AUGUST 11th, 2011: It's official - Trapped is a Nominee in the Indian Summer Music Awards for 2011 - in the "Pop" category! Please see our link on the side to see details about the Indian Summer Festival and Music Awards in Milwaukee, WI. Musicians' musicians Mark Truesdell and Carl Raven have made this song whole. The synchronicity of the universe brought this trio together over time. Recording Trapped was as easy as breathing. It was recorded in the Milwaukee, WI studio of Kelly Meyer. His outstanding engineering and mastering talents allowed the organic nuances of our instruments to synergize, while emphasizing the power of this song. Mark Truesdell and Candice Nokes are married, as well as musical partners in The Spirals. Candice wrote Trapped, played guitar and finally got to sing the vocals without simultaneous guitar playing. She could get used to this idea. Mark wrote and cultivated his rhythm guitar parts and tasty bass grooves for Trapped. Mark is a man of many musical talents, of which you can read about on the Spirals' web site http://www.spiralsmusic.com/bio.html He has been on the Milwaukee music scene for many years, and is also musical partners with Carl Raven in the Once Now Ensemble, Milwaukee, WI. Carl synergized the drive behind the heart of this song, as well as the intricate embellishments that complete the rhythm track. His multi-faceted and impressive bio is found toward the end of these song notes. Trapped is one person's perspective on transformation. When we grow, we keep what we want, throw out what doesn't work, cultivate an opinion and act, believe that something can be different we...analyze and choose...instead of choose without intention. Choosing without conscious intention is the composer's idea of being Trapped. For the record, the composer admires male thinking and the male energy of the soul / this world. This song has a refrain that might make it seem otherwise. The composer originally wrote this song in late adolescence. The societal, and then self-perpetuated, messages about being a female were mainly negative or unhealthy in her life, from this composer's perspective. Certainly a complicated and lifelong issue, she struggled with uncovering and revering her own feminine energies that were strong. They were not apparent to her from the immediate world, nor cultivated within herself. She also worked hard at developing the just-as-important male energies and perspectives involved in being human. This song encompasses both types of energies, as well as captures a tidal wave of thought during that transformative time. This song is also for a little inspiration, supporting "quiet" people who simply do not say a lot...but it isn't because they do not have a lot to say...the gestational energy of quietness is a power too. CARL RAVEN Carl Raven-- drummer, bass guitarist, accordionist, and saxophonist-- has worked with a variety of mostly Milwaukee based bands as a performer, arranger, and composer for over fifty years. Carl was leader, bass guitarist, and lead vocalist in his own group, the Del Reys, which evolved into a popular Wisconsin area rock band, performing at major venues, and at that time on all four of the major local T.V. stations through the early 60's. Carl played bass guitar with the Robbs, with whom he had several national record releases on Mercury and Atlantic Records, the most well known being "Race With the Wind," and another, "I Don't Feel Alone," a recording with renowned guitarist James Burton, who had served as Elvis Presley's lead guitarist during his final ten years, and also before that with Ricky Nelson. In high school (MUHS), Carl served as their big jazz band's drummer, and freelanced on drums in various jazz groups through his college years. Since the early 90's, Carl has focused on percussion study and performance in jazz and its related African and African-Hispanic heritage. He has attended workshops with internationally acclaimed drummers Max Roach and Joe Morello. Carl has performed as a freelance drummer in the Milwaukee area with various local straight-ahead jazz groups led by John Hefter, Rick Santiago, and the late Kenny Danish. Carl has been leader of his own mainstream group, The Carl Raven Jazz Collective. In 2004, Carl joined with saxophonist and clarinetist Frank Marquardt to form Collective Neurosis, a freeform jazz-based improvisational band, which later grew into its present quartet status with trumpeter Rob Schoenecker and cellist Henry Steinfort. With Collective Neurosis still searching for its first major CD album release, Collective Neurosis has enjoyed the distinction of having had its original recorded pieces, at this writing in the sixties in number, played on WMSE, 91.7FM, airing on "Dr. Sushi's Free Jazz Barbecue" show and a performance on "Local-Live." Carl also performs as drummer with Once Now Ensemble, a group playing spontaneously improvised music.