With the start of July 2012 we shift gears with our June Featured Artist FADE CHROMATIC as the pop-rock quartet get set to debut their self-titled EP on the masses this Friday at The Annex Live.

We caught up with Jordan Abrams, Shawn Burgess, Sean Messenger, and Alex Draper-Millan ahead of the show to find out some of their favourite song picks – check out the mix in the player and read through their thoughts below.

1. MUSE – New Born
Burgess, Messenger, Abrams: MUSE is by far the one act we can all unanimously say we are huge fans of. One of our first real group experiences was trekking down to Detroit to catch them live; to date it is still the best show we have ever seen. Forget their new crap, New Born is one of the best songs on their best album, and a total no-brainer.

2. BLOC PARTY – Like Eating Glass
Burgess, Messenger, Abrams: BLOC PARTY is just an all-round awesome band, and Like Eating Glass was one of the very first songs we played when we initially came together and were discovering our sound through playing covers that we liked. Even today, the drumbeat in this song had an influence on the drums for our single, Waiting For The Edge.

3. BLINK-182 – First Date
FC + Nehemiah Lim (In Spirit): This song is an homage to our old bassist, Neo, who was a massive part of shaping and forming our upcoming EP. He is a huge pop-punker, and a big BLINK-182 fan. He almost died when we all went to one of their shows and he couldn’t make it due to work. Our newer material is starting to stray away from this genre, but it was still a huge part of our formative process.

4. WINTERSLEEP – Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks
Burgess: I first discovered WINTERSLEEP, and specifically the excellent Welcome To The Night Sky album through a girl I used to date (she also turned me onto longboarding), and it is still one of my all-time favorites. This song is the perfect closer to that melancholy album, and I still love to turn all the lights off, close my eyes, and blast it.

5. THE SHINS – Pink Bullets
Messenger: I first discovered THE SHINS in the summer of ’07 while slaving away on the night shift at a manufacturing plant. I got through my shift four minutes at a time, singing Pink Bullets in my head repeatedly… and I still love it.

6. JASON MRAZ – Please Don’t Tell Her (Live)
Abrams: JASON MRAZ is the reason I started to take singing seriously – he made me realize it was possible to sound even better live than on a recording, and that is something I carry with me to this day. His vocal abilities give me something to aspire towards, and this song is a perfect example of the passion and control in his voice.

7. RON SEXSMITH – Secret Heart
Draper-Millan: I guess it’s not a song that influenced me as a bassist in any way, but RON SEXSMITH has had a huge impact on me as a musician. To me, Secret Heart is songwriting ground zero. It was one of the first songs that I could listen to over and over again and I still can/do to this day. I was fortunate enough to see him perform live and the way he filled the room with just his voice and a guitar still amazes me.