Shinedown talk beating drugs and their Minion mascot Eugene at Download Festival 2018
They chewed the fat at Download Festival
Last updated 13th Jun 2018
Shortly before they played an epic set on Sunday at Download Festival 2018, Shinedown singer Brent Smith and bassist/producer Eric Bass chewed the fat with Kerrang! Radio’s Jack Wood.
Having just unleashed their self-produced, highly ambitious and critically-lauded sixth studio album ‘Attention Attention’ last month, Jack asked Brent and Eric if they consider it to be their purest Shinedown record.
Eric responded: “I would say so because from the time the demos were finished – a lot of the tracking on the album is demo tracking which we left a lot of the vocals, a lot of the guitar work. So as far as sounding like they were intended to sound like, absolutely.
“There are some songs that took different turns and went other places but yeah this is the first record that our drummer Barry Kerch has had songwriting on. It really is a full band effort, all hands-on deck and everybody put every bit of care and heart and soul that they had into this in delivering this. I think that’s what it sounds like to me when I listen to it.
“I realise that we’re the ones that created it but this album for me has such a pulse and such a heartbeat that it commands you to listen to it.”
Download Festival 2018
Brent and Eric also opened up about their intense exercise regime and how they work out before taking to the stage to get the blood pumping.
“I’ve already done all the drugs man! I’ve drank all the booze, I’ve done it,” Brent exclaims.
Eric adds: “Back to ‘Attention Attention’, this is the first Shinedown record that was written sober. I think it’s the most dangerous sounding points to Brent… that this guy has sounded on record and it’s because of the clarity and because of the fact that there’s nothing between (Brent) and the listener.”
Despite managing to stay clear of alcohol and drugs for some time, Brent maintains: “It’s something that I have to just take one day at a time man. I don’t know how to do it any other way but he’s right man. I think a lot of it was because (Eric) encouraged me and I trusted him a lot.
“That record was me and him last year – of course it was all four of us – but I spent 179 days with him last year. From the other albums before there was always a late-night drinking session, like I had to wreck myself to come up with a line or what have you, but yeah man on this album, I wrote it with (Eric) sober and I performed it sober in the studio.”
Watch the full interview below where Brent and Eric talk getting their own official Air Jordan trainers, their beloved mascot Eugene The Minion touring with them and whether he inspired the new album, and their penchant logos and how it inspired the artwork of ‘Attention Attention’