From left to right: Drew Buzzell (Current Bassist), Carrie Davidson (Lead Vocals), Tommy O'Brien (Drums), Tyler Eisenhart (Guitars)

1. How did A New Shade start?

Tyler:
Tommy and I played together under a few names with some of our buddies. We weren't into sports, so we got into music.

When we got rid of our ex-singers, we invited Carrie to try out ¡Vand she fit in well.

Tommy:
Tyler and I were like ¡§hey I can play this song on the guitar-well maybe I can play it on the drums¡¨ and that's how the band started.

Carrie:
We've had multiple bassist throughout the years.

Tommy:
Mostly due to college-our original bass player is two to three years older than we are and he left.

2. So how many of you are from Ohio?

Tyler:
Three of us (Tommy,Tyler, Carrie). We went to grade school together. We (Tyler and Carrie) are dating and have been for 5 years and we met through our old band.

3. How long has Drew been in the band?

Drew:
2 months. I'm friends with Carrie's friend and Carrie asked me if I would try out for their band. I was like ¡VYeah! Then I went out and bought a bass guitar.

Tyler:
He does it well.

4.  Since the three of you actually came from Ohio, has it been hard adjusting coming to a new state where you don't have a reputation yet?

Carrie:
The scene is a lot different here.

Tyler:
Columbus offers a lot of opportunities for local bands to play ¡V but as far as radio goes, the stations play more diverse genre towards rock here.

Tommy:
We've just had some lucky streaks getting shows here.

Down here it seems like there are only a few certain things that allow metal acts to play

Carrie:
It was really hard starting out.

Tyler:
Venues down here are more interested in how much money you'll bring in than what kind of sound you have.

Drew:
You have to constantly call them and fight for it to get to play in some places around here.

Tommy:
In Columbus it seems that it was a lot easier to get shows and they would tell you right away. Places down here want you to have played all these shows and been the headlining band.

Tyler:
It's kind of weird starting from the bottom.

Carrie:
It's a challenge.

5. How would you describe A New Shade's sound?

Tyler:
We're such an eclectic group it's hard to pin it down to just one genre.

Tommy:
One of the radio personalities in Columbus said that we sounded like Evanescence, but I find the more we grow as musicians, we're starting to sound more heavy metal with the female vocals.

Tyler:
That's where it's frustrating because we have a female singer we're pinned into Evanescence or Lacuna Coil, which musically, I think we have nothing on.

6. Are there any bands that have influenced your sound?

Carrie:
Defiantly Black Sabbath.

Tyler:
Randy Rhodes, Dimeback Darrel, Pantera, anything 80's

I really like their guitar back in the 80's because back then there was such competition to be a good player ¡V and now it's just more money. And that's what sucks is that the level of playing has gone down so far. Someone can just get up on stage and jump around and that's what people care about.

Tommy:
But influence -wise we all pull from different sounds. Like me, honestly, I can listen to Kelly Clarkson and be influenced if it's good.

Carrie:
Talent is important.

Tommy:
I can listen to just about anything-except for Dave Matthews or U2.

Tyler:
I'm the close-minded one of the group. I just listen to Rock.

Tommy:
Anything that has energy and you put your heart into it-they'll listen to it.

In Jimmy Eat World's Sweetness you can tell that they were putting all their energy into it.

Maybe to sum it up: It means something to the artist.

Carrie:
I'm a fan of bands that have strong front people-like Brave-she has a beautiful voice-she inspires me a lot. I listen to everything-like Classical and Showtunes. I used to do a lot of musicals.

Drew:
It's (musicals) the best material ever written for voice. It tends to offer emotional communication.

Tyler:
That's why I like the 80's music. It's focused on guitar and musicals are focused on voice.

7. So, Carrie, what kind of musical training have you had?

Carrie:
I was trained classically. I was in choirs and ensembles for a few years. I wanted to try different styles of singing so, I decided to join a rock band.

8.  How do you create your songs? Do you write the lyrics and then the song, or do you start with a beat and create lyrics around it?

Carrie:
Well, I have a book of lyrics that I go from and then Tyler usually comes up with the guitar part and then we add the bass and drums

Drew:
I've only been with the band a few months, but we're working on some stuff ¡V it's always a battle putting the songs together. We're always fighting because we try to put something together that's really good.

Tyler:
We're all strong personalities and each one wants something different and we're very vocal about what we want.

9. So I hear that you're going to record an album?

Carrie:
We've wanted to for a while, but we're going to have to wait after Christmas break, but January early February.

Tommy:
We've have difficulties with our original recording-transferring from one studio. We're going to do things differently this time.

10. What kind of album is it going to be? What kind of songs do you expect to be on it?

Carrie:
We're probably going to re-record a lot of our songs and add about 5 more songs.

Tyler:
We're going for a typical 12 track cd.

11.  Will you do any cover songs?

Tyler:
We've done the Cranberries cover of "Zombie", Lacuna Coil ¡§Swamped¡¨, Collective Soul, and we're doing Crazy Train right now.

We've been thinking about doing a Rush song or Dio

Drew:
As far as on the cd, we won't do any covers because of copyright issues.

12. Where are you planning to distribute once you've got the cd made?

Tommy:
Anywhere we can.

Tyler:
At one point, people were sending us their addresses and we were trying to send them songs. It got expensive because we were trying to fund it ourselves, so we had to stop doing that.

