Interview: Shinedown
Photo: Sanjay Parikh
“It’s about to get heavy.”
Not only does this lyric open the chorus of “Devil”, but it is also a realization that Shinedown had early in the recording process of their latest album, Attention, Attention. This marks the band’s sixth studio album, and it’s their most honest one yet. We spoke with lead singer Brent Smith [pictured above, left centre] about the process of making Attention, Attention, their success on the charts as well as with their fans, and what the future holds for Shinedown.
How's your summer going so far?
My summer is great, man. It's been super, super busy. I'm actually in Florida at the moment with my son. He just started middle school three weeks ago and I've been touring this entire year, so I haven't had a lot of time with him. So that's where I'm at right now and it's good. You know, any time that I can be with my son, it's the happiest time of my life.
That's awesome, I'm glad. I know a lot of musicians, it's like 300 days on the road, but like for the 65 days that you're not, it's super important.
The good thing about my son and the unique thing about him is that he gets it. He's never really kinda known any different. And he's such an incredible young man. Me and him have a great relationship.
Congrats on the latest record, Attention, Attention. Was this the most challenging record to write for you guys?
That's an interesting question and articulating it in that way. I think that it was the most necessary album that we could've written at this time in our lives, not only as people, but being in this band that we call Shinedown and watching the growth of what it is we do and seeing the growth in the fan base and just how people are starting to receive this band. I think a big part of why Attention, Attention as an album started to really make certain people take a bit more notice of the band is because of the honesty of the record. The main thing about Attention, Attention is the fact that the whole record is about not being afraid to fail because we don't believe that people are going to be defined by their failures. You're going to need that in life to know what to do next time. It's okay to be uncomfortable. Not everything is always going to be handed to you on a silver platter. And to be quite honest with you, if it was handed to you and just given to you, I don't think you would respect it as much. And that has a lot to do with the fact that we don't think that people are going to be defined by their failures. We think that you're going to be defined by the fact that you refuse to give up and Attention, Attention isn't about just one individual. It's about all of us. So it doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're younger, whether you're the color of your skin - that's irrelevant. Your religion, quite frankly, that's no one else's business but yours. But it's a mental, physical, psychological, even spiritual, at times, roller coaster ride of what this album presents to the world. And it's interesting too, because we don't necessarily subscribe to the modern playbook for live music or even the music industry. One of the reasons why is because we kind of beat to our own drum, and the reason for that is we don't just write singles and then call it a day on an album. It's not like we go into our record and we say, okay, we'll write three songs that we know will be singles, then the rest of them, we'll just kinda do some filler stuff. We have never done that. We don't write the same record over and over again either, and we try not to write the same song over and over again. With where we are right now and how the industry propelled forward with the consumption of streaming and how people receive their music, you can go on and get locked in a juggernaut sometimes. The reason for that is is we believe in our gut that the albums that we make - and yes, I did say albums - that there is substance to them.
It's one of the reasons why even now in 2019 with the album Attention, Attention, we are getting ready to release our fourth single off of Attention, Attention, which is the title track - the song “Attention, Attention.” [laughs]. Ultimately on top of that, we just finished filming the remaining nine songs on the album that we need to put the videos for because we are actually releasing in 2020 a full-length feature, that is going to be going to theaters around the globe of the actual story of Attention, Attention to audiences all over the planet, which will be released in 2020 and that's kind of how we roll, man. We're always kinda looking at the next step for what we need to do.
“I really do believe that people from all walks of life, whatever you really want out of your life, don’t have a plan B, go for the A plan. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get there. Just get there.”
Like you said, you don't just put filler on there for the sake of it, and you've been on this album cycle for a while, and it's been out for the fans for the almost a year now - Is there a song that really kind of changed over the course of that year? Like something that you're most proud of? Maybe one that was a little difficult to write, but you're super proud that you got it out, or one that just resonates with you and more or even your fans when you play it live kind of thing.
I think the biggest song from the album, taking all of those questions, kind of putting it into one particular song maybe, would definitely be “Get Up.” Because I wrote "Get Up" about Eric Bass. He is the bass player in Shinedown, but Eric is not just the bass player in Shinedown, because Eric Bass is the producer of the album, Attention, Attention. He's also the main engineer of the record, and he mixed the album. I spent 179 days with him in 2017 in Charleston, South Carolina, at his studio along with Barry Kerch, our drummer, and Zach Myers, our guitar player. So this was the first album that we did in house. And sometimes people will kind of be like "they are going to produce their own record for the first time?" - people freak out cause they think you're going to build a spaceship or turn into a prog-rock band - and that's not the case. The fact that matter is, the main song was definitely “Get Up.” That became the sounding board for understanding that this was not going to be a traditional concept record, but that it was going to be a story album. Because I wrote this song about Eric, and I remember after we had written it and we recorded it, and listening to the first playback of it with the mix. I remember looking at him going, “you know what this song is about, right?” And he said, “yeah, it's about me.” I thought I had kind of stepped over a line, a boundary, if you will, with our friendship. It couldn't have been further from the truth because he actually looked me in the eyes and said, “I love what this represents, but if we're going to be this forward and we're going to be this honest, then we're going to have to go all the way.”
