Shinedown - Episode 1 (Leave A Whisper)

Rock & Metal’s Hidden Gems Podcast returns with a brand new series, and this time we're taking a deep dive into Shinedown.

In this first episode, we go right back to the beginning of the band's story, from Brent Smith being discovered and landing a record deal to the formation of Shinedown and the release of their debut album, Leave a Whisper. We talk through Brent Smith's early years, the influences that helped shape Shinedown's sound, and why this album laid the foundations for everything that followed.

As always, we'll be highlighting and dissecting the hidden gems from Leave a Whisper — those songs that are overlooked and underappreciated but deserve far more attention than they receive.

If you're already a Shinedown fan, or you're looking to discover how one of modern rock's biggest bands got their start, this is the perfect place to begin.

Keep an eye out for future episodes as we work our way through Shinedown's discography and uncover hidden gems from albums such as The Sound of Madness and Amaryllis.

For any requests for future episodes, please email: RandM.HiddenGems.Podcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 1:20

Welcome everyone to a new series of Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. And as I said, it's a new series, and we're gonna be delving into the sound of madness. Hopefully, showing you how this band is burning bright. We're gonna cut the cord on your knowledge of the hidden gem tracks, and we're gonna devour them. And I dare you to join me. This podcast episode, I tell you, it's gonna be longer than 45 minutes, and we're gonna be discussing across the series all the creatures, the monsters, the devil, how this band started off as nowhere kids and got to the very top. Underratingly so, my diamond. This new series is over. Let's get into it. This new series is on American High Drop Finest Shiny down. People don't see this band as the headline act at a rock or metal music festival. They see them as maybe second or third from last, or they headline the second minor stage, you know, going alongside the big, big major act, whoever that is, on the major main stage. But critically and commercially, they are so, so successful. And that's why I say they are underratingly a monster band in the world outside of the hard rock, the American hard rock world. You can also call them alternative metal post-grunge. In some cases, pop rock isn't far off the table in terms of a description of the genre of this band. It depends on what period we refer to when talking about this band. The band that came out at the start with a debut release, the release we'll be covering in this particular episode of the podcast series, is very different in style to what you would have got from the more recent albums. And it also changes song by song, even on the same album. We will talk about it. We will cover this band's story from start to the present time. Because remember, this band is still ongoing. In fact, they released their most recent album only a few days before recording this particular episode. And we will be covering that album as well in the final episode on this series. There will be multiple episodes on this series. I'm predicting seven to eight. We'll see as we start recording how many we end up with. But it's gonna be a deep dive in the style of Iron Maiden, in the style of the Nightwish series. This is the monster band. We tell their story as a band, how they formed, how they evolved, how certain members left and joined, the difficulties some band members might have had with substance abuse, etc. etc. And then we're also gonna cover each album chronologically throughout the discography, each studio album, I should say. And we are gonna we'll highlight those popular tracks from each one, just in case you aren't familiar with this band. But more importantly, we will deep dive and dissect what I feel are the hidden gem tracks on those albums. The tracks that don't get the love and credit that they deserve either from casual rock or metal fans, or even, in some cases, diehard fans of this band. In this case, Shinedown. So who are Shinedown? If you've never heard of them, where have you been, first and foremost? I mean, must be hiding under a rock, but I'm sure you have heard of Shinedown. Whether you're a Shinedown fan or not, I imagine will sort of depend on your main era. Are you a 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s kind of guy? Or are you more into like the extreme metal world or are you more into like the classic rock world? Wherever you are in the spectrum will probably probably determine whether you are already a Shinedown fan, or maybe you're someone new to the podcast. You saw Shinedown on the podcast description. You're a Shinedown fan and you're checking the pod out for the first time. If that's the case, welcome. Please do stick with us and check out our previous series on Nightwish, Iron Maiden, the Diablo Swing Orchestra, and The Answer. Very, very different bands, each and every one. We try to cover the spectrum of the rock and metal world in this podcast. We don't want to pigeons hole ourselves into a certain sub-genre. Today we're on Shinedown. And if you aren't already a fan of the band, I'm hoping we can convert you at least to some of the songs or certain albums. There's one album in the Shinedown back catalogue, which is an absolute banger, absolute classic. Clearly, they are iconic album. And when we get there, I will highlight it, I will point out which album it is, and I hope you guys check it out and listen to it as well. Because it's uh as I said, this band's underrated. They've had the commercial success, they've had the records in terms of chart success, for example. But in terms of the rock and metal world, they don't quite get that recognition. They don't headline those major festivals. They still occasionally will support what some others would would consider a bigger band than them. For example, I first saw this band um after their fourth or fifth album release, so they're well established at this point. Uh, and I saw them supporting Iron Maiden. Yes, Iron Maiden are a bigger band both commercially and just in terms of popularity. But it's still surprising that they still do these kind of tours supporting these bigger bands because in terms of their chart success and the amount of streams they get, they probably don't have to. They can probably get all the money