WATCH YO

Shinedown are one of the biggest mainstream rock bands in recent

times, yet the UK has only just caught the bug. On their sold out tour
the Jacksonville quartet can’t wait to let everyone in on what they’ve
missed out on....

B
ackstage at the Manchester
Academy everything seems
running smoothly. I am
greeted by Shinedown’s tour man-
ager Doug, who takes me into a
small dressing room and fetches sev-
eral bottles of water. Shortly after I
am greeted openly by one of the
most exciting live acts to grace the
UK as of late. That band is the multi-
platinum US sensation Shinedown.
“Boy do I feel 18 again” says excited
drummer Barry Kersche. As he and
his fellow band members (Singer
Brent Smith, guitarist Zach Myers
and bassist Eric Bass) shake my
hand and introduces themselves po-
litely. It is obvious from this warm
welcome that the US rockers are an-
ticipating the beginning of their sold
out UK tour; their fourth appearance
on these shores in the span of a
year. “It’s cool to come over and gain
new fans and learn and see different
cultures, we’re just glad to finally
have the opportunity to come over
with this record”. Despite spending
the last decade building up a huge
following back home it has only been
in the last year that they have truly
made their mark on the UK audience,
resulting in their debut festival ap-
pearance at this past summer’s
Download Festival.
The festival itself was an overwhelm-
ing experience in the words of front-
man Brent Smith, a man known for
his compassionate interactivity with
fans. “Walking around backstage and
bumping into Brian May and Billy
Gibbons and Def Leppard was pretty
neat! We were even told that our per-
formance was the second largest at-
tendance of the day. Didn’t even
phase us that we were on the same
time as ZZ Top! It was pretty insane
before we went on to play because
we were on the side of the stage get-
ting ready to strap on our axes…
strap ons!...” “Boy do we love our
strap-ons, it’s what we do!” Interrupts
lead guitarist Zach Myers, the more
quiet of the group but also one of the
funniest. Despite the explosive reac-
tion they received from the crowd a
certain part of the performance
touched Brent the most. “In the
States they don’t really do this but
when we first walked on there were
all of these flags hoisted around the
crowd. One in particular was a really
tall one with this beautiful giant
British flag and it had Shinedown
written in the centre of it so person-
ally that was awesome, I didn’t know
what to think at first, it was just aston-
ishing to have a crowd warm to us so
much.” “And we got to play in be-
tween our two favourite bands Vol-
beat and Clutch! So to be in the
middle of that, that was fun!” Adds
the final member of Shinedown,
bassist Eric Bass.
Recently second single, aptly titled
Second Chance made a huge impact
in America (Number one on all rock
charts and reached number 7 on the
hard to break Hot 100) and has
achieved moderate success with UK
fans. It’s interesting to find how close
to home the song is to the band >>>
OUR BACK!

