Words and Music by Shar, 2019
Percussion by Dave Matthews, 2021-2021
Production by SharDave Music, 2022

Definition of #shar genre: highly original, poly-harmonic, organic, raw and unpretentious, haunting.
 
The original song by SharDave tells the story of a visit from a dear friend that unexpectedly turns up in the city in which Shar then resided. They had an afternoon of talk and wine that resulted in an amazing revelation.
The genre is a fusion of blues, soft rock, and folk. 


Lyrics

You came around the other day 
Both of us had much to say 
We hadn't been together for some time 
I thought that you had given up 
On us ever catching up 
There had been silence on the line 
There had been silence for some time

Keep that connection, keep it deep and true 
No matter where you are, no matter what you do
Keep that connection, keep it safe and warm 
Through the silence, through the storm 

I had fallen to despair, because I though you were not there
Thought you, had ceased to care 
But here you are the other day, laughing smiling just the same 
As when I saw you months ago, friend of mine

Took me back, to the place
Took me back into the time
We first found ourselves entwined 
Friend of mine

Took me back, to the place
Took me back into the time
We first found ourselves entwined
Friend of mine

You came around the other day 
Both of us had much to say 
In your company I found
My friend was back again 
My friend was back again
My friend was back again
My friend was back again
My friend was back again
My friend was back again

Keep That Connection

Buy and Download

Single: Keep That Connection

The highly-original and captivating song features a fusion of World Music and Western music elements. With layers of acoustic guitar and percussive instruments such as Congas and Dun Duns, this song is built around a haunting poly-harmonic melody, which embeds itself in the listening mind and draws one into its environment. Mapping social and cultural values of people to the physical landscape that they inhabit, the song calls for a deeper understanding of how people, culture and land coincide. 

Words and music by Shar, 2022
Percussion by Dave Matthews, 2022
Production by SharDave Music, 2022

Lyrics

Landscape
Let us collaborate on how to spend the early evening of this 
glorious full moon night
Landscape, landscape

Let me get to know your landscape
Let me get to know your landscape

Landscape
Let us collaborate on how to spend the early evening of this 
glorious full moon night

Let me get to know your landscape
Let me get to know your landscape.

People you love
The stories you tell
What you've learnt to love
What you've learnt to hate
This is your landscape
This is your landscape. 

Let us collaborate on how to spend the early evening of this 
glorious full moon night
Landscape, landscape

Let me get to know your landscape
Let me get to know your landscape.

Landscape

This unique instrumental piece of music takes the listener to the ocean. Sit back and imagine you are in a sailing boat, heading toward a distant shore, perhaps toward home. An emphasis on drums and hand percussion, together with layers of acoustic lead guitar, combine together to produce a haunting traditional relaxedness. 

The accompanying music video is a rich visual feast featuring over 200 digital watercolour images depicting a story of adventure on the high seas and in the beautiful Northern Territory rivers. 

Selected images are available on our merch site (https://doctor-shar.com/overview-tangled-music-video...).

Tangled

Free Download

This funky jazz-blues song features a boogie-woogie style jazz piano, a lively bass line, and is coloured with layers of acoustic lead guitar and a reggae-influenced drum groove. It's a lot of fun. Like the theme that runs through so much of SharDave's music, the song talks about the good things of life and how we should strive to make the most of these, to stand up in times of trouble, and to face life without surrendering to fear. It's all about courage in the face of everything that happens. 

LYRICS

I have no choice, I choose anyway
To exist we must survive 
Choices are unfair, but that is life 
To exist we must survive

Finding ways to think on it 
Finding ways to sit on it
Just doesn't jive
Watch the sunset by the sea 
Making love, you and me
That's the way of life

There is trouble, there is strife
Don't you be afraid
Burst that bubble, kick into life 
Don't you be afraid 
There is trouble, there is strife
Don't you be afraid
Burst that bubble, kick into life
Don't you be afraid

I have no choice, my senses are yelling
To exist we must survive
When I'm with you everything is telling me
That's the way of life

There is trouble, there is strife
Don't you be afraid
Burst that bubble, kick into life 
Don't you be afraid 
There is trouble, there is strife
Don't you be afraid
Burst that bubble, kick into life
Don't you be afraid

That's the way of life
That's the way of life
That's the way of life
That's the way of life

That's the Way of Life

That's The Way Of Iife

The impetus for writing this song is the individual colours we each have when we express ourselves. When we do that with integrity and honesty and respectfully, we show who we are and are able to relax with ourselves and others. It takes confidence to do this, but the reward is expansive. The song is uplifting and positive. The song fuses across three main genres: Rock, Funk/Soul, and Pop. Sub-genres include Blues, Folk Rock, Indie Alternative Rock, and Pop Soft Rock.

