NEED TO KNOW
- Shinedown’s Brent Smith tells ipromiseyoumedia their new tune, “Searchlight,” is “a love letter in a number of methods to Americana and what we grew up on”
- “The unique take of the tune was a bit extra of an influence ballad … after which I bear in mind coming again in and saying, ‘I simply wish to sing it the way in which I hear it in my head,’ ” he shares.
- Shinedown is gearing as much as additionally launch a brand new album, a undertaking Smith is happy about
Shinedown is able to step into a brand new period, and Brent Smith is able to carry the torch.
The multi-platinum-selling artist tells ipromiseyoumedia that his group is as keen as ever to proceed to ship new sonics to their legions of followers, exemplified by the artistic tenacity that caused their new single, “Searchlight,” which harkens again to their roots, each when it comes to the place they had been raised and the music that knowledgeable their childhoods.
“It is a love letter in a number of methods to Americana and what we grew up on,” Smith shares. “All of us grew up on bluegrass … Johnny Money, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire had been all the time in the home.”
Because of these influences, the band, which has constantly blurred the traces of style over the higher a part of the final quarter-century, was pushed to craft a observe that felt very very similar to it got here from Shinedown, but was additionally considerably of an audible departure from prior works.
“Eric [Bass] was identical to, ‘This wants a metal guitar as a result of it is asking for a metal guitar,’ ” Smith recollects of what the observe “requested to be.” “I hear a banjo … as a result of the tune was saying, ‘I would really like a banjo.’ It’s important to hear to those songs after they discuss to you.”
A lot in the way in which that people equivalent to Bruce Springsteen stood by his beliefs within the creation of such departure works as Nebraska, which sought solely to fulfill the artist’s distinctive artistic itch, Smith says that he equally adopted his intestine with “Searchlight.” “The unique take of the tune was a bit extra of an influence ballad … after which I bear in mind coming again in and saying, ‘I simply wish to sing it the way in which I hear it in my head,’ ” he shares.
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And what finally emerged was a seamless mixing of influences that reveals reverence to the muse it was created on, whereas additionally progressing the notion of Americana music as an entire.
“You get a number of opinions from the label … ‘You have not executed this, so we’d like this type of a factor.’ … We simply cannot write in a field like that,” Smith shares of the surface influences trying to tell his artistic course of. Although finally, he says that Shinedown, regardless of the percentages, has “all the time been actually, actually sincere concerning the songwriting,” not permitting themselves to be led any which method by exterior forces.
The brand new tune, which tees up the band’s subsequent album, was delivered to the world in probably the most becoming method doable for a tune that pays homage to Americana: with a efficiency on The Grand Ole Opry stage. Launched by none aside from Carrie Underwood, Smith jokingly recollects, “I used to be terrified on that stage, and I form of loved being terrified.”
“I had no concept that Carrie was going to do this,” he continues. “She didn’t have to do this … And he or she did.” The singer calls his peer completely “needed … She’s one among a form.”
Surmising the expertise of “Searchlight” having been first carried out on “hallowed floor,” Smith notes, “While you stroll into the circle [on stage], there’s an indescribable form of power that occurs.”
Having fashioned Shinedown initially in 2001, Smith and his bandmates are acutely in tune with what it takes to maintain a profession that equally transcends time and frequently delivers new materials that invigorates previous followers and brings in new ones, evident by their a number of charting singles in 2025 alone.
“I really feel fortunate that I received lots of people which are nonetheless with me after 10, 15, some 20 years,” Smith shares of his longtime crew, including, “Shinedown is everybody’s band.”
Standing in entrance of stadium-sized crowds for a big majority of 1’s life might very properly make the person jaded to the notion, however Smith maintains, “The viewers really grows each album, each tour. It will get larger,” which continues to drive him and his bandmates ahead.
“There’s this… eight to 80 in our viewers, and from all walks of life,” he continues, proclaiming, “In Shinedown … we simply have one boss. It simply occurs to be all people within the viewers.”
And their “bosses,” so to talk, are in for a deal with with the band’s forthcoming album. Particular particulars are mum, however Smith shares, “I do know the opposite 14 songs which are going to be launched subsequent yr” and confesses that “we nonetheless have extra issues to say proper now in our world.”
“If it’s there and it’s coming to us, then write it, document it, after which resolve if you wish to give it to the world,” Smith provides of the mentality informing the group’s strategy to recording music these days.
Finally, Smith, who by all accounts is a veteran of the business and has left little or no to show in his work as a artistic, eagerly shares of the way forward for his relationship with music and Shinedown as an entire: “I hope it’s simply getting began.”
