BRENT SMITH
SHINEDOWN
Jaime: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I know you’re buzy.
Brent: No problem. I’m just tired and we did a radio interview earlier today for 106.3 WAMX.
Jaime: So, how old are you?
Brent: I’m 26.
Jaime: How long have you been singing?
Brent: Honestly, I’ve been singing probably since I was about 2 years old. I knew pretty much that’s what I wanted to be at that young of an age.
Jaime: Have you had any formal training?
Brent: No, I haven’t had any formal training. I did work briefly with a voice teacher named Jan Smith. All Jan did was show me some techniques and a few exercises. I already kind of did the same version on the road before a show.
Jaime: I honestly figured you had quite a bit of training, because of the amount of control you possess. Take someone like Scott Stapp of Creed. I’m not knocking his voice, but live, he pushes and pushes until I think his neck is going to explode.
Brent: I do the best that I can. I get worn out just like anybody does.
Jaime: Who are your major influences?
Brent: Vocally, my biggest influence is Otis Redding.
Jaime: Do you see any of his qualities in your own voice?
Brent: I learned a lot from Otis. Mainly the soul he possesses, and the integrity of the vocal performance. I doubt that he was very conscious of what was vocally going on with himself, he was going off of emotion.
Jaime: I see a lot of Chris Cornell in your voice.
Brent: Obviously Chris Cornell was another major influence.
Jaime: Live, you seem dead on vocally. Have you ever had a bad night?
Brent: Definitely. Who hasn’t? I’ve seen Chris Cornell spot on, and I’ve also seen him on a bad night. It’s tough when you sing like I do. When you have a bad night, you have a bad night! You just got to get through it. But when you have an on night, you’re on!!!
Jaime Something I hold sacred before a show, is not drinking or smoking. Honestly, I don’t do either any more.
Brent: I still drink a little.
Jaime: Oh well, everyone’s gotta have some vices.
Jaime: I use to sing along with certain singers when I was younger, like Marq Torien of the Bullet Boys, and Jim Gillette of Nitro, to develop my voice. Do you have any one in particular that inspired you?
Brent: Of course, Axl Rose. Appetite For Destuction was a huge record for me. Just vocally, the high notes and how much power was in that record. I think when I was like 14 years old I could pretty much sing the entire record. That’s what I did a lot. I never had any training but basically what I would do is, if I couldn’t hit the notes that I liked, that someone was singing, I would just mimic it over and over until I could finally hit the note.
Jaime: Did you find that (because I know a lot of singers push and push) once you finally got there, you were able to back off?
Brent: Yeah. If I heard it and I really liked it and I wanted to hit the note, I’d just go for it and somehow I would just all ready hit it. Like I said, I haven’t had any training, it’s just in me. It’s all that I am. It’s just my being. There are no musicians in my family. I’m the first one. Growing up, my parent’s didn’t get it. But I never wanted to be anything else.
Roy Fisher, Shinedown’s tour manager stops in for a second:
ROY: Hey Jaime, are you getting close to finishing up? Brent is tired and I want him to rest his voice before the show.
Jaime: 5 more minutes?
ROY: Can we make it 3?
Brent: I’m fine Roy, really. We’ll be done when we are done.
Brent: Roy is just looking out for my best interest. I’m constantly doing interviews before our show, and once in a while, it takes it’s toll. But take your time, I’m enjoying this interview. I’m fine.
Jaime: No, I understand. Roy is doing exactly what he should be doing; protecting his band! I’ll try to wrap this up.
Jaime: Where are you from? Florida. Right?
Brent: Originally, I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee, but the band is based out of Jacksonville.
Jaime: So how long have you been together with Shinedown?
Brent: Going on 3 years.
Jaime: Only 3 years and here you are touring, supporting your major label debut.
Brent: I know. It’s crazy.
Jaime: You are very lucky.
Brent: I know, and I appreciate it. I am very humble about the whole situation and realized that we have been blessed.
Jaime: Speaking of your debut, your voice sounds so full on the studio album. Did you double track in the studio? You know, sing the vocal line twice?
Brent: On yeah, I’d sing a song 4 times.
Jaime: How do you get that sound live?
Brent: Live, honestly, none of the harmonies are done live.
Jaime: But the harmonies are so great! That’s what helps to make a song. I hate it when a band leaves out the harmonies live.
Brent: I know, and you’re a singer so I know you understand. The reason why? When we went in to do the record, we were doing a record. When you do it live, you’re doing it live, it’s a totally different feel. They don’t really sing with me because they don’t really want to, they just let me do it. You’ll notice that a lot of times if I’m on, I won’t really add lib, but I’ll go above what I did on the record on a lot of parts. The thing with this band is, a lot of fans come up to us and tell us how much they love the record, then they tell us how much they LOVE to watch us live.
Jaime: Maybe you should put out a live CD?
Brent: We have been talking about releasing a DVD.
Jaime: That would be great!