Lyrics
Colours of you, colours of me
I sing about life, I sing 'cause I'm free
And I let my hair down
I let my hair down

Don't know how, don't know why
Music flows through, my easy-waking mind
All the visions I embody 
Open up for the world to find

I sing when I'm happy, sing when I'm sad 
Sing when I'm good, sing when I'm bad
And I let my hair down
I let my hair down

Don't know how, don't know why
Music flows through, my easy-waking mind
And all the visions I embody 
Open up for the world to find

I'm an open book, I'm an open book
If you care to look, if you care to look
An open book, an open book
When I let my hair down, when I let my hair down

Don't know how, don't know how
Don't know why, don't know why
Music flows through, my easy-waking mind
And all the visions, all the visions
I embody, I embody
Open up for the world to find
Open up for the world to find
Open up for the world to find

Let My Hair Down

This contemplative  song is based within the Jazz-Folk Fusion genre. It is all about accepting ourselves  as part of the world - and our fate - with grace and wisdom, knowing that everything is connected and everything will be as it is meant to be. In the core of our soul, we are who we are as we were and as we will always be. So we can relax, and just allow ourselves to enjoy being. The song builds a space where we can rest and contemplate. The album artwork features Rosie, contemplatively participating in the world as it washes over her in the early evening.

LYRICS

Everything in its turn
Everything in its turn
Time moves on, what becomes is written in the passing of years

Everything is already here
All our dreams, all our wants, all our loves, all our fears
Everything in its turn

Let us not give place to fear
Let us draw each other near
Let us not give place to fear
Everything in its turn

Everything is already here
Let us not give place to fear, everything is already here
Let us draw each other near
Let us not give place to fear

Everything in its turn
Time moves on, what becomes is written in the passing of the years
Everything in its turn

All our dreams, all our wants, everything in its turn
All our loves, all our fears
Everything is already here

Everything is already here
Time moves on, what becomes is written in the passing of the years
Everything in its turn
Everything in its turn

Everything In Its Turn

Our song, Dance on the Stage, is inspired by a fantastic interview between Sadhguru and Matthew McConaughey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAoffyn2xpM). The song is all about dancing to our experience, and not letting life drag us down. Rise above, and use everything life has thrown at us to be the very best of ourselves. This energetic, upbeat song is permeated with an exciting range of hand percussion, including rhythms made with Dun Duns, Kilkenny, Djembe, Cowbell and more. 

LYRICS

Dance on the stage of everything you've seen
All that you are, everything you've been
Come dance on the stage of everything you've seen
All that you are, everything you've been

Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground
Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground

Sensing, world around me, part of who I am
Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground
Sensing, the world around me, world around me, world around me
When we touch, when we touch, part of who I am
When we touch, when we touch
You become part of me
You become part of me
You become part of me
You become part of who I am

Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground

Come dance on the stage of everything you've seen
All that you are, everything you've been

Feel it, feel it with your heart
Feel it, feel it with your soul
Feel it, feel it with your body

Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground

Come dance on the stage of everything you see
All that you are, everything you be
Feel it, feel it with your heart
Feel it, feel it with your soul
Feel it, feel it with your body
All that you are, everything you've been

Come dance on the stage of everything you see
All that you are, everything you be

Don't let the past pull you down
Don't let it suck you into the ground
Sensing, world around me, part of who I am
Sensing, world around me

All that you are, everything you've been
Part of who I am
When we touch, when we touch
You become part of me
You become part of me
You become part of me
You become part of who I am
When we touch, when we touch,
You become part of me
When we touch

All that you are, everything you've been
Come

Dance on the Stage

Dance On The Stage

State of Desire is a chill, upbeat, folk-rock song, all about living in a state of passion, of looking forward with the greatest of enthusiasm and excitement to the unfolding of every moment of our lives. It's all about grasping every opportunity to live life to its fullest. This is what we call 'living in a state of desire'. The music features African-influenced hand percussion with rhythms and beats of the djembe, clay drum, and dun duns. The percussion is punctuated throughout by haunting acoustic lead guitar that offers the listener magical moments of meaningful and musical reflection.