ZACH:
S T R A P - O N S ! ”
O U R
“WE LOVE

Left-Right: Barry Kerch, Zach Myers,

Eric Bass, Brent Smith
 Eric and Brent: The stripper they
ordered wasn’t exactly all ‘woman’
Frontman Brent left home
when he wasyounger to
become a musician and it
appears to have paid off,
with 6 million albums sold
worldwide, with family influ-
ence leading the way.
“My parents are extremely
proud” Barry comments.
“I’ve always been part of a
supportive family all very
close it was hard for them
at first as they were like
‘what are you doing you’re
a married man and you
have a real job and you’re
just going to ruin that?’ but
I’ve been very successful
and can pay my mortgage
so they’re really proud of
me”. Silence invokes the
room as Eric awkwardly
mutters ‘my parents are
dead’. He is in fact joking
but doesn’t stop my face
from changing to the colour
of a baboons arse. “You’ve
put this poor man into a
hear attack man” giggles
Brent. Zach, breaking the
tension talks about his rela-
tionship with his parents
and how he even went on
the road with his father. He
says “I started touring with
my dad when I was 14 and
he was with me up until I
was 17. My family have al-
ways supported me in
everything I’ve done and
they’re one of the bands’
“We were told face on we’d
be lucky to sell 10,000
copies of our first album”
biggest supporters. Hell
they were fans of the band
even before I joined! (Eric
and Zach joined after com-
pletion of The Sound of
Madness in 2008).
W
hile Shinedown
have indeed
made the transi-
tional leap to gaining their
UK audience there are still
quite a few bands such as
Breaking Benjamin and
metal titans Godsmack that
still have yet to achieve
success over here, or to
even visit these shores.
“Breaking Benjamin would
but unfortunately Ben (BB
singer) is afraid of flying,
for Godsmack I honestly
don’t know why they don’t
tour over here but I’ll tell
you this they’re missing
out”. It is unfortunate that
Breaking Benjamin’s mvp
Benjamin Burney himself
doesn’t fly, as their brand
of alternative metal could
easily amass a huge audi-
ence outide of the US.
“They could stick him on a
boat!” Adds Barry to laughs
all around. “Ben won’t fly,
they don’t even fly around
the States, whereas we do
tonnes of flight shows.”
Brent however, has his
own outlook in light of the
economy and the declining
music industry. “It’s true
that it isn’t cheap but I don’t
honestly see why a lot of
bands don’t make a go of it
and come over. It’s taken
us 10 years to come this
far to be able to tour here.
But you can look back at
the bands from the early
90’s and their labels would
basically put a lot of money
into the fact that they
wanted to throw the bands
on the road and see where
they’d hit so they knew
where they could make the
most money. In a way I feel
they tried to recreate that
with us but fortunately it
was back home we hit. I
wouldn’t call it a crusade in
how we first started but we
weren’t exactly media dar-
lings. There were even
people in the industry who
told us face on we’d be
lucky to sell 10,000 of our
first record (which in fact
went on to sell over one
million copies in America).
Thankfully most of those
people aren’t in the music
industry anymore and
there’s an attitude with that
because…” (Zach: ‘We
went on a witch hunt and
killed them all!’) Pretty
much. I just think it wasn’t
an overnight thing for us.
We had to bitch and moan
and scream but we did it in
a loving way. We truly love
our label and everything
they’ve done for us. We’re
actually one of the few
into the crowd and my
pants ripped wide open
and everything jus flew out
for the crowd to see. There
was cameras everywhere
and there was nothing I
could do!”
One incident Zach recalls
involved a show in Ohio
right in the chaos of a tor-
nado. “We were literally
prise to tour with. “You
hear these rumours that
they’re very reclusive and
not socially friendly but we
did a few shows and a fes-
tival with them in the
States. Let me tell you it
couldn’t be further from the
truth those guys are nice
as hell.”
father lives, only a stones
throw from my home
“That’s pretty cool. There’s
definitely something about
a British accent that’s so
appealing on a lot of differ-
ent levels, especially if it’s
coming from a woman. Es-
pecially if the accent is
strong in the singing voice I
pretty much melt to that.

bands left that actually put
our fists up in the air be-
cause they supported us
from day one and thank-
fully gave us the opportu-
nity to come over on the
Disturbed tour. That tour in
a way was even more spe-
cial as it was just us and
them.”
The autumn UK tour Dis-
walking onstage, trees
falling everywhere and they
were like ‘shows over’.
There was a tree that
must’ve been about 5ft
around that split in half in
the wind. Drum kits were
flying over our heads and
into the crowd, it got pretty
insane”
N
ot only do they
enjoy other US acts
but they aren’t ex-
actly strangers to the
British music scene. Or are
they? “Eric likes the Killers,
well, then he found out
they were from Vegas”
Zach replies looking to-
wards an embarrassed
looking Eric. “I quite like
It’s why I like Lily Allen so
much she’s so renounced
in her singing voice. I’m
into that, anything that’s
sensual and makes you
think.” Their musical influ-
ences vary as well, with
Barry influenced by such
diverse drummers as Nicko
McBrain from Iron Maiden
to Stuart Copeland. Sur-

