Shinedown’s Eric Bass Offers Progress Report On The Band’s Next Album
During a recent appearance on The Mistress Carrie Podcast, Shinedown bassist and producer Eric Bass, discussed progress on the making of the band’s eighth studio album.
He said “I would say we’re 85 percent done writing, probably a third of the way done — completely done with the record, meaning that we have songs that are mixed and done and everything. We have a lot of work still left to do.”
Bass went on to say that there will be “no new [Shinedown] song” released by the end of the year, despite drummer Barry Kerch’s previous suggestions that fans would hear new music in 2024. Eric added: “[And there will] probably no new [full-length Shinedown] record by first quarter, but definitely next year. I would venture to say middle of next year. This is just me — I’m just a producer. I’ve got a pretty close view on it.”
Addressing the reasons for the delay in putting out new music from Shinedown, Bass said: “A lot of that kind of pushing stuff back — and people get mad at me — has to do with this record that I’ve made and having to see that through. And also giving ‘I Had A Name’ its due, ’cause it’s not gonna come out until February 28. And at the same time still actively working on the Shinedown record, too.
“I’m one of these people, man, I’ve gotta do one thing at a time,” Eric explained. “And if I do one thing at a time and I pour myself into that whole thing, it’s gonna be great. The minute that I start trying to spread things around, they don’t end up the way I want them to. So if I want the Shinedown record to be great, then that’s all I have to be doing at the time.
Elaborating on what fans can expect from Shinedown’s upcoming LP, Eric said: “It is not a concept record. It’s just gonna be just a straight-up Shinedown album, which is different. Again, people can blame me for it or whatever they wanna do. Planet Zero was an unintentional concept record because of the interludes that happened and the way it all got kind of woven together. And the subject matter was there already, but that happened the last three days of making the record. So, yeah, the Shinedown record is just gonna be a collection of great songs.”