Sparrow from the band recently sat down with I’m Music Magazine’s Tim Board to talk about the band’s origins, line up change and of course their music.
Tim Board: Your bio states that you hail “from the gutters of New Jersey.” What does that mean to you, and how has the New Jersey/New York scene shaped who Fire ’N Ice is as a band?
Marc Spyder: Well, from the gutters of New Jersey, we’re pretty much practically from the streets. We all pretty much grew up on the streets in one way or another but we all pretty much live differently in different areas. Being from the streets it’s a little bit more different because most of it’s just street knowledge and such and at the moment with this band it means a lot to us because we work very very hard, and we worked hard to get to the current position that we’re currently in.
Tim: You cite Aerosmith, Van Halen, Skid Row, and others as influences, but hair metal and glam metal are genres people are quick to dismiss these days. How do you balance honoring these influences and carving out something that feels distinctly you.
Marc: Carving it out, Sparrow, would you want to say anything?
Sparrow: Recently we’ve noticed, like, historically, yes, hair metal has been dismissed as just nothing with no real substance compared to heavier metal you could say. But recently in recent years we’ve noticed that 80s sound has been coming back. There’s been sort of a nostalgia movement for it and that’s why you see all these newer bands playing in that 80s style popping up nowadays and in the past few years. We’re no exception to that, we love this music and people can say whatever they want to say, we love the music that we love and we wear it on our sleeves.
Tim: Does your audience tend to skew to an older audience or is it a mixed age range?
Marc: Sometimes it’s a mix depending where we are. Most of the audiences we usually get are usually around let’s say between 30 to 40. We’ve seen younger audiences in their 20s and such but we notice that it’s a trend amongst younger people that they want this kind of nostalgia simply just for the aesthetics this music has The older people really love seeing that because people point out saying like hey I remember that from from back in the day and everything, you guys are killing.
Tim: Listening to your album High Roller it reminded me in a lot of ways of Ratt, the sound of Ratt.
Marc: Yes, that’s one of our influences as well.
Tim: Speaking of High Roller, the album dropped in December. For fans who haven’t listened to it yet, how would you describe the album and is there a track on it that you’re most excited about for fans to hear?
Sparrow: Like I said it is very much an album based on the music we love and wear on our sleeves. What we try to do is not be a direct imitation of the bands that we love, our heroes. We take what works, what people love about those songs from back in the day. We take from that but twist it and make it our own so it’s much more unique to us and it helps us stand out more.
Marc: The album is pretty much straightforward. It’s straight heavy metal at its finest and something that we grew up with. Pretty much one of the tracks I’m always excited to play when we’re playing on stage has to be “Coming Home” actually. There are certain licks in there that are pretty good. The melodies that we hit are pretty good. I get this feeling every time when I’m on stage and we start playing that song.
Tim: Some of your lyrics get pretty real talking about heartbreak, toxic love, breaking free from bad situations, etc. Do you pull this from personal experiences when you write or are you more like actors playing characters in a song?
Marc: Well, some of the songs I write are more like storytelling, but half and half is like real experiences from the other band members. We tend to pretty much dwell into different ideas and hoping that people can relate with certain ideas and certain songs that we make, and that’s actually one of the goals that we aim to do with our music is hoping that people can relate with what we’re talking about.
Tim: Does the band have a certain writing process? Do you all get together or is it just one person who writes and brings it to the band?
Marc: So we all usually delve in the writing process so somebody will jot down notes and we’ll continue on and so. forth. So it’s basically like building blocks, and if one doesn’t work, then we try to figure out all right then how we’re going to make this work. So we just don’t stop until we find what we’re more comfortable with and see if we can fit it in through the songs. Songwriting is somewhat of a hard process. I think anybody can relate to that.
Spyder: There’s no real science, there’s no real one right way to do it. However it works for you, is how it works.
Marc: It mostly depends on the person you are and everything. If you know how to write, that’s good, but some people don’t know how to write, usually they need that kind of help. That’s why it’s better when you’re writing a song, coming up with lyrics or coming up with melodies or riffs, it’s better to do it in a group of people, and we have that opportunity where we get to communicate with each other.
Tim: Speaking of songwriting, going back to your 2024 release, “Hypnotize” the title track stands out to me as being a little bit darker and more introspective than the rest of your catalog. This feels like a different vulnerability of a hard rock band. What is the story behind that song?
Marc: So “Hypnotized” was written by our original guitar player, Shane Chester. He left the band to do his own thing and enter Sparrow, our newest member. The song itself is about, it feels more like a movie. It’s basically about a serial killer who feels bad about killing somebody. So he just feels hypnotized about the victim that he pretty much killed, and yes, albeit it is darker and everything, but it was a pretty good track not to throw out. It’s a really amazing track itself. It’s, unfortunately, no longer part of our set list, but we cherish that song and we’re happy that it’s still part of our catalog.
Tim: When you went in to record the current album High Roller, did you have additional songs that did not make the album?