The unique thing about that is Eric deals with something called clinical depression and there is a difference between clinical depression and depression. This is something that he deals with on a daily basis and it's very difficult at times to navigate. It's one of the reasons why the band is so close, is because it's a marriage. Nobody goes to bed angry when the reality is I'm watching what Eric goes through and how I've seen him navigate that clinical side of what he deals with for the better part of 15 years. It is something that can be really difficult to watch but can also be massively triumphant for the days that he is just lit up. So we'd get up once we decided to go that far with the album : "Get Up" got us to "Brilliant", which got us to “Pyro,” which got us to “The Dark Side,” which got us the “Monsters,” which got us “The Devil,” which got us to “Special,” which got us to “Nine,” I could keep going. Basically, “Get Up,” got us through all the other material on what became Attention, Attention. That's probably the song that has resonated the most on this album with connecting with fans from all over the world, from all different backgrounds. It's also the song that is consistently bringing people together in my opinion.
As you said, you guys are obviously super close, but you also have a super great relationship with your fans. Is that kind of how you would define the success of your band? Because I was reading interviews and listening back and obviously you guys have had like some massive success in the rock charts and all of that. Is it through the stats, or is that just kind of like an added bonus and really the fans are more of the benchmark for your success?
That's probably one of the most articulate ways that I've ever been asked that question. The reality is this: this band does not believe in a ceiling. Now, that doesn't make sense. What that means is we don't believe in a top: we don't believe or subscribe to the idea that we've "arrived," and we never will. Our fans are the same way because they know we're never gonna phone anything in. Whether they've been there from the beginning or they're just finding out about Shinedown, that is a very predominant emotion that is presented at all times. Another side of that is because of that mentality that we have of like, we just don't believe in a feeling. The best way I can describe that also is we don't believe in a plan B. And what that is, it does not matter how long it takes you to get to the A plan, just get there, because you shouldn't settle no matter what.
You shouldn't look at - and granted this is our opinion, but this is us being very, very honest - where you know, life is going to throw you different curve balls and life is going to present you with very unique things at all corners. That's called the universe. You hear the line: everything happens for a reason, that might be true. But it depends on what you do with the situation. When those events happen to you - I used to, when I was younger - I would just go towards the brick wall. Like I would just say to myself, I'm just going to break through this brick wall and let me tell you nine times out of 10, the brick wall won. The reason I bring that up is because of what I had to do: I had to figure out how to go over the brick wall, around the brick wall or even under the brick wall, because if I had the mindset that I was just going to basically be brash all the time until I got my way, I wouldn't be on the phone with you right now, talking about success.
So ultimately the whole viewpoint of this is I don't want people to be complacent. I don't know people to think that they can't go the distance, because you can. It just matters how much you're willing to put into it. You know what I mean? Like if it was easy, everybody would do it, and then that's why we do it. I just want people to adopt that mentality as much as possible because I really do believe that people from all walks of life, whatever you really want out of your life, don't have a plan B, go for the A plan. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to get there. Just get there.
That's a great way to live. Like you said in 2020, you've got that accompaniment of the visual to go along with the album, Attention Attention coming out. I did read that you guys were already kind of thinking about the next record, and you've got obviously your tour with Papa Roach coming up. So, what does the future of Shinedown hold - what are your next couple months looking like?
Well, the rest of this year is already laid out from the touring aspect. We're actually booked all the way through December 21st of this year. We finish up with the O2 arena in London with Alter Bridge and Seven Does. We're doing seven weeks with Alter Bridge starting in November to that last date, December 21st. And then obviously, the Canadian and the U.S. fall run that we're doing, which we're massively excited to be playing in front of the Canadian audiences. So for the rest of this year, we're touring out what we've got going on. There's going to be a lot of surprises like as you get closer to like the holidays, things are going to be getting set up for next year as well. Yeah, we're going to be working on a new Shinedown album at some point in time in 2020, but me and Zach are also going to be working on the first official new Smith and Myers record. I mean, good grief, it’s been six, seven years since the first one was released. That’s something that a lot of people have been asking for, not just in North America and Canada, but just around the world. Yeah man, we got a lot of things going on, but we try to do one thing at a time. As far as this year is concerned we're booked out until December 21st, but we got a lot coming for 2020.
Attention, Attention is out now via Atlantic Records. Click here to listen to the album, and be sure to catch Shinedown when they come to a city near you!