for themselves. Now let's stop me yapping with the introduction. Let's get into it. Shine down. They were formed in 2001. And did you know they have the most, the most number one singles on the American Billboard mainstream rock charts. Now, I come from the United Kingdom, as you can probably tell from my accent. The way the charts work over here, yes, you do kind of have a rock chart, but it's so underground that unless you go looking for it, you'd have no idea it even exists, let alone who's charting on it at any one particular time. And that goes from the time period of today all the way back to the time period of like the 80s and 90s, and before when charts were more of a f thing in pop culture, especially in the United Kingdom. We used to have a show, it came on every Friday evening on the main channel that everyone got BBC One is called Top of the Pops, and that was when the top, well, I guess it was top 20, but mainly the top 10 of the singles charts were counted down. You found out who was number one for this week. And that happened week in, week out, and it was a major, major deal. Obviously, things like uh Napster, Limewire, Kazau, the file sharing systems that allowed people to effectively pirate music downloads, that plus the paid-for uh legal music downloads from things like iTunes at the time, followed by the streaming services like Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, they've kind of killed the charts, at least in the United Kingdom. They still exist even here and elsewhere. But the fact that an old Elvis Presley song can make the charts, even though there's been no commercial release for any new singles, no remixes, and the man's been dead since I believe the 1970s, um, it kind of makes a mockery of it a little bit. So it's not treated the same. But back to my main point. Those specific rock or metal charts existed, but they weren't really a thing anyone paid any attention to. Oh, it was even aware existed in the United Kingdom and in neighboring European countries, and I'm sure in countries elsewhere in the world. The exception would be the United States of America, where the mainstream rock charts is a big deal for rock bands. Yes, there is a separate Billboard 200, which basically the hot 200, I believe they call it, where that's where your major acts, you know, in today's world is gonna be your major rap artists, really, or pop stars. Back in the day, would it have been the likes of Britney Spears, Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc.? They were the ones charting those, and occasionally some of these rock or metal bands might squeak in the top 50. They do really well to get lower down in the charts than that. Um, but the rock, and as a metal one, and as a country one, they have their own genre charts in the United States, and it's a big deal, and that's really what these rock bands are aiming for. That's what the record companies are looking for these rock bands to kind of chart on. And Shinedown has the most number one singles on the bill of board mainstream rock charts of all time. You think of those rock bands that have been before them. This chart isn't new, it's been going for 40 odd years. You think of all the other bands that have come along, Shinedown is number one ahead of them. It's ahead of your classic bands like Led Zeppelin, it's ahead of your long-term bands like Aerosmith and Metallica, it's ahead of your more recent kind of popular bands like Fallout Boy, for example, Green Day, Shinedown is number one. Quite the achievement. And they've sold more than 10 million records worldwide. They are a worldwide global band. And how did they form? Well, the story starts with lead vocalist Brent Smith. Now we're gonna get into the story very, very shortly, but just to tell you, Brent Smith, as well as being the lead vocalist of Shinedown, he is kind of the main member of Shinedown. Think of it like uh Marilyn Manson in the Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids band. They drop the spooky kids later, but they are a band, although everyone thinks of them as an individual Marilyn Manson. You've got Alice Cooper. You know, Alice Cooper is a band, but everyone thinks of the lead vocalist Alice Cooper. He's a front man, he's the brand. Brent Smith is this for Shinedown. He doesn't quite go in the same uh vein as like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper in that they saw themselves as like a shock rock frontman, they were the theme, the brand, everyone else was just playing sidekicks to them. It's not quite that with Brent Smith. He sees Shinedown as a collective, a band. But the reason why I make this statement is because without Brent Smith, there is no Shinedown. That's the case for the formation of the band. And I believe if Brent Smith left Shinedown today, I believe Shinedown would be done and dusted. Yeah, the band members might start a new band, but it wouldn't be called Shinedown, it'd be a new startup project. So that's why, although they are played as a band when you see them live on stage, and although they represent themselves as a band, if you look at band photos, you don't just see Brent Smith, you see all members of Shinedown. Brent Smith is the main guy. He is your main event player for Shinedown. And he was born in January 10th, 1978, in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States of America. Brent advised he felt compelled by melody for as long as he can remember. And his mother joked to him when he was younger that Brent came out screaming and singing all at the same time when he was born. Brent started to figure out music around age 10, and he used to write poems and melodies, and he was inspired by RB soul singers who he would listen to and try to copy. This is how Brent Smith learned how to sing and how to kind of hold his diaphragm and push his voice with his diaphragm rather than his chest, how to develop a head voice and combine the chest and the head voice together, all these um vocalist techniques. He learned it just by listening to his heroes, his favorite cassettes at the time, his favorite albums, and they were in the RB soul singer genre. And it was people like, for example, at age 14, his father gave him a cassette of Otis Redding, which is one of his early inspirations. Let's play a little bit of Otis Redding for the younger listeners who maybe aren't as familiar. I'm sitting on the dock of the bay.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

