SPIRALFIRE

Raleigh – On a cold Friday night, I find myself sitting down at the Deep South Bar. I had a stage light on me. The only thing is I wasn’t onstage. The bar decided to continue the stage lighting around the seating to shine on each individual booth, giving each booth its own light. Along with the badass lighting, the bar smothered their red walls with tons of famous band memorabilia and quotations etched in white… overall, a very cool, retro vibe. Soon after the opening act had finished, I notice a wave of people surge into the bar. As the bar filled with people, a talented alternative rock band by the name of Spiralfire took stage.

Spiralfire rocked it that night. Female vocalist and songwriter Sinclair Vernon led the band while playing keys. Accompanied by Riley Miller and Dom Ciampa on guitar, Brian Lawton on bass, and Jim Snyder on drums, Vernon’s vision is complete and evident in their great chemistry. Driving drums, grooving basslines, and crunchy guitars combined with Vernon’s powerful vocals, melting together to form an awesome rock sound. As she clutched on to the mic stand, Vernon belted out strong, soulful high notes decorated with trills. In between singing, she jammed with the rest of the band on keys and even brought out a tambourine during the show. Excluding a great cover of “Message in Bottle” by the Police, the high octane show was composed of all original material. Afterwards, I was able to get a hold of Vernon and gain some insight about what makes Spiralfire tick.

33: How did y'all initially meet? Who decided to start playing music and putting a band together? Or did everyone sort of "come together" so to speak?

Sinclair Vernon: I started writing songs in August of 2009 with the explicit purpose of putting this band together. I knew I wanted it to be guitar-driven music, so I started looking for a guitarist. I found Riley through a mutual friend of ours, and we worked on songs together for about three months before we found Brian, our bassist, on craigslist. After that, Brian found Jim, our drummer, through a friend. Riley, Jim, Brian, and I have been practicing together since last April, and we added Dom, our second guitarist, only two weeks ago (once again through the magical thing that is craigslist).

33: How is it different having a female vocalist in a male-dominated rock environment?

SV: I'd say it has its advantages and disadvantages, just like everything else. From my experience, it seems that the audience pays more attention when there's a differing element onstage, i.e., a girl in a band with four guys, or a female-fronted rock band on a bill with mostly male-fronted bands. People like to compare me to female musicians with whom they're familiar - I've gotten Pat Benatar and Joan Jett, among others. Otherwise, there don't seem to be too many differences. People either like the music or they don't, regardless of whether a male or female is fronting the band. Personally, I've had to overcome a few of my own hang-ups about being considered controlling or what have you; people expect you to be a strong female if you lead your own band, and sometimes it's difficult to dance the line between assertive and aggressive.

33: What is Spiralfire's drive? Is it the pay, the music, the fans, fame...?

SV: First and foremost, we love the music we make and want to share it with people. It's the highest honor to have someone tell you that they connect with a song you wrote; it means you're doing your job as a musician in relating to people and evoking emotions in them that they might not otherwise realize. Another goal of ours is to play to a stadium full of at least 40,000 people before we die. I can't even begin to fathom what that would
feel like, but I'd imagine it would be pretty amazing.

33: What kind of message do you try to send to your audience?
SV: The overall message for us is to inspire people to get up off the couch and live to their fullest potential. I hate the idea of settling for some mediocre, safe life just because you think you can't accomplish what you really want to do. It's a cliché, but you only have one life - there are no do-overs. And we want to rock people's faces off of their heads when they listen to us or see us live. That pretty much goes without saying though, doesn't it?

33: What are the future ambitions of Spiralfire?

SV: We hope to be signed at some point and to have a national (and international!) audience. Going on tour to Europe or around the U.S. and having people pay us to do it seems like a dream right now, but maybe it's not too far off for us.
- Magazine 33