Hudson Valley rock band New Vision are entering a new chapter with their forthcoming album Can’t Leave With Less, out December 4 via Papercut Recordings. Produced by Adam Cichocki, the eleven-track record marks a shift toward a more collaborative, uncompromising sound, one that captures the intensity of their live performances while exploring self-worth, emotional exhaustion, and the importance of finding joy in an increasingly overwhelming world. In an exclusive conversation with MUNDANE, the band discusses the philosophy behind their new single “SPICE,” the stop-motion world created by Stephen Coad, the evolution of their songwriting, and why this record feels closer than ever to who they actually are.
There is a strange contradiction at the center of growing up.
We spend so much time trying to figure out who we are that we sometimes forget to enjoy the process of becoming that person.
The pressure to succeed, the constant exposure to everything going wrong in the world, and the exhausting expectation that every decision must somehow contribute to our personal development can make even the pursuit of happiness feel like another responsibility.
And somewhere along the way, the things that once made us feel alive can begin to disappear beneath everything we’re supposed to be doing.
For Hudson Valley rock band New Vision, that tension has become an important part of their evolving creative identity.
Their forthcoming album, Can’t Leave With Less, arrives December 4 through independent label Papercut Recordings, marking what the band describes as a new era in their sound, songwriting, and relationship with one another.
The record follows their 2022 release With Love and introduces a more collective approach to composition, with every member contributing to the lyrics, arrangements, and overall direction of the music.
It’s also an album concerned with the emotional contradictions of contemporary life.
How do you preserve your sense of self when everything around you feels overwhelming?
How do you recognize your own value without allowing other people to determine it?
And perhaps most importantly, how do you remember to enjoy being alive when the world seems increasingly determined to make that difficult?
Those questions find particularly vivid expression in the band’s new single, “SPICE,” a hard-hitting yet deliberately playful track about finding happiness amid uncertainty.
“It all gets heavy sometimes, especially nowadays, but I feel that it’s important to remember there’s always good with the bad,” explains lead vocalist Nico Caro.
“Try to take a step back and look at everything, do what scares you.”
It’s a sentiment that might initially seem uncomplicated.
But beneath its optimism lies a more meaningful proposition: that finding joy in difficult circumstances isn’t necessarily an act of denial.
Sometimes, it’s an act of resistance.
When Everything Gets Heavy, Remember What Makes You Feel Alive
There is no shortage of reasons to feel overwhelmed.
Between social pressures, personal uncertainty, and the constant circulation of negative information, it’s increasingly easy to experience the world as something that demands our attention without ever allowing us to recover from it.
For Caro, that accumulation of emotional weight became the starting point for “SPICE.”
“The song came from the feeling of being overwhelmed,” he explains.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity everywhere and as it compounds over time, we can lose sight of the beauty that makes life exciting and worth it in the first place.”
What makes the track particularly interesting is its refusal to treat self-discovery as an exclusively serious undertaking.
Rather than turning emotional struggle into another dramatic narrative of personal transformation, New Vision wanted to introduce a sense of playfulness.
The song is about recognizing the difficult aspects of life without allowing them to completely dominate the experience of living.
It’s about finding moments of excitement, spontaneity, and connection even when circumstances are far from ideal.
“I think the journey to finding yourself/what makes you happy doesn’t always have to be heavy/serious,” Caro says.
That distinction feels increasingly important in a culture where self-improvement has become an industry of its own.
We are constantly encouraged to optimize our habits, confront our limitations, and transform ourselves into better versions of who we already are.
But New Vision are interested in something less calculated.
What if discovering yourself isn’t always about fixing something?
What if sometimes it’s simply about remembering what you enjoy?
“SPICE” doesn’t pretend that the world is uncomplicated.
Instead, it suggests that happiness can coexist with uncertainty.
And that preserving a sense of playfulness might be just as important as confronting the things that make life difficult.
The Freedom of Not Letting Other People Define You
The emotional philosophy behind “SPICE” also connects to the band’s previous single, “I Am A Muse,” their first release through Papercut Recordings.
Where “SPICE” focuses on rediscovering joy, “I Am A Muse” explores self-worth and the importance of refusing to let external opinions determine personal value.
Together, the two songs establish a thematic foundation for Can’t Leave With Less.
Both are concerned with identity.
Both challenge the idea that self-understanding should depend entirely on other people’s expectations.
And both suggest that personal freedom begins with recognizing what matters to you rather than constantly responding to what the world demands.
Musically, however, New Vision wanted these ideas to arrive with considerable force.
“One of our goals was for this album to hit just as hard on your speakers as it does in person at a show,” explains Ryan.
“It’s a really hard hitting rock record.”
That ambition is central to the band’s new direction.
Rather than treating their recorded music and live performances as separate experiences, they wanted to preserve the intensity that makes rock music particularly compelling in a shared physical environment.
