Q

Hi Andy, how is life in the “Good/Beautiful/Pleasant Land”?

A

Things are great!  It’s still cold here.  Stupid Wisconsin.

Q

Please give me a brief history of Spiral Trance.

A

Spiral Trance has been around for about ten years.  The current line-up is about a year and half old.  I joined the band in September of ’07 and we’ve accomplished a lot since then, including several tours and a new album coming out April 20^th!

Q

How long have you been playing bass?

A

I’ve been playing bass for about 6 years.  5 years of regular guitar before that.

Q

Stuck In Milwaukee is a blog devoted to helping beginning and struggling musicians avoid the many mistakes and pitfalls of the music industry.  How long have you been doing it and what inspired you to do it?

A

The blog is about a year old.  I was mainly inspired to start it because I’m an avid supporter of local music and I wanted to try to help beginning musicians out by giving them advice that I wish I’d had when I was starting.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to post to the blog in a few months. I’ve started a new job which has kept me extremely busy, not to mention all the work that goes into releasing a new album.

Q

You have a BA in Creative Writing.  How do you use this and do you write lyrics?

A

I mostly use it for writing up press releases and e-mail newsletters for the band.  Paul holds all the lyric duties for Spiral Trance, but I definitely contribute my creativity in other ways.

Q

A

It’s gonna surprise people.  We really expanded our vocabulary as far as song-writing.  The songs are catchy, heavy, and to-the-point, but they also branch out from what the band has done in the past.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how people react to the new material.  And I’m REALLY looking forward to writing more!  Our local CD release party is May 9^th, but the CD will be available through Rat Pak Records on April 20^th.

Q

What plans do you have to promote the album?

A

We’re gonna do anything and everything that we can in order to make this album a success.  We’re gonna promote it in the press, on our various social networking sites, and, of course, on the road.  After the album drops we’re really going to focus on expanding our fanbase on a regional level, and we’ll be touring as much as we can as well.

Q

I read that you played at Summerfest for an hour in the rain.  Sounds like you are ready for a UK festival! Any plans?

A

We’d LOVE to hit Europe.  We really think that we can do well in that environment.  If the opportunity came up, and it was financially logical, I can’t see why we’d turn down a chance to play in The UK.

Q

Spiral Trance is a relatively new band to Rat Pak Records.  How did you come to their attention?

A

We did a showcase in Florida last September where Joe O’Brien was present and checking out the talent.  He signed two bands that played at the showcase, us and a great band from Texas called 3 Kisses.  Joe was really impressed with both our energy and our passion for networking.  He saw something in us, and we hope to prove that we deserve the support that he has given us.

Q

How does it feel sharing a label with killer artists such as Ronny Munroe and Michael Wilton?

A

It’s wild!  It definitely makes us feel that much closer to being a band that people should take seriously. 

Q

Which band, song or album influenced you to be in a band?

A

So many!  I can tell you that the album that caused me to switch to bass was Mudvayne’s LD 50.  The bass playing on that album is like nothing I’d heard in a metal band before.  It showed me that the bass has such an untapped voice in the genre, and I wanted to explore that voice more.

Q

For fun, X-Men…comics or films?

A

Both!  Mostly the comics.  It’s embarrassing, but I have thousands of X-Men comics, and I’ve read most of them.  I’m an avid nerd in many ways.

To check out more about Andy and Spiral Trance, visit

http://www.myspace.com/spiraltrance

and

http://www.myspace.com/bigandybassplayer

I would like to thank Andy for taking the time out to do this interview.
It would be awesome to see Spiral Trance over here in the UK.

Best of luck with the album guys.

Keep It Loud!