Shades of Jade

THE MUSIC:

THE STORY:

Soul Rock band, ‘Shades of Jade’ are a London based band who plan to make 2012 the year all about them. After previous success as a solo artist, Jade Barnett fronts London’s hottest new band with an interesting polygenre of powerful soulful vocals mixed with dirty rock guitars.

Shades of Jade is the result of the long time creative partnership by vocalist Jade Barnett and guitarist/composer Mat Jones. Jade and Mat met at University of Westminster where they both studied an undergraduate degree in music. It wasn’t until their second year of college, that they actually crossed paths when they were placed in the same group for their performance module. It was apparent from the beginning that the two had a knack for coming up with great vocal lines and strong rhythm and harmony to support. They continued working together till the end of their degree as the partnership proved to be successful. After Westminster, Jade took time off to go travelling while Mat continued his music education at postgraduate level at Goldsmiths. It wasn’t until 2010 when they picked up where they left off with a lot of work to do! It was agreed that a clear direction was needed to ensure the correct sound to compliment Jade’s impressive vocal skills and to also show the real, raw character to the songs. By combining Jade’s background in Soul and Jazz and Mat’s upbringing on the electric guitar the new soundscape of Soul Rock had emerged.

They knew in order to portray the energy and attitude of the songs to live audiences, the right personnel had to be recruited which is where the rest of the band came into picture. Keyboardist Andrey Novikov, bassist Chris Ormiston and drummer Harpal Mudhar were the first choice musicians to be picked as Mat and Jade had known from personal experience that these guys were going to bring the songs to life. Mat had played with Harpal and Chris previously in a Jazz band and had already developed a strong personal and professional relationship with both. Both Mat and Harpal had played with Andrey in another band so quickly recruited him as his fantastic ear for music and sound performance skills could be put to good use.

The band recorded their debut EP, ‘Her Soul’ at Artspace Studios in Brixton in November and have been working hard on their image and building their fan base. Their EP and internet presence has attracted promoters from all over London to be booking them for gigs up until next year. People have compared the band to the likes of Florence + The Machine, Skunk Anansie, Kelly Clarkson and The XX. Their EP, ‘Her Soul’ will was launched in December at the XFM Winter Wonderland After Party at Brixton Jamm and the band are currently promoting and gigging the album across the UK.

RELEASE ARTWORK:

TOUR DATES:

3rd February @ Comedy Pub – Leicester Square, London. Tickets: £5 Guestlist or £6 Door
25th February @ The Bowery – New Oxford Street, London. Tickets: £6 Guestlist or £8 Door

MORE PRESS PHOTOS:

CURRENT PRESS QUOTES:

“Shades of Jade will most definitely be successful given the right break, let’s just hope Adele doesn’t get wind first.” – weareunseen.co.uk

“In just five songs Shade of Jade manage to do what many most bands still haven’t done off the back of two or three albums; prove their credentials to the world and get you really excited about the diversity and creativity in music away from the mainstream” - AltSounds.com

LIKE SHADES OF JADE ON FACEBOOK:

LINKS:

Shades Of Jade Facebook
Shades Of Jade Twitter
Shades Of Jade Official Website
Shades Of Jade Sound Cloud
Shades Of Jade Myspace
Shades Of Jade YouTube