I didn’t go back to the studio for 11 days. So, me and Eric were kind of at a crossroad and Eric said, “I have a piece of piano music that I haven’t shown you.” And I asked him to show it to me and when he did, it’s what became “GET UP.” The first initial time that he played it for me, I remember listening to it, a couple hours had gone by and I said “make me a demo of it real fast and I’ll take it with me to the hotel.” So he did, and I’m normally pretty quick with lyrics because I’m the main lyricist in the band so within 24 or 48 hours I should have something. I thought it was kind of stock, it didn’t really have any integrity to it, it just kind of sounded like stuff I’d already heard before.

And honestly, it goes back to what I said a moment ago, this is a very upfront record for us.Ī lot of it started with the song “GET UP,” because I wrote “GET UP” about Eric and it was interesting because at the beginning stages of the writing process for the album, which was right around January of 2017, we started going through different riffs and different ideas and kind of looking at the heavier material and some of the stuff was a bit more uptempo, and to be quite honest with you, it was boring.

If we’re being retained to do something for a film, or a sporting event, or even a television show, there’s already a format laid out in those situations, then we’ll write to that but when it comes to Shinedown, as a whole, when we’re making an album, it’s where we are at that point in time in our lives. them because when it comes to this band, we write what we know. They’ve given us a platform, but they know that we’re not going to b.s.

We’ve been very fortunate that the public has always allowed us to be ourselves. We write songs about the things that we know, the people that we’ve met, the places that we’ve been to, the situations that we’ve been in, it’s all a factor of living life and understanding where we’re coming from. No matter what it is, no matter where we are in our lives. Well, one thing about the fans, if you’ve known who Shinedown is for a while now, you know that the one thing you are always going to receive from us is honesty. You describe “GET UP” as the turning point of the album, how did it guide you into what the album was going to be? We had complete control and we had complete confidence from our record label, Atlantic Records, because we started talking to them way early, and I told them at the beginning of 2017, “I’ve got a vision for this next record, I just need you to give me no time limit and trust me on this,” and them being the two amazing people that they are, said, “absolutely, just as you’re progressing, let us know when we can help you and when you think that the album is going to come out.” There was a lot of work, and a lot of planning that went into this album, but to be honest with you, with this being the first year with the record out, we’re just getting started. This entire year has been, I don’t want to say that it’s been a rebirth of the band, but the architecture of the album and the way that we presented the album was different. The reality was, with this album, Eric Bass, the bass player in Shinedown, is he’s way more than just a bass player, because not only did he produce the record, but he was the main engineer on the album, one of the main songwriters along with myself- and he also mixed the album. The only other album that has this much strength would probably have been The Sound Of Madness (2008). I think that the big focus with the music on this particular record has a lot to do with the way we recorded the album and the fact that it was probably the most personal album that we’ve done to date.

With ATTENTION ATTENTION being your most personal record to date, can you take me through what starting this album was like for you? CelebMix had the chance to speak with Brent Smith about some of the life experiences that came with making ATTENTION ATTENTION their most important album yet. Prioritizing honesty and authenticity in their music, Shinedown’s newest album illustrates part of why they are one of the most successful rock groups in the last two decades. The band’s latest single, GET UP, has been resonating with listeners since its release, garnering more than 20 million total streams to date. Tackling relevant topics in today’s world including mental health, the negative effects of social media, and conquering fear, ATTENTION ATTENTION chronicles an individual’s journey in battling their demons - a story that has been connecting with fans all over the world. When it was time to follow up Shinedown’s previous album, Threat to Survival(2015), frontman and main lyricist, Brent Smith, went on a mission to craft the band’s most personal body of work to date.

Brent smith shinedown