SHINEDOWN is set to released their highly anticipated, sixth studio album, ATTENTION ATTENTION on Friday, May 4th, 2018 via Atlantic Records (available for preorder, HERE) featuring singles “DEVIL,” and “THE HUMAN RADIO.” With their track “DEVIL” being streamed over 1 million times in the first week, hitting top 10 on active radio rock charts, it is almost a guaranteed that this album will be destined for rapid success. We had the chance to sit down and discuss the new forthcoming album ATTENTION ATTENTION with Shinedown’s lead guitarist Zach Myers earlier today and we discuss their new album, their upcoming tour with Godsmack, the 10 year anniversary of their album Sound Of Madness, Vans Warped Tour Final Trek, the meaning behind their music video “THE HUMAN RADIO,” and their upcoming festival appearances.
Read our entire interview with Myers below and get excited for the released of ATTENTION ATTENTION in May!
You’re currently out on the road, and I noticed that you are actually performing your two new singles from your forthcoming album, ATTENTION ATTENTION including “DEVIL” and “THE HUMAN RADIO.” What has been the fans reaction to these new songs live so far?
It’s been really good, but “THE HUMAN RADIO” is not a single it is just an instant-grat track, for the fans who preordered the record and get that song instantly. The plan of attack right now is to make a video for every song on the record, so I think that that gets misinterpreted as a single, it’s actually not the second single.
The crowd reactions have been amazing actually, For “THE HUMAN RADIO” it’s tougher out of the gate just because we have been playing that song before it came out, so I think if you have a bunch of fans, you know like five thousand people out there that has never heard a song before, trying to figure out how to react to it while it’s happening is a bit of a myth I guess. Yeah, I mean the applause that follows is pretty loud which is kind of what I judge it by and I guess I would be the same way if somebody played a new song that I have never heard before at a show but at the end of the song, it seems to get a very rockish reaction. “DEVIL” goes over amazing, we’ve been playing it towards the end of the set.
Your new album, ATTENTION ATTENTION is being released on May 4th, 2018. What can fans expect from your new album?
I don’t like going backwards, it’s kind of never been what this band has been about. Every record is kind of a forward moving lunge if you will, and it sounds nothing like any other ones, but to me it is the most as far as subject manner and furiousness of the record is the closest thing to Sound Of Madness. I would say because it’s got a lot of dark places in it, it’s got a lot of anger in it, and it’s got a lot of pain in it but it’s a concept record and not necessary the traditional concept record like [Pink Floyd’s] Dark Side Of The Moon or [My Chemical Romance’s] The Black Parade. But it is a story all the way through and it’s not just about one person at the time, it’s about all four people in this band but we’ve never been like “oh we’re going to sit down and write a song about the world,” it’s not really how we do things, we write from personal experience and we’re writing about each other. So, for this record I would say it’s meant to be listened to as a full piece of work but at the same time I guess people are going to listen to the radio and hear singles and not the record but like the singles cause a lot of people don’t buy records anymore. But I think the songs individually stand up on their own but they’re definitley meant to be and were recorded to be listened to in a sequence.
You mentioned that this new album, ATTENTION ATTENTION is a concept record, Could you tell us a little bit about the concept behind this record?
It’s kind of about, you dug yourself this ten foot hole and now you got to figure out how to get out of it. It’s starts in the darkest place in your own life and in the human mind which is “DEVIL” and it comes all the way to the to the bright light which is “BRILLIANT.” I think that in between everybody should take from it what they want. I mean the concept is just overcoming. Me and Brent walk the meet and greet line together and Eric and Barry start at the other side and I was next to Brent one time and a kid said he loved Threat To Survival but he asked us if the next record could be not so self helpy *laughs* and I think we took that and put it in the back of our minds while making this. It is not very self helpy in the sense of you’re telling people what to do, but this person is just doing it and figuring it out on their own. It’s like you start out in the worst place possible then you end up in a song called “BRILLIANT” which may be one of my favorite songs that we have ever written.
Are any of the depictions from your personal experiences or struggles on this new album that you have went through personally that was put into one of the songs?
Yes, I mean you know I wrote a song with Brent called “special” with Scott Stephens and I feel that one a little bit and I think that’s going to split the crowd a bit, that song, because people are going take it the wrong way with the lyrically content but there is parts in the verses of that song that I have had to deal with for a little while. Just about your own life and you realize that you’re not always twenty years old and you’re growing older and doing these things in life. There is a bunch of song though, I think we all related to “DEVIL,” even though the song is pretty much written about Brent, He has his own demons and struggles but I think all of us at some point with the exception of “GET UP,” even with “GET UP” actually I think we have all gone through every song on the record. Either together or separately, but like I said at times it is about one person and at times it’s about everybody.
