Interview by Cody-James Henderson<\/p>\n
Success is a term that can be vastly measured across a multitude of metrics in the music industry. How many people have you played too? How many albums have gone to number 1? How much time have you spent on the charts? <\/p>\n
So when it comes to a band like Shinedown, an act who boasts a record setting 24 #1 singles on the Billboard Rock Charts, an estimated 10million+ in record sales, who are capable of touring the world and selling out on a moment’s notice; what has taken Australia so long to catch up?<\/p>\n
The band has just released their 8th studio album, aptly titled EI8HT. The first since 2022’s dystopian concept record Planet Zero. A resounding fanfare for the album that took 18 months to create, EI8HT would chart at #7 on the ARIA charts, marking a first for the band finally breaking through to Australian ears since they broke onto Australian airwaves with ‘Second Chance’ in 2008. <\/p>\n
After many years away from the country (I am talking Soundwave 2010 here) the band will embark on their first Australian run in over 15 years this September, co-headlining with Grunge rockers Bush. And from the very first moments of being able to speak to vocalist Brent Smith about the album and the upcoming tour of Australia, the band are truly for sorry for taking so long.<\/p>\n
This is the band’s first visit down under since Soundwave Festival 2011. How does it feel to have the new album (EI8HT) out, the world tour there and go \u201cYes, we\u2019re hitting the U.S, Europe, the U.K and finally coming back to Australia”<\/p>\n
It feels really really good. It’s interesting to, I think that people should know from an international standpoint to that this has been an ongoing discussion for really like the last 5 \u00bd-6 years where you know, in the US we\u2019ve let our constituents know, management, our label that it\u2019s very very important to be able to get to every territory outside of the United States that we possibly can. The thing is that you don\u2019t stop trying to get to these other continents, but there are some fundamental things that isn\u2019t the audience’s responsibility, it\u2019s ours. <\/p>\n
For us, we\u2019re just at a place where we looked at each other like 2 years ago, and we were like \u201cNo matter what, whatever we do, this next album, we\u2019re going to Australia, we\u2019re going to New Zealand, we\u2019re going down under.\u201d <\/p>\n
Like whatever we\u2019ve gotta do to get there, we\u2019re going. And if they like us and they\u2019re not mad at us for taking so long to get down there then maybe we will be able to come back sooner than another 16 years.<\/p>\n
(Laughs) Hopefully it doesn\u2019t take that long<\/p>\n
Yeah! Exactly!<\/p>\n
I can say from my own experience with family and friends, when this announcement finally happened, the last 15 years didn\u2019t matter to us. It\u2019s finally happening. This was the focus for us.You say over the last 6 that this was the plan but obviously the world shut down for a bit there. We had Covid which threw everything out of proportion. Was there ever a moment where Australia was on the cards but something just fell through or something just came up?<\/p>\n
Well the interesting thing that happened was that nobody saw the pandemic happening. But the biggest thing with me during that was and just everybody that we were, cause we\u2019re all in the music industry and what have you, was that immense amount of fear that it\u2019s never gonna be the same and all this. I was actually pretty vocal about being like \u201cYou, real quick everybody. All pandemics have one thing in common. Do you know what it is? They all ended.\u201d But like, you don’t need to normalise this. If anything you need to double because you\u2019re going to see when people come back together again, it will be like anything anyone has ever seen since essentially the roaring 20\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But no man, we went hard, me and Zach [Myers – Guitar] were in the middle of doing the double album for the Smith & Myers project, we put that record out during Covid. Then in June 2020 we started writing what would become Planet Zero and then that was released in 2022. Then we were touring extensively after that. We were still in the midst of getting things going so overall it didn\u2019t really derail us from where we were already at and what we wanted to do. It’s a big world and a lot of times in the music industry they\u2019re like \u201cIt\u2019s gonna cost a lot of money\u201d and it’s like no we know that, like we\u2019re aware of what it\u2019s gonna cost. <\/p>\n
We don\u2019t care, we\u2019re gonna go. It\u2019s time, we\u2019re not waiting around anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fantastic to hear. You\u2019re coming out with Grunge icons Bush who have been on the road with you before on the Dance Kid Dance leg one tour in 2025. Was that the tour where the conversations were had saying \u201cWe should hit the road again\u201d then low and behold Australia came out of that?<\/p>\n
Me and Gavin [Rossdale] talked about Australia during the first act of Dance Kid Dance last year when they were out with us. Gavin was actually really helpful because Gavins been back way more. He was kind of going over these are some of the do\u2019s, these are some of the don\u2019ts. Gavin doesn\u2019t know this but just talking to him and then starting to work with Destroy All Lines and looking at everything, the reality was or the question was; Do you go into clubs? Or do you go into theatres with this? And I think when it came down to it, was us asking Bush \u201cHey would you do this with us?\u201d And they were like \u201cAbsolutely\u201d. <\/p>\n
As soon as that was locked in, me and Gavin just kind of looked at each other and said \u201cLet\u2019s go for it man, let’s do the arenas. What’s the worst that could happen?\u201d<\/p>\n
[Going on to talk about what fans can expect from the upcoming tour, Brent had the following to say]<\/p>\n
The thing is, we wanted to bring the show that everybody sees on YouTube, the spectacle that it is. Not that it\u2019s necessarily what people are going for, they\u2019re going for the music and they\u2019re going for the performance. But man, we were like, they\u2019ve waited over a decade going on 16 years, we want to bring them the show that they deserve. And you can only do that if you\u2019re going into an arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Absolutely. And if anyone hasn\u2019t seen the Shinedown show for the EI8HT tour, you\u2019re in for a treat because I\u2019ve been watching it all for weeks, what the U.S is currently getting and I can\u2019t wait for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u200dSpeaking of EI8HT, the brand new album is 18 tracks, produced by the one and only Mr Eric Bass [Bassist], and charted at #7 in Australia. 18 months to fully curate and create. To me the final product is this energy synonymous with pure emotion and relatability that Shinedown drew me into all those years ago. You ranked it at #1 of your favourite Shinedown albums. The response to you and the band has been equally that of the same has it not?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thing for me is what I’m kind of taken aback by is globally, not just the U.S but the global reviews of the album have been pretty breathtaking, just how people are listening to it. They can hear why it took a year and a half, they can hear it\u2019s not a band phoning it in, it\u2019s not a band just kind of having a formula, releasing something that they\u2019ve already released which we try not to do that ever. <\/p>\n
Every record is different, but coming off of 2 albums that were conceptual [2018s Attention Attention and 2022s Planet Zero] it was very, all 4 of us in the band [Zach, Eric, Barry Kerch – Drums] knew we were going to do a traditional record. All of these songs have their own story but they all belong on the same body of work.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m the most proud of it because you can hear the amount of work that went into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shinedown is everyone’s band. Because there’s so many different influences on the album from all over the spectrum, but it all makes sense because we\u2019re influenced by a lot of different genres too. It is a very nostalgic for me personally. <\/p>\n
I think people are gravitating towards it because they can hear the authenticity in the songwriting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
EI8HT is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here<\/a>. <\/p>\n Interview by Cody-James Henderson<\/p>\n