Sixteen years is a long time to leave Australia waiting and Brent Smith knows it.
When Shinedown finally return this month alongside Bush for a co-headline run through Australia and New Zealand, the frontman isn’t pretending the gap doesn’t matter. Quite the opposite.
‘It’s definitely not business as usual because we’re taking it. You know, you have to look at. You know, when you’ve not been back to a territory in over a decade, there’s a lot of humility on our end.’
Shinedown ‘Second Chance’ video
Shinedown last played Australia more than 15 years ago
In the time since, they’ve grown from an already formidable American rock band into one of the genre’s biggest commercial forces, stacking up billions of streams, number one rock singles and arenas across the globe.
Now they’re coming back into some of the biggest rooms they’ve ever attempted here.
‘Being 16 years and you announce that you’re doing arenas, you know that’s a big swing.’
The gamble is paying off, Smith says ticket sales have been strong, but the numbers aren’t what he keeps coming back to. His focus is on making the return justify the wait.
‘We’re there to give you the night of your life.’
That means Shinedown aren’t arriving with some stripped-back overseas version of their show either.
‘We’re bringing you all the bells and whistles, like we’re not we’re not we’re not pulling back from anything.’
And this time, Smith doesn’t intend on disappearing for another decade and a half.
‘This is the beginning of the Australian tour to so that it’s not another 16 years.’
Shinedown ‘Safe And Sound’ video
Why Shinedown And Bush Still Make Sense Together
Pairing Shinedown with Bush places two very different generations of rock beside one another.
Bush broke internationally in the mid-’90s, Shinedown emerged in the early 2000s. Both have survived periods where the machinery around rock music changed almost beyond recognition.
Smith sees the common ground as simple.
‘If there’s a common thread, I think it’s just longevity, and you know, not resting on your laurels in any way, shape, or form.’
For him, longevity means more than simply continuing to tour old records.
‘Constantly evolving as songwriters, and you know, luckily enough to have an audience that continuously grows with you, album to album.’
That philosophy is particularly obvious on Shinedown’s eighth album EI8HT, released earlier this year.
The record stretches to 18 tracks and moves through everything from the muscular rock Shinedown built their reputation on to material that wanders through Americana, country and more expansive melodic territory.
There was never much concern about whether an 18-track album might be incompatible with shrinking attention spans.
‘There’s not a like. I don’t really look at it as a formula because you know we’ve been in the industry for 25 years, so what it comes down to is, is it good or not?’
That’s the filter, nothing more complicated.
‘Once you record the material, it belongs to you until you release the material, and as soon as you release the material, it belongs to the world. Doesn’t belong to you anymore.’
For a band with 25 years behind them, that world now includes people who weren’t alive when Shinedown first started releasing records, Smith thinks rock audiences often misunderstand what that means.
Shinedown ‘Young Again’ video
‘To Them, It’s Not Nostalgia’
There has been no shortage of discussion around the resurgence of bands from the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Deftones. Limp Bizkit. Creed. System Of A Down. Nickelback.
Old songs are exploding again, Teenagers are wearing the shirts, Bands that once belonged to one particular generation suddenly find themselves staring into crowds filled with people young enough to be their original fans’ kids.
Smith rejects the idea that this is purely nostalgia.
‘You have a younger generation that’s finding out about that, and to them, it’s not nostalgia. To them, it’s brand new.’
That distinction matters.
‘You can see that with System of a Down. You can see that with Creed. You can see that with Deftones. You can see that with Nickelback. You can see that with Limp Bizkit.’
For those finding the music for the first time, there is no memory attached to it.
‘It’s not like that younger generation. It’s not like a. Nostalgia thing. It’s it’s like what is this? It’s badass. It’s just because it’s brand new to them.’
Then there’s the other half of the crowd, the people who were actually there.
‘There is the part that grew up with it, and it is a bit of nostalgia because you’ve not thought about it for a minute, and then you go and you revisit those songs, and you’re like, man, this stuff was awesome. I I forgot how good this was.’
Shinedown now sit directly in the middle of those two groups.
The band have been with Warner Music Group and the same management company for almost their entire career, while their catalogue continues to stretch across different radio formats and generations.
Smith has a phrase for it.
‘Shine Down is everyone’s band.’
‘Our Audience Is Eight To 80’
Smith isn’t particularly interested in telling people what a Shinedown fan is supposed to look like.
‘It means anyone from anywhere at any time from any background is welcomed always.’
