I worked with a lot of baby bands that he ended up liking a lot. It's amazing how much he knows that you don't know that he knows.Įric, what else do you remember about joining the band around the Sound of Madness era?īass: Steve Robertson and I had a history together with me being a record producer and writer. He doesn't let all of that knowledge out in the studio. I spent time with him as a producing mentor, and also as someone who was producing bands I was in at the time. Super brilliant, super knowledgeable about music. It's interesting that Rick is now doing what he's doing - and he's a brilliant guy, man. But it's funny you bring Rick up, because he was literally the first person I called, because I knew he had worked with the band before. Brent Smith is not built like everybody else. I didn't exactly know what he meant until I met Brent and realized that was very true. I was like, "What do you think of this cat?" He goes, "Brent is a different person, man. Rick was one of the people I called, before I met Brent. We were talking about working together, and then the possibility of joining the band. He was one of the first people I called when Steve Robertson, Shinedown's A&R, called me about writing with Brent. He was a record producer and songwriter, of course, for a long time before he became Rick Beato, the YouTube sensation. Smith: He had a couple of tracks on Leave a Whisper - "Lost in the Crowd," "All I Ever Wanted" and "In Memory," if I remember correctly.īass: Rick and I were friends. I didn't realize until now that Rick Beato was a co-producer on the first record. I think, more than anything, those two albums taught me that I was truly built to be a touring musician - that I was meant to be on the road. I think back on it very fondly in a lot of circumstances, but at the same time, there were a lot of struggles that were occurring at that time. I was super young, and it was just like what they said - you have your whole life to do your first record. So, I have to look at the great things that Leave a Whisper and the second one, Us and Them, gave me in regard to our career and allowing us to continue to move forward, but I also have to look back at it and learn what not to do anymore in the future. Smith: I had a really good friend of mine once tell me that you'll get your whole life to do your first album, and if that album is successful, you'll get six months to do your second one. When you listen back, what comes to mind? What were you dealing with? I'm very proud of the record, but I'm extremely proud of Planet Zero. There's a lot of that record that I look back on very fondly and a lot that I look back on where I go "Whew! I'm glad I'm not dealing with that anymore!" Smith: I'm very grateful for the fact that it was the beginning of the band's career. Your debut Leave A Whisper is nearing its 20th anniversary. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. "We're saying, 'Is this what you wanted? For us to be at each other's throats?'" And from a parallel Zoom window, Shinedown bassist, producer and engineer Eric Bass agrees: "We're really talking to those forces that divide us - forces in government, forces in media, forces in Big Tech," he adds. "It's the reflection of what you just went through," Smith tells, referring to the arc of Planet Zero. Then, what bandleader Brent Smith calls "the deep breath" at the end of the 20-song voyage: the contemplative, string-driven "What You Wanted." "Delete" consists of a computerized totalitarian demanding mass obedience, and the sound of the listener shutting her off. The Florida rockers are about to go out with their upcoming album, Planet Zero - and in a way, its penultimate track tells the whole story. After two years of a politicized pandemic, ideological howling and torpedoing strangers' livelihoods by smartphone, Shinedown is ready to "throw down on the road" and "give people their confidence back." Hence, one type of racket - a joyful one - can supplant the din of daily existence. Can noise neutralize noise? For a rock band, this paradox makes sense.
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