What is the meaning behind this new album title, ATTENTION ATTENTION, and what does the exclamation mark album art symbolize?
I think that the exclamation mark is a statement, this album is a statement. I think that is kind of where that came from. Eric actually came up with the exclamation mark idea and then we were outside of the studio getting towards the end of the actual recording of the record and I remember at Eric’s studios which is kind of the back of this like warehouse place and it’s really dark and we were just looking at stars and just talking about stuff discussing should the album be self titled cause we never have done a self titled album and we feel like this album is the most us album that we have ever done. Then, we had the song “ATTENTION ATTENTION” and I said to Brent “I think the name of the album is ATTENTION ATTENTION” because the albums a statement and Eric had already talked about the album cover and maybe what it should be. I think I just blurted it out, I don’t think it was as deep as it probably sounds when we picked it. I just said “I think the album should be called ATTENTION ATTENTION” and it ended up sticking. Then it was really weird that the next day or maybe that night we were staying at this apartment styled hotel and we were in our rooms and the fire alarm went off somehow and so we called down and they said “yeah we’re evacuating until the fire department comes” and on the way down the stairs the alarm which I have never heard before in my life and I have been in many hotels where the fire alarm had gone off, but the hotel alarms were saying “ATTENTION ATTENTION please evacuate” and I was like I have never heard an alarm say that. So it was almost this kind of romantic serendipity of like “hey maybe this is the album title.”
You released two songs from your forthcoming new album ATTENTION ATTENTION, including “DEVIL” and “THE HUMAN RADIO.” Do you feel these two songs best showcase the full album and what is the meaning behind these two singles?
No, I think we just wanted to release one single and one instant-grat track, We get into this day and age to where it is so separated to what it used to be in the 90’s and even early 2000’s, where you would release a single then the record would come out. Now people are releasing like five songs from a record, and to me I am just a person who still believes that the record is supposed to be meant to be listened to as a record and album is a feature of who that artist is that time. I’ll be honest, maybe one day this band will be a single releasing band cause that is just where the format is heading but I personally don’t see it. I think that we are an album making band even though at times it feels like it would be a lot easier just to make singles. I think that the songs are so separated on the album like “DEVIL” is first and “THE HUMAN RADIO” I believe is second to last. You’re breaking up the story a little bit but I think they’re good attenuators for what the album is but I don’t know if they’re the best description of the album because it’s a piece of work, the entire album. It’s like you just pulled a couple pieces out of the puzzle and was like do you think these pieces are the best thing to appropriate this puzzle. The whole thing is what it is meant to be listened to as.
There are some very artistically strong visuals with ATTENTION ATTENTION so far, For example, the album title and every song is capitalized with the exception of the song “special” which is in all lowercase font. What is the meaning behind that?
Yeah, “special” is a song that when Brent and I wrote it with Scott, it was real touchy. I don’t want say I am worried they are going to take the song the wrong way cause we meant what we said when we wrote it. But It’s just that type of thing that we live in this day and age where the internet has given this false illusion if you will where everyones negative opinions or you know people just spit out opinions and they think they matter and they just don’t. It’s become this thing where people go I can just go on and talk shit about something or someone and be an internet star, or be Instagram famous and do these things and go okay well this matters and it’s like no thats not the shit in life that matters. Most of time it’s negative because they can get away with it, its not the real world where they can go up and say something. I seen first hand where people go on our Facebook page talk major shit and I literally then see them in the meet and greet and they don’t say shit to my face. It’s that attitude and that is what the song is about, so part of me doesn’t care if people take it the wrong way because it’s a statement. We have not yet given away the statement yet, so I will let fans figure that out. I was going to say a line from the song but I want people to hear it and that is just kind of what the song means, you’re not what you think you are. We are all the same thing, we’re all going out the same way, it is kind of our Kendrick Lamar “Humble” if you will in a very different musical genre.
How does it feel to have had 6 songs now featured as a theme song on WWE, Including your songs “I Dare You,” “Devour,” “Cut The Cord,” “Diamond Eyes,” “Enemies,” and now your single from your new album “DEVIL”?
