Brent From Shinedown talks to Willie B ahead of their October 20th Show

Brent From Shinedown talks to Willie B ahead of their October 20th Show

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
One of seventy nine KBP I I'mfired up, you guys. I'd be
honest, man, there's not alot of and it's just weird. It's
just me as a person. Butthere's not a lot of dudes that I
will stand in front of it.Go Bro, I love you man.
But this dude right here, Iwill stand there just like Bro. I
love you man. You're awesome.This is Brent, as you guys know

(00:21):
from shy down. He's I lovewhat you're doing. I love the message
in your music. I just lovethe fact that, dude, you're you're
just smashing man. It seems likeevery everything you release and every time you
bring in something like Plannet zero,it's it's another evolution, another level and
another way to connect man, anddoing so in a way that is unmapped.

(00:44):
Bro. So welcome to the show. I hope you're doing well.
Man. I'm just excited to chatwith you. How in the world are
you going to start this off andget me all right emotional? Like I
was all fine until you said allthose incredible things. Well, you're a
brother, right, my friend.I love you right back, and I'm
honored to talk to you. Imiss you. I'm looking forward to seeing

(01:06):
you and thank you. Man.It's been a little bit too long for
you know, for as far aswhere I'm concerned. When the last time
we spoke to each other. Man, Hey, bro, too long.
I think last time was when youwere here at the mission. I've asked
a couple of times. I'm like, hey, what's Brent doing? We
gotta get I want to speak withBrent. Man. Uh, but dude,

(01:26):
excited, really stoked for the show. And I gotta tell you.
Man. So as a fan ofyour music, you know, and and
as a friend, it's it's onething. But as as just a listener,
I don't know how you you writemusic or you sing it. In
a way this sort of permeates allthe clutter out there and just connects emotionally.

(01:49):
Like there's no way you could putin your album and just start anywhere,
pick a number, start anywhere onthe album, and you are stuck
listening to the entire thing. Ifyou're feeling you know, enthusiastic and amped
up, there's all kinds of offeringsfor you. If you're feeling like humbled
or trying to find your place ordealing with a big struggle there's tons of

(02:09):
tracks that not only meet that thatsame feeling, but help you navigate the
wildness and nonsense of your days andwhat's going on in the world out there.
Man, you've done it again,and I just I'm blown away every
time I see you guys, andevery time I'm able to talk to you
to just relay that message. Man, it's amazing. It's an unbelievable talent.

(02:31):
Thank you very very much. Imean, honestly, man, you
hit a lot of it on thehead. I mean, ultimately, the
goal is to be honest and tohave an open mind, and to really
really not get into tunnel vision andfocus on the peripheral more than just you
know, the aspects of what's goingon in your life and the world and

(02:54):
all of that, because this isan interesting world to navigate and we all
evolved and we're all people. Andthe other thing too, is we're all
a work in progress. I thinkmore than anything, you did say something
very specific. You know, nomatter what album you're listening to from us,
and it's by design. Our hopeis that you could listen to any
song on the record, from whateverrecord you're listening to, and you don't

(03:17):
hit the you know, the skipbutton. The idea is to make we
try to still make albums. Sowe never go into an album process or
a writing process and say, okay, well we have the three singles or
we have the four singles and therest of it is, you know,
it's good enough to be on therecord. We've never done that. We've
tried to always be very mindful ofit has to be good from the middle,

(03:38):
you know, from the beginning ofthe middle to the finale, because
we don't want to phone it in. And we've always tried to give our
audience that is continuing to grow.And the only reason it's continuing to grow
in a lot of ways is becauseof people like yourself that bring the music
to the people. But you haveto be honest and you have to be
real, and you have to understandthat you have to give people you're one

(04:00):
hundred percent no matter what. Butyou also just have to be authentic.
Yeah, man, And I thinkthat authentic rings so true with you your
words and how you you express themin your music. It's just, man,
you talk about a great voyage,a great escape, and honestly,
man, it's it's wild to saythis, bro, but it's therapeutic.
There's so many songs that touch onmotions, feelings, both positive and negative,

(04:25):
both pros and cons. Look,there's things that you talk about in
your music that every single person struggleswith. If you listen to the song
a Symptom of being human, Man, this is a song that it for
me. It was like special onthe last album. It's a song that
whoa, that hits a little different, that feels like it's a it's a
calling, but it's it's melodic andit's powerful. It makes you think and

(04:47):
it makes you, you know,question a certain direction or a certain feeling
or a certain thought. And man, you tie that in with there's so
many other tracks, you know,clues and dramatic or you know, oh
what you wanted? The love thatone. A big fan of the Spinal
Euro. I'm like, it's great. It's great. Is what it is

(05:08):
is the Yeah, I mean Planetzero. We can be really vocal about
it and honest about it. Youknow, it's uh, the record's been
out. I think we're right atlike seventeen months. But listen, we
wrote that particular record in the midstof a pandemic, right, and there
were all these things going on.There was, you know, global tension

(05:30):
everywhere, not just with you know, what was going on in the pandemic,
but just socially. There was alot going on, and I remember
we were all looking at each other. Well. I left Los Angeles right
around June first of twenty twenty toget to Charleston to get with Eric,
our bass player and producer of thelast two albums. A lot of people

