Matter of Chance
From the Top
Dayton, OH - August 2009 in the back room of a local music shop a realization was made between two music retail employees. Sharing similar skills in vocal, guitar, and drum technique these two musicians understood the need for a different sound in music; if only in the local scene. After a long break which followed his first road experience drumming for local blues guru Michael Locke and the Repeat Offenders; Tate had been eager to get involved with an original project. At the time Alex Speller was playing drums for a local band, The Audible Influence. Speller felt some of the newer music he was writing needed a heavier sound. Speller explained his situation to Tate; and Tate could think of only one person. A longtime friend and former band-mate, lead guitarist Justin Eldridge was asked aboard. Eldridge was the only person Tate could think of with the raw talent and ear to develop the face melting tones to match the unique sound.

One day, Tate was behind the counter cleaning when he was interrupted by a keyboardist playing a classical piece of piano music shortly followed by some pure clavinet funk. He approached the keyboardist, Danny Shaw, to find out if he was involved with any bands. As it turned out, Shaw was on his way out of a reggae band. He had a CD on him of a side project that he recorded with singer Kevin Brown. Astounded by the originality of the singer's voice, Tate asked Shaw to arrange a meeting with Brown. Shortly after Shaw and Brown agreed to join the project, Tate and Speller decided to rent a house down in the southeastern part of Dayton. The acoustics of the house were ideal for recording and the five began working on their debut album, Groove Control

The album was recorded by Eldridge with the help of Speller, both of whom had experience in sound recording and engineering. Speller also had some experience in design and constructed many of the original designs for t-shirts, the website, and CD artwork. On a break during a recording session, the guys were discussing possible band names. One of the members repeated a line from a song that had recently been recorded for the album "Matter of Chance." The band felt the title was a fitting representation of the bands coincidental meeting. It also personified many of the member's outlooks on life and events throughout. While Eldridge began the final stages of mastering the album the band started rehearsing the music. After a few practices the band had realized that a piece was missing in their puzzle. A search was on for a live performance bassist. Considering most of the bass work on the album was played by Eldridge.

The band was finally complete with the arrival of bassist and graphic designer Shane Stephens. Stephens played bass for the Jerry Maine Band, also consisting of Tate and Eldridge. Stephens knew he would be a good fit for the band from prior experiences with Tate and Eldridge. Along with playing bass for Matter of Chance, Stephens coded and maintains the bands website, redesigned the album artwork (after a unfortunate reformatting incident), and designs all of the bands live show posters.