NEW OBSESSION: SPIRAL SHADES ALBUM “HYPNOSIS SESSIONS” OUT AUGUST 5th, 2014.

Tell me about this obvious yet brilliant ode to the old guard of bands like Sabbath. After recording it, was it exactly what you wanted?
Khushal : Our goal was to recreate the sound of the 70’s and Sabbath were the biggest influence, but we tried to bring something to the table with our own unique style of playing and songwriting. And yes in the end we achieved what we wanted; in fact it turned out to be better once we started getting positive feedback from the fans.
Filip : When we first started out we originally wanted to make a progressive doom album inspired by 70s music. But later we decided that we will try and stick to the basics and make a true genuine heavy/ hard rock music as our tribute to the 70’s era.
And do you know if the band is going to take on the same essence with the next album? I mean, when you were done with “Hypnosis Sessions”, does your mind automatically move onto the next project?
Khushal : Definitely for our next album we are going to take on the same essence but the overall sound will be more refined. It’s been a gradual learning process every time you record a new song. We both are huge fans of progressive music, and you might see some progressive elements mixed with heavy- doom music in our next album.
Filip : With the next album we want to make it tighter and take it up a notch. I want to try and add small progressive elements to the new stuff. I want every song to sound unique in its own way, and avoid having the same sound for every song.
Is it true that you (Filip), have never met your “band mate”, and this was all done via virtual collaboration?
Filip : Yes that’s correct, we have never meet and everything was done over the internet. We both had a common goal in what we wanted to create, so it was quite easy to start working together. It took a while figuring out all the right programs to use and how we could share the material between each other.
Khushal : Yes that’s true we have never met because of various reasons. The entire Hypnosis Sessions album was recorded over the internet. It’s cool how technology has made this possible.
And since Khushal is in India, will you ever take this on the road? Or is that task to daunting?
Filip : This is something we will take step by step and just see how it develops. Maybe one day we will meet and create music together in the same room.
Khushal : I would love to take this on the road but there’s lots of issues both financially and planning wise. We both stay miles away from each other. The problem is that we have to be together to form a complete band and might also need some kind of sponsorship to back us on this front. It’s just the passion for music that got us to make this album, we had absolutely zero budget and we recorded the entire album with limited resources in our own small home studio.

Seems that you are kind of setting a precedent for other artists to have the open mindedness to create music if even by virtual means? Do you recommend this process?
Khushal : I would highly recommend this process as long as you have patience. Patience is the key if you wish to record virtually because there’s lots of back and forth but apart from that you also need to have a special bond with your fellow band mate.
Filip : I can highly recommend this process, however I can also say we have been very lucky. We both wanted to create good music and worked towards it slowly.
Can you kind of explain the process of how the songs were made? I mean in a nutshell, given the distance.
Filip : I usually create bunch of riff jam songs as I call them, and then I send them over to Khushal for him to see if its something he can work with. Once Khushal has a good vocal melody line and some short lyrics, we start working on the structure of the song.
Khushal : Exactly what Filip mentioned.
Seattle crowds would eat your music up. Ever been here, and what do you know about it?
Khushal : Well we have never visited America and what we know is that there have been so many great legendary musicians from Seattle and we hope we can visit there once in our life time at least. But we hope that through this interview we reach out to people in Seattle and get their support.
Filip : That’s really cool to hear. I have never really been to the states, so I don’t know how its like over there.
What’s next for Spiral Shades?
Khushal : Once our Hypnosis Sessions album is released and the promotion is over we will soon start writing songs for our next album. We’ll also have some surprises for our fans in between so stay tuned guys.
Filip : We are both really looking forward to the release of our album in August. (Pre-order Here)