LYRICS

Live anew 
Always be true
Its the best thing you can do
Seek your fire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire, live to the end

Lost in eternity, each second of time
I'm here for you
Seeking, yearning, the fire divine
I'm here for you
Live with passion, be sublime
I'm here for you
I'm here for you
In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire, live to the end

Look into your eyes, I see the sky
I'm here for you
Smile that makes its way across your eyes
I'm here for you
Feel that pure joy, the energy divine
I'm here for you
I'm here for you
In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire, live to the end

Live anew, always be true
Its the best thing you can do
Seek your fire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire

In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire
In this state of desire

State of Desire

State Of Desire

This song comes out of a late night jam session at the SharDave studio. The next day the poem came to Shar out of nowhere, but suited the song...so, a gift. A contemporary jazz number, the song is driven by a funky rhythm and an intriguing guitar, playing with and weaving its way around, the spoken word. The story of the song involves the rhythmic movement of the sun as a metaphor and witness to the patterns and seasons that comprise each of our lives. Lofi in nature, the final production is minimalist, we preferring the magic that we somehow caught in the dead of night. This is a raw, organic, chill, surprising jazz creative.

LYRICS
The Sun has tramped across the northern sky
From east to west and back again
And I have witnessed this event many times
From east to west and back again

I have my favourite sunset spots that track the sun
From east to west and back again
I find in my unguarded moments the joy it brings
And ways to see it sinking

And I wonder at the passing of the seasons marked by the sun
From east to west and back again
Passing of the seasons reflected in my life
I see it in the aging of my kin.

And we enjoy our times lived in the sun
Tramping from east to west across the seasons of our lives
The seasons of our lives
The seasons of our lives
The seasons of our lives
The seasons of our lives
From east to west and back again
From east to west and back again.

From East To West

This is an original song, music put to a poem that Shar wrote when she was young. Here's the story in her words: I had written the poem when I was young, making a bookmark item of gold ink on parchment paper. It got lost in the midst of time, as bookmarks tend to do. As I was packing to move interstate from Darwin to Victoria, I found the bookmark, unexpectedly, in one my many books. Ten days after arriving in Victoria, I was called to Queensland to attend my mother, who was dying. Gathered together with my brothers and sisters on my mother's property, I put this song to music to play with my siblings. My mother, herself a musician, loved listening to the music that we were playing in our vigil. This song describes the power and influence that the written word has on our mind and mood, and on the formation of the ideas that shape us. A fusion of genres, the power of 'To Write' is captured in the multi-layered percussion that defines it.

Lyrics by Sharjon Rose Ford, 1996 
Melody by Sharon Rose Ford, 2020
Music by Sharon Rose Ford & David John Matthews, 2022-2023
Production by SharDave, 2023

Lyrics

Shake the sieve, and leave the debris in the net
Shake the sieve
Intensify, to form the ink 
That writes the words. 

They travel through the body and mind
To impress and to incite 
And to seduce the eyes that read the words 
Written by the ink. 

And paper, to receive the mark. 
And paper. 
Where vision and emotion, are lords of spirit 
For a while. 

They travel through the body and mind
To impress and to incite 
And to seduce the eyes that read the words 
Written by the ink.

To Write

SharDave is a musical duo and production team based in Victoria, Australia. The duo consists of Shar (Sharon Rose Ford), songwriter and lyricist, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist, and Dave (David John Matthews), a seasoned drummer and percussionist whose blend of Western drum kits and African and Latino-influence instruments are used to create the duo’s signature world-music rhythms. Their music is often described as unique, melodic, and energetic, balancing laid-back, chill vibes with intricate musicality and lively percussion. 

Music Genre and Style
SharDave’s eclectic style is partly reflective of World-Roots Fusion, a genre emphasising global percussive rhythms blended with the idioms of music from genres like Jazz, Folk, Blues and Rock. Their vibrancy and familiar-yet-exotic sound, is achieved by using Afro-influenced grooves that layer traditional global instruments (such as  Djembe, Congas, and West African Dundun), alongside more contemporary instruments (e.g., drumkit) and song structures. 
Another strong stylistic feature in SharDave’s music is the Contemporary Jazz Fusion genre that blends the lyrical quality of Folk with the improvisational space and complex chords of jazz, supported by a funky, syncopated backbone. Techniques that come through SharDave’s jazz sound include the use of 16th-note funk grooves, ‘chicka-chicka’ (strut) sound of the guitar (typically of funk-jazz), high use of syncopation, asymmetrical phrasing of the melody and guitar licks to bring in irregular, and singing and playing either behind or in front of the beat (micro-timing) typically used in the jazz genre. 