That becomes especially visible from stage.
‘Our audience is eight. Our audience is eight to 80.’
The breadth of Shinedown’s music is partly responsible.
Smith doesn’t think in terms of writing for a predetermined demographic, nor does the band seem particularly worried about keeping every song inside one stylistic box.
‘We swim in a lot of creative oceans.’
For younger listeners especially, the rock label isn’t necessarily the whole story.
‘Some of the fans that are younger, they’re like, yeah, I mean, they play rock music, but that’s not all they are.’
That willingness to move has been essential to Shinedown’s longevity.
‘Our audience has always allowed us to evolve whether they’ve been there from day one or they’re just kind of finding out who we are.’
Smith points to Deftones as another example of a band that has managed to remain instantly identifiable without repeating itself.
‘Deftones are just freaking awesome.’
What makes them work, in his eyes, is that their sonic identity keeps shifting while the essential DNA stays intact.
‘They’re one of those bands that like I can’t put them under a certain category except the Deftones.’
It’s a philosophy Smith clearly applies to his own band too, Rock, to him, isn’t just a production style or radio category anyway.
‘Rock and roll is a spirit more than anything. It’s a way of life for people. It’s not necessarily just a genre of music.’
Brent Smith Thinks The MTV Rock Debate Is ‘Rage Bait’
That makes Smith’s response to rock disappearing from spaces traditionally associated with the genre particularly interesting.
When the conversation turns to MTV and the removal of a rock category from the VMAs, he doesn’t reach for the pitchfork, he suspects the outrage might be part of the point.
‘My thoughts on that is, I think some of that is like rage bait.’
Smith questions why the decision would be made at all, other than to provoke a reaction.
‘That almost seems like premeditated, just to make people mad.’
There’s another issue too.
The MTV Smith grew up with is barely recognisable in the modern version.
‘The MTV that I grew up on was literally music television.’
That meant videos, MTV News and a handful of other programs orbiting the music itself.
‘I watched MTV to to watch music videos, and you know once YouTube came around, that was kind of over.’
He’s not interested in spending too much energy being angry about it.
‘I’m so not the negative individual. Like I see, like how cynical the world can be, and I just don’t have time for it.’
Shinedown ‘A Symptom of Being Human’ video
Shinedown Isn’t A Hobby
There isn’t much separation between Brent Smith and Shinedown, ask what life looks like outside the band and the question becomes surprisingly difficult for him to answer.
‘It’s hard to say because it it’s it’s everything that I am.’
Smith recently finished a 10 week tour with his 18 year old son travelling alongside him.
‘We had an absolute blast.’
But when the tour ends, Smith doesn’t exactly disappear into a quiet domestic life.
‘I don’t go on vacations. I don’t really have any hobbies.’
He sold his California house in 2016 and hasn’t had a mortgage since.
‘I live in hotels. I’m a minimalist.’
His attention stays trained on Shinedown, both creatively and commercially.
‘There’s a creative side to what I do. There’s a business side to what I do. So I’m kind of always on the clock.’
That might sound extreme until Smith explains why.
‘It’s so not a hobby, man.’
There’s responsibility attached to the scale Shinedown have reached.
‘There’s a lot of sacrifice involved in it, and to be quite honest with you, I’m just responsible for a lot of people.’
Nobody handed him that responsibility, he chose it.
‘They didn’t ask me to take care of them, but I’m, I’m here to take care of them.’
That sense of responsibility may explain why Smith keeps circling back to the Australian shows as something bigger than another entry on a tour itinerary.
Shinedown waited 16 years, now they want to do it properly.
‘The good news is that you know the wait’s over and here we come.’
- Sunday, September 20th – Brisbane, Riverstage
- Wednesday, September 23rd – Sydney, Hordern Pavilion
- Friday, September 25th – Melbourne, John Cain Arena
- Sunday, September 27th – Adelaide, Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre
- Tuesday, September 29th – Perth, HBF Stadium
Tickets are available through Destroy All Lines.
Shinedown ‘EI8HT‘ Tracklist
- At The Bottom
- Dance, Kid, Dance
- Burning Down The Disco
- Three Six Five
- Young Again
- Dizzy
- Imposter
- Machine Gun
- Outlaw
- Safe And Sound
- Searchlight
- Bear With Me
- Deep End
- Killing Fields
- Back To The Living
- Wide Open
- So Glad That You Asked
- The Pilot
Listen here.
MORE IN Features
