At this weekend’s Download festival at Leicestershire, United Kingdom’s Donington Park, SHINEDOWN frontman Brent Smith spoke to James Wilson-Taylor of Rock Sound about the response to the band’s latest two singles, “Three Six Five” and “Dance, Kid, Dance”, which were made available on January 24 via Atlantic Records. When Wilson-Taylor noted that the two tracks have helped “diversify” SHINEDOWN’s fanbase, Brent said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “That’s the big principle of everything that we’re doing. ‘Cause I think some people are, like, ‘Oh, you’re doing the single thing.’ And it’s, like, no, we’re doing what we feel is necessary. Coming off the last two albums as, essentially they’re concepts, so we’ve spent a lot of time in the studio working on songs for what they need to do and speak to us when we’re looking at the broad aspect of who SHINEDOWN is and the audience. Again, we wanna grow the audience. That’s why ‘Three Six Five’ and ‘Dance, Kid, Dance’, they’re completely two sides of the band. We’re also gonna be releasing two more singles in late July. [We] should be announcing the record in November of this year, and then hopefully by March of next year, the record will be out. But a lot is going on right now. And we’re just happy to still be doing what we do. But we’ve also said it pretty straightforward: we’re very proud of the last 20 years; we’re focused on the next 20 years and beyond.”
Asked how far into the production process SHINEDOWN is with the making of its eighth studio album, Brent said: “85 percent. A couple of songs that we are still in a writing phase with. ‘Cause that’s the thing โ you’ll go inโฆ Again, too, we appreciate our record label, we appreciate the fanbase that’s continuously growing. They always allow us to be ourselves. So when we’re in there, obviously you have a bit of a schedule that you need to keep โ you have deadlines; there’s a timeframe for what have you โ but you can’t rush the art because it’s forever. And we still believe that the album is the most important element of all of this, and all those songs need to live on that record, and you really have to make sure that you’ve basically gone to the wall on all of it and done your absolute best, and then the public will tell you how you did.”
Asked if SHINEDOWN‘s upcoming album will be conceptual, as was the case with 2022’s “Planet Zero” and 2018’s “Attention Attention”, Smith said: “To use the word ‘traditional’ in a very positive light, it’s a collection of songs. So it’s a traditional record where no, they’re not attached to one another. But the other thing that’s really freeing about that in a lot of ways too, is all of the songs belong together, but they’re all over the map.
“Look, rock and roll is very much about a way of life and a community and a spirit, and we know that tried and true, but the thing for us is, we’ve always said, it’s not necessarily about metal music or rock music or pop music or alternative music โ it’s about all music,” Brent explained. “And I’ve always felt like SHINEDOWN is everyone’s band. And so the dynamic is we have to push ourselves as songwriters and musicians. As long as you’re being authentic, you should lean in to your creativity and where you’re at at that stage in your career.”
Last month, SHINEDOWN kicked off its “Dance, Kid, Dance” tour at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The 36-date trek is one of the largest run of shows (and venues) the band has ever put on. It will be the first time the band has ever headlined some of the country’s most legendary venues, including Madison Square Garden (July 20),Boston’s TD Garden (July 19),Los Angeles’s Kia Forum (August 3) and more. Joining them on the tour are BEARTOOTH and BUSH (on select dates) and Morgan Wade for all shows.
SHINEDOWN recently released an official music video for its No. 1 song “Dance, Kid, Dance”. The clip was directed by Lewis Cater, choreographed by Julissa Bond, and edited by Samuel Halleen.
This year has also come with some historic wins for SHINEDOWN as they recently took home two trophies at the iHeartRadio Music Awards where they won “Rock Artist Of The Year” and “Rock Song Of The Year” for “A Symptom Of Being Human”.
The awards were in celebration of the banner year they’ve had as “A Symptom Of Being Human” hit nearly 125 million global streams and charted at five radio formats, including a No. 1 at Active, Top 10 at Alternative, Top 10 at AC, Top 15 at Hot AC and a Top 20 at Top 40. To date, SHINEDOWN is the very first artist to get a song Top 10 at Active, Alternative, and Hot AC Radio on Mediabase with one song. The song, off SHINEDOWN‘s “Planet Zero” album, resonated with fans across the globe for the unifying message of its lyrics: that it is our human connections that matter the most.
SHINEDOWN has already had a packed 2025 as its latest single “Dance, Kid, Dance” has made history, reaching No. 1 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart, which marks their 22nd song to reach No. 1 on the chart, and on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. SHINEDOWN has become the only band in the chart’s history to reach 20 No. 1s on the chart. Not to mention when the song entered the Top 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, SHINEDOWN tied with the FOO FIGHTERS for the artists with the most songs to hit the top 10 in the chart’s history with 32 songs each. All these incredible accomplishments continue to solidify that SHINEDOWN have made a name for themselves in rock. On Mediabase, SHINEDOWN hold the record for the most No. 1s, No. 5s and No. 10s on the Active Rock chart, with a total of 24 No. 1s on the Mediabase charts.
Smith and bassist/producer Eric Bass co-wrote “Three Six Five”, and “Dance, Kid, Dance” was co-written by Brent Smith, Eric Bass and Dave Bassett. The songs were produced by Eric Bass at his own Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina.
Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz
