How does modern rock sound that is not afraid to look back at the classics, but at the same time confidently blazes its trail into the future? Ask Free Under Fire – the guys from the Canadian town of Ajax, who manage to combine the drive of alternative rock with warming melodiousness. In the breaks between preparing for the release of their third studio album” Graffiti In The Garden“, we decided to catch Justin Paul – the guitarist, songwriter, and one of the main motors of the band. About how to survive in Canadian −20 °C and not go crazy, about the magic of rehearsals with the new lineup, surreal shows with horses by the stage, and why the era of singles will never kill the spirit of a real album – in our maximally honest and warm conversation.

Hi, Justin! It’s great to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us between touring, releasing new singles, and-I’m guessing-getting very little sleep. Let’s start with a classic question as a warm-up before we get into the tougher ones. How did the idea of forming a band in Ajax come about-a town that’s not exactly known as Canada’s rock capita

Yea it’s a fair point. Although, I would say that it is exactly because we come from a small town that allowed us the creative freedom to explore the possibilities of what rock could be. It may be different in the British Isles, but here, anywhere you have a metropolis you tend (although this is not always the case) to have clusters of people who write similar types of music, who form “scenes”, for lack of a better word. The silver lining of a small town is that it may not have a scene – and in that absence, you find both a lack of cohesive social support (i.e. other bands) but also the freedom to explore different sounds without restriction or artistic suggestion.

Canada is famous for maple syrup, hockey, and the incredible friendliness of its people. But when I hear your massive guitar sound, it feels like you’re fueled by pure adrenaline instead of maple syrup. How much do Canada’s harsh winters and local atmosphere influence the heaviness of your riffs?

Well, that’s just it. As friendly as Canadian people tend to be, hockey shows you the other side of it. All that aggression Canadians keep bottled up comes out in our incredibly violent sports. But that’s not the only form aggression can take. And yes, the winters are bleak. But I would imagine Toronto is similar to London in this way. You guys have the rain and we have snow. And lots of it. In a sense, it is useful in the way that small towns are. When it’s -20 degrees out there, you stay inside and hone your craft. Small towns are like that too. Nothing to do but dream.

You originally took the stage as Critical, and today the world knows you as Free Under Fire. In that time, you’ve made impressive progress-from your debut album Beauty in Extremes in 2022 to your self-titled sophomore record, with a series of singles in between that kept building anticipation. Looking back, when did you realize this wasn’t just another chapter in the band’s story, but a genuine transformation?

I would say that the name change was a footnote in a long list of changes. If you check the way our sound has developed over the years, you see a band that started really into heavy music. And true to the name we would one day come to inhabit, we developed another side to our sound. The “Free” that accompanies the “Fire”. I suppose it’s no different than Guns N’ Roses, or something like that. To me, the most interesting rock bands all have dynamics, light and shade. Our upcoming 3rd record, Graffiti In The Garden (coming out September 18th of this year) is exactly that. Through a series of ups and downs (musically speaking) you have that dynamic element represented. It’s an entire journey, not just an arbitrary series of songs.

Mid-2024 brought some major additions to the Free Under Fire family: James Hastings stepped up to the microphone, while Konstantinos Xanthios took over bass duties. Tell us, do you have any special initiation ritual for new members? Maybe making them drink a liter of maple syrup in one sitting-or play a bass solo while balancing on one leg?

You know what the honest answer to that is? It’s not as interesting as you would think. Our “initiation ritual” is band practice. Especially when someone is new to the project, we ask them to jam together with us as often as possible. There’s really no way around getting tight as a band. You have to practice. You have to put in the work. This goes double when you first join a project. And they did! They’re both really talented, clever dudes who put in the work.

Lineup changes often give a band a second wind, but they can also spark debates about where the music should go next. In the current lineup, who’s the best diplomat or peacemaker when creative opinions clash in the studio or during songwriting?

