Rich Davis Shift
Shift was formed in 2003. After the release of Mystic-Force's "Man-vs-Machine" cd, drummer Chris Lembach and I felt it was time to make a change and start a brand new band. Shift was created. When we started the band it was just Chris and I banging it out in the studio writing a new album for Shift. When we left MF we had already written a bunch of songs that would have been a follow up to Man-vs-Machine but at that point we just put the songs on the shelf and started to write all new fresh songs. When we had enough songs to start recording we had a dilemma. What to do with the old song that we shelved. Well we decided to get those out first. Now after we made that decision we still didn't have a vocalist so now was the time to start looking. Chris was familiar with vocalist Jeff Caudle and brought him to me as an option. Jeff was the singer and song writer from his band "Cypher" and when I listened to his cd's I was blown away. I thought If we can get this guy, lest go for it. Continue reading
After we recorded the "Creating a Monster" cd thought how in the hell are we going to pull this off live. Thats when Shift made it's final decision and the band welcomed in new members Steve Shaffer who is a well known guitar player and vocalist to be our bass player and to help with all the guitar parts we got guitar player Doug Guthrie. Both guys jumped right in and kicked us into high gear. A bit of bad luck plagued the band and lead to Shift only playing two live shows, but both were amazing. The very first show I rented a hall and we sold tickets and had a great outcome. The second show was opening a sold out show with "Avenged Sevenfold". Now how can that not be Bad Ass!!
The follow up cd "Lead, Judge & Jury" was where we really came into our sound. We all really pushed ourselves to the limit on this one and as we tracked all the parts. Like the "Creating a Monster" I did all the tracking and then we mixed with Drew Mazurek. When I had each guy in the studio I pushed to get the very best out of each one of them and I know each member is super proud of the outcome.
When the had everything wrapped up with the new cd I thought it was time for us to choose a single and shoot a video. I called my friend and owner of Sheffield Recording studio Vance Van Horn and asked if he would be interested in having us in and shooting the video for us. He said yes, and the outcome was amazing. We chose to use the song "Damned" as our single and I couldn't be happier with our choice.
Unfortunately soon after the release of the video and before we could hit the road preforming our brand new music Vocalist Jeff Caudle decided to leave the band. That was the most deflating news we ever got and after that we just never did recover.
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This was the very first real music video that I have ever put together and I'm very proud of how it turned out.
Shift had just finished mixing the Lead, Judge and Jury CD and we were getting all excited to hit the club scene and start slamming this stuff in front of everyone. I came up with the idea to call a good friend of mine, Vance Van Horn, who happened to own Sheffield Institute for the Arts where they teach audio and video production. I thought it couldn't hurt to ask if we could shoot a video there, and we could get the students to do the shooting and use it as a learning project for the school. Vance said he would love to help... and that was that.
Once we started getting closer and working out some details, it ended up being all the head guys doing the shoot and all the editing. Zach Ruszala was the main video engineer, and he did the main shooting and editing. I remember when I went to Sheffield to work out all the editing, Zach had this to show me... Done!
Highlights
Metal Edge Magazine
Featuring Shift: Rise Up
Nightmare Records
Featuring Shift: Without a Soul
Creating a Monster
Shift's debut digipack - Released in 2006
Creating A Monster features cover art by well known artist Mattias Noren from Prog Art Media. All music by Rich Davis, Chris Lembach and Jeff Caulde. New members Steve Shaffer and Doug Guthrie were added right after the recording of this CD.
This collection of songs was almost entirely written as the follow up to "Man-vs-Machine" for Mystic-Force.
I actually have demo versions of Bill Wren singing on a couple of the songs. When drummer Chris Lembach and I left the band Mystic-Force we didn't want to just throw away the songs that took so much time writing. So thats how "Creating a Monster" came about. Chris came to me with an idea of the perfect singer to jump in and take on the task at hand. He brought me a couple of CD's from a band called "Cypher" and told me this is Jeff Caudle's band. I was very impressed. Needless to say if he wanted the job, we were all about grabbing him up. The music was already recorded by that time and Jeff took the songs and just did what he does. Great Job!
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Lead, Judge & Jury
Shift's 2nd CD - Released in 2013
Lead, Judge & Jury is Shift's 2nd CD, and is the first time new members Steve Shaffer on bass guitar and Doug Guthrie on guitar performed on the CD.
This is the first Shift CD that we had the pleasure of writing and recording with brand new members Doug Guthrie on guitar and Steve Shaffer on bass. What a great time I had recording everyone in the studio on this one. Knowing the talent level of each of these guys I push everyone of them to get there very best. I really though we had something special with this record but sadly never we just never got a chance to see what could have been.
Metal Edge Magazine
Featuring Shift: Rise Up