Spotlight: Shai Brides
Story & Photos By Henry Ager
DEVELOPING A COMPLEX AND DEEP SOUND - Shai Brides has carefully crafted their distinct sound through continued exploration. In their short history, the group has been able to develop a strong personality through their recording process. Consisting of Sam Cheeswright (guitar and keys), Jez Caglayan (bass), Cam Williams (drums), Thom Dent (vocals and guitar) and Meghan Avery (Keys and vocals), the individuals create a powerhouse of a sound together. Their latest track “Tokyo Drift” displays their growth already, and their desire to keep learning.
In 2019, the five-piece released their first single “Joie de Vivre”, gaining extremely positive reviews including continuing support from BBC Introducing West Midlands. This initial support encouraged the band to keep moving forward and most importantly, keep experimenting.
Shai Brides record and market their music independently, allowing them full creative control. “Joie de Vivre”’ centers around a catchy riff and has quickly become a fan favorite; always gaining a big reaction when played live. The track’s counterbalance of the lyrics and the music creates an interesting dynamic, as the music is upbeat and positive, whilst the lyrics are loosely about remaining happy even when things can be rough. However, generally Shai Brides’ songs aim to transport you to a headspace for personal lyrical interpretation.
Their latest single “Tokyo Drift” is the first of five new songs to be released in 2020. Each song has their own personality as the band welcomes each unique sound to come naturally during their creative process, Dent shares,“When we are in the studio putting together tunes it’s not just what it needs to sound like, but what it needs to say, what it needs to look like” This leads the Brides into conducting dedicated social media campaigns, involving creative photoshoots and interactive aspects, for each release of a single, Dent explains,“Putting your music online is an equivalent to putting it up for sale in the world’s biggest record shop,”meaning you have to really put in the effort to stand out.
For “Tokyo Drift”, the campaign has involved immersive posts on Instagram styled as a retro arcade style game where you select your character (band member). The bright flashy colors highlighted in the campaign are much like an arcade or fair ground, already eluding to the bright and fun personality of “Tokyo Drift”. This expertly crafted campaign has been the result of the hard work from a collaboration of creatives, Dentnotes, “We are lucky to know a bunch of people that know their stuff more than we do, so when we want to try an idea out we can work with them.”
Photographer Sam Larsen-Disney was approached with the themes and ideas the Brides wanted for “Tokyo Drift”, and was soon able to craft the creative project. Using his knowledge and creative freedom he turned the initial idea into the series of fascinating photos that match the personality of ‘Tokyo Drift’.
The recording of “Tokyo Drift” was the first time the band have worked alongside a producer, Gavin Monaghan, and recorded in a professional studio. Monaghan is the “cornerstone of great music in Birmingham,” Caglayan explains, having worked with musicians such as Jaws and Editors. Dedicated to his job and naturally creative, he has worked closely with the Brides to produce the single. Whilst providing ideas and help he has never “tried to put his signature producer slant on it” says Caglayan, exclusively helping the Brides to facilitate the ideas they have come up with.
In the past year the group has been writing together, they’ve been able to see different styles develop as well as find a solid flow with their process. Early material such as “Joie de Vivre” and “Tokyo Drift” was written by Dent alone, while new material has had a more collective input from all band members.
Shai Brides credit their diverse sound to their varied musical influences as well as their ability to step outside of their comfort zone. More recently their music has become structurally technical, helped by the release of their “Bridal Sketches”. These were seven, one minute long recordings of music written by Avery and Dent, released once a week over a seven-week period. The time pressure created by the releases helped them to focus on their creativity and embrace limitations.
The seven releases are gradually being developed into full songs, to become part of their live shows and create future singles. The Brides hope that these sketches will become an “Easter egg” for fans to look back on and witness the progression of the songs from their initial creation.
As for the live side of things, Birmingham Promoters spotted the Brides during an early gig and have since developed a relationship that has led to key support gigs and later headlining shows at some of Birmingham’s best venues. From the gigs they’ve secured, the Brides have developed a reputation establishing repeat shows around the city, whilst learning and building a solid fan base. A supportive community of bands has emerged in their base town of Selly Oak, known as the B29 for the postcode of their area. B29 toured the UK during the summer of 2019 giving Shai Brides the chance to learn from many other musicians and offer guidance to others. Through the tour the community grew stronger “it’s just a bunch of creatives supporting a bunch of creatives” Williams says, allowing them to share techniques with each other.
Shai Brides continue to work to improve their live show to create an awesome display that transports your mind - transfixed and mesmerized. They are not afraid to constantly experiment to make their set true to the recordings while bringing in a visual experience as well. Their creativity will continue to grow as they do as a band as they have a vision and are working to achieve it.