You know what, we don’t really clash that much on the creative front. We seriously agree about 95% of what we do. In the rare chance that we do disagree, we encourage an open discussion on it. We have everyone voice their opinions and find a general consensus. It’s pretty democratic. And that’s because the choices we make affect all of us as a band. And as far as where the music should go first – it’s very organic. We don’t even really have to think about it. It’s been a natural evolution.

In 2023, you won the Magik Morn Battle of the Bands, and by 2025 you were taking on DEERFEST and the legendary Horseshoe Tavern stage. That’s a pretty incredible leap in a short time. At what point did you first catch yourselves thinking, “Damn… I think we’ve outgrown the garage in Ajax-we’re playing in the big leagues now”?

Yea it was great to participate in that Battle of the Bands. It was in a large field in the middle of nowhere. The lady who organized it is an equestrian, so there were horses running around while we were playing. Pretty surreal! We were also very lucky to be selected to play the Horseshoe Tavern in 2025 as part of North by North East (a festival that takes place in Toronto). But the reality is we owe everything we do to that small jam space we started in. We would never have been given these opportunities if we didn’t spend countless hours in that space sharpening the tools, as they say.

Let’s move on to your recent releases. “Before I Lose It All” and “Brand New Feeling” sound like songs where the emotions are literally at their limit – there’s a lot of tension and inner pressure. When you were writing them, was it an attempt to capture the moment or to figure out what was going on inside? Does it feel like it became at least a little easier after recording – or do songs like these, on the contrary, only open up new questions?

It’s hard to say. If you’re writing at your creative limit, which I would definitely say we were on this record, you’re trying to find the right chords, the right melody, the right lyrics. All of those things that words, alone, can’t describe, you’re trying to give voice to. It’s capturing the moment, it’s what your emotions are inside, it’s all of that. The recording process was difficult. We had 9 days, basically, to create a 9 song record. It was a very tight schedule! But we definitely pulled it off.

Another recent release, “Never Alone,” combines straightforward rock energy with a very clear emotional core. It’s the kind of song that really resonates with listeners. Feeling alone in a crowd is a timeless theme in rock music-but what does the phrase “Never Alone” personally mean to you in the context of this song?

Well, it’s about the idea of continuum of mind. If you commit your words to paper, to the written page, you’re allowing future generations to take a glimpse inside of your cognitive process. Similarly, if you read someone’s book, you’re bearing witness to who that person was, what they felt, and so on. Contextually, “Never Alone” is about the idea that even if you find yourself completely alone, you always have the opportunity to read someone’s thoughts (in the form of books) and write your own on paper. In that way, you’re never really, truly alone.

Fans are already debating which of the two new singles hits harder-“Brand New Feeling” or “Never Alone.” Here in our editorial office, though, we see them less as competitors and more as two sides of the same coin. Do you view these songs as being in conversation with one another, or are they two completely separate emotional statements?

On the 9 song album we’re releasing in September, those are two songs that are perhaps the most similar. At least, in an aesthetic sense. They both have that 90’s inspired chord type thing (think Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, Matchbox 20). Thematically, however, they couldn’t be more different. “Never Alone” is about the continuum of mind, as I mentioned. “Brand New Feeling” is all about a transition in mood. Going from melancholia to a brighter state of mind where you can appreciate the sunshine, the day before you. They’re in conversation with one another insofar as they’re part of the same human experience that our album strives to encapsulate, but I would say they definitely come from different philosophical and emotional standpoints.

You’ve already shown that you’re not afraid to surprise people: a refreshed lineup, new singles, standout festival performances-it feels like you’ve set the bar incredibly high. So what’s the next summit for Free Under Fire? A world tour? A third studio album? Or maybe your own line of signature rock merchandise?

Next? A single release on August 13th. And then, an album release September 18th. I think it’ll make sense in context. It’ll help you and other listeners to contextualize what this whole era of our band/screenshot of this moment in our band’s history is about. We live in a singles dominated world, but to truly understand and find meaning in a musical landscape, you always have to listen to the album the songs belong to. All roads lead back to the album as a sonic center for what a band is all about.

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