SHAED

Washington, D.C. serves as the base for electro-pop trio SHAED, whose music merges buoyant energy with atmospheric textures. Soulful crystalline vocals are supplied by former solo artist Chelsea Lee, while producers Max and Spencer Ernst shape the sonic settings. The group’s second single, “Thunder,” reached the viral streaming charts in 2016. Their 2019 EP Melt, driven by the Hot 100 Top 20 single “Trampoline,” entered the Billboard 200 for the first time. High Dive, the band’s debut full-length released in 2021, contained collaborations with ZAYN, Lewis Del Mar, and Two Feet, and they achieved their major-label debut with the 2024 single “Everybody Knows I’m High.”

Chelsea Lee met the Ernst twins in high school, though the three began composing songs together only a few years afterward. While studying at the University of Maryland, Max and Spencer formed the rootsy duo the Walking Sticks and issued the EP World So Bright in 2012. Lee soon joined, and the next EP, Send the Night, shifted toward an atmospheric electronic approach.

To mark the stylistic evolution, the trio adopted the name SHAED and released their first single, “Just Wanna See,” in March 2016. Months later the anthemic synth track “Thunder” spread virally. Both songs appeared on the debut EP Just Wanna See, issued that September by Photo Finish Records, before the group toured in support of Marian Hill and Bishop Briggs. The stand-alone single “Too Much” arrived in mid-2017, after which the members moved in together and recorded much of their second EP at home.

In May 2018 they rejoined the road with X Ambassadors, and Photo Finish put out “Trampoline” as the lead single from September’s Melt. A major tech commercial featured the song, and the following September SHAED performed it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! while English pop star ZAYN released a remix. The original climbed to the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, and Melt reached the Billboard 200 in October 2019. Aided by the ZAYN remix of “Trampoline,” the deluxe edition debuted at number 152 three months later. Two further tracks, “No Other Way” and “Once Upon a Time,” surfaced in 2020. Late that year “No Other Way” entered the Billboard alternative airplay chart and later appeared on the trio’s first album, High Dive, released in May 2021. The set also included joint recordings with Two Feet and Lewis Del Mar plus the ZAYN edition of “Trampoline.” Marking Pride Month, the “Colorful Campaign” single presented reworked versions of “Colorful” the next month. An End of the World remix of another High Dive track, “Osaka,” followed that September.

Chelsea Lee and Spencer Ernst welcomed their first child in January 2022, and March brought SHAED’s cover of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are.” The group eventually signed with BMG and delivered its first original material in nearly three years with January 2024’s “Everybody Knows I’m High.”