(05:51):
don't know that that Eric bass who'sour bass player. He engineered, mixed
and produced Attention and Attention, andhe engineered, mixed and produced Planet Zero.
And it's interesting when you have aband member that becomes the producer and
the engineer and all those aspects areit's a very very vast canvas that you

(06:15):
have to paint with. And sofor us, we kind of looked at
each other. I remember I gotto the studio in Charleston with him right
around June of twenty twenty, andwe said to each other, what do
we do? Like? What dowe write about? Like nobody's gonna want
to talk about what's going on rightnow. They're going to want to get
past this, you know. Sohaving this ideology of having a crystal ball

(06:39):
and trying to write three years inthe future. We attempted that. We
kind of attempted that, and thenit was just very obvious that, man,
we're going to have to write aboutwhat's going on in the world.
And it's interesting that you would bringup a symptom of being human because that
was the very first song that waswritten for Planet, for what became Planet.

(07:01):
And what we did was we satdown and the song came quick a
symptom of being human. We callit a gift. And you don't get
a gift in the studio process whenyou're making an album all the time.
Gift this is a song that itessentially uses you as a vessel and it
almost writes itself. And that's whatit was. Because we knew people were

(07:26):
afraid. We knew people were scared, we knew people were frustrated, they
were angry, they they were justand that song is about the human condition.
It's about why we're all connected toeach other. And the fact of
the matter is for us, wewanted to let everybody know that this is
going to be challenging, but thegoal is to persevere. You know,

(07:48):
a lot of our music is builtin the concept of sometimes you have to
fall into a hole to figure outhow to get out of the hole,
and that lot of the dynamic ofthat song. That's one of the reasons
why we name the band shine Down. And people have asked me that before
there they they've asked where did itcome from the name, and the name

(08:09):
came from that aspect of sometimes youshine and sometimes you're down. It's a
yin and a yang. So everythingthat's good has a little bit of bad,
and everything that's bad has a littlebit of good. It's all about
balance. Yeah, no doubt.Man. We're speaking with Brit Smith Fromtman
of Shine Down, kind of explaininga lot more than just the latest album

(08:30):
Play a Zero. But I broI look at it. I think it
was my papa who first told me, or I heard him say the rock
Bottom has built more heroes than Privilegeever has. Damn, that's a good
one, man, aw that that'sa good one. I've never heard that
before. That's strong. Yeah,it's it's it's some I live by it.

(08:52):
I tell people all the time rockBottom has built more heroes than Privilege
ever has. And his times ofstruggle, times of of you know,
the fight that you find out alot about you. But man, there
is there is an there's an unprecedentedstrength in struggle, and people that never
have that struggle don't understand the strengththat will come to them once they persevere

(09:16):
and get through it. Uh.And I encourage people, man, just
use every aspect of life and everythingthat life throws at you is a way
to grow and a way to becomebetter. And sometimes, you know,
sometimes life hits you at the knees, man, and and you got to
get in there and fight like adog. But you'll be a better and
stronger person and if you persevere andget through it. Yeah. I've never

(09:39):
been a fan of and everybody's gonnatake this, you know what I'm about
to say differently and everybody and that'sthe beauty of of of being able to
have an opinion and things of thatnature. And you know why we're on
a conversation right now and we canbe open with one another. But to
your point and what you're talking aboutthere, I've never been a fan of

(10:01):
Plan B in my life, andI encourage people to not be. You
know, so I don't want tosay institutionalized to the idea of society that
well, you need to have aplan B for your life. You know,
growing up it was always kind ofa yeah, I gotta have plan
B, gotta have a plan Wellwhy? And the reason I say that
is you don't need to focus onsecond nature to yourself and the life that

(10:26):
you want for yourself and for yourfamily and for your journey, because that's
what life is. It doesn't matterhow long it takes you to get to
your A plan. Focus on theA plan. It does not matter how
long it takes. But don't focusso much primarily on a what if.
You have to have enough of adrive and an understanding of who you are,
and you have to be willing tolisten and learn and never stop asking

(10:50):
questions and ultimately never stop learning.Because sometimes people have a fear of failure.
You need to fail. You mustfail because it's going to make you
stronger. Because I guarantee you yourlife and your legacy won't be built by
your failure. Your life and yourlegacy will be built by the fact that
you refuse to give up. Hellyeah, man, dude, they just

(11:11):
give me goosebumps. Good. Andthat's a lot of what the That's a
lot of what the band tries torepresent at all times. Yeah, man,
And I think that's so that's sucha relevant message and in way too,
you know, for us on thisend to to help us to be
almost therapeutic and and like give yourlisteners, fans, people that hear your

(11:37):
message in your music, just youknow, another means to stand up,
dust themselves off, and go youknow what, man, it's gonna be
all right, take a breath.You know, there's there's worse things that
could be going on, and there'syou know, there's light at the end
of the tunnel. And you reallyprovide that, you know, in a
rock and scorching way, which iswhich is for me, just a perfect
form. I'm like, yeah,man. Well the other thing too is