Watching the tie.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Otis Redding there with sitting on the dock of the bay, an all-time classic in that world, and pointless knowledge that none of you will care about, but I'm going to tell you anyway. When my son was, yeah, he's still only a toddler, but when he was a wee-wee baby and he tried to sing lullabies to him to get him to go to sleep, um, I didn't really know nursery rhymes. I find mothers of the world, they seem to pick those up and seem to know all the nursery rhymes. The dads of the world less so. So I knew Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and one or two others, but once you've gone through that repertoire, you start looking for other songs I can sing to get this baby to finally go to sleep. And being a rock and metal fan, there's not a lot of songs that are soothing enough to get a baby to go to sleep. A lot of them are energetic, high power, belt out the vocals. I mean, imagine me coming out with uh a bit of Iron Maiden, a baby's about to go to sleep. He's on the edge, I've gone through my repertoire of nursery rhymes, and I just came out with Run To LLS. I think he's gonna wake up, right? Even if you think of the rock ballads, you know.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

I wanna know love! And I want you to show me if I break out in foreigner, he's gonna wake up.

SPEAKER_05 16:16

Rock ballads tend to, even then, they're belting out with emotion and power. It's not suitable for putting a baby to sleep. It's not quite twinkle, twinkle, little star. But when I'm sifting through my mind palace, looking for songs that A, I know the words to, and B, are soothing enough to put a baby to sleep, and that I know this is one of those songs that that this was my go-to song. It wasn't one of them, this was my go-to. Otis Redding sitting on the dock of the base. So I can totally see Brent Smith's love for Otis Redding here. It's a nice fun song to sing, and it puts babies to sleep. Um, the other one would be some uh songs by the police, but I I didn't really know the lyrics in the police songs. I know uh the odd line or two here, the odd chorus, but I couldn't really whip out a whole song, nowhere near it. So Otis Redding was my go-to, and occasionally I'll still whip it out for my boy to this day. Now, back to the story of Brent Smith and Shinedown. Enough of the anecdote from me. So Brent got this Otis Redding cassette from his father at aged 14, and it really, really did inspire him as a vocalist, learning out in his teenage years about not just the melody and how which melodies work, but also the soulful delivery, the emotion that Otis Redding was singing with and is very much known for. So Brent went out and he tried to find some more artists that had a soulful delivery like Otis Redding, and he found Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald. It wasn't just RB that inspired Brent Smith, that was a big influence, but he was also inspired by rock, especially the grunge scene of the 90s with Chris Cornell being one of those biggest influences. Chris Cornell, of course, from the band at the time, Soundgarden later also had success as a solo artist, even doing a James Bond track, which is quite the feat for any artist, let alone one from the rock world. And also in, of course, Audio Slave. Let's listen to a little bit of Chris Cornell in his early 90s grunge days with Soundgarden. That is a huge influence on the early Shinedown sound, and you will hear that in this episode when we cover and get to the debut release, the first album. Now I mentioned earlier how Brent Smith would listen to people like Otis Redding and study how they create the sound with their voice, their style, their technique, try to work it out for himself. I mentioned the head voice, the head resonance, and Chris Cornell, in his Sound Garden days, was pivotal to Brent Smith here. He studied Chris Cornell's technique and how he sang, how he carried himself on stage, how he tried to hit those high notes, because Chris Cornell had a mad range, a high range, low range. He could hit four or five octaves easily. Great, great singer. And Brent studied him, and it was his study of Chris Cornell specifically that helped Brent Smith open up his head resonance and hit his own fourth and fifth octaves. So massive, massive influence here on Brent Smith specifically. And as we get through the story and listen to some Shinedown songs and clips, uh, you'll learn that Brent Smith and his musical vocal talent is probably the main reason why Shinedown are even a thing. Uh, we'll get there. In high school in America, Brent went through a goth phase where he hung out with other artistic people and began performing more seriously. And he started his first band called Blind Thought. I can play a little bit of Blind Thought for you now, even though they never got a racco deal because the wonderful YouTube has some clips. So let's listen to a little bit of Brent Smith's early high school jamming band that he formed with other artistic people in his goth phase, Blind Thought. Blind Thought there with the song Consider from their, I guess their demo tape they once recorded. There's a couple of live show clips as well you can find on YouTube. So there are there is more than just the one piece of content available for Blind Thought. So check them out if you're a fan of Brent Smith or you liked what the little clip you heared. But it's very much a band, an early band, young people discovering their sound for me and what makes them unique and a talent. After Blind Thought, Brent wanted to move into a more professional setup rather than the high school thing. And through his contacts in the local music scene in his local area, the band Dreve was formed in the late 90s. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. It's spelt D-R-E-V-E. So it could be Drev, but I'm going with Dreve. Uh, and again, with the power of YouTube, I can play some Dreve for you. So here's a clip from Dreve. I believe it was it was recorded in 1999, I believe. And you can hear a little bit more of the Brent Smith from Shinedown there in his voice. Not quite fully there to what you expect from his Shinedown days, because that comes later. And you can absolutely hear the Chris Cornell inspiration throughout. I mean, he's an almost like he's trying to copy Chris Cornell there in Dreve. I'm sure he would say something similar if he heared it back and spoke to you today about that song. Uh in 2000. So that was recorded in 1999. Uh I guess a couple of months later, or even a year maybe. In 2000, Dreve sent a demo to Atlantic Records. Atlantic was so impressed with Brent's vocals that Dreve was signed immediately. And Dreve traveled to LA to record with music producer Desmond Child. Now, sometimes when you're talking about music producers and music editors, etc. etc. Sound editors, I should say, sometimes you mention the name on his podcast and it probably goes over your head. Some of you though will recognize Desmond Child because he is a legend in the producing scene. If we've never heard of Desmond Child, let me tell you a little bit about him. Desmond Child started his music career in the 1970s. He was originally part of a pop rock group called Desmond Child and Rouge in 1975, where he wrote the songs and performed them and he used other studio musicians to kind of create the band to then record the material. However, this wasn't going too successfully for him, so he transitioned into a music songwriter and producer for big record labels like Atlantic Records, where he's working in the year 2000 when Dreve are sent to him. Now, Desmond Child, as a songwriter and producer, has a huge catalogue of hits in both the rock and pop world. I'll uh name some out for you now, and we'll do a little like montage of hits because you'll recognize them all. They are massive hits. And starting in 1979, let's whip through them. And remember, Desmond produced and either solely wrote or co-wrote these songs with the artist involved. So, first of all, we got Kiss and their disco hit I Was Made for Loving You. Bonnie Tyler, a woman from my neck of the woods in South Wales, with If you were a woman and I was a man. The first being You Give Love a Bad Name. Now there's more Bon Jovi hits to come, but we're going chronological order here. So we're gonna switch band to Aerosmith. And yet a few hits off the album Permanent Vacation. There was the ballad Angel, there was a song Heart's Done Time, and there was this monster track from the Mrs. Doubtfire movie. Dude Looks Like a Lady How about writing a hit for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts? Yes, please. I hate myself for loving you. We're not even halfway through my list, which is a selected list, by the way. There's even more than what I'm naming here if you go and do your research into Desmond Childs. So let's rattle off some uh more names, more songs before we get back to some more clips of some of these. So we also have Cher with We All Sleep Alone, is Michael Bolton with How Can We Be Lovers? He goes back to Bon Jovi with some other hits like Bad Medicine and Born to Be My Baby off the New Jersey album. He's involved in the Aerosmith album Pump with the song F-I-N-E fan. And then he comes out with this huge, massive hit for Resurgent, Alice Cooper and Poison. Jumping back in with Bon Jovi after those two massive albums, Slippery When Wet in New Jersey. This time is a new album and the new hit. Now Desmond Child is proving he doesn't just do hits in the 80s, he does hits in the 90s as well in the new 90s sound with Keep the Faith, and he carries that over back to his other band he's worked with regularly that we've already covered. Aerosmith and this massive hit, Crazy. And then Desmond Child worked with a man who had just left one of the biggest, biggest boy band pop acts in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. Such a big band that when this man left the band, they had to start a hotline for grieving fans of the band. That band was Take That, and this man was Robbie Williams, and this was his first single after leaving Take That, Old Before I Die. Now everything has a bit of a rock feel that I've played for you so far. I didn't just work with the rock bands, but the big, big hits I've showcased to you today are generally rock songs. I mentioned Michael Bolton, I mentioned Cher. I didn't play them for you though. I'm gonna show you how much he could do in the pop world as well, because he also worked with this hit that you surely have heard by a man called Ricky Martin from Spain, Livin' la Vida Loca.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Livin la vida loca Livin' the Vida Loca Living.

