His background: He says both of his parents are teachers. “It’s sort of the family business.” So after college, he taught special ed for three years. “I decided I couldn’t give my students 100 percent. So I decided to leave the classroom and pursue music,” he says. Andrew is in a band called The Shades that performs around Chicago, doing folk-sounding music and old-school rock and roll. He’s also a big Billy Joel fan. Joel’s “Longest Time” was the first song Andrew ever performed on stage. And he got to sing with Billy when the singer visited his college campus.
What the show didn’t show:
* According to his bio on The Voice website, his teaching job came through Teach For America, a nonprofit program that places teachers in pre-K through 12 classrooms. Since his assigned school didn’t have a music program, Andrew formed their first extracurricular choir.
* Andrew has posted the video of his performance with Billy Joel to his Facebook music page. You’ll find the link below.
* The Shades describes themselves as an acoustic pop band on their Facebook page. The trio also includes Mark Jacobson on rhythm guitar and vocals and Phil Jacobson on lead guitar and vocals. Andrew handles percussion and vocals.
* According to the band’s Facebook bio, one of their original songs called “Take You Home” was featured in American Songwriter Magazine as a “Daily Discovery,” and was chosen as one of 10 finalists in NewSong Music’s International Songwriting Competition. You can check out the song below, as well as another original from The Shades.
* They’ve performed at a number of Chicago venues, including the House of Blues, Evanston SPACE, Mayne Stage & Uncommon Ground, The Shades are spending the early months of 2016 recording their original repertoire for an upcoming EP release.
* They’re planning their first performance since Andrew’s audition aired on The Voice at a Guitar over Guns event on Oct. 10 in Chicago.
* And they’ve been spending much of 2016 recording their original music for an upcoming debut EP.
Keeping up with Andrew:
Twitter: @andrewdemuro
Facebook
Website (The Shades)
YouTube (The Shades)
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August 11, 2021 New music from Lex Land, Dylan Hartigan, The Shades
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October 28, 2019 New post-Voice music from Mooney, The Shades and more
The Voice Season 24 Profiles
The Voice Season 24 Profiles
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Jackson Snelling
Jacquie Roar
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Jason Arcilla
Jenna Marquis
Jordan Rainer
Joslynn Rose
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Juliete Ojeda
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Kaylee Shimizu
Kristen Bown
Lennon Vanderdoes
Lauren Williams
Lila Forde
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Stee
Talakai
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Taylor Deneen
Tom Nitta
Willie Gomez
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