trauma ray will release their new album Carnival on February 20th via Dais Records, the EP follows the band’s previous album Chameleon, their 2024 debut on Dais Records. Over the past couple of years, Trauma Ray have toured with Deafheaven, Loathe, Touché Amoré and more.

“It’s a song about the feeling of doing your best as an individual yet still falling short in the eyes of those you hope to make proud.” adds vocalist Uriel Avila. “A lot of it stems from internal battles I faced growing up with my father, role models, and religion. Some of it comes from more recent experiences of being put under the microscope by my peers. It’s a gut wrenching sensation that I was able to tie lyrically to the visceral mood of the instrumentation that kicks off the track and begins the journey through Carnival’s overall theme.”

trauma ray used a break in their relentless touring schedule in Summer of last year to regroup in Texas for a few days to record a number of tracks, they then sent off to Corey Coffman (They Are Gutting A Body of Water, Milly) for mixing and mastering. “It’s the most collaborative we’ve been, where everyone was both hands-on and hands-off,” says Avila. “You can really hear each person’s influences in almost every song in a very unique, non-biting way.” Avila and guitarist Jonathan Perez, the band’s core songwriting duo to date, welcomed more contributions from others, notably an eerier strain of rhythmic and textural ideas from guitarist Coleman Pruitt. The direction coincided with a growing sense of collective dread and anxiety, and a striking photo set of a deserted amusement park near Brighton, England, taken on tour by drummer Nicholas Bobotas and now featured as the artwork. “It really looks like we specifically chose this theme and like had this whole preconceived idea, but it truly appeared out of thin air,” says Perez.

trauma ray
Carnival
Tracklist
Dais Records

1. carousel
2. Hannibal
3. Méliès
4. Funhouse
5. lown

pre-order Carnival by Trauma Ray HERE