Brent Smith Of Shinedown Chats With Styles [Audio]

Wes Styles sat down with Brent Smith of Shinedown in our makeshift studio at the Glens Falls Civic Center on Saturday, February 23rd before they hit the stage that night.

The conversation covered a wide arrange of items from the current tour with Three Days Grace & POD, how their stage show changes every tour, and even a reflection or two of the last decade of the band.

The 23rd was the final date for this leg of the tour and "it's been really smooth" according to the lead vocalist. The band is only taking 14 days or so off before returning to the road for another leg.

As you can read in the revue from Q-Tease Jen B, the stage show was truly an experience. "The audience is really overwhelmed by the show as I don't they really know what kind of show we have for them", said Brent, "That's kind of the cool thing for us because we're like kids in a candy store."

There were a lot of working parts to the show with visuals, pyro, lighting, etc. Brent says for the band "at the end of the day, the most important thing is the audience and what they see."

Talk about an experience, Q103 sent one lucky winner backstage to have what was dubbed a "Writing Session" with Brent. I brought this up in our chat with Brent continuing about the audience experience; "In any given day we meet and greet upwards of 300 to 700 people and we love that. I've said this before, this band is built by the audience. This promotion is more of a hang time." Our winner got to sit with Brent for 20 minutes to ask any question they may have ever wanted to ask and then Barry, drums, took them on stage "to show them some stuff that few would get a chance to look at."

The band is on the road promoting their latest album, Amaryllis - which came out nearly a year ago. I asked Brent if the band is constantly writing: "We've been a little more productive this time. Last year when Amaryllis came out we were really focusing on getting our health together", which the band does the Insanity Workout seven days a week, "and we were really working on the performances. Since we've been back we've jotted a few things down."

Brent did give a little info about what's to come later this year with Shinedown saying "we've got a major tour this summer that we'll be announcing soon." Before that, the band will actually be taking some time off when they head home for the month of June to relax and spend time with family.

Brent and I talked about the 10 years we've known each other all the way dating back to the release of their first album, Leave A Whisper, in May of 2003. Fans have asked if there will be a greatest hits or a compilation to mark the anniversary and to that Brent says "No. In my opinion, it almost seems like its going backwards. We're not getting old, we're just getting started."

Shinedown will release the video for their latest Q103 single "I'll Follow You" on March 30th: "It's just very rock 'n roll. Very stylish. We're not in jeans and a t-shirt. It goes back to the presentation," according to Brent. And what a presentation it was at the Glens Falls Civic Center on February 23rd.

Check out the full interview below.