Three years of madness with Shinedown’s Eric Bass

	Shinedown bassist Eric Bass

March 27, 2010

Two years on the road, and no signs of slowing down. Shinedown plans to tour into early 2011 behind its 2008 release, The Sound of Madness, and why not? Each single has been a massive success, from rock radio staples “Devour” and “Sound of Madness,” to crossover hits “Second Chance” and “If You Only Knew,” and fans keep flocking to live shows wherever they play. While gearing up for a U.S. arena tour supporting Nickelback, bassist Eric Bass called in to talk to Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki about the upcoming tour, playing on Live-Metal.net’s home turf and more.

Live-Metal.net: One of the reasons we’re talking today is that I’m in Maryland and in a couple weeks you’ll be coming into D.C. for a show. Shinedown, going back from the beginning, has played the D.C./Baltimore area a lot and always been really well received. I’m sure you do well everywhere now, but does this area hold any special attraction to you?

Eric Bass: It’s always good, man. I can’t remember a single show there that hasn’t been insane and crazy and awesome. Columbia, Maryland, I think, was the last big show we played there, with Staind last summer, and it was nuts, man. That was probably one of the more fun shows we had, not to mention hanging out afterwards. We do this cookout thing called “summer camp” every summer. We just invite a bunch of bands back and do a cookout and a party, and that was probably one of the more fun ones we did all year. That one actually sticks out in my mind. We’ve played the 9:30 Club a bunch, too, man, and that’s always a good time, just a legendary venue and so much fun. So we always have a good time when we come to that area.

The next time you’re coming, you’ll be with Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin and Sick Puppies. Do you know all those guys? Are you looking forward to that tour?

We know all those guys. Not the Nickelback guys as well; we know a couple of those guys. But we’ve toured with the Sick Puppies a bunch, one of our favorite bands to tour with. We’re really good friends with all of them. And the Breaking Ben guys we know really well, too. So it should be a blast. The Nickelback camp, so far, has been nothing but cool to us about the tour in general. We do our cookouts and stuff like that, and they’re down with it and cool with it. We’re talking about the biggest band in rock ‘n’ roll right now probably, so it should be a blast.

You’ll be playing the big arenas on this tour. You’ve done all kinds—theaters, clubs. Is there a particular kind of venue that you prefer or is it all the same to you?

Talk about fulfilling a childhood dream and fantasy—you pull into an arena and get to play. That’s a very special feeling to look out and see 8,000 to 10,000 people in front of you just going nuts and going crazy. But at the same time, two of my favorite shows ever that I can think of, one was in Glasgow, Scotland. The first time we went over there, we played a place called King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and it holds 250 people, and it was one of the more memorable shows I’ve ever had. And the same thing, as well, we just recently went over to Australia for the first time. We were doing the Soundwave Festival, and we did a couple of one-off dates in small clubs and the show in Sydney was just insane like that. A very intimate setting—there’s something about that, as well, man, that brings you back to when you first started. So it’s kind of a toss-up, but I’d have to go with the arenas, man, just for the sheer factor of how many people actually get to do that and get to think back to when they were a kid and think about the fact that they’re fulfilling a dream now. That’s pretty special.

When you’re a doing a tour when you’re in a supporting slot, is it hard to shrink the set list down to fit into that hour or whatever you have?

It really is, man, because we’re fortunate to be a band that has as many singles as we have. I think our next single will be our 12th or 13th single, and so there’s no way to even fit all of that into a set. On top of that, you’ve got all these songs off The Sound of Madness that you want to play for people, as well. It’s really tough. It’s tough to go in and choose. I think what we’ll end up doing is, we’ll probably come up with four or five alternating set lists, and we’ll do a different one every night. We’ll have the standards that will be in every set list, of course, and have a couple spots in the list where you switch out for other songs. Certain people come to a lot of shows and we’ll give them some variety, and we’ll give us some variety, too. It’s really tough, man. You don’t have a lot of time and you’ve got to squeeze a lot of music into a very short amount of time.

When I interviewed [drummer] Barry [Kerch] right after The Sound of Madness came out, he told me he was hoping to be out on tour for two-and-a-half, three years on this album. It’s getting to be about two years now, so how much longer do you think you’ll be out supporting this album?

We’re gonna roll till the end of this year and some into next year. Yeah, we’re doing the whole year. We’re gonna round out the entire year. So it’ll be about three years by the time we finish, and then, like I said, some sporadic dates into January and February of next year. And then, of course, during the writing process and the recording process, I’m sure we’ll have some one-offs and that kind of thing. We’ve got a lot of music to get down on tape and to work through, as well, when we’re done. So yeah, definitely into January of next year.

Have you been writing stuff since the album came out?

Constantly writing. All the time. It seems like I’m at a very good point right now because it seems like every day I’m spitting out something new. We’ve got the Pro Tools rig fired up in the bus all the time. I’ve got this really cool eight-track app for my iPhone that I downloaded, so if I don’t have the Pro Tools nearby I can lay that down and lay down a couple guitar parts and hum some really terrible vocals and get some ideas down—that’s what it’s all about. I’m probably on about 30 demos right now for the next record. I want to be at about 100, then start picking through and going through stuff. So that’s sort of the goal right now, so we’ll see. Not all of those will be complete song ideas—they’ll be parts and pieces—but at least 100 ideas to go through.