SPEAKER_05 32:01

One of my late mum's favourite tracks, uh Livin La Vida Loca, and there is a little bit of a rock riff there played on the guitar at certain parts if you go listen for it, but very much a pop song. Another pop song that was a huge hit was a man that was just leaving or taking a side hit from the RB group, Drew Hill, and that man was Cisco, and this hit was called the Thong Song. And the final, final, I'm gonna call it a hit, but it's not really a hit, but a final, final song I'm gonna cover is from a massive artist, but one we won't be covering anytime soon, and I think this is a hidden gem from this artist, and this is the hidden gem podcast. So, the final Desmond Child track that I want to cover in this little montage of Desmond Child written or produced tracks is this one after lesser-known volume three of the Bat Out of Hell trilogy from Meatloaf, the monster is loose. The opening track of volume three, Bat Out of Hell Three, I should say. And it is a banger. You should check it out. It is definitely a hidden gem in Meatloaf's back catalogue. Meatloaf is one of those artists, he he crosses over with the rock world. He's rock opera, in my opinion. But that song, The Monster is Loose, has some great riffage. It's hard and is very much in the rock realm. Check it out if you like the little clip that you heard there. Now, I just spent around five to ten minutes talking about Desmond Child, a legend in the music industry. Why did I do that? Well, as I mentioned in 2000, Brent Smith's band Dreve was sent by Atlantic Records after they were immediately impressed by Brent Smith's voice in their demo to Desmond Child to start doing some sessions and working on some material. Um, although these sessions with Desmond didn't amount to much, Brent Smith was like a sponge. He tried to soak up as much information, knowledge from Desmond from all his years in the music industry, all those hits see I just played for you there. I mean, he does have one hell of a back catalogue, and it really is. Out of all the people you could learn from, he is one of that would be top of your list. And Brent made no mistake in making sure he got the most out of those sessions. Even if no songs came from it, he made sure that personally himself, he learned as much as he could. And Brent said himself that these sessions with Desmond was transformative for him in terms of his songwriting and how the music industry works, giving him a real solid foundation for his music career going forward. Shortly after getting back from LA and working with Desmond, the band Dreve were unfortunately dropped by Atlantic Records. However, they were so impressed by Brent's vocal ability. The whole reason why they signed Dreve in the first place are they signed Brent to a developmental contract. Basically, Brent needed to find another band or lose the record deal. So this is a really unusual situation in the music industry for these rock and metal acts. You sometimes get this in the pop world where they will manufacture an artist effectively. They'll see an artist, it doesn't matter how well they sing, maybe they just got the look and the brand, and they can put everything else around them to make them good. And the rock and metal world is a bit different. You can't just have uh fireworks and fun colours around you to hide your talent. You need to have talent and you need to be able to play live on stage. You can't just mime. Now that doesn't mean there haven't been manufactured rock or metal bands in the past, or absolutely has, but it's different. It's not about an individual then. They usually um look through the local scene and maybe they'll pick a guitarist from here, a drummer from here, maybe a vocalist over here that they feel has the look for the brand that they want to go for. And then that band will generally write the songs, maybe with another songwriter, but it'll all work together, and more importantly, they all need to be able to play live on stage together and have that chemistry. It's not as simple as just saying, yeah, we'll have that person, put a bunch of studio musicians around them, they'll dance on stage, it'll be fine. But when those rock metal bands are manufactured in that way by the record company, the record company is in complete control over who goes into that band. They control which guitarist, which drummer, which vocalist, which bassist is in that band, and the kind of sound and the kind of image that they want to portray, and the one that they feel they can market for whatever reason. Usually it happens when a band like Nirvana or Rage Against a Machine or maybe Corn, a band that comes in with a brand new sound, hits hot right from the off, starts a new trend. These record companies try to find either bands that are already playing similar music from a similar scene, as they can now elevate and try to piggyback off these major artists like Nirvana in the grunge scene and corn in the new metal scene. Or if that band isn't already existing and touring in that local scene, as I said, they'll just manufacture their own to try and basically run it for the money. This is different. This is just we've got this amazing vocalist in Brent Smith, this guy who's hugely talented. We don't want to let him go to another record company in some new band or maybe in Dreve, whatever it is. We believe in this man and we're gonna give him a chance. We're not gonna manufacture a band around him. We're gonna give him the opportunity to find his own band, but we're gonna give him a developmental contract because we think so highly of him, and that is unusual in the rock and metal world. This is a unique case, and this is why I say Shinedown is kind of Brent Smith's little project. He's not quite uh front and center as much as like Marilyn Manson is, as I've said, and the Marilyn Manson band. But without Brent Smith, there is no Shinedown. So, as I said, Atlantic Records gave Brent a developmental contract and effectively uh an ultimatum saying you need to find another band, leave Dreve and those band members, find new band members, or lose your developmental contract and your contract with Atlantic Records. So, Atlantic Records, they relocated Brent from Knoxville, Tennessee, all the way to Jacksonville, Florida, and they helped him with uh songwriting and finding new band members. So they didn't force it on him, but they kind of gave him a little nudge in certain areas to help him on his way. And the first band member recruited was bassist Brad Stewart through Jacksonville music producer Pete Thornton. It was a recommendation. Brent and Brad started recording demos together, just the two of them in a small local studio in Jacksonville, when the owner, Melody Van Zant, suggested they meet with her fiance who plays guitar. And that man was Jason Todd, who became the third member of the first lineup for Shinedown. Uh for the drummer, they carried out auditions, and seventh man to woman to audition was Barry Kirch, who ultimately got the gig and rounded out the lineup. Now, the band worked together on demos and they sent their work in progress material to Atlantic Records who liked what they heard and they basically greenlit the band to make their first album. So Brent and Shinedown are now on their way. However, the band needed a name, and some band name stories are quite creative and exciting. This one is more simple. Basically, bassist Brad Stewart in his home, he had a painting that uh the band was basically having a conversation about, and they felt it was like the yin and the yang, you know, the opposites, the good, the bad. Sometimes you shine and sometimes you are down. Shine down. So quite a simple story, but the band name works in my opinion, and it's still a brand to this day, so obviously it's done well enough. And now