There’s something uniquely immediate about music that doesn’t simply communicate emotion but makes the listener feel its physical presence.
The volume.
The collective momentum.
The sense that an idea becomes more powerful when experienced through sound rather than explained through words.
For New Vision, Can’t Leave With Less is an attempt to capture that energy without sacrificing the emotional substance behind it.
A New Era Built Around Collective Creativity
One of the most significant changes in the band’s creative process occurred before the album was even recorded.
On previous releases, Caro and Ryan generally handled the lyrics and developed the central ideas behind individual songs.
But for Can’t Leave With Less, the band deliberately expanded that process.
Every member contributed to the songwriting, arrangements, lyrical ideas, and overall creative direction.
“We’ve all grown a lot musically and even just as people since we put out With Love back in 2022,” Ryan explains.
“Everyone played a part in every aspect on this album and I’m really happy about that.”
It’s a meaningful shift because collaboration can fundamentally alter the identity of a band.
When one or two members are responsible for establishing the creative direction, the remaining musicians may primarily interpret those ideas.
But when everyone participates from the beginning, the music becomes the result of a more complicated exchange.
Different instincts compete.
Unexpected arrangements emerge.
Ideas develop beyond the intentions of the person who originally introduced them.
And the final composition becomes something that no individual member could necessarily have created alone.
For New Vision, that collective process has helped them arrive at a sound they feel represents their current identity more accurately.
The band describes the album as the beginning of a direction they want to continue exploring rather than a temporary experiment.
“Every record is ever changing for us, but this vibe for us is definitely where we want to stay and grow from.”
There’s a revealing tension in that statement.
The band understands that creative identity is constantly evolving.
But they have also reached a point where their current sound feels less like an approximation of what they want to become and more like an authentic expression of who they already are.
Capturing the Energy of a Live Show
To help translate that vision into a finished record, New Vision worked with producer Adam Cichocki, whose credits include Koyo, One Step Closer, and Soul Blind.
For the band, the collaboration offered an opportunity to reconsider songs they had already spent considerable time developing.
When musicians become deeply familiar with their own material, it can be difficult to hear alternative possibilities.
Arrangements begin to feel inevitable.
Production decisions become habits.
And the version of a song that exists in rehearsal can gradually become the only version anyone imagines.
Cichocki brought a different perspective.
“Adam was able to listen to them with a fresh set of ears, where we were used to hearing them their specific way,” explains Josh.
That outside perspective created room for experimentation.
Rather than simply documenting the band’s existing arrangements, the recording process became another opportunity to explore the material.
For Josh, the experience felt unusually open.
“It felt very free being able to experiment with the new songs during recording.”
The objective was not to transform New Vision into something unrecognizable.
It was to help the band fully realize the energy they already knew the songs contained.
That distinction matters.
A producer’s most valuable contribution isn’t always introducing a radically different sound.
Sometimes it’s helping artists recognize the possibilities already present in their own work.
The Unexpected Magic of Stop-Motion
While Can’t Leave With Less represents a more forceful musical direction, the visual world surrounding “SPICE” introduces a different kind of creative energy.
The song’s music video, created by Stephen Coad, uses stop-motion animation to translate its playful philosophy into a distinctive visual experience.
It’s an interesting choice for a contemporary rock release.
In an era when digital production allows images to be manipulated almost instantaneously, stop-motion retains a visible relationship with physical labor and time.
Every movement requires deliberate construction.
Every frame depends on the one before it.
And the finished result carries a particular handmade quality that distinguishes it from more conventional digital animation.
For Caro, that quality was essential.
“Stop-motion has such a different and special quality to it, unlike any other visual form,” he explains.
“You can really feel the time, care, and intention behind every aspect.”
The band wanted the video to reflect the song’s playful character without losing its emotional meaning.
A cartoon-like aesthetic offered an opportunity to emphasize imagination, movement, and humor.
Coad’s interpretation helped bring that vision to life.
Rather than functioning simply as promotional material, the video becomes an extension of the song’s central philosophy.
Finding happiness doesn’t always require an elaborate explanation.
Sometimes it begins with allowing yourself to experience something unexpected, imaginative, or simply fun.
And the visual language of stop-motion offers a particularly fitting way to communicate that idea.
Finding Something New in the Familiar
Although much of the album focuses on collective growth and a renewed sense of musical identity, individual songs also reveal the band’s willingness to experiment with unfamiliar creative structures.
For Ryan, one of the most rewarding tracks to complete was “Dull Halo.”
The song presented a challenge because it marked the first time the band attempted to build a composition around a keyboard part.
For a group working within a hard-hitting rock framework, beginning with a different instrument can fundamentally change the songwriting process.
The rhythmic possibilities shift.