It is really cool, I am friends with a lot of people over at WWE and Neil Lawi is the guy who makes that happen and Neil is a good friend of ours and been a good friend of mine. It’s weird I don’t keep up with it as much as I used to when I was younger. But anytime the show is around and I will always go and they always take care of us and put us in the front row and it’s really cool to see your song on such a platform. Everytime I would go see RAW for the last year you know “Enemies” was playing and that was super cool being in an arena full of people and your songs playing. But to me having the main event at Wrestlemania, having your song being the theme song for the main event was kind of it, I think I tweet about it the other day I was like “the ten year old me will never get over this, like it’s so cool” and I can’t imagine watching Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan go at it on Wrestlemania and Andre The Giant and think one day you’re going to be in a band and your song is going to be the theme, I would be like you’re out of your f-cking mind. So it’s super cool and we are obviously friends with a lot of the wrestlers, me and Jericho have been buddies for a long long time, Baron Corbin is a good buddy and theres lots of those guys that we are really close with. It’s a great organization to be apart of.
Shinedown’s album ‘Sound of Madness’ is celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary this year, as the album was released on June 24th, 2008. Can fans expect any special tours/shows in celebration of this anniversary?
I am not allowed to answer that, The four of us have been in discussions about it and it’s tough man. You’re at the ten year anniversary of a milestone record, the record that put us into arenas. But we are also at the year where we are releasing what I think is our best work ever or at least since Sound Of Madness. It’s kind of hard, you don’t want to break up the momentum of this new record but part of you wants to go back and pay homage to a album that really change our careers and you know it was such a volatile thing in a way because Sound Of Madness. During it we replaced two guys on the frontlines of this band on that record and that could of went very bad and what happens is most people when they go well go back to the original people in the band, blah blah blah, it’s different because these people are the people on Sound Of Madness. So, it’s funny to see that cause basically our biggest record was made with these four guys in the band so it could have went disastrously wrong but it didn’t we got bigger after it. It’s a tough thing and I will say that we have talked about it, but I don’t know man it may be one of those things that we don’t announce it, we just do it.
Shinedown has some headlining shows coming up as well as a massive co-headlining tour with Godsmack and special guests Red Sun Rising later in the summer and a ton of festivals later in the summer, what can fans expect from you during these shows and what are you most looking forward to?
It is going to be a big ass show, we’re bringing a giant show to those shows and festivals and I am just looking forward to touring with Godsmack. I really like their new album, mainly because they colored a bit outside the lines and I am always a fan of that. You’re never gonna hear me talk or praise a band that makes the same record over and over and I just know who I am. There is so many bands in this genre of modern/active rock, whatever you want to call it that just literally uses this whole if it aint broke don’t fix it motto. I think that the Godsmack record, they really kind of pushed themselves to make a different record as a band and I am a big fan of that. I think that is kind of where all bands should go. I think staying stagnant is and can be a death sentence and if not a death sentence at least quick sand cause you’re definitley not moving anywhere. You’re not getting in a bigger venue, you’re not playing in front of more people because you just made the same record four times. I am looking forward to touring with Godsmack plus we just like those guys, we get along with them, so it will be a fun tour. Then the festivals are just always fun cause it’s like summer camp.
Would you guys ever consider going out on the Final Trek of Vans Warped Tour this year?
I mean, I don’t know Is it really going to be the last one? I don’t know, I think Kevin Lyman is a genius, but come on I don’t know if it’s going to be the last one ever, let’s get real. I think it’s cool though that some of the bigger bands are coming back and doing one or two shows. I think there is going to be a lot more surprise bands like I wouldn’t be surprised if Green Day showed up and did it a couple times. I think that is what’s going to be the cool part about it. I saw one show has like Coheed And Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, and The Used and I was like dude I would go. I never been to see Warped Tour in my life but I would goto that. Actually, sorry I went one time when we had a day off in Cleveland and it was 108 degrees outside and I was like its too hot to be here.
Shinedown released their music video a few days ago for “THE HUMAN RADIO,” could you briefly tell us about the story behind the music video?
The video for “THE HUMAN RADIO” was directed by Bill Yukich, he directed “DEVIL” as well, he also did all the Beyonce’ Lemonade stuff, he’s done almost every Marilyn Manson video too. “THE HUMAN RADIO” video is kind of dark and it’s about a person who breaks free of all these things that society thinks they are and that their supposed to be. This kind of sheep mentality of everyones just going along and not really realizing whats going on in the world around them because these people own the news companies, they could do whatever they want with the information. So, people are just staring into their phones and believing every word of it. I think the person breaking free from it, and I believe that girl at the end runs into the “BRILLIANT” video and that kind of the tag of it. But yeah, it’s about just getting out of this monotony of this day to day everyone on their phone not paying attention to what’s going on and not living their own life, because they are busy trying to live through other peoples.
