Frozen Image

Owen Pontius

Kaden Levy

Drowning in Memories is an American pop punk band formed by bassist/vocalist Jackson Kelley in late 2020. The band consists of Kelley on bass sharing co-lead vocal duties with Justin Engle, who also plays lead guitar. The band also includes rhythm guitarist Owen Pontius and drummer Kaden Levy.

## History

### Formation, EP's, and Ghost

Jackson Kelley had been in a band before, but Midnight Thunder was not up to his standards. By his eighth grade year, he had listened to Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance, making him fall in love with music. As he discovered his favorite bands, he realized his passion for music and got a guitar four days after Christmas of his freshman year. However, Kelley intended to use the guitar in a school play, and when he did not get in, he had no use for the guitar. The art had always fascinated him, so he learned some basic songs, with that summer, he learned Brain Stew by Green Day. He intended to play the song at his school's talent show and reached out to Mark 2, a local band who's drummer Kelley knew, who offered him the chance to play bass with them. That did not turn out so well, and Kelley was kicked out.

When his sophomore year rolled around, Kelley walked into his math class, where vocalist Carter Hogan was. They had known each other from middle school, doing a play together, but they didn't get to know each other until Hogan revealed he was a Gorillaz and blink-182 fan, like Kelley. They had extensive chats over DMs over music, and they instantly hit it off that day in math class. One day, Kelley decided to go over to Hogan's house for a sleepover, and Kelley saw Hogan's drumset. They found an electric guitar and had a jam session, performing Happy Holidays, You Bastard by blink-182. They intended to start a band, but after two practices, realized it was going nowhere. Hogan went on to become a rapper under the alias Lil Unde and released his debut album Obituary in 2021.

Kelley was still determined, and he kept writing songs. His junior year came, and Kelley reached out to Ryan Day, former drummer of Mark 2, after their singer/guitarist Benicio Archuleta left for college. Day accepted Kelley's offer, and they began a search for a guitarist. Kelley met guitarist Alex Downing while the two worked at Krispy Kreme together, bonding over bands like Bring Me the Horizon. Downing and Kelley reached an agreement where he'd write the music and Kelley would still write the lyrics. Nothing came from those sessions, but all that changed when Kelley met drummer Cooper Hertz in history class. Kelley found out Hertz played drums and they got to know each other better, exchanging phone numbers and having some jam sessions after discovering they shared similar tastes in music, but Hertz dropped from the band again.

Kelley got a job at local arcade Main Event. While doing some training, he met guitarist and vocalist Justin Engle, a songwriter having writers block. Kelley showed Engle his lyrics and Engle decided to join the band. They began work on their debut album called Ghost, a concept album about a high school love that's long been over but the protagonist tries to make things right. Soon after, Kelley went to the Hella Mega Tour and met drummer Kaden Levy, who was a freshman at his high school, while recruiting second guitarist Melanie Stolpmann through a mutual friend of Kelley's, who switched to bass shortly after, while he would still write guitar lines.

### Sunset

Their energetic live show attracted the attention of Hopeless Records, who signed the band to a five-album deal. Kelley dug up an old concept album he wrote and began recording demos. He self-produced the album, and then he and Hertz embarked on a small tour of North America. The concept album followed a depressed alcoholic named Sunset and his quest for love.

### Trying to Fix Broken Relationships (2026-2028)

After taking time off, Kelley revealed some cryptic images across his social media, and fans began speculating that new music was coming. Sure enough, a song entitled Trying to Fix Broken Relationships was released. Kelley stated, "This new album is another form of concept album. I intended to write it with a double meaning. It could be interpreted as a relationship story, but it's actually about my three month tenure in the fancast community when I was sixteen." The album, Trying to Fix Broken Relationships, was released in 2028.

### Dying Light (2027-2028)

After the Trying to Fix Broken Relationships era ended with a video at the end of the last concert of the tour of Kelley and Emily Lind kissing, seemingly playing characters who made up after a breakup, rumors started they were dating. Both Kelley and Lind denied those rumors, saying they were good friends only, and Kelley wasn't interested in a long term relationship. Soon after the tour ended he began thinking of new ideas. After he remembered a scrapped album called The Freshman Chronicles, a rock opera about Kelley's freshman year, he decided he would try a rock opera again, and listened to some rock operas to figure out how to properly structure them. Kelley stated the new record, called Dying Light, would be his most ambitious project to date. The lead single, Routine, was released later, with the second single, Revolution, was released two months later. The album was told through a series of music videos that was directed by and starred Kelley.

## Lyrical themes

Depression and mental health are the most common theme across the band's albums, with other common themes across the band's second and third albums focus on social anxiety and loneliness, with Jackson Kelley writing songs based off of personal experiences. Sunset focuses on love and heartbreak while mixing in the depression. Most of their albums are concept albums, with Kelley being noticed as "one of the greatest conceptual artists of this generation" by Rolling Stone, and "the next Roger Waters" by Billboard. Kerrang! have said that "Frozen Image has its fun moments, but when they get dark, it gets super serious.", referring to the song lyrics, several concepts of the albums, and the music video for Porno.

## Style and influences

The band is known for pop punk music, with its motto being, "Making music for the loneliest people since 2020".   One of Jackson Kelley's writing strategies is to put hilarious song titles to hide depressing lyrics. Kelley has expressed his desire to bring the sounds of the 2000's pop punk back into listeners, and mix them with sounds of modern pop punk, calling the band "an odd combination of blink-182 and My Chemical Romance.". He has also stated that he listened to a lot of music in his teenage years and is inspired by My Chemical Romance, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Green Day, AC/DC, Weezer, Gorillaz, Coheed and Cambria, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, blink-182, The Beatles, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, The White Stripes, Daft Punk, Muse, twenty one pilots, Brand New, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, Arctic Monkeys, Sublime, Linkin Park, Sum 41, System of a Down, 311, Queens of the Stone Age, Cage the Elephant, Waterparks, The All-American Rejects, Rage Against the Machine, Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Taking Back Sunday, Three Days Grace, No Doubt, PUP, The Wonder Years, White Reaper, Neck Deep, The Strokes, Arcade Fire, The Killers, TOOL, Jimmy Eat World, The 1975, Knuckle Puck, Nirvana, A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, CHVRCHES, American Football, Phoenix, Motion City Soundtrack, Deftones, Marianas Trench, Florence + the Machine, The Used, AFI, Bloc Party, Royal Blood, Slipknot, Wolf Alice, Queen, Modest Mouse, The Neighbourhood, and Metric.

## Members

* Jackson Kelley - vocals, bass guitar, songwriting
* Justin Engle - vocals, lead guitar
* Owen Pontius - rhythm guitar
* Kaden Levy - drums

## Discography

### Studio albums

* Ghost (2022)
* Is This Dystopia? (2024)
* Sunset (2026)
* Trying to Fix Broken Relationships (2028)
* Dying Light (2032)

### Singles

* Getting the Gang Back Together
* Wait a Minute, This Sounds Like Rock and/or Roll
* You Tell Those Tree Branches Who's Boss
* Alcoholic
* Meet You in the Afterlife
* Porno
* Trying to Fix Broken Relationships
* Dreams
* Stories I Tell
* Routine
* Revolution
* Affection
* The Riches, The Bitches, and The Snitches