Melodies develop differently.
And the arrangement may follow a path that would never have emerged from a more familiar starting point.
Ryan describes the result as one of his favorite songs the band has ever created.
It’s a small but revealing example of the creative philosophy behind Can’t Leave With Less.
Growth doesn’t necessarily require abandoning the elements that define you.
Sometimes it comes from introducing one unfamiliar idea and allowing everything else to respond.
That willingness to experiment also reflects the band’s increasingly collaborative approach.
With more voices participating in the creative process, the possibilities expand.
And the music becomes less dependent on established habits.
Why Independent Community Still Matters
Can’t Leave With Less also marks New Vision’s first release with Papercut Recordings, an independent label whose artist-first approach aligns with the band’s current priorities.
For Josh, the relationship has been defined by transparency and a shared commitment to bringing the album into the world.
“Tuck and Leo from Papercut have been nothing but transparent and super helpful,” he explains.
“From our first interaction it was as if we were already pals.”
That sense of familiarity is particularly meaningful within independent music communities.
For emerging bands, releasing a record isn’t simply a matter of distributing finished songs.
It involves coordinating production, promotion, physical releases, touring, and the countless logistical decisions required to introduce music to an audience.
A supportive label can provide infrastructure without necessarily compromising the identity of the artist.
And for New Vision, whose new album is so closely connected to creative independence and collective decision-making, that relationship seems especially appropriate.
The band isn’t simply interested in releasing another collection of songs.
They’re building the foundation for the next phase of their career.
Taking the New Vision on the Road
The release of Can’t Leave With Less will also bring the band back to stages across the East Coast.
Their upcoming dates include performances in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Among the shows they’re particularly excited about are a return to Philadelphia, their first performance at MilkBoy, and a hometown-area date in Poughkeepsie on the album’s release day.
For Caro, the excitement is less about any single venue than about continuing to perform.
“We wanna keep this momentum up and play as much as we can!”
It’s an ambition that connects directly to the record’s production philosophy.
If the album was designed to capture the impact of New Vision’s live performances, touring provides the opportunity to complete that exchange.
The songs move from private writing sessions to the recording studio.
From the studio to listeners’ headphones.
And finally, back into rooms where they can be experienced collectively.
In that sense, the record’s release isn’t necessarily the end of the creative process.
It’s the moment when the music begins developing meanings beyond the band’s original intentions.
As Caro explains, the songs no longer belong exclusively to the people who wrote them.
“It’s not only for us anymore, it’s for everyone.”
In Conversation With New Vision
MUNDANE: You recently announced your new record Can’t Leave With Less—how are you feeling now that the announcement is officially out in the world?
Nico Caro: It feels awesome to finally share this record. It represents a new era for the band and it was written in a completely collaborative way, we all had our pieces of each song. We’ve spent so much time with these songs privately, that letting everyone hear them now is exciting. I hope people can start connecting with it in their own way and have their own ideas about the songs and meanings. It’s not only for us anymore, it’s for everyone.
MUNDANE: “SPICE” dives into finding yourself and finding the good even when life gets heavy. What inspired the creative direction and theme behind this specific track?
Nico Caro: “SPICE” came from the feeling of being overwhelmed. It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity everywhere and as it compounds over time, we can lose sight of the beauty that makes life exciting and worth it in the first place. I wanted the song to capture that feeling of goodness beating the bad, so to speak, just finding your happiness.
There’s an intentional sense of playfulness to it too, which gives it even more lightheartedness. I think the journey to finding yourself/what makes you happy doesn’t always have to be heavy/serious. “SPICE” is a reminder to keep looking for those things that make you feel alive and keep it fun whenever possible.
MUNDANE: Can you tell us about the process of making the stop-motion music video for “SPICE” with Stephen Coad?
Nico Caro: Working with Stephen Coad was such a sick way to bring the song’s world to life. Stop-motion has such a different and special quality to it, unlike any other visual form. You can really feel the time, care, and intention behind every aspect. There’s a magic to it that we felt best fit the song.
I loved the idea of having something cartoon-like and something that has a character to it, because the song has that fun piece to it too. Stephen brought so much creativity to the process, and it was exciting to see the concept take shape. He is such a talented artist and understood everything we wanted and took our vision and made it incredible. I think the finished video captures the spirit of “SPICE” in a really cool way.
MUNDANE: How do you feel “SPICE” and “I Am A Muse” set the tone for what listeners can expect from the full 11-track record?
Ryan: One of our goals was for this album to hit just as hard on your speakers as it does in person at a show and I think those two songs are great examples of that. It’s a really hard-hitting rock record.
MUNDANE: You mentioned that this record represents a new era that is closer to how you truly want to sound. What shifted in your approach to writing and recording this time around?
