photo by: Sanjay Parikh

The road to phase two of Shinedown’s most prolific record, with frontman Brent Smith

I know you’re clinging to the light of day. I’m calling out to everyone.

Guess you might say I’m a little intense, but take it from me, you’re not the only one who can’t see straight. In a room full of mirrors, there’s only one way out. And the devil is in the next room. And the voices in your head are legendary.

You see, life’s too short to run it like a race. It’s never gonna matter if you win first place because we’re all the same. So, you wake up and pull yourself together. You speak up, because no one heard your name (yet). You erupt because it’s better late than never. It may feel like it takes forever, but you gotta try, …you can pull yourself back together. And suddenly in a room full of mirrors “I figured it out” … “It’s my day to be brilliant.”

It’s fair to say nothing about me is ordinary. Sometimes my friends all say I’m going crazy. Like Shinedown, I don’t hear a word they say. And like frontman, Brent Smith – my plan B is to not have a plan B. I’m just gonna keep movin’. Today, tomorrow and the next… just gotta keep movin’.

During a recent three-week summer tour break, I had the chance to speak with Smith. I say “break” loosely because he was in Los Angeles about to begin shooting a lengthy music video project that goes along with the band’s sixth studio record, ATTENTION ATTENTION – which has been chart-topping since it’s 2018 release, simultaneously hitting #1 on Billboard’s Alternative, Top Rock and Hard Rock Albums Charts, while spawning #1 Active Rock hit “DEVIL,” and the rousing track “THE HUMAN RADIO”, in addition to “GET UP” and “MONSTERS.”

And that was all in phase one of the album run as much of the story is still to unfold. The most sincere component here is that Shinedown embody their mission. They have lived “my monsters are real”, cleared their throats, caught their breath, and at times let their hearts bleed out until there was nothing left. But they linked arms, threw a few instruments and a microphone on their backs and realized – “finding someone you can trust gets results.”

Now as Shinedown prepares to fire up their engines for tours with Papa Roach and Alter Bridge respectively, they are also deeply thinking about how the lives this record has already touched can multiply. ATTENTION ATTENTION is doing what it sought out to do, and as Smith I discuss the profound impact here, it’s obvious that there’s desire for much more.

So, say it if you’re one of us, let’s count it down from 10 to one, because I (we) believe you can be whatever.