Light Leaves You by Spiral Trance review

Spiral Trance are a four-piece hard rock/metal hailing from Milwaukee, WI.  They have been releasing music since the start of the millennium and have released several albums and EPs since. They have completed five national tours, been nominated for numerous awards and charted on over fifty CMJ radio stations. In 2012, they won the 45th Annual Houston World Fest.

Their music is a hybrid of metal bands like Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine with the progressive elements of a band like Tool, combined with aspects of hard and classic rock (they cite Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin amongst many influences). This track, Light Leaves You, starts with just drums playing a complex tom-tom pattern, soon joined a fantastic low end guitar riff which also features on the chorus.

The verse showcases the powerful, distinctive vocals of Paul Karcz, singing over another excellent riff before the music switches briefly to half time for the bridge. It leads back to the anthemic chorus, the vocal melody and guitar riff combining to great effect. After the second chorus is a ‘middle eight’ section in half time leading to a concise, well constructed guitar solo.

Overall, this is an excellent track from a band who have clearly become masters of their craft. Their musicianship and musical unity as a band cannot be faulted, every member an equal component of their sound. With a lot of success under their belts already, a great song like this will only further enhance their reputation and popularity. Their appeals lies beyond just the metal crowd and they have the potential to be massive.

By Alex Faulkner

I’m 34 and a freelance music journalist, as well as a composer and producer. I’ve written reviews for UK newspapers and music websites. I run my own blog, reviewing the best new bands and artists . I’m very passionate and knowledgeable about music and that shows in my writing.

Radio Play via Exposed Vocals Broadcast Partners. 

Exclusive Interview:

Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Some friends of ours let us know about you and then we sent out an email to find out more about the service.

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  We all grew up in Milwaukee Wisconsin but we each have our different stories about how we started musically. Personally for me it was raiding my older brother’s record collection. Looking through all the scariest covers and wondering what the hell it was all about lol.  I was just fascinated by it and musical instruments in general. My grandma had an old acoustic guitar in her basement so I’d pound on that thing for hours. It only had two strings on it but I made it work somehow. Eventually, another friend of mine had an amp and guitar he wasn’t using and he borrowed it to me for a month.  I played it every day and gave it back three years later lol!

Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: When we started as a band, grunge was real popular. A lot of times you could tell what a band was all about or the kind of music they were playing just by hearing their name.  We’ve always been very conscious to try and do our own thing so we decided to work with a name that made people have to think first and actually “listen” to our music before deciding if they liked it or not.

Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: The internet has changed the way we listen to music so much that it’s often times very hard to stop anyone other than yourselves from sharing your music.  It’s made things a lot easier and more quick in how music is distributed, but at the same time, very difficult to try and find exactly what you’re looking for.  There’s no real filter on what is being shared out there.  We have given away our music for free many times just to be able to let the world hear it.  However, some people equate “free” music as “bad” music. Basically most of the music you really want you have to pay for.  In that regard, we’ve been very aware of how much to give away and at what time.  Mostly we’ve done it around an album release or certain show dates. On the flip side, look at what sharing free music did for the Grateful Dead, it made their career!

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Just keep at it and practice until you feel comfortable getting in front of crowds.  Do a few small shows with friends to start with.  Most importantly, make sure you are going to other shows and are supporting the music scene in your town.  The more you start getting to know people in your scene, the more receptive those musicians and bands will be to you and to have you join them on the same bill.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Make them twice so people don’t know you messed up the first time! No don’t do that… If we mess up on stage we just keep going and try to quickly make it back on track.  Never let it show! It may sound cliché, but a musician is always their worst critic.  Most people won’t even know you messed up, unless you just stop playing!

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  We do tour about once a year for an extended period of time.  Usually three weeks or so.  The rest of the year we stay fairly regional and play our hometown around once every month.  If we’re doing a regional weekend show, we plan on booking a Friday night and Saturday night gig to make it worth our while.  As far as interesting stories, there’s plenty to tell but they’re not all pretty haha!

Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  Most of our inspiration just comes from wanting to do something different.  For us, just listening to the radio can be an inspiration, an inspiration of what “not” to do haha.  We try to do our own thing which has always come naturally. The music always comes first and then all the vocal lines and lyrics come after that.  This last album we wrote most of the choruses first.  We tried to make them as big as possible.  However, getting to the choruses were the tricky part since we had absolutely no idea where to start or end haha…

Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  People can find us at www.spiraltrance.com or our Facebook page which also links to our Reverbnation page.  www.facebook.com/spiraltrance   We use a few services like Sonicbids for our EPK and also Broadjam for some music licensing stuff.  We’re also all over with online digital distribution through iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Google Play, etc. etc.  The usual suspects…

Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Our CD player at the studio is always changing but I don’t think we really have anything too embarrassing in there right now. However, we did just find a Pussycat Dolls CD lying around but no one is fessing up to bringing it lol!

Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  I suppose at this moment we’d invest some of that money into a few studio upgrades and then start working on the most killer hard rock record of all time lol… Which also leads into your next question…

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Currently we’re working with Steinberg’s Nuendo on the pc platform.  Everything basically runs analog thru a Mackie 24×8 mixer and then out of there into our Presonus converters and then into our computer. We’d love to get an automated desk for easier mixes so that’s on the horizon.  Right now everything is mixed inside the box.  A few more mics we’ve had our eye on and some Apogee converters round out the wish list…

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  As with many bands we use the internet and our website pages to deliver our content. Most people are looking at Facebook so that’s a big one for us.  As well as our email list which is constantly being updated at shows etc.  So much of this stuff can be done instantly from your phone and it’s quick and easy to keep people updated and in the loop.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: Good question and a tough one! Between the four of us there’s too many to list.  To answer the “Why” part of your question: Because it would be AWESOME!!! Lol

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  We’re currently working on a new CD which will feature a lot of lost songs from our past that many people probably haven’t heard before. Many of them that were performed live at some time or another but never made it to a proper recording.  It’s pretty cool to go back and listen to this stuff and figure out how the hell to play them again, It’s been like opening a time capsule!

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  Dreaming about making music. Seriously though, music has been an incredible outlet for us and has kept us out of the usual trouble. It’s great to have the ability to express so much and feel so much with it while forgetting the monotony of a day to day grind.

Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: We’ve all got our own memories but for me it was Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard Of Oz.  I couldn’t wait to get home and put it on.  I was also thinking about how to get it in through the door without my parents asking me about it!  Anytime I hear one of those songs, to this day, I can remember exactly where I was in life… Pretty cool.

Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz: It’s hard to prioritize and figure out what should be coming first but we’re all determined. Getting to the studio to rehearse for a show or to prepare for a recording session is what we live for. No matter what’s going on, it’s the best part of the day.  The music industry has changed so much over the years so having a day job or something else to fall back on is key.  It allows us to do what we do and to pursue music as a career.

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2015?

Spiral Trance – Paul Karcz:  Like mentioned before, Spiral Trance is currently holed up in the studio working on the upcoming album of lost songs that have been performed live and have never made it to a previous recording. It’s been very cool and we’ve updated a lot of the material too… It’s sounding huge! There are a few shows left for us to play this year too. People can check our pages for more updates and other cool info on the recording process for this next record etc.  www.facebook.com/spiraltrance , www.spiraltrance.com, Thank you so much for having us with Exposed Vocals and we hope to catch some of you out at the next “rock show!” Until then, horns up!