(12:01):
also that you know, we livein a society now and you can't escape
it. You can choose whether ornot to take part in it. But
we live in the age of technology, and we live in the age of
social media. But the biggest thingthat I try to express the people is
this, like, please remember thatyou're in control of the device. The

(12:22):
device doesn't need to be in controlof you. Put it down and go
outside and get some sun on yourface. Ye like breathe some fresh air,
Like, put the phone down andgo outside and be present. Right
there will be a game changer foryou, you know, because pretty much
everybody, a lot of people,most of the people on the planet have

(12:45):
some form of device, cell phone, social media, some form of it.
And what happens is, man,you'll just become desensitized to everything when
you're scrolling all the time. Putit down and go out outside and be
be present. Amen, dude,listen to that song what you wanted on

(13:05):
this album. You'll get a littledose to that includes in dramatic, but
it's another good one that hits thatmessage kind of over the head, which
we all need it. It's it'snuts to see. I saw a study
the other day, man, teenagejust spending five hours on the average to
day looking at a screen. Fivehours. Bro. You imagine, like
our when we grew up, oursocial media was go outside if you developed,

(13:30):
if you our social media from myparents was not only go outside,
don't come back until its dark.Yeah, get your heads out there.
Man, if you devote anything likefive hours to anything, you become a
master at it. So don't wastefive hours a day looking at the screen.
There's so many things the world hasgot to opera. You gotta,
yeah, you gotta prioritize your time. I mean, my son is going

(13:54):
to be sixteen in December, andhe lived in a like he's been playing
basketball since he was basically five sixyears old, and he is just massively
determined and I mean he literally andhe does good in school, but like
he wants to be a professional.He wants to go to the NBA.

(14:16):
I mean, he wants to gothrough college and this and that and the
other. He's one of the onlyhe's one of the only sophomores. I'm
gonna brag on him here just fora second, because it's pretty dope that
he's one of the only. He'she's one of the only sophomores in his
school that is playing with the varsity. But many hustles, you know what

(14:37):
I mean, He's like he reallyreally focuses on it. And I'm actually
really lucky he's found that because he'spracticing so much and he's agility training and
game after game after game, Imean, he just gets it's just everything
to him. He finds that hedoesn't he's not on his phone very much

(14:58):
anymore. On the weekends. Hekind of is every once in a while,
but he's learned to kind of prioritizethat because he's also told me,
he said, Man, he's gotfriends that are on social media and what
have you, and they all,you know, buddy up with each other
and you know, their kids' traftman, you know what I mean.
But I appreciate the fact that he'snoticed that because he is playing all the

(15:20):
time, and because he's focused onwhat he wants to do, he's not
on the phone that often. Hey, you know what, I something else
I always tell people, like inlife, the dream is free, the
hustle is so severally so that's awhole different world. Man, have that
to That's who for today. Whonow I've got I'm give everybody, I'm

(15:41):
will give you and pap off.But he's true, though, Man,
dream is free, baby hustle.Will you got to write a book man,
A quote, just really be,just really be. Quote. That's
what we all want. That's whatI need in my life. You man,
brother, loke, we're out thetime. We got to wrap things
up here. I'm so excited aboutthe show. Can't wait to see you
man, and again Brent honest toGod, Man, just continue, just

(16:07):
fighting that fight, screaming that message, giving us a little bit of light
at the end of the tunnel.And I got to tell you, man,
the rewards that will come because ofit, I hope to God they're
vast, because if anybody out theredeserves it, it is one hundred percent
you and your boys and your crew. And like I said, man,
I'm a huge fan. Just loveyou to death, row and excited about

(16:29):
the show. Man. Thank youso very very much. I appreciate all
the love, I appreciate all ofjust you have been there from day one
and we love you so so verymuch. We wanted to finish out this
leg of tour for the year withPlanet Zero end Denver, very very specifically
at the ball Arena and obviously bringingour boys in popa Roach, We're bringing

(16:55):
the incredible Spirit Box. But justso everybody knows, Friday Night Ballerina the
Revolutions Live Tour, we are goingto be filming the performance and we wanted
to do it in Denver. We'rebringing all the bells and whistles with us.
So if you're you know, thinkingabout getting tickets or you're not,

(17:17):
come on down and be a partof the celebration. We wanted to do
it in Denver, and we're goingto film the whole show for a release
next year sometime. And just thankyou for all the love. Man.
We're super super pumped about the show. Dude. I encourage you this will.
I promise you, this will bethe show everybody's talking about for a
long long time. Well worth whateverit is you're grabbing a ticket for.

(17:40):
Please do so support these guys asthey support us. Man, brother,
I cannot wait to see you alittle bit later. And again, Man,
thank you, thank you, thankyou. My mom wants to know.
I know she does. If ifyou're going to do simple man,
tell mom on one thousand percent.I will put it in the prayer my

(18:02):
man. All right, much love, bro. Can't wait to see you.
And as always, thank you manfrom the bottom of heart. You
you are the best. We loveyou, man. Thanks so much for
everything that you do and everything thatyou are. All the best of you
and your beautiful family. I'll talkto you sing my friends. Okay,
buddy, take care of man.See Brent Mada