Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shades of Oleander. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Shades of, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

We had the privilege of participating with The Sing Me a Story Foundation on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and a young person named Calvin who wrote a story called Jumanji 3.

The foundation’s mission is “to serve deserving families in need through the imaginative stories of their children and the power of music. With the help of songwriters, We create music inspired by the creative stories of children. These songs and stories remind us all of how much we have in common, raise awareness and financial aid for nonprofits around the world and, most of all, provide families with an unforgettable experience that brings joy and healing.”

We appreciated the opportunity to do something positive and, after reading dozens of stories, were inspired to write a song for 10 year old Calvin’s story, Jumanji 3. The whole experience was amazing and we are grateful to have been asked to participate!

A link to the song and means to donate can be found here:
https://singmeastory.org/stories/jumanji-3?song=1611

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

For Josh Rivers (Lead vocals, Keys, Guitar), Phillip McCarthy (Lead Guitar, Bass), and Josh Foust (Drums, Support Vocals), forming as ‘Shades of Oleander’ at the start of 2020 may
have seemed like a good idea in January, but, by March the world had descended into utter
chaos and it was clear that we were not going to be making any public appearances anytime
soon. In hindsight, I guess that was a good thing because it allowed us to really take our time
and write some great songs! And now we are working hard to get out and play shows as well as
releasing some of the work we’ve been doing.
We released our first single, “L Words” in February of 2021 and it’s music video in March
which has garnered more than 90k streams across streaming platforms. Our second release,
“Hell Bent” was released in July and is already over 150k streams as well! We also have a
music video for this single that was released this spring. Lastly, we have our debut album that
dropped last fall! This has locked in a great start for the band and we hope you’ will join us!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think sometimes we can have a limited understanding of what success is or isn’t for others. Or what it could or couldn’t be. For example: Individually, we have been playing music for decades and have heard many comments inferring failure or lack of success given the time invested. But that assumes that a creatives only motivation is riches and/or fame. And the reality is that many creatives use their art as an outlet of expression. When we write a song, there was an emotion that started the spark that later became that song and we want to emulate that every time we play it. It’s way for us to express those emotions in a much healthier way over keeping things bottled up or lashing out. We don’t really think about art as success or failure because it’s really about expression and as long as we are able to do that then we will continue to be creative.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’m not sure how many smooth roads actually exist but we’ve definitely had our struggles. Being in an industry that typically requires large groups of people in close proximity to
each other when the world needed social distancing wasn’t easy for anyone in entertainment.
Even now, as the world has been opening back up, there is understandably hesitation on
hosting events that promote large crowds. I would say that has been our biggest struggle by far
but we are finding more and more ways to get out and be heard. We truly believe that the world
will always need music that speaks to people and we hope to be a voice.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.shadesofoleander.com/
• Instagram: shadesofoleander
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shadesofoleander/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFhswNoJftn2ygBpqLk_Lpg/featured