You joined the band after The Sound of Madness had pretty much been written and recorded, is that right?

	Shinedown's Eric Bass (left) and guitarist Zach Myers

Yeah, I actually met [vocalist] Brent [Smith] to do some writing for The Sound of Madness. He and I got acquainted and we wrote a couple things. Parts of the stuff we wrote ended up on some of the songs. But yeah, I wasn’t there for the recording process, which is fine and I’m comfortable with that. I kind of came in a little late on this one.

So you must be really itching to get in there and write and record with these guys.

Yeah, man. Actually, I wrote, recorded, produced and mixed our track for the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack, and we also just did a track for a Stallone movie that’s coming out that’s called The Expendables—that’s coming out in August. We did the theme song for that. So we’ve actually gotten in and worked in the studio, and it’s turned out really well and everything clicks, no hiccups or anything like that. I can’t wait to get in and do a record, though, man. It’s a little bit of pressure to try to write a record after a record like Sound of Madness, but I think we’ll be OK. I’m feeling very confident about things right now.

The Sound of Madness has a really good mix of some of the heaviest stuff the band has ever done and then some of the most accessible, a couple huge, crossover singles. Do you lean more to one way or the other?

The thing with me is, I can sit down and write a big, arena-rock ballad, a feel-good song like that all day long. The thing about a really good rock song for me, it doesn’t come from one person, it comes from getting in a room with your guys and we’re at soundcheck and working through riffs and that sort of thing. That’s kind of the way it’s going now. I’ve got, from just my brain, probably 15 ballads, 15 slower songs right now that are complete thoughts and I’m itching to write some really, really heavy stuff. I’ve got some really good heavy riffs, but the thing about it is, you really want to put together something that sounds cohesive and gels, and in a really heavy track, it takes all those elements. It takes your drummer, it takes your guitar player, it takes your vocalist and your bass player to be in a room together and have that chemistry to create something that’s a good rock song. There’s so many different elements that make up a really good heavy track. Like the rhythmic side of it with the drums, there could be one thing that changes in the drums that makes the song happen. It’s not something that one guy is gonna think of. So right now, what we’re doing is, we’ve got our dressing room set up with our practice drums, guitars and basses and a microphone in there, and try to get in there for an hour or so a day and just run through all these heavy song ideas we have. That’s been a lot of fun, too, man. We’re coming up with some really cool stuff.

From the beginning, Shinedown has had a very close relationship with the fans. So I was kind of wondering what it has been like for you coming in. How have they treated you? Did they embrace you from the start or was there kind of a warming-up period?

There was definitely a warming-up period, I think. I was walking in and replacing someone who was a very dynamic personality in the band, who the fans were used to seeing and used to having around, and was an amazing musician. I put a lot of pressure on myself, as well, coming in. I wanted to prove my worth to the fans and to my guys in the band and everything else. After a little period of, like you said, warming up, they really accepted me and have embraced me now, I think. It’s been a great feeling, man, to be able to gain that acceptance. And then, also, I’m very fortunate to come in on a record like Sound of Madness, where the band breaks more to a newer audience. A lot of people aren’t aware of that, either, so that actually worked to my favor really well, too.

So far, what would you say is the highlight of your time in the band?

Oh man. We played Rockfest in Kansas City, Missouri, which is the largest single-day music festival in the U.S. It was 55,000 people. We were on right before the headliner; we were on right before Stone Temple Pilots. Stepping out to that, I couldn’t see the back of the people. That was great. And then going over and playing these legendary festivals—like Download, Rock am Ring, Rock im Park—in Europe has been phenomenal, as well. Honestly, man, just being able to kind of see my dream through that I had as a kid has been probably the best thing ever. I’m 35 years old right now, and I came into this when I was 32 or 33. I was sort of at a point where I was producing records and engineering and doing a lot of studio work, and I had kind of given up on this idea. So that’s probably been the coolest thing, just living life every day now. I think I’m older now and I can appreciate it a lot more.

You’ve talked about a lot more touring left for this year and then getting in and working on another album, but aside from those, what goals do you have for yourself and the band moving forward?

Wow. Just to maintain. We’re going into year three, there are no drug problems. We’ll sit down and have beers with you, but there are no addiction issues, which is great. And that’s very hard to do on the road. It’s very hard to maintain. It’s very hard to keep your head screwed on straight. Barry and I, we have great relationships with our wives. We’re really fortunate to be able to keep as normal a life as you can possibly have out here. So that’s the big thing. We all keep our heads screwed on straight, and we write another amazing record. That’s my goal.

Well, Eric, thank you very much for your time today. Is there anything you’d like to add?

I look forward to seeing everybody at the show, man. We can’t wait to play for the people of the Maryland/D.C. area again. We can’t wait. It’ll be a great time.