turbed played in 2008 was
well received in the media,
with Shinedown reaping
praise for their unique
crowd reaction despite very
little knowledge of their ex-
istence. “We’re very in-
debted to Lord Draiman”
comments Barry on the
mastermind frontman of
Disturbed. However de-
spite his ‘mad’ David
Draiman nickname in the
music press Zach paints a
different portrait of his hard
partying persona. “He’s
very subdued backstage.
He plays backgammon and
chess and stuff. He’s a
very smart guy and he
keeps himself to himself.”
Shinedown are very much
the touring band and have
experienced a lot on the
road from drug abuse to
more lighthearted mo-
ments. “It’s weird for us be-
cause we see things that
aren’t really the norm of
everyday life. But one mo-
ment that strikes me when
we’ve been in the UK was
when Eric split his pants at
Download, and unlucky for
him there was like ‘jum-
botrons’ everywhere.”
Quick to explain his mishap
Eric adds, "We were just
ending the show and I
wanted to jump onto the
amps at the front of the
stage to throw my picks
D
espite being away
from home for quite
some time when
touring they don’t seem to
be phased about it at all.
“We’re just doing what
we’ve always loved to do
everybody knows being on
the road can be hard but I
love doing what I’m doing
because everybody in the
audience paid to see a
good rock show every night
and I want to give it to
them and I want to play
well.” Says Eric. Brent
jokes however that his mo-
tivation stems from a pend-
ing lawsuit he cannot talk
about. “Don’t do that man I
wanted some juice!” a dis-
appointed Zach remarks.
“What’s cool is we motivate
each other on stage” Adds
Barry. “We actually enjoy
playing together as a band.
And you know if someone
is having a bad day or has
lawsuits against them, we
try to help them out and be
there for each other.”
Some of Shinedown’s
favourite bands to tour with
include the likes of Seven-
dust, Black Stone Cherry,
Sick Puppies and Soil, who
happen to be the support
for tonight’s show. “We ab-
solutely adore those guys”
proclaims Brent. He adds
that Bakersfield nu-met-
allers KoRn were a sur-
the Who, have you heard prisingly we find out that he
of them?” Brent on the is an avid Prince fan. “I
other hand prefers our fe- love him to death.” He
male solo artists rather says, but when asked
than rock bands. “I’ve been about his favourite song it
into Lili Allen and Duffy’s becomes too challenging
records for quite some time for the drummer. “If asked
now. Isn’t she Welsh?” He to pick a favourite song by
is surprised to learn when I him I’m sorry to say I
inform him that her album couldn’t pick one it’s too
was named after where her tough”. And with that >>>
HEE LLOOW
TTH WNN!!
WDDOOW
A guide to all that Shinedown has released
LEAVE A WHISPER
The platinum selling debut album
released in 2003 quickly thrusted
Shinedown to the forefront of US
modern rock. includes the out-
standing single ‘45’ and roaring
‘Fly From The Inside’
US AND THEM
Less successful than its prede-
cessor but still a hit with fans.
More emotion is shown through
songs such as ‘I Dare You’ but re-
taining the heavy hooks through
single ‘Heroes’ the best was yet
to come
SOUND OF MADNESS
Before it’s release Brent was suf-
fering from a serious cocaine ad-
diction. Now clean and sober the
band could focus on greater
things. And boy did they grab am-
bition by the balls! Read the full
review in RA T E D
 ones that are still around”
jokes Zach, but in a way he is
correct. With music sales
slowly declining and more high
profile artists breaking up its
harder to maintain a band’s
reputation unless they attempt
to change themselves musi-
cally or personally. As Barry
explains “bands who I aspire to
be like are the Aerosmiths and
U2s who have a career and
made a life for themselves.
And every 5-10 years being
able to reinvent themselves
and the sound just enough so
its viable for that time period
>>>Brent sings Prince’s hit
but they don’t change who they
Kiss in his best falsetto voice.
are. You could listen to U2’s
Eric appears to be your typical
war or Achtung Baby or even
80’s rocker. Born into a musi-
their latest stuff its still U2
cal family it was his grandpar-
every albums just that little bit
ents who influenced his
different, Aerosmith are the
musical tastes earlier on,
same way.”
“Then I got into Van Halen and
To Eric it was a pleasant expe-
rience to work with such a leg-
endary producer. “He’s an
absolute genius. It’s funny
walking into a room and meet-
ing him. Initially Brent and me
met him firsthand and what
struck me was how tall he is!
He’s like 6ft 3 and he looks like
he should be an accountant.
But he’s very knowledgeable
and he’ll happily put in 12-15
hour days in the studio. Even I
don’t have the patients to be
able to do that”
It was their manager Bill Mc-
gathy that suggested the titling
of the album as Brent says that
the band never really thought
of a title at first. “I write all the
lyrics so just trying to figure out
a title was a struggle. But then
our manager Bill McGathy said

