Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band Biography and Members


	"Everyone wants to be the sun that lights up your life, but I'd rather be your moon, so I can shine on you during your darkest hour when your sun isn't around." -Anonymous


	Sheila Kirsten Hughes: Songwriter, Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Cello, Fiddle Chris Hughes: Sound Engineer, Double Bass, Electric Bass, Percussion, Sequences, Keyboards

“For a long time we’ve worked to improve the quality of people’s lives through the music we create. Whether it’s just the shove they need to push them in the direction of their dreams, or just someone to shine some light on their situation and say they see it and they understand,” says singer and multi-instrumentalist Sheila. It is the sincere desire of the Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band to empower each person they come in contact with – even if it’s in a small way. Although they live with this goal in mind in their day-to-day actions, the music and live performance are a means by which to achieve this vision on a greater scale.
   In most recent news, the Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band’s song “Let It Rain Down” from their latest CD, Perspectives, received an “Honorable Mention” in the 2007 Singer/Songwriter Awards, an international songwriting competition based out of London, England. They were also a Semifinalist in the 2007 Independent Music World Series, a Disc Makers competition. And, they were one of just 25 artists selected for the 2008-2010 Florida State Touring Roster by the Division of Cultural Affairs.
   This winter, the band will embark upon their first journey into the world of film.
They will begin shooting the music video for “Discarded,” a new song about being thrown away. “When Sheila first played the song for me, I saw the video in my head – people being thrown to the roadside like trash. People are getting thrown away all the time. I just knew we had to shoot it. We’ve got to get it out there! And you’ll love the ending, too,” Chris explains.
   Inspired by the courage with which people maintain the struggle against
overwhelming odds, the Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band delivers empowering tales of triumph and adversity—some haunting, some surreal, others based on real-life issues. Their captivating live performance has been described as “beautiful, raw emotion in audio form.” (-Cindy Lucas, WBSP) 2007 has proven to be an exciting year for the Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band. Their new CD Perspectives is getting wonderful reviews, they were awarded the Artist Enhancement Grant by the State of Florida for a second year in a row, and their live-performance video has been selected for a Video Showcase at the 2007 Performing Arts Exchange Conference. On top of that, internet radio, broadcast radio, and podcasts from Florida to as far away as Italy are discovering and embracing the band’s music.
   The Sheila Kirsten Hughes Band is a husband-and-wife team comprised of singer/songwriter Sheila Kirsten Hughes on guitar, piano, cello, and fiddle, and sound engineer Chris Hughes on double bass, electric bass, percussion, sequences, and keyboards. The pair met more than a decade ago when they literally collided while extreme skating in Downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. Chris grabbed hold of Sheila and didn’t let go until the fumbling and flailing stopped. He looked into her eyes with a genuine look of concern. “Are you OK?” he asked. In that moment, Sheila knew he was the one. They have been together ever since and playfully argue to this day over who ran into who.
   Sheila, once an aspiring musician, had completely abandoned her musical aspirations shortly before she met Chris. Chris knew nothing of her dream until some months later when he heard her play Guns ‘n Roses “November Rain” on his parent’s piano. “If you’ve got a dream, you can’t let it die! You’ve got to go for it!” Chris insisted. He became an immediate source of encouragement to Sheila and jumped in head first to help. Chris moved into position as engineer and personal manager to launch Sheila’s solo career. A jack of all trades, Chris’s extensive knowledge of electronics and engineering became increasingly useful in their pursuits. Chris began his love affair with sound equipment at age 14 when a family friend gave him a car-stereo amplifier (which he in turn installed into a car that didn’t even run…You could see where his priorities were). Chris quickly became one of the most sought-after custom car stereo installers amongst his peers. In addition, Chris’s early experiences “managing” the local garage band Black Rose gave him a little knowledge and know-how in the music biz.
   In 1998, Two Snoring Dogs Studio was born in the spare bedroom of their home to meet Sheila’s recording needs. Many years and many projects later, it has nearly overtaken their house.