we get to May 27th, 2003, when Shine Down have their debut studio release. It's called Leave a Whisper, and it wasn't an immediate success, but through extensive touring and successive singles, eventually the album was certified platinum, which is over one million sales in the US. Um, they toured two years straight to support the album, touring with Van Halen, and then more like-minded bands like Caesar and Three Doors Down. Brett Smith on the recording was quoted. And if you remember from previous podcast series, when I do direct quotes, I like to put an accent on, even if it's nothing like the person I'm doing a quote from. So in the Nightwish episodes, the band are all finished, but for some reason I did a posh British accent in the answer series previously. For some reason, all quotes were done by Hulk Hogan, even though Hulk Hogan has nothing to do with the band, The Answer from Northern Ireland. What I'm gonna do for this one for Brent Smith, I who knows? We'll see where my intuition takes me. But Brent, regarding the recording of Lever Whisper, was quoted as saying, yo, we approached it in as cool and calm a manner as we could, but there's no denying that a lot of time we were like kids in a candy store. That's how excited we were. I think a lot of that energy found its way into the music, you know, which was our intent from the very beginning. We want each song to carry the listener on a journey, and we want to make sure the ride is as interesting as possible. The best way I can describe it is to say that this band is a celebration of being alive. We all have our problems, but if you're honest with yourself, can you draw from that darkness and turn it into something great to our way of thinking? Each song should be different, as far away from a formula as you can possibly get. We pride ourselves in taking some things you might think you know and then twisting them around. We're not trying to necessarily be different, it's just the way we are that keeps it interesting for us and interesting for the fans as well. Brent Smith there on the recording of Leave a Whisper. Now, if any of you follow any rock guitar YouTubers, uh, some of you may have come across a man called Rick Beatto. Some of you may know Rick Beatto anyway from the music industry before he became a popular YouTuber. He has a popular series where he generally counts down the top 10 tracks on Spotify for the previous month, and more often than not, he's ripping them apart. But he produced a few songs in this album. He works with Brent Smith quite closely on a few of the early albums, especially on Leave a Whisper. And as I said, he produced a few songs in this album, co wrote some as well. For example, Lost in the Crowd in Memory and Stranger Inside. And this album, Leave a Whisper, had positive to negative reviews. All music gave it two out of five. They were quoted as saying, coupled with applauding two dimensional sound, varying a little from song to song, let alone From the sound of its peers, Shinedown's debut offers scant hopes that heavy music will right itself from the nasty stumble of its last few years. Uh K Nak, I don't know if it's K-Nak or K-N-A-C, but they gave it four out of five. They said, smart lyrics and a seriously impressive singer in the form of one Brent Smith put this band a step or two above the rest of the redundant headcases. And then Melodic also gave it four out of five with this quote. This is a clever winner and a hot candidate for my top list when the year 2003 is closing in. It reached number 53 in the US Billboard 200 album charts. And the very, very first single is the one I started this podcast with. It's track one on the album. It came out on March 25th, 2003. So a few months before the official album release. And this got to number five on the US mainstream rock tracks chart. And the I remember I said Shinedown at the start of this podcast has the most number one singles on the Billboard mainstream rock charts. So I've got to be calling it out for each single. This one went to number five. And this song, the debut single by the band Shinedown, is called Fly from the Inside. There. What is that song about? Well, again, Brent quoted a saying, It's about having an unattainable dream that maybe the people around you are telling you that you can't accomplish and you're never going to succeed at it. And maybe they're being that way towards you because they didn't go after their dreams. And Fly from the Inside is just a metaphor about believing in yourself and going after anything that seems unattainable. You have to at least try for it because you'll be kicking yourself in the ass if you don't. So Fly from the Inside, I think, is a great track. I played it at the beginning there, and it's one of the higher stream tracks on the album. Certainly not one that can be classed as a hidden gem like we do in this podcast, and like I will get to in this album once we cover the singles. Remember the criteria if it's a major single, if it's a well-known track, and I'll judge that based on how often they play it in the live shows. Do they close the live shows with it, for example? I'll also judge it based on Spotify stream numbers for the album as a whole. And right after we cover the singles, I will give you my hidden gems from this album, Leave a Whisper. Fly from the Inside is both stream too much and also a major single from the band to be qualified to be a hidden gem. It's actually the third highest streamed track on the album. The two other tracks we will get to that are streamed higher. And one of them is actually the second single that came out a little bit after the album release. It came out in July 29th, 2003. And this one went to number three on the US mainstream rock chart. And the rumor is that this song was actually written towards the end of the Dreav days. Rather than it being written as part of the Shinedown days, I guess. It was a carryover from Dreave. That is a rumor, nothing confirmed, but the rumor does obviously exist. Maybe where there's smoke, there's some fire. Who knows? I'm sure there's some inspiration, some melodies, some chord progressions, riffs, or whatever that did carry over from Dreave into Leave a Whisper and the Shinedown sound. Now, this album, in my opinion, is very much post-grunge. It's got some new metal influence there as well. It's very much a product of his time in the early 2000s. It sounds like an early 2000s album, which, you know, based on my age, being born in 1988, that is kind of my era, right? I like that sound. But someone new coming in, maybe this album sounds a bit dated, but there's still some great songs on it. And Shinedown fans, there's a lot of them, and there's a lot of them that think that this is probably one of their best albums. For me, it's not that iconic album, that classic legendary album I mentioned at the start. That's to come, but it's certainly in their top half in terms of quality of their albums, of their discography. Let's get back into that second single I was talking about that came out in July 29th, 2003. The one that potentially had some carryover from the Dreve days, and also the one that's the highest stream track by a country mile on this album. And that song is called 45. Great, great track. And what are you gonna get from these earlier? I'll say the first three, maybe four Shinedown albums, is it's almost like Brent Smith knows that the record company signed him rather than the band, the band came after. They obviously obviously signed him because he has a talented voice, uh, and they obviously want to hear it. You know, they wouldn't have signed him alone if they didn't want to hear his voice and the range it can go. And it's almost like maybe there's people in the studio pushing this on him as well, but it feels like a lot of