Ryan: We’ve all grown a lot musically and even just as people since we put out With Love back in 2022 and I think that’s noticeable in the songwriting on this new album.
On our past records usually Nico and I handled the lyrics and would come up with the “main idea” of a song but on this new record we all had a hand in writing lyrics, the arrangements, creating the “main idea,” literally everything. Everyone played a part in every aspect on this album and I’m really happy about that.
MUNDANE: What was it like working with producer Adam Cichocki on this album, and how did he help bring this new vision to life?
Josh: Working with Adam was a great experience. It felt very free being able to experiment with the new songs during recording. It was a great dynamic since Adam was able to listen to them with a fresh set of ears, where we were used to hearing them their specific way. He really helped round out and bring the energy we wanted to the whole album.
MUNDANE: Can’t Leave With Less is your first release with Papercut Recordings. How has the experience been partnering with the label so far?
Josh: Tuck and Leo from Papercut have been nothing but transparent and super helpful while trying to release this record, Can’t Leave With Less. From our first interaction it was as if we were already pals, just focused on getting this record off the ground the best way possible.
MUNDANE: Out of the 11 tracks on the tracklist, is there a specific song that was the most challenging or rewarding to finish?
Ryan: “Dull Halo” was both a rewarding and challenging one to finish because that was the first time we tried to write a song that was built around a keyboard part. I think it’s one of my (or our) favorite songs we’ve ever made.
MUNDANE: You’re heading out on tour across the East Coast later this year. Which cities or venues are you most excited to hit?
Nico Caro: We’re super excited to be back in Philadelphia, always great shows there for us. Gonna be our first time at MilkBoy which we’ve seen around a lot! We’re going up to Boston too which is awesome. We have a hometown show in Poughkeepsie, NY, that’s gonna be so sick. Very happy to be playing more and we wanna keep this momentum up and play as much as we can!
MUNDANE: What do you hope fans take away from Can’t Leave With Less when it drops on December 4?
New Vision: I hope people can get something from this record and relate to it. We always try to keep it real and be true to ourselves and we want that to reflect in our work. This record has been our world for a while now and we’re happy to have everyone in it now.
The Courage to Keep Becoming
There is something particularly meaningful about a band describing its new album as a more authentic representation of who its members have become.
Because artistic growth is rarely a straightforward progression from one identity to another.
Sometimes it means questioning the habits that once felt essential.
Sometimes it means allowing other people to contribute more deeply to something you previously considered your responsibility.
And sometimes it means realizing that the version of yourself you were trying to become has already begun to emerge through the decisions you’ve been making.
For New Vision, Can’t Leave With Less represents all of those possibilities.
It’s an album built through collective experimentation, shaped by the desire to preserve the physical intensity of live rock music, and informed by a growing understanding of what the band wants to communicate.
But its emotional foundation may be even more important than its musical evolution.
Through songs such as “SPICE” and “I Am A Muse,” New Vision are exploring the relationship between personal identity and the pressures that threaten to undermine it.
They’re asking what it means to recognize your own worth.
To remain open to happiness.
To refuse to let difficult circumstances become the entirety of your emotional experience.
And to remember that growth doesn’t always have to feel like a struggle.
Perhaps the most revealing statement comes from Caro’s explanation of “SPICE.”
The song isn’t simply about overcoming negativity.
It’s about continuing to search for the things that make life exciting and worthwhile.
And there’s something quietly radical about that idea.
Because in a world that often rewards exhaustion, cynicism, and relentless self-criticism, choosing to remain curious about happiness can become its own form of defiance.
New Vision aren’t suggesting that everything will suddenly become easier.
They’re suggesting that difficulty doesn’t have to eliminate possibility.
And as they prepare to release Can’t Leave With Less, the band seems to have arrived at a creative identity built around precisely that understanding.
The music is louder.
The songwriting is more collaborative.
The ambitions are clearer.
But the underlying message remains remarkably human.
Sometimes finding yourself isn’t about becoming someone entirely different. It’s about remembering what makes you feel alive, refusing to let the world take it away, and realizing that whatever comes next, you don’t have to leave with less of yourself than you started with.
Can’t Leave With Less — Tracklist
- Rattlesnake
- Still Losing
- When The Sun Explodes
- Blade
- We All Fall Down
- Crawl Space
- Open Hands
- I Am A Muse
- SPICE
- Caught In The Web
- Dull Halo
Artist: New Vision
Album: Can’t Leave With Less
Release date: December 4, 2026
Label: Papercut Recordings
Producer: Adam Cichocki
Singles: “SPICE” and “I Am A Muse”
Origin: Hudson Valley, New York
Follow New Vision: Instagram | TikTok | Facebook
Exclusive interview with New Vision for MUNDANE. Interview answers have been lightly edited for grammar, punctuation, and readability while preserving the band’s original meaning and perspective.