   Sheila’s early performances at open mics in the Tampa Bay area were received with great enthusiasm. Word of her quality spread quickly throughout the Bay Area’s independent artist community. Known for her ability to silence a room once her angelic voice began its accent, she became a sought-after staple of the local music scene. Her extraordinary vocal talent and diversity won her accolades and drew a broad range of comparisons. Vocally, she’s said to fall somewhere between Joss Stone and Norah Jones, with the emotional intensity of Björk and the angelic sweetness of Sarah McLachlan. People everywhere were calling her “the voice of an angel.” Platinum-selling Recording Artist and former Broadway star Robin McNamara coined the epithet “blues angel” when referring to Sheila’s emotionally-charged, soulful voice.
   People were amazed by Sheila’s talents. And Sheila and Chris were also amazed by the extent of incredible talent they were encountering along their path. Eager to put the Tampa Bay music scene on the map, they began devising plans to promote it. Nothing really panned out until 2002. Sheila stumbled upon the newly developed Soul City Café website – a program for independent artists created by Recording Artist Jewel.
   Soul City Café embarked by promoting a handful of independent artists that Jewel and her mother Lenedra had discovered in their travels. Next, they invited people to become members of the Soul City Café online community, then asked those members to develop similar websites to promote the artists within their own communities.
   Sheila, a web-savvy graphic designer, and Chris immediately went to work developing Nubzilla’s Café – a website to promote artists in and around the Tampa Bay area – as part of their newly formed independent record label, Nubzilla Records (www.nubzilla.com). Their mascot: their monster-sized jack russell terrier (a.k.a
“Nubzilla”). Soul City Café soon linked Nubzilla’s Café up as one of their satellite sites and began featuring the works of many of the Nubzilla’s Café featured artists on their site.
   Meanwhile, on October 3, 2002, Sheila made her live-radio debut on WMNF 88.5FM in Tampa, Florida. Friends and fans tuned in across the globe. Afterwards, emails came pouring in from as far away as London, England in praise of the songstress for what one described as an “unbelievable” performance. Sheila’s success continued later that same month when she made her television debut on the cable access show “What’s It All About” in Tampa, Florida.
   In March 2003, Sheila was thrust in the international spotlight when Dale Kirby, Jewel’s former Brand Manager, called. They wanted to feature Sheila on Soul City Café for her musical talents and for her contributions to the community through her work on Nubzilla’s Café. They called Sheila a “champion of local music,” and went on to say, “...a voice that’s both powerful and delicate, incredible range vocally and stylistically...What’s not to love?...We absolutely must let the world know about this extraordinary individual!” The month-long feature introduced Sheila’s music to thousands of new fans and admirers across the globe.
   Though Soul City Café did not survive more than a year beyond its inception, Nubzilla’s Café carried on the torch and has since expanded its territory by urinating all over the United States...uh...that is, by featuring artists from across the United States.
   After performing for a couple of years, it didn’t take long for Sheila to realize she enjoyed the stage most when she got to share it with friends. Discouraged after several failed attempts at forming a band, Chris and Sheila decided that together they would begin developing a stage show and would produce and record a new album on their own.
   Chris, once only comfortable behind a mixer, joined Sheila on stage in 2004. He started with upright bass, learning as he went along. He has since expanded his repertoire to include percussion and, most recently, keyboards, all the while continuing his engineering duties directly from the stage.
   Also in 2004, Sheila began learning violin, the only instrument on which she is not self-trained. Then in 2005, she gravitated toward the cello when she discovered a natural ability with the instrument. Though she still considers herself a bit of a novice with both instruments, all of the cello and violin tracks on Perspectives, the band’s new album, were performed by Sheila.
   Perspectives was released on December 5, 2006 with a well-attended show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's TECO Theater. The album took more than 4 years to make and includes more than 4,000 hours of recorded tracks (and those are just the takes they kept!). Some of the songs on Perspectives boast as many as 64 tracks of instrumentation and vocals. All of the songs were fully produced and performed by Chris and Sheila in their live-in studio, with special guest guitarist Tomi on “Change,” “Lay It Down,” and “Come Undone.” Their goal was to create an album full of dramatic tension and emotional triumph. The result is a rich and stunning blend of ambient, soulful, jazz-tinged rock. “You guys are gonna be blown away.” (–Al Alvarez, A and R Productions)
   Presently, the band is developing an innovative show through which they’ll bring the epic sound of Perspectives to the stage, but with only the two of them performing. This will be achieved through the use of triggered percussion, live looping, the changing of instruments on the fly, and is growing to include lighting effects and video projection.