Album Notes

Shades of Red began in 2004 as a weekly meeting of Seattle suburbanites with varied musical backgrounds. After working up a few sets of covers and playing a few local venues, the band began to develop its trademark sound with dual female vocalists and rich layered harmonies. The band soon realized that many of its members had written original songs that might someday turn into a CD. The music began to flow from that point, with creative collaboration the focal point of the band's sessions. Putting their gig schedule on hold temporarily, the band began to focus on recording the CD December Sunday, which was released in January 2008.

Band Bios:

Jack Brand is a composer, arranger and songwriter who lives in Woodinville, WA. He learned piano at a young age and taught himself guitar in high school. He holds a degree in Music Composition from the University of Missouri but makes no excuse for being an avid student of Top 40/Pop/Rock over the years. He loves the diverse talent and intensely collaborative spirit within Shades of Red, which continually pushes him to new musical places.

Mark Hopkins has been a musician since the age of 10 when he joined the school band playing drums and trumpet. These days, he focuses on playing guitar and bass. He has been writing his own music since high school. He also owns a recording studio and has produced CDs for many Seattle area bands. He is thoroughly enjoying the chance to explore music with such a talented group of musicians.

Laura Lagerstedt has been singing and playing music for as long as she can remember. She played violin in grade school and flute in Junior High. She has taken a handful of vocal lessons but her main instructors were radio stations, tapes and records of her favorite artists

Paul Springer has been dabbling in the usual assortment of garage band instruments since high school and hasn't been in a band since playing bass about four years ago. But Paul Springer is not going to lie to you. He's pretty much only playing with these people in order to improve his skills in Rock Band for the Xbox 360. (This works out great because he's pretty sure that these people are only letting him play with them to comply with some kind of government musical generational quota thing.)

Solveig Whittle has been singing folk, blues and rock since college with a variety of partners and bands. She has been playing the flute since 6th grade (thanks to Mr. Howard Borodin, music teacher), but she discovered she really liked harmonizing while singing in her high school choir. She still loves the thrill of participating in Handel's Messiah public sing-alongs. She enjoys hearing new pop music on the radio (with the exception of the Umbrella Song). This is a good thing, since her teenage daughters will not allow her to listen to NPR while they are riding in the car with her.