Carrie:
Myspace has been the best thing that's come out.

Tommy:
We would have never been able to reach this many people without it-100 people let alone 1000 people.

Tyler:
I don't know if we'll be able to mass produce cd's and send them out to people, because that could get expensive.

Drew:
And no one wants to pay that much money for a local band.

Tommy:
We may have some to sell at shows but a small amount. The files online are easier access for someone in Europe or any other country to get.

Drew:
Instead of saying we're poor-we can say ¡§We really support the evolution of music¡¨

Tyler:
¡Kstarving artists...

13. When you started the band what was your main goal from then to what you've evolved to now?

Tyler:
That's a good question-I wouldn't say that we had a goal-we just wanted to start a band.

Carrie:
I remember you (Tyler and Tommy) really wanted to make it big at first.

Tommy:
We started out as a punk band.

Tyler:
We used to cover Blink 182.

Tommy:
Musically it wasn't that fun.

Tyler:
It wasn't much of a challenge-we grew out of it.

Tommy:
I guess the initial goal that was in my mind was to get paid to hang out with my friends and play a show every other night. Now it's to have fun and to take it wherever it goes.

Carrie:
I just like to reach people-it's the universal language.

Drew:
Establishing a relationship with our audience is more important then getting famous or having a lot of people know of us, but not know us.

It's amazing that bands don't take the time to talk to people who are the reason they exist.

14. What do you like about playing live?

Everyone:
Everything

Drew:
¡Kexcept the stress. When you're first starting out playing like kind of sucks because you're making a commitment to a business owner to make them money, and when you don't know what your fan base is you end up paying $100 for security that you don't even need - it's frustrating.

Carrie:
I get really nervous.

Tommy:
At first, like when we played at our local talent show I was nervous as hell-but now, I can't wait to play.

Tyler:
I was the opposite. I started out not liking to play live. I just wanted to play the guitar, I never liked performing. I just got into performing because it was expected being in a band an then I grew to like it. I enjoy how we sound together and crowd responses and the action.

Carrie:
I just feed off of the audience's energy and if it's not there then I freak out.

Tyler:
At the last show we felt closer because we kind of knew everyone-even though it was people from Myspace, it's awesome that you came out to see a band that you met on Myspace.

Tommy:
Nothing is cooler than when you say the next song is an original song that you've made, and the crowd goes crazy and sings along with you-that's a blast! Even if it's just two people.

Tyler:
The fans make it fun. It is rough to perform when you have people just staring you in the face.

Tommy:
Like, once, we played in a bar and the people looked really sketchy and they were there just to be at the bar and not listen to the music.


The sound guy was awful¡K

Drew:
Yeah, it does matter if you're good-if you go up there and the sound guy doesn't have his stuff together-you sound bad.

15.  So, being a female-fronted band, do you run into any stereotypes?

Tommy:
We get compared to bands like Evanescence or Lacuna Coil- or you can go in the opposite way like Otep and Arch Enemy.

Drew:
It's hard for people to understand that we're not Evanescence

Tommy:
If you look at certain bands their whole facade is toward aggression, like ¡§How the fuck are you?¡¨

Carrie:
Although it does take talent to do that-I can't do that!

Tyler:
I guess there are just different levels and we don't fall in either one of them.-So¡KA New Shade¡K

16.  How important do you think stage presence is as far as band representation goes?

Carrie:
People are not just listening, they're also watching the show ¡VIt's pretty important.

Tyler:
The difference between the general accepted stereotype of stage presence is like, headbanging.

Drew:
It's something that if you're comfortable with the stage. Like, if you're watching a play, the actor that has the most stage presence isn't the one that's flailing about and being really ridiculous-it's not the Jim Carrey- it's the one that's standing off in the background ¡V and he looks so comfortable and you believe him even though he's not doing anything. A lot of bands have the misconception that they should move around a lot and headbang. You're not feeling the music if you're perpetuating what's cliche.

Tommy:
Also, the music we play is more technical.

Drew:
Yea, I just started playing bass, but I'm a music major and I play guitar. Everything I play, I try to write beforehand and to learn to play it afterwards, it's really hard for me, so I just have to sit up there and look cool.

Carrie:
It's hard to do something that's never been done before.

Drew:
That's another thing that's an issue-we don't want to be known for our image, we want to be known for our music.

That's what we're about-and that part of the business that takes away from music-you have to look good. I've made some contact with some people and a lot of them just want to see pictures.

Tyler:
It's changed so much from back then because it was about the music and now it's not so much. Classic guitar was all riffs.

Carrie:
Image is always important-that's just the reality of it.

Tyler:
Tommy and I were into Rob Zombie and that's how we first started into gothic music¡V the fake blood, and glowing in the dark. We used to try to color ourselves in with highlighters-it was fun, but it got old.

Drew:
Tommy and Tyler are definitely more into that kind of music and their lifestyle might perpetuate it, but I'm an indie kid. I like obscure pop. When I play with them I try not to take away from their image.

Tommy:
I usually try to wear like, a white shirt-just to offset the typical black pants, black shirt motif that a lot of bands wear.

 

In closing, Nocturnal Euphony would like to thank A New Shade for their time to do this interview.

 

 

**Check them out on Myspace

**Download them on iTunes and Napster


 

 

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