Marc: We had one song that did not make the album. We pretty much, well our guitar player Shane, he recorded it, but we just never got around the whole process of playing it, so to speak. I wrote lyrics for it and we just decided to stop from there and after we figured out like all right we got enough songs so we figured out that well it’s not gonna make it on the album maybe hopefully we can make it in the next album
Tim: What’s up next for Fire ’N Ice? What’s on the horizon for the band?
Marc: So we do have really big things coming up for us and one of those big things is the shows that we’re going to be playing in Los Angeles at the Whiskey A Go-Go. We’re going to be opening up for Dokken in June, I believe.
Sparrow: June 20th.
Marc: We’re going to be opening up for Slaughter and we’re going to be opening up for Steelheart as well.
Tim: Are you writing any new material for future singles?
Marc: Oh yes, we are currently in the process.
Tim: So your fans can look forward to hopefully new singles or maybe an album coming out?
Marc: Hopefully we can get close to a second album. We can probably put some singles out just to keep the momentum up, but we are definitely looking forward to doing a second album when the time is right.
Tim: What is the band’s philosophy compared to singles and albums nowadays with streaming a lot of artists just release singles and don’t worry about albums.
Marc: So we kind of have an old school philosophy where it’s like we have to have an album. Our current album is still doing its numbers but we would definitely like a follow-up, whether it be next year or within the next two years or in three years, even with singles. It’s a very different environment nowadays compared to what it was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, because we’re now surrounded more by streaming platforms, we’re surrounded by big social media, and social media is the biggest thing nowadays and i feel like you get to expose more of your thoughts on social media rather than playing shows and handing out flyers to everybody saying hey come see this band.
Tim: As an indie band how do you balance that line with you gotta be on social media to attract followers, but also trying to be creative and develop new material and work on your show?
Marc: So when it comes to that, we do definitely depend on social media. We’ve heard of people where they would just start up by buying followers, which is what I consider is pretty much an unethical thing to do because from there it’s like, why would you have the necessity to buy followers? We necessarily don’t have that kit, nor do we even have the financial resources to buy followers, but everything comes in, everything comes in so nicely for us because we’re working very hard. We’re always constantly pushing our music in, and somehow it just gains us followers, and I think that also comes from us just being completely honest as well, and not only that, we’re living in an age where artificial intelligence is the craze. Everybody wants to use AI for this, everybody wants to use it for that. We don’t necessarily have that kind of connection with AI. We think it’s somewhat like cheating. That’s something that we would never cross paths with. We would never want to do something with AI. Maybe for tips and advice, but not using it as a majority of our platform, a viable resource.
Tim: You mentioned earlier the change in the lineup with Shane departing and Sparrow joining the band. How did that change affect the chemistry of the band and affect the song writing?
Marc: So Sparrow was a little shaky when he entered. It was like trying on a new pair of shoes basically. But it didn’t change the chemistry at all. We feel it’s somewhat the same, except that it’s a different guy. I mean, yeah, we were heartbroken when Shane decided to do his own thing. He’s focused on his own life now. You know, when things happen, when change happens, you have to accept those certain changes and we’re very, very happy to have Sparrow on board here, and he’s done so much for this band as well up to this point.
Sparrow: I will also point out Shane was the one that handpicked me to replace him when he said he was going to leave.
Marc: That’s correct. He handpicked you, and actually, if I remember correctly, you were John’s guitar tech.
Sparrow: I was a roadie.
Marc: Actually you were a roadie but you were the guitar tech that we had in a band.
Sparrow: Yeah I was a bass tech for a show, at one show.
Marc: I mean you ,you held my bass just once that’s it.
Tim: Sparrow with him handpicking you was giving you any extra extra pressure to do well for the band, to perform well, to live up to being handpicked?
Sparrow: I definitely felt, I mean, the first thing I thought was I was honored because not only was I honored to be handpicked by him, I was also, before I was a roadie and guitar tech, I was Fire ’N Ice’s biggest fan because I was there from their very first show, forward. So, being handpicked from him, that felt like an honor to me because I did not expect that at all. As far as feeling pressured to, like, take his place. Yeah, I could say, I did feel a little bit of pressure because Shane is an amazing guitarist. Every time I watched him live, he always blew my mind, just how he played. He’s amazing. So, stepping into those shoes, I don’t play like Shane. I have my own style, but I don’t play like Shane. But, you know, when you’re filling in the shoes like that, especially with songs that he wrote with his own taste and I have to try and replicate that as best I can. I did feel a little bit of pressure, but at the same time I thought I accepted the challenge to myself, and I hope you guys can tell. I hope I’ve been doing him justice, so far.
Marc: You still need a little work, though.
Tim: Wow, you’re throwing him under the bus already!
Sparrow: I appreciate the honesty. It gets me on my toes. I like that.
Tim: Well guys, I want to thank you so much for taking time to do this. Wishing you much success with the album High Rollers and hope you have fantastic shows out in L.A. at the Whiskey Go-Go.
Marc: Thank you very much.
Sparrow: Thank you.
Interview by I’m Music Magazine Music Journalist/Photographer Tim Board
