With a strong voice akin to Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart, combined with the soul of the Eagles and a classic singer-songwriter touch, Connecticut musician Frank Viele sure knows how to tell a story through his songs.

You can feel it with his latest single, “Made My Heart Grow Stronger.” You can’t help but stop and listen, especially when struck by his sweet expressive tone and light rasp that weave you into the acoustic guitar-picking, like a journey down a winding road. For someone who’s played more than 1,000 concerts across 41 states over the past decade, you can feel through his music that he’s got a story to tell. “Writing ‘Made My Heart Grow Stronger’ felt like exploring that idea through both of our journeys: that sometimes the miles, the detours, and even the hardships are the very things that shape the strength and empathy we carry forward,” as Viele describes the single.

It’s the wisdom you can feel from Viele, and that’s the special thing about music: it’s an emotion internally felt, not seen. We get a lighthearted spirit from someone who seems to have done and seen a lot, bringing wisdom along with a sense of hope and encouragement. It says it all in the title, ‘Made My Heart Grow Stronger.’ These days, with all the AI, instant messages, and answers, we crave organic storytelling, and we want to feel it from someone who’s really lived it. Vulnerability and not having the answer but still having hope is a special commodity.

Another distinct thing about the track is the strings, light percussion, and slight Southern pull you can hear in the unfiltered, high-quality recording, which even gives a slight bluegrass feel at moments. It makes sense reading that Viele previously took inspiration from a trip to Muscle Shoals.

The songwriter was raised in New England by a single mom and inspired by American rock ’n’ roll artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, and Tom Petty, which you can hear throughout his heartland rock ’n’ roll sound.

Over the years, Viele has earned multiple New England Music Awards, toured both solo and with Frank Viele & The Manhattan Project (which featured an eclectic group of accomplished players from across New York and Connecticut) alongside artists such as Foreigner, Blues Traveler, Gavin DeGraw, Allen, Mack, Myers & Moore (featuring Zach Myers of Shinedown), and others, and released critically acclaimed records including The Trouble With Desire.

Beyond music, Viele is also the founder of Bigger Beast Records and All Boats Rising Entertainment, initiatives focused on supporting emerging artists and giving back through community and charitable events.

How does ‘Made My Heart Grow Stronger’ feel when you listen to it since playing the benefit show?

Honestly, it feels like a real creative step forward for me. ‘The Trouble With Desire’ was built around very organic instrumentation and live-band energy, while ‘The Silo’ EP was intentionally more cinematic and experimental, almost like painting with atmosphere and emotion instead of just performance.

‘Made My Heart Grow Stronger’ feels like the first time I was able to truly merge those two worlds together. It has the roots-oriented honesty and human feel I naturally gravitate toward, but it also carries some of those bigger cinematic textures and emotional builds I discovered while making ‘The Silo’.

And because of the story behind the song, that balance really mattered. The production had to feel intimate enough to honor Tofu’s journey, but expansive enough to carry the weight of hope, resilience, and second chances. Playing it live at the benefit show added another layer entirely. Seeing people connect to it in real time reminded me that songs can still bring people together for something bigger than themselves, and that’s always the goal for me.

Dead or living, is there any artist or band you’d love to open for?

Dave Matthews Band. I don’t even have to think twice about that one.

I’ve seen over 130 Dave Matthews Band shows, most of them before I even graduated college. I learned guitar in the parking lots before those concerts, surrounded by people chasing music, community, and connection in the purest way possible. In a lot of ways, those shows helped shape not just the musician I became, but the human being too.

What always inspired me about DMB was their ability to make even the biggest venues feel deeply personal, like somehow an arena could still feel like a gathering around a campfire. That balance of musicianship, freedom, emotion, and community left a permanent mark on me.

To someday open for them would honestly feel like life coming full circle.

Growing up, I read that your mom raised you as a single mother. Was she a musician as well, and how did she feel about that career path?

My mom wasn’t a musician, no. My grandmother played piano though, and some of my earliest memories are sitting nearby listening to her play. That’s really where I first fell in love with sound and melody.

Music always felt a little magical to me as a kid. It felt like this thing that could change the atmosphere in a room or say something people didn’t know how to say out loud.

My mom worked incredibly hard raising me, so I think, like a lot of parents, she probably worried about how realistic a music career was at first. But she also saw how deeply connected I was to it from a young age. Over time, she realized songwriting wasn’t just a hobby for me, it was how I processed the world. And I’ve been fortunate enough to build a life around that. Mostly thanks to her, as while she always wanted me to have a backup plan, she encouraged my love and passion for music and is still my number one fan to this day.

The strings on ‘Made My Heart Grow Stronger’ are fantastic, and complement your guitar and writing as well as the whole composition. Who was the player?

That’s Brie Green, and she absolutely brought something special to the song.

I randomly met her about six months ago while she was fronting one of her bands at a little spot in Putnam, Connecticut, called The Stomping Ground. She has this incredibly authentic, almost timeless quality to her voice that immediately stood out to me. I remember thinking, man, our voices would probably blend really well together.

Then we got into the studio at my dear friend Rees Shad’s place and everything just unfolded naturally. What started as harmonies turned into this incredible added layer because Brie is also an amazing fiddle player. Those soaring string parts were one of those beautiful unexpected moments that can only really happen when musicians are creating together in the same room and following the emotion of the song instead of overthinking it.

The whole track came together in a single afternoon, which honestly feels very in the spirit of the song itself. Organic, human, and a little bit magical.

What’s coming up next for you?

A whole lot of miles and a whole lot of songs.

I’ve got a busy run of tour dates and festivals ahead, including more of our Bigger Beast Records and All Boats Rising Entertainment community-driven events that continue to bring artists and audiences together in really meaningful ways.

And then in November, I’ll be heading back down to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to begin recording my next full-length album. There’s something sacred about creating music there. I can’t fully describe it, but it’s just different in the best way.

This next record feels like it’s shaping up to be my most fully realized work yet. It still carries the heartland rock and roots influences that are part of who I am, but sonically it’s reaching even deeper into atmosphere, storytelling, and emotional weight. I’m really excited for people to hear where the journey goes next.

Headline photo: Donato Biceglia

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