Jaime: I’ve seen you live before with RA, but I felt that sound-wise they didn’t do your voice justice. It was kind of buried in the music.
Brent: Speaking of RA, that guy’s voice (Sahaj Ticotin) is always dead on. He is amazing! My voice is kind of blown tonight, but sound-wise, tonight, this being a small club, you’ll notice a huge difference as opposed to the last time you saw us live. Last time was outside. Also, live, I didn’t want to go with tracks; I didn’t want to fake it.
Jaime: There are several processors on the market that you can use for harmonies or to double track live for fullness. When I’m playing live and I hear my double track and a little bit of reverb, it’s a mental mind game. I mean it will keep me going if you I’m having a bad night, as long as I can hear that thickness.
Brent: Don’t worry about that. Roy Fisher has got me taken care of. He’s got me locked in. He’s got about 5 units running on me.
Jaime: What’s he using? Do you know?
Brent: He mainly uses an Evantide Eclipse, and some delay units, but most of the time he only uses about 3 effects on my voice, just doublers like the Antares Vocal Producer and some chorus. That’s really all it is.
Jaime: How are you holding up on the road?
Brent: I got laryngitis the second week of the tour with Tantric and I had to cancel 2 shows, which was really hard. I went to 3 ENT’s in the course of 2 weeks. It was really difficult trying to get my voice back. I was on a tour for 8 months that only required me to sing for 30 minutes every 3 days. Now I’m on our own tour, and I have to go from 30 minutes to an hour and a half, night after night, and you just have to get used to it.
Jaime: So is it harder for you when you do them back to back like that?
Brent: Oh yeah. I really haven’t had a day off in like 11 months except for Christmas. I had a week and a half off. Now that we’re headlining, I have to completely change everything. I’ll be singing for 6 days in a row a lot on this tour. We’ve also got radio interviews. You just got to do it. If you have to you take steroids; you go to the emergency room and get cortisone shots.
Jaime: Please don’t do that, you’ll ruin your voice. Take an herbal supplement like Licorice. It’s nature’s cortisone. Take vitamin C, Zinc, Calcium/Magnesium, and Slippery Elm.
Jaime: I like the quality of your lower voice. It’s very full and throaty. A lot of singers try to get that throaty sound by pushing and they only blow out their throats. How do you get that sound without losing your voice?
Brent: At the end of the day I know I just have to do it. A lot of it was just a gift from God. But I’ve always had that throaty tone to my voice. Like I said it’s a gift, and it can be taken away from me at any time, so I’m very humble for what I have.
Jaime: How do you approach songwriting?
Brent: I’m just going for the melodies in my head. I just want to write good songs. I’m a songwriter who sings. It all comes down to the song. I don’t even worry about my vocal technique; I just sing it from my heart. That’s all that matters in the end anyway.
Jaime: I’ve got one more question for you Brent.
Brent: That’s fine. Keep them coming.
Jaime: If a singer came up to you and asked for some advice, what would it be?
Brent: I would tell them to listen to a lot of different singers. Pay attention to the way they sing; how they project and how their voice comes across. You can go off of the technical side of singing only so much. At the end of the day it’s all about the song. When you sing, you’ve got to have a song that you mean and you’ve got to have conviction with it. If it doesn’t come across that you meant it, then it’s really not worth singing!
Jaime: Thanks Brent, it’s been a pleasure.
After Shinedown’s show, (which was amazing by the way), I had a chance to touch bas with Brent once more:
Jaime: WOW! The show was amazing!
Brent: Thanks Jaime, I do my best.
Jaime: I thought you said your voice was tired? I didn’t notice a thing.
Brent: When I get on stage, I lose myself in the music. I sing from the heart, and everything usually turns out fine.
Jaime: So I take it you’re a Skynyrd fan?(Brent sang an acoustic version of Simple Man).
Brent: Oh yeah. I really like the song (Simple Man), so we decided to re-make it acoustically. Now the record company is talking about re-releasing the album with Simple Man on it, and releasing the cover version as our 3rd single.
Jaime: Thanks again for the interview. See you next time.
Then, just as I’m leaving, Roy Fisher runs up to stop me:
ROY: Hey Jaime, how would you like to meet another member of Shinedown?
Jaime: Who’s left?
ROY: Our bus driver. He’s down at the Holiday Inn and doesn’t have a way here. Could you please run and get him, since none of us have a car?
Jaime: Oh what the hell, but I better get an autographed poster.
ROY: No problem.
So one of my best friends (Tim Odle) and I drive down to pick up their bus driver, who, correct me if I’m wrong, goes by the nickname of Weasel. Great guy by the way, he’s toured with many big name bands. As promised, upon safe return, both Tim and I received a huge poster autographed by a great bunch of guys, from a great band with a great singer! What a way to end an interview.
If you haven’t heard Shinedown or seen them in concert you are definitely missing out! Find out for yourself by checking them out at http://www.shinedown.com
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