these early albums, uh, he's making sure that he has his moment to shine in the majority of the songs. You definitely get it in 45, you're gonna get it in the next song I'm gonna show you in a minute with the third single. But I do feel that goes away towards the second half of Shinedown's discography. I'll talk about it when we get to the point where I feel like uh he starts to service the song rather than himself. And to be honest with you, he has such a good voice. I miss him servicing himself a little bit. There's certainly people out there that are early Shinedown fans rather than later Shinedown fans, and I think that plays a part. And if you like the song 45, it's a great track. The lyrics are quite deep and meaningful. I'm gonna get into the song's meaning because it's probably a little different to what you would think when you start really dissect the first few lines, you know, staring down the barrel out of 45. Sounds like a suicide song, right? We'll get into the meaning in a little bit. But uh one of the bonus tracks, I can't remember if it's on this album or a later one, but it's certainly available on Spotify, etc., is a studio recorded acoustic version of this song. The band early on liked to do studio recordings of acoustic versions of some of their big songs, and it gives Brent another opportunity to really show off his voice. And it's worth a listen if you like the song 45, and you've not heard the acoustic version. Now, the music video for 45 was actually pulled by MTV, who was the biggest major music video TV channel at the time. Uh, and it was pulled by the at the band's request. It wasn't MTV deliberately pulling it, it was Shinedown themselves asking MTV to pull it. And the reason for it was because MTV edited out the lines The Barrel of a 45, and also the line Ashes of another life, which are two big lines in the chorus of the song, which is obviously repeated as it is in most songs. So it's gonna have a big impact on the listener and the actual piece of art the band are trying to put out and how it's being manipulated and edited, and probably in a negative way. Let's be honest, that's not gonna be done in a positive way in terms of the quality of what you're listening to. And they also changed the name of the song as well. They changed it from 45, which is obviously a reference to a gun. MTV themselves renamed the song Staring Down. Ah, the band felt this blurred the song's message. And if they didn't want to play the song as it was written, then MTV shouldn't play it at all. That's the stance the band took. They asked MTV to pull the music video, and MTV obliged and they pulled the music video. Now the song's meaning, as I said, is different to what you'd expect. Um, another quote from Brent Smith. The inspiration from the song really came from, I think a lot of people kind of take a literal sense because of the lyrics, but the song is basically about the day that you wake up and you look at yourself in the mirror and you finally decide that you want to try to become comfortable in your own skin and realize that you're gonna have to make yourself happy before you're going to make anyone else happy. And basically, the 45 isn't an actual literal term for a gun. I use it as a metaphor for the world. The 45 is actually the world and what it hands you every day of your life when you get up. It's a gift to be alive to begin with. A lot of different people, when I've talked about it, they said, Do you really honestly mean that? And I'm like, Well, yeah, because I've been in that situation where I didn't know if I wanted to continue going on, and I didn't know how to necessarily make myself comfortable with who I was, trying to find a way of learning more about myself. And you come from a dark place sometimes, and that's really the reality of the song. It's about overcoming and about moving forward, and it's basically about understanding that it's not always going to be good, but you really have no one to blame for yourself if you don't move forward. That's where the whole nobody knows what I believe comes from because we're all individuals, so that's really where it comes from. It's about moving on, really. That was a long quote, but a quote there from lead vocalist from Shinedown, Brent Smith. So Brent's basically saying there's about self-reflection and making sure you don't stand in front of yourself from achieving your dreams and moving forward with your life. And those kind of themes are very, very common in Shinedown songs. You will hear that a lot as we get through the series. Now, to carry on this series and the album Leave a Whisper, let's get to the third single that came off the album, and this is a cover song, and it wasn't originally on the initial release of the album, it was on the re-release of the album, the deluxe edition. And they do this a few times early on where an album's partly successful, they get a bit of mainstream traction through some of the singles that come out after the album's release. So to kind of lean into that popularity that they're suddenly getting that notoriety, the record company put some bonus tracks on a deluxe edition and they re-release it with a new set of singles, then kind of supporting that re-release and a whole new tour, uh live show, etc. etc. And our third single here with the the first of the re-release was a cover of uh Leonard Skinner, Leonard Skinnard, pick your poison, Leonard Skinner's song called Simple Manning. I'll play the original for you by Leonard Skinnard, and then I'll play the shine down. We'll come back first in between. This is Leonard Skinner's Simple Man. And this is the album title, Pronounce Leonard Skinnard. So that's why at the start I said Leonard Skinnard, Leonard Skinnard, pick your poison, because they're more widely known as Leonard Skinnard, because that's kind of how it's spelt. But according to this album title and the band themselves, the correct pronunciation is Leonard Skinnard. But if I did that, most of you would probably think I'm mispronouncing Leonard Skinnard. So I stick with the more common pronunciation. But that was track four off that album from 1973. That album and that song is generally overshadowed by the final track on the album, Free Bird, which I'm sure you've all heard. So Shinedown does a cover of this song, and it becomes a big single for the band, a third single off Leave a Whisper, and it becomes, as we stand on recording, the second highest stream track on the album. But why this song? Why Simple Man? Why was this the song they chose to cover, if any song? Well, guitarist Jason Todd, as I said earlier, he was recommended to the band by the owner of a studio they were demoing, practicing in, which was Melody Van Zant. Melody Van Zant uh eventually married Jason Todd. They were fiancés at the time when the band was being formed. Uh Melody Van Zant, however, is the daughter of Ronnie Van Zant, who is the lead singer from Leonard Skinned. So there's obviously a connection there with Shinedown and Leonard Skinned. And during the writing of this album, uh Ronnie's widow, Judy Van Zant, let Brent stay in her guest house for an entire year. And Brent basically recorded this song as a thank you to Judy Van Zant, Ronnie's widow. So the band originally performed this song as an acoustic version at a Boston radio show. The acoustic version was made available to download on the band's website and was downloaded half a million times, prompting the label to add it to the re-release. And it went to number five in the US mainstream rock charts. Not quite hitting number one yet, but trust me, they'll have plenty of them. And it came out on June 15th of 2004. So over a year after the album initially came out. And let's not hang about anymore. Let's listen to Shinedown's cover of Simple Man.

