After coming off a tour with indie pop band, Sir Sly, SHAED, pronounce “shade,” an electro-pop trio from Washington D.C., prepared for a show at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. The trio is made up of twin brothers, Max and Spencer Ernst, and Chelsea Lee. The trio has been friends since high school, and are practically a family, since Chelsea and Spencer are engaged. “Chelsea is soon to be officially part of the family as well, which is exciting,” said Max.
“We’ve known each other since high school and just met each other through the D.C. music scene”
The trio began their rehearsal after their touring mates, Foreign Air. Max and Spencer took over setting up on the stage. Chelsea started off soundcheck by doing a mic check, singing bits and pieces of their songs “Too Much” and “Just Wanna See.” The track “Too Much” can be best described as an electro-pop track with Lee’s strong vocals adds to the catchy melody. “Just Wanna See” is a bit slowed down, but the music assembly makes the track stand out with a balance with Lee’s vocals.
The brothers produced and share the instrumentation in the band and Chelsea is the lead singer. Spencer plays drums, keys and guitar, while Max takes over as bass guitar. “We’ve known each other since high school and just met each other through the D.C. music scene,” said Max. They became best friends and hung out with each other for a long time before they decided to start making efforts to put a music project together.
In March 2016, SHAED was formed.
“We experiment with a lot synthesizers and just like electronic pop”
SHAED’s sound can be described as alternative electronic-pop, but the band says it’s hard to pinpoint their sound. “We experiment with a lot synthesizers and just like electronic pop,” said Spencer. “I would say we generally listen to altzy music and we always try to listen to new stuff, right now we are really into H.E.R.,” said Chelsea.
Individually, their influences range. Chelsea grew up listening to Frank Sinatra, alternative 80s music and Peter Gabriel. “Spencer and I were more 70s, so it was Tom Petty and Crosby Stills Nash, but the crossover between our groups, like we both listen to the Police. That was a big influence for us,” said Max.
SHAED toured with Sir Sly this year and they had nothing but great things about the band and their experience traveling to different cities. “We love those guys and we were on the road with them for over a month and they are awesome performers, awesome people. We actually got to write some music with them too and yeah they are just all round fun guys to hang out with,” said Spencer.
Max expressed how fortunate the band is to be on such great tours. “Our first tour was with Marian Hill and then we went on tour with Bishop Briggs and then Sir Sly, so we been pretty lucky to tour with great acts,” said Max.
SHAED has released two singles, “Lonesome” and “Too Much.” They also released an EP entitled Just Wanna See. Chelsea Lee says they are currently writing new material. “We all just moved into a house, so we’re putting all our efforts into writing bunch of songs after this and we already have big pot of stuff already,” she said. “A big focus is just releasing new music in 2018,” said Spencer.
FUN FACTS ABOUT SHAED
- Chelsea Lee’s first concert experience was NYSNC
- Max and Spencer’s first concert experience was Coldplay, but when they playing smaller venues!
- If Chelsea can bring back any artist back from the dead, it would Frank Sinatra.
- Spencer would bring back Fred Mercury.
- Max would bring back John Lennon back from the dead.
Read the rest of our feature with SHAED here.
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