If you had to choose one song from the entire Shinedown discography to debut to a new fan, what song would you choose and why would you choose that song?
Oh man, that’s a hard one, It’s two for me, “Sound Of Madness” obviously because I think that is just such a good song. Also, the other one would be surprising because it wasn’t a single, it would be “Amaryllis” because “Amaryllis” is just one of my favorite songs of all time. I think “Amaryllis” really encompasses this band because you have the acoustic element, then you have the heavier chorus/pop in it. That’s the thing, We talked about the internet trolls earlier, they’re the first to say you guys are just a pop band, and I’m like we have always been a f-cking pop band. Us and Them was a southern rock record but it’s like dude come on its like “45” is a pop song, “Burning Bright” is a pop song, “Lost In The Crowd” is a pop song, and people go why don’t you go back to Sound Of Madness days cause this pop bullshit is lame. I am like dude, Sound Of Madness is the biggest pop record we have ever made, ever. That had “Second Chance” on it which was a No. 1 pop song on the pop radio charts, it had “The Crow and The Butterfly,” it had “If You Only Knew,” it had “Call Me,” It is just funny cause people don’t know what they’re talking about, they just talk to hear themselves talk. So when I am looking at something like “Amaryllis,” I am like we have always been a pop band. Also, my new thing though is now I don’t read comments anymore, I don’t care. My currency everynight is looking out to an arena full of people. People can say they don’t like it all they want but people are still showing up to see our band because rock’n roll is very much still alive and still very much a viable genre of music and people still will always come back to us.
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ATTENTION ATTENTION is available for pre-order now at all Digital Streaming Platforms and each pre-order will include an instant download of “DEVIL,” Click HERE. Deluxe album bundles are available at the official Shinedown web store HERE, including the limited transparent yellow colored double vinyl, a 3’ x 5’ flag and exclusive “ATTENTION” and “DEVIL” t-shirts. The first 500 Ultimate Vinyl and first 500 Ultimate CD bundle purchasers will receive a signed copy of the album.
Shinedown will be hitting the road for a world tour beginning March 23rd in Deadwood, SD. Pick up TICKETS before they sell out; full list of tour dates is below. The band also recently announced select co-headlining tour dates with Godsmack on sale now as part of Live Nation’s TICKET TO ROCK, which offers exclusive 3 or 4-show ticket bundles beginning at $59 to some of the hottest rock tours this summer. Lawn and reserved ticket bundles are available to purchase at LiveNation.com in limited quantities while supplies last. For full package listings and additional information, Click HERE.
Check out Shinedown’s upcoming tour dates below.
Shinedown North American Tour Dates
04/12 – Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium
04/13 – Scottsdale, AZ @ Arizona Bike Week Live at the Rock Yard
04/14 – El Paso, TX @ Speaking Rock
04/16 – San Antonio, TX @ Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
04/17 – Corpus Christi, TX @ Concrete Street Pavilion
04/18 – Baton Rouge, LA @ Raising Cane’s River Center
04/20 – Tampa, FL @ 98RockFest Live at Amalie Arena
04/21 – Orlando, FL @ WJRR Earthday Birthday Live at Central Florida Fairgrounds
04/28 – Sunrise, FL @ Monster Energy Fort Rock Fest Live at Markham Park
05/04 – Concord, NC @ Carolina Rebellion Live at Rock City Campgrounds
05/06 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
05/08 – Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
05/10 – Tulsa, OK @ Bok Center
05/11 – Council Bluffs, IA @ Westfair Amphitheatre
05/12 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Pointfest
05/14 – Salem, VA @ Salem Civic Center
05/16 – Birmingham, AL @ Legacy Arena at BJCC
05/17 – Evansville, IN @ Live at the Ford Center
05/18 – Moline, IL @ Tax Slayer Center
05/20 – Grand Forks, ND @ Alerus Center
07/14 – Oshkosh, WI @ Rock USA
07/22 – Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
07/27 – Chicago, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
07/28 – Indianapolis, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
08/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheater
08/04 – Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheater
08/06 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
08/11 – Houston, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
08/12 – Dallas, TX @ Starplex Pavilion
08/19 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
08/24 – Hartford, CT @ XFINITY Theatre
08/25 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center
08/26 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
08/28 – Burgettstown, PA @ KeyBank Pavilion
08/31 – Scranton, PA @ The Pavilion at Montage Mountain
09/01 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
09/02 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Heath at Jones Beach Theater