Descriptions of SharDave’s discography highlight stand-out characteristics, including: 
•	Atmospheric Quality: surprising jazz creatives
•	Genre-Defying Fusion: frequently described as a unique blend of World music and Western elements, using percussive layers to build poly-harmonic melodies that are both melodic and percussive
•	Thematic Depth: lyrics often explore philosophically complex themes
•	Vibe: the discography is typically characterised as upbeat and relaxing, with a strong soul and jazz fusion influence.

Philosophical and Lyrical Themes
SharDave’s songs reflect philosophically driven and deeply personal songwriting. Shar’s lyrics are powerful and evocative, deeply intentional, and focusing on themes of resilience, identity, integrity, personal growth, connection, courage, freedom and human experience, with the goal of bringing positive change to the listener.
Discography
Recorded and produced in the SharDave Music Studio, SharDave’s Discography includes numerous singles, including some of their latest releases: 
•	Pick Your Head Up (2026)
•	Oom Ba Ta Ka Chaka (Falling) 2025
•	Thought (2025)
Whilst, 2024 was primarily spent in playing live music, and 2025 in integrating a saxophone player into their live work, the years 2023 and 2022 were important production years for SharDave, bringing out six singles in 2023: 
•	From East to West (2023)
•	State of Desire (2023)
•	Dance on the Stage (2023)
•	To Write (2023)
•	Let My Hair Down (2023)
•	Everything in its Turn (2023)
And 6 again in 2022: 
•	That’s the way of life (2022)
•	Landscape (2022)
•	You Rock My World (2022)
•	Free Yourself (2022)
•	Tangled (2022)
•	Keep That Connection (2022)
SharDave has also produced numerous Music Videos from original visual content, and released these through VEVO. You can find SharDave's full discography and exclusive artist commentary, lyrics and visual media on the official SharDave website at shardavemusic.com 

SharDave's Contribution to the Music Industry
SharDave contributes to the music industry by championing a highly-original "World-Western" fusion that prioritises raw emotional impact and philosophical depth over polished commercialism. Core contributions include: 
•	Global Rhythmic Integration: They push the boundaries of standard Western indie-rock and jazz by embedding African and Latino influenced percussion into contemporary genres.
•	Philosophical Lyricism: Their work introduces complex existential and motivational themes into their music.
•	Interdisciplinary Artistry: The duo bridges the gap between music and visual art, offering a multi-sensory experience through digital watercolour artworks based on Shar’s photography that accompany their tracks, helping listeners build a specific "contemplative space". They also use Shar’s videography and photography, and in some cases, her own oil paintings as cover art, to build personal meaning into the accompanying music videos and albums.
•	Community & Local Engagement: Beyond their studio work, Shar and Dave have contributed to the live music ecosystem in Victoria, Australia, by playing in diverse ensembles like Latrobe Community Concert Band and Invy Horn Jam, a roving New Orleans-style band. They also support the Open Mic and Market musical scenes of Victoria, both of which are highlighted as an important part of musical culture and developing new talent in the region. 

Importance of SharDave’s Music
The importance of SharDave's music lies in its role as a 'soundtrack to life' that promotes well-being, resilience, and philosophical exploration through a unique fusion of global rhythms and Western genres.
•	Cultural and Ecological Connection
o	Landscape mapping: Map social and cultural values onto the physical landscape, fostering a deeper understanding of how people and the land coincide.
•	Emotional and Psychological Resilience: A core pillar of their work is the encouragement of the human spirit.
o	Courage over fear: Advocate for standing up in time of trouble and facing life without surrendering to fear.
o	Advocating freedom: Their music emphasizes the vital importance of physical, psychological, and emotional freedom, reminding listeners of their fundamental place in the universe. 
•	Mindset shifting: They encourage listeners to rise above life’s challenges and use every experience to become the best version of themselves.
•	Therapeutic and Social Value
o	State of Passion: Their music is designed to help listeners live in a state of passion, looking forward to every moment with enthusiasm.
o	Connection and healing: They highlight music’s power to provide solace and foster human connection during trying times. 
•	Intellectual Engagement: SharDave’s music is philosophically complex, an approach that invites listeners into a space of active contemplation rather than passive listening. 

Career Highlights
Whilst seasoned musicians each in themselves, SharDave as a duo has been recording, producing and distributing music only since 2022. In that short time, they have released fifteen songs which have attracted many thousands of streams worldwide and across many platforms. This represents a significant digital footprint since 2022.

That's The Way Of Iife

SharDave

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