SPEAKER_03 58:51

It's a B Sadis Far and be a simple Cal Man be something. You love some babies, so baby, be simple, be simple man to do this.

SPEAKER_05 59:50

Shine Down's cover of the Linnard Skinned song Simple Man Then, the third single from Leave a Whisper and it's such a good song. It's one of the songs that really drew me into the band Shinedown when I first heard it. I feel like the cover, not often is it better than the original, but in this case, I think it smashes the original. I'm gonna get some hate for that comment, but I do feel like the Linux Skinned version is quite ploddy, same. And when you hear the Shinedon version, because purely because of Brent Smith's vocal ability and delivery in the song, it just lifts it to another level, another gear, another power. And it's in my opinion, so much better than the original. And it's a great, great song. One I've had many, many hours enjoyed singing to myself in the shower or the car. Now, a few years after this album release, we're gonna come back to the album, but while we're on a topic of Simple Man, a few years after, in 2009, roughly, that's when the video at least was uploaded to YouTube. A man named Patrick Foley, I believe, could be wrong, but he won, I think it was a competition. I don't believe he was just uh a friend of a friend, I believe he won a competition for Shinedown to basically come into his house and do an acoustic gig. And there's a video uploaded to YouTube. You can find it yourself. I'll play a little clip for you as well now of basically Brent Smith and Jason Todd on guitars doing a live version of Simple Man, the acoustic version, in literally the man's living room. And it's not like he lives in a mansion, he's in a what I would consider a normal-sized house, I guess. But he's in his living room, they're on their sofa, all the friends are around, obviously. You know, if you didn't know the background, you just assume this was Shine Done before they were famous at a friend's house party. But this is them playing a live version of Simple Man. Honestly, if you haven't seen that clip on YouTube before, it's well worth going out of your way and listening to the whole song because you see it's so casual how Brent Smith sings that song. You know, he's just casually sitting on a sofa next to his friend Jason playing the acoustic guitar, just surrounded by, I guess, kids. I mean, people in their late teens, early 20s. It does look like they're just playing at a house party, the kind of house party you would have gone to when you were 18, 19 around your friends. And if you're into the kind of uh rock and metal music back then, like you were like me, uh, you would have had friends who probably played guitar. You go over one of the houses at these house parties, they have a guitar there. And you used to find people would just pick up an acoustic guitar and they would just play along, but less people sang because they got embarrassed. But people did occasionally, especially when alcohol was involved. And you did have those moments at house parties, but obviously the talent level was far, far less than what Brent Smith and Jason Todd are doing here at this house, and it's very, very worth uh checking it out. And you can hear as well. He doesn't quite sing it as powerfully as a studio recording. He does tone it back a little bit, and towards the end his tempo speeds up. Because obviously, because he hasn't got a click meter or a drummer there to orchestrate him, but you can hear the talent in Brent Smith's voice, and the control is the best word I'd do for I'd use there. You watch him, you listen to him in that clip, and the control he has over his voice, how loud he goes, how quiet he goes, how he hits the notes, goes between the notes, how he does his tramolos, etc. It is so much control there, and that's just a strong diaphragm. It's the only way you can get there is through practice and diaphragm training. Now there's one other single on this album that we're gonna quickly cover before we move on to our hidden gems, which is the reason why you're all here, right? You want to know what hidden gems I'm picking from this album, Leave a Whisper. Spoiler, if you're looking for the other Shinedone albums, they're gonna come later in the series on their own episodes. We'll probably have an album per episode or an episode per album. This one's just for leave a whisper, so we'll get to the other albums later. And we'll get to those hidden gems in just a little bit. There's one more single we've got to cover that came out on July 13th, 2004, so one month after Simple Man. And this one was actually the highest mainstream rock charting in the US out of all the singles on this album, but it's certainly not the single that stood the test of time in terms of notoriety for the band. Uh, but that song is called Burning Bright. The final single from Lever Whisper burning bright there. The meaning of the song, again, more Brent Smith quotes, there's gonna be a lot of them on this series. A lot of songs about how sometimes you feel like you can't do anything right or you're not good enough. And the whole thing is about how sometimes you have to just close your eyes and try to get as much energy and as much strength as and as much confidence as you can. And just go after what it is you need to go after. So again, another kind of positive mentality for motion uh motivational kind of meaning behind a song there. Now, we're gonna move on to our hidden gems. We're an hour and ten minutes roughly into this podcast. It's about time we get there and do some deep dives into some songs. And the first hidden gem that I've picked out is track nine on the album Leave a Whisper. It's one of those tracks I mentioned earlier that YouTuber music producer Rick Beatto worked with Brent Smith on. And that song, it's not quite the lowest streamed on the album, but it's certainly in that batch of lower streamed song, probably the upper end of it. I've mentioned how 45, then Simple Man, and then Fly from the Inside are the highest streamed tracks on this album, followed by the last single Burning Bright, and then the big drop off into the next high stream, which is Lost in the Crowd. We're not gonna cover that one. Spoiler, it's not a hidden gem. No, this hidden gem is track nine, and it's called Stranger Inside.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

I just won't relax, I can't catch my brain.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:36

