Grades Of Shade

Grades of Shade was conceived as a live band project mid 2007 stemming from Eugene Somer’s virtuoso at programming beats and skilful use of synths, bells and whistles! Eugene booked some studio time in Experimental Audio and recruited old friends Robbie Stanley, Barry Brennan and Mairead Heffron to complete a live band. Recordings went well (Silk’ & ‘Come Home’ can be heard on the bands Myspace site, www.myspace.com/gradesofshade)
The recordings were finished and Barry & Mairead both carried on with their own solo projects and Eugene and Robbie set about enticing permanent members to the assembly. Paul Maguire was the obvious choice on Guitars as he had played with Eugene & Robbie in prior outfits and brought a melodic bite to the fledgling outfit. Auditions were set for a singer. Hazel Peters came and impressed the guys with her powerful voice, competence and complete confidence in what she was doing and got the job hands down!
The new 4 piece embarked on a few live shows in Whelan’s and Transformer to see how the sound went down. Herald AM sent a journalist to the Whelan’s gig and compared Grades to a cross between Massive Attack and Groove Armada, nothing short of perfect for the bands 1st review.
More recording were to follow and on board came JMC rapper extraordinaire, again from the Northside, just to even things out, originally for the song ‘Ejector Seat’ but the band soon realised his MC’ing could be used on numerous tracks so there he stayed and has recently developed the fine art of shaker shaking!
The band recorded a live session with Cormac Moore from P-Boy studios, tracks from which are currently doing the rounds as excellent live demos. The bands debut double A side single will be released early 2009 accompanied by the ‘Ejector Seat’ video that is currently at the editors desk at Wellboy Films followed by the release of their debut album as soon as funds dictate!
The band have enjoyed packing Eamon Doran’s, Whelan’s and other such venues in Dublin in the short time they have been together and are elated at audiences' reaction and their sheer energy at live shows. If you haven’t been to one yet, better do so soon!