SHINEDOWN's Next Studio Album Won't Be As 'Layered': 'We Really Want To Focus On Being A Four-Piece Band'

In a new interview with "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, SHINEDOWN frontman Brent Smith confirmed that he and bassist/producer Eric Bass are in the "beginning stages" of putting together the band's seventh studio album. Brent stated about their approach to the songwriting process this time around (hear audio below): "We just don't wanna make the same record twice, if that makes sense.

"Each and every time we go into the studio, and I think we've gotten better at it over the years, but that's what you need to do — you need to evolve," he explained. "You don't need to write the same song over and over again; you don't need to write the same record over and over again. So we always try to be fundamentally aware of that when we walk in.

"I'll give you an example: the last three albums, if you count 'Amaryllis' [2012], 'Threat To Survival' [2015] and 'Attention Attention' [2018], these are very, very epic-sounding records on purpose; they have kind of a cinematic appeal.

"SHINEDOWN has always said our sound started to take shape on the record 'The Sound Of Madness' [2008]. I feel like that album, and it was our third album, but that was the record that we really started to find out who we were. And then from that record, 'Amaryllis' was born, 'Threat' was born, 'Attention Attention' was born.

"One of the mindsets that we're doing to not do the same thing on this record and to really look at not setting up boundaries, per se, for our songwriting, but we've kind of proven that we can make these very large records, these very cinematic, orchestrated records with this wall of sound," he added. "What we wanna try to do with this album is we do want to hone it back down to drums, bass, guitar and vocals and the best songs that we can write and the freshest songs we can write with the most tenacity and the most ferociousness that we can express. So I don't think this time around we're going to necessarily look at the handbook of, 'Let's layer this record like we've layered other records, and let's keep adding to it so that it grows.' I think more the idea of big mono on this album, it's more about stereo and putting all of the sonics down the middle. But you don't have a hundred tracks on a song; you don't take a 22-piece orchestra and bring it in there. We've done that, and we've done those kinds of records, and we love those records, and we love that sound, but I think what we wanna do with this next record is we really want to focus on being a four-piece band, and let's see if we can peel the paint off of the walls with just the fury of the four of us in a room."

Last month, SHINEDOWN broke the record for the most No. 1s ever in the 39-year history of the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, scoring its 16th No. 1 hit with "Atlas Falls". This also marked the band's 17th No. 1 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart and its sixth consecutive No. 1, following "How Did You Love", "Devil", "Get Up", "Monsters" and "Attention Attention".

Originally written in 2013, "Atlas Falls" was first made available from SHINEDOWN's vault in March as part of an exclusive song and T-shirt bundle for the band's COVID-19 fundraising effort.

SHINEDOWN also recently released its "Live In London" full concert video on YouTube.

In August, SMITH & MYERS — the musical duo comprised of Smith and guitarist Zach Myers — released dual singles, an original song "Not Mad Enough" and a re-imagining of "Rockin' In The Free World", followed by an album in October on Atlantic Records.

"Whiplash" airs Mondays and Tuesday nights from 12:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. on the Los Angeles radio station 95.5 KLOS. The show can be heard on the KLOS web site at 955klos.com or you can listen in on the KLOS channel on iHeartRadio.