Shades & Degrees
The story of Shades and Degrees:
Inspiration can be one of the most mysterious and magical forces in the universe.
Many of the songs that we (Jim Shaw, and I, Randy Zahara) have written are the product of traditional sources of inspiration. Having been alive long enough for the Earth to travel over 120 billion kilometers orbiting the sun, Jim and I have lived, loved, lost, experienced, shared, cared, cried, laughed, danced, fought, worked, played, ate, feared, forged and fumbled our way through life on a journey which we have tried to capture with honesty, and empathy in our songwriting.
When asked how we came up with our original ideas and/or creativity, we often tend to focus on our history, heritage, education, experience, and/or to the people and places that are, (or have been), important in our lives. It is usually easy to identify the source of inspiration for most of our creative, intuitive and unique ideas, however, our world, (and lives), are filled with uniquely brilliant, creative and original art, literature, science, mathematics and innovations that cannot be attributed to any of the above traditional motivators.
Often seen as paradigm shifting, or as ‘breakthrough’ moments, original concepts and creativity have been shaping the history of our world since the dawn of human consciousness. Some believe that divine intervention provides the inspiration needed to change our world in significant ways. Others believe that a global, or perhaps even a universal consciousness exists, and that our ability to connect with this kind of collective consciousness provides us with the intuitive tools needed for truly creative and inspired ideas. Over the past 20 plus years we have learned to trust our intuitions enough to sense, (and make some sense), of messages, ideas, and inspirations that appear to originate from somewhere beyond our own consciousness.
Having written hundreds of songs inspired by our own lives, and dozens of songs and several concept albums inspired by some form of external-consciousness, we have noticed some unique differences between the two kinds of songs. Songs from our experiences tend to be far more personal, they often focus on relationships, and we write them to help us, and others, learn from, or understand whatever the situation was that we were writing about.
Songs that we have written that have felt like an external hand was helping us to write them tend to have a more philosophical theme to them. They deal with broader issues that effect humankind as a species, or that impact the environment, or that relate to specific races or demographics of people. The inspiration that has been shared with us is often very vague, and not specific, and the purpose is primarily to draw attention to a specific issue or idea rather than to provide solutions.
As philosopher Herbert Marcuse said the purpose of 'Art' is not to "change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world.”
As much of our writing is designed to encourage people to think about issues from a different perspective, or to encourage them to become more self-aware and to help them understand themselves and the world they live in a little better, we often use subtlety, metaphor, and layers of meanings in our songs. Our world is rarely black and white, and there is no "on" or "off" switch for how we think and/or feel about the issues that face us, ultimately, perspective is a matter of Shades and Degrees.
Shades and Degrees’ first album, “Enlighten Me” is a collection of songs from life experiences, combined with themes originating from a collective-consciousness that share messages intended for the listening pleasure and inspiration of a global audience.