Don't worry, I'm going to play more Startup Stranger inside there. Now, it starts off with this very much early 2000s. Post-grunge, new metal influence-inspired riff there. It's kind of power cordy, drop-tune, bouncy. It's very much what early Shinedown sounded like. And it's similar to the bands of the era, those American hard rock bands around the time like Breaking Benjamin, for example. I mentioned Caether earlier. They're all kind of coming out the same vein with the similar riffs, but it gives me nostalgic vibes that riff. And it's the main hook of the song, in a way. It kind of comes back as a theme, but we're gonna get to the catchy bits in a moment with the chorus, etc. It drops right down after that initial of the dun dun, and it comes right back down. Brent tones it back with his lyrics as well, with his words, both himself and the other instrumentation. They don't uh match that energy that comes right at the start of the song. It brings it all down so that everything that comes later can mean more. If everything's always up there and I've got my hand in the air kind of showing like a high line, if everything's up there and it never kind of fluctuates, it can feel ploddy and a bit boring. You have to go really extreme for it to carry through. You have to go like speed metal, like slayer for that to carry through for a whole song, and even then it has to be like a two to three minute bang. You can't have a long length song like that, you would get bored. So you need to have that fluctuation, and that's when you I've talked about it before the black and white, the yin and the yang, the whole reason why shine down is called Shine Down, right? The shine up, the shine down. You need to have those drops in atmosphere and motion so that when you do pick it back up later in the song, it's a bigger hit, it's a bigger jump, it means more, it hits you harder. It really, really does matter. And I've always said we're gonna do a series in Opeth one day, and there's a particular song called Master's Apprentice where this couldn't be demonstrated anymore. Uh that song, if you listen to the first minute and then skip to the last couple of minutes when there's like a mad guitar solo, it doesn't sound anywhere near as mad anymore. But if you listen to the entire 10-minute song and its length, that guitar solo sounds like it's a slayer on speed and it's hell's demons glow. We'll get there when we do an OPET series. In this one, Brent Smith is coming in, he's not coming and going, This day could be the worst one! Yeah, he's totally he's holding all that back, that power, that emotion, that soulfulness. He's gonna get there, but not quite yet. Instead, it's this day could be the worst one, yeah. I just won't relax, can't catch my breath, yes. And now we're gonna get to the rest of the song. Listen out for how Brent Smith raises the tone. He goes up an octave uh when the song kicks in, and that gives a song so much life. If he stays in the same octave, the song isn't a hidden gem. He raises it, and the song kicks in the gear, and then if we get to the chorus, which I think is quite catchy. Uh let's listen to it. Stranger inside, let's get back to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:49

I just won't relax, I can't catch my breath. Well happy now.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:02

Can you read my dead?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:28

That bridge going into the chorus I just played you there. Probably my favorite part of Stranger Inside. Obviously, it's the bridge going into the chorus, the pre-chorus. So it's gonna come back and you're gonna hear it again. But I love the way Brent's voice just starts powering out these notes with emotion, the soul, and he's got that rock graspy now. This is the kind of Brent Smith you hear in early Shinedone albums that you maybe don't get in more recent releases. And I think that's a little bit of a shame because I love it when he belts out those notes like he is here in this pre-chorus A Stranger Inside. I mean, imagine now instead of him going, so take it while you can, so you can meet a man's my insanity is what you thrive on. Imagine instead of doing that, he's just going, so take it while you can, so you can meet a man's my insanity is what you thrive on. It would sound okay, but there's no lift, there's no drive, there's no energy. Um, and there'd be some artists that would sing it like that because that's down in their vocal range. They don't have the talent of a Brent Smith. Brent Smith can just jump it up, jump it down, take it back, push it forward. He can do the lot, and we're gonna talk a lot about that on the Shine Down series. Now we're gonna get to the chorus. I don't think it's quite as catchy as the pre-chorus, but it's still one of those ones that's kind of easy as a fan to sing along to. So when you're driving in your car, singing in your shower, it's one that you can pick up and sing along, and you don't break your voice trying to do it. So let's listen to that chorus. It's gonna come back into that main theme, that opening riff I talked about before it drops it back down for verse two. Let's listen. That very much early 2000s. Post-grunge, new metal, American hard rock kind of riff there. That Caesar-esque riff comes back in. Now, one thing I wanted to notice, and I'll play the pre-chorus and the chorus again, a little bit of verse two as well. Listen out for a few things I'm gonna mention now. So I said how Brent Smith really picks up his voice on the pre-chorus, and he does. The instrumentation, yes, it's a bit more involved. The guitar is actually playing chords compared to what it's doing in the verse, um, but it's not really bringing up the energy like Brent's voice is. He's not they're not matching. When you get to the chorus, obviously you get some backing vocals in alongside Brent, but Brent tones it back down and you'll listen, and the guitars will bring it up a little bit. 99% of songs, yes, there are exceptions, but the majority, uh, they want the chorus to be the main hook, the main part that sticks in your memory, and that will be the bit that kind of reaches that crescendo, the highest point, and you kind of come back down and you go back there again when you repeat the chorus. Obviously, Brent's not doing that with his voice, which is quite interesting, but the instrumentation is bringing it up a little bit, and then you get that main theme coming back with that riff I mentioned earlier as well. And if you listen to the verse, I'll play a little bit of verse 2 as well. Try and concentrate on what the bass guitar is doing. It's very easy to focus on Brent's singing. It's very easy if you didn't want to choose Brent's singing to focus on uh Jason's guitar work playing kind of these high melodic notes to trying to kind of accentuate what Brent's doing with his voice. Listen to the bass, because the bass is what's carrying all the rhythm here and all the undertones of the song in that verse. It's really carrying it without hitting you in the face that is carrying it. Let's listen to a bit of verse 2, pre-chorus and chorus, and we'll cut it there and we'll talk about what's gonna come next in Stranger Inside. I know you think I don't see the side.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:50

Well, how do you know? Do I look alive?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:56

That Stranger inside. I can't do it. Not gonna try and do with as much power as him, but I'm just trying to imitate badly for you. Love the high note, and that's what you get from early Brent Smith and Shine Dunn that maybe you in my opinion, there's still some good songs, and there's a different vibe in the more recent albums. You don't get that version of Brent Smith, and I kind of wish we did, personally, