What Calling It Progressive Pop Says About Dave Lebental and Changing the Way I Feel
What Calling It Progressive Pop Says About Dave Lebental and Changing the Way I Feel
A Piano-Written Single From Los Angeles, Built up Part by Part in One Home Studio
Dave Lebental has his own name for the style of Changing the Way I Feel: progressive pop. His live photos make the case before a note plays. He stands at centre stage behind a Yamaha keyboard, a saxophonist on one side and a guitarist on the other. It is a fair picture of a single written at the piano and dressed with horns.
Dave Lebental’s Changing the Way I Feel is in the playlist below, next to the indie pop rock this desk follows. His full coverage is collected on his artist profile. The single reached AltPop.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Hit play, then keep reading.
Dave Lebental Wrote His Progressive Pop Single About the Moment a Song Finally Works
The label is a presentation choice, and a telling one. The song runs to just over five minutes, moves through several sections and still keeps its hooks close. On Spotify it is credited to Karma Train, his live band, alongside Lebental himself. Yet he recorded almost every part of it alone.
It came out on 4 July 2025. The music video followed three days later, directed, filmed and curated by Chris Emmanouilides. The track then became the third song on Stylus, his second solo LP, released in 2026.
Its subject is songwriting itself. In a track-by-track guide for V13 Media, Lebental described a look behind the scenes of his own process. It runs through procrastination, writer’s block, unfinished ideas and late nights before inspiration finally breaks through.
The chorus is the turning point. It is the rush of clarity when a song comes together and the first playback sounds right. A line on his band’s website puts the scale of it modestly. The song is not changing the world, only the way he feels.
Piano, Organ, Slide Guitar and Four Horns Make Up the Arrangement He Built Alone
Start with the piano, because everything else sits on top of it. Lebental wrote the song on the instrument. Then he built the track up in layers: grand piano, organ, bass, slide guitar and synth.
The horns are his as well. He played tenor sax, alto sax, trumpet and trombone himself. So every brass and reed line comes from the same pair of hands as the piano, and he also sang all the vocal parts.
Lebental names his influences without fuss. Supertramp is one, a band that built its hits around keyboards with a saxophone in the frame. Jellyfish, the San Francisco group whose layered power pop still sets a high bar for ornate arrangements, is another. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, World Party, Billy Joel and Elton John complete the list.
The structure is where the progressive part comes in. By his own account, the song has several sections, which adds some complexity. Meanwhile, the hooks repeat often enough to keep the ride comfortable. That balance is the whole pitch of the genre name: ambition, with the chorus never far away.
A Los Angeles Home Studio, Every Vocal Part Sung by Lebental and a Song That Keeps Shifting
The production story is short and self-contained. Lebental recorded the track in his home studio in Los Angeles. He writes, produces and releases his own material, so the production choices are his too.
Reviewers of Stylus heard the ambition. Rock The Pigeon pointed to an intricate vocal melody and strong piano playing. The review also singled out a chord progression that stands out against simpler melodies. The song keeps shifting and transforming, the review added, without ever feeling messy.
The Gatekeeper went further. It heard a chord progression that wanders in interesting directions and a vocal melody that is intricate without becoming indulgent. It also caught the joke in the design: a song about writer’s block whose restless shifts sound like creative gears grinding, then catching.
Lebental’s own shorthand is simpler: a playful piano-rock groove with classic pop instincts. He is also a vinyl devotee who writes at the piano, which explains the album’s title. After all, a stylus is the needle on a turntable, and it is also a writing tool.
A Long Run on the California Club Circuit and a Seasoned Live Band
The persona behind it has a long history. In the 1990s, Lebental fronted the guitar-driven rock bands Sunflower and Placebo Royale. The latter’s independent release Crème de Mentia charted on CMJ. Both bands worked the California club circuit, sharing bills with Mick Taylor, Jane’s Addiction and Midnight Oil, among others.
On stage, the songs pass to Karma Train. The line-up features drummer Gary Ferguson, whose credits include Etta James, Cher and Gary Moore. Saxophonist Dan Boissy has worked with Larry Carlton. Guitarist and keyboard player John “JT” Thomas and bassist Mick Linden complete it.
So who is it for? Listeners who like pop with more than one section, a piano at the centre and a horn chart on top. It also suits anyone who has stared at an unfinished idea, waiting for it to click.
From the AltPop.News Curator Team: “Changing the Way I Feel is a song about the moment a song starts working, and Lebental plays nearly every part of it to prove the point. Progressive pop is exactly the right name for it.”
Where to Hear the Progressive Pop of Dave Lebental, From the Single to the Stylus LP
Changing the Way I Feel is out as a single credited to Karma Train and Dave Lebental. It also sits third on Stylus, which is out on vinyl and CD. According to his website, all proceeds from his vinyl and CD sales go to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Karma Train took the album on the road as the Stylus Tour this year. The release shows landed at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix and Humphrey’s in San Diego.
Stream the single on Spotify or Apple Music, and find Dave Lebental on his Spotify profile, the Apple Music artist page and Bandcamp. For videos, head to his YouTube channel and the Karma Train YouTube channel. Then follow him on Instagram and Facebook, check the Karma Train Facebook page and visit the official site and the Karma Train site.
About The Author
