Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch recently did an interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station and talked about the songwriting and recording sessions that will follow-up to 2022’s “Planet Zero” album. “We’re currently writing whatever the next record is gonna be. I’d say we’re roughly halfway through. I’ve recorded, I think, six (or) seven songs for it. I know there’s active writing going on right now. I think Brent (Smith, Shinedown singer) actually might be up in Charleston (South Carolina) right now (at bassist/producer Eric Bass’s studio). I can’t keep track of him. He’s always bouncing around from hotel room to hotel room. But we’re actively writing. I expect to, and the plan is to release some music this year, some new music this year, and then (full) record probably early spring of next year or springtime of next year and start touring March of next year. I mean, we’re not slowing down.”
Kerch continued: “I think with the awesome success of ‘Symptom (Of Being Human)’ (single) and how broad that new audience got, it would be a shame to go away and not let them experience a live show. I personally think with Shinedown, yes, I’m very proud of our records and I think our records are great, but you don’t really become a superfan until you see us live and get that whole vibe and really see it. ‘Cause Brent’s so good at interacting with the crowd and bringing them into the show, you go to the concert going, ‘I really wanna hear that ‘Symptom’ song. And then you go, ‘Oh, they’re that band. This is fun.’ And then they’re hooked.”
Barry did say that Brent is “pretty early on the game” in terms of lyrics & melodies for the new songs, “The lyrics are usually 98 percent done, if not fully done. And sometimes in the demo, they’re completely done. Those vocals you hear on the final products were the demo vocals. He’s just kind of prolific that way. And he really wants to get the vibe out.”
He addded, “The way I’ve always played drums with Shinedown is to the vocals more than anything. So I’m trying to really support what the vocals are and give lead-ins and lead-outs to whatever — I don’t wanna step on those vocals. And you can hear it when singers put their lyrics on after the music’s been written, that sometimes there can be this battle between drum fills and lyrics and maybe where it should have gone. And I think it steps on it sometimes. Sometimes it makes it cool. Like you listen to a band like Tool. Most of the music is written, then it’s handed to Maynard (James Keenan), and then he writes his vocals over that. So that’s how they get that cool… It’s just different. And it’s, like, only Maynard would have thought to sing that because the music’s already there. We’re the polar opposite. I wanna support what vocals are already there.”
Last month, Shinedown’s song “A Symptom Of Being Human” became the first song by a band or solo artist to chart in the top 10 on three major Mediabase charts: Active Rock, Alternative, and Adult Contemporary (AC)!