M
we already had a title and right
a lot of hair metal bands like
aking The Sound of then it all made sense. To me
Motley Crue G N R and Poi-
Madness was a big that’s what the whole album is
son. Then I just naturally pro-
deal to the band, as about. I don’t think that mad-
gressed into hardcore music
the overall sound differs from ness can necessarily be por-
and metal But I listen to every-
previous records. Whereas trayed as an ugly word as I
thing, rap country dance you
past songs were meant to be think that it describes a lot of
name it I listen to it.” Zach
played in arenas, this album’s the beautiful and intense as-
being a native from Memphis
ambitions just call to be played pects of life. You can be mad
was largely influenced by Sam
in sold out stadiums. Produc- at someone but you can even
Cook and Albert King, an ele-
tion duties were helmed by ac- be madly in love with some-
ment he shares respectably
claimed producer Rob Cavallo, one. For me personally… I
with Brent.. It was when he be-
known for his work with Green wouldn’t say let go exactly…
came infatuated with the guitar
Day and The Goo Goo Dolls. but it’s going to be tough to>>>
playing of Jimi Hendrix when
Shinedown 2003:
his interest really took off. Of Before the madness

his eventual interests in Led

Zeppelin and Aerosmith he
says, “I wanted to be in Led
Zeppelin. I got into Aerosmith
too later on and then a lot of
singer songwriter stuff, pretty
much anything from rap to
country.” A lot of these influ-
ences can be heard in their live
shows, specifically when play-
ing songs from the latest
album.
And are there any bands that
they aspire to be like? “The
>>>move onto the next game age has seen several of fluence to where music is con-
record.” their songs creep up on Rock cerned.” Zach adds. “For ex-
“I was working on some stuff Band. It is known that count- ample we’re in the MTV era of
on the bus earlier today” Saysless musicians have been out- music video and a music video
Eric. Barry adds: “These two spoken about the format (mind is how I started. I saw a video
(Zach and Eric) write a lot ofyou those musicians are about and I was like ‘I want to play
stuff on the road whereas me as exciting as paint spilling, guitar’ and I think whether its
and Brent we just focus the cough Noel Gallagher cough) rock or whatever anything that
tour I’m not a major songwriter
but Shinedown are proud to be brings kids to any form of
on tour. Until the times comesa part of it and find the whole music we need that in order to
I’m more focused on the live gaming experience to be “awe- keep the flow going.” Eric on
show”. The easily distracted some” in Barry’s words. “I suck the other hand wanted to learn
Eric emphasises “If I don’t lay
at it” Eric says bluntly, although guitar that bad he made his
something down when I think it appears he may not be the own. “Before I could play guitar
about it I’ll forget about it and
only one. “I can’t play the I actually built this wooden gui-
its gone for good so I have todrums to save my life! It’s not tar and stuck some strings on it
work on it right away. Earlierwhat I normally play” Says and I’d stand in front of the mir-
today I had something brand Brent. “I know the songs but ror posing with it and strum-
new and I had my pad and pen they’re laid out in a different ming, I still have it actually, its
and its just evolved into what I
way to what I’m used to.” Con- somewhere in the attic at
hope is a good song. If I hadn’t
cerning the concept Barry home.”
sat down and made myself put comments “With the whole It’s nice to see a band that are
pen to pad I would have forgot-
Rock Band thing I see them well mannered and truly care
ten it by now”. musically as a gateway drug. It for their fans as much as
gets kids turned onto rock Shinedown do. To be able to

W
ith the amassed suc- music again and it gets them sit with them and discuss their
cess Shinedown has wanting to progress to actually career and their goals is noth-
brought themselves learning and playing actual gui- ing short of inspiring and goes
over the last ten years; with tars and drums. Anything that to show that hard work well
countless songs used by the leads kids to rock music is cool and truly pays off in the end.
WWE as well as other televi- with me.” Shinedown – The Sound of
sion shows but now the video “I definitely thinks it’s a new in- Madness is available now
SHINEDOWN MIGHT HAVE CRACKED THE UK BUT THERE’S STILL COUNTLESS OTHER
ACTS WHO HAVE YET TO MAKE THEIR PRESENCE KNOWN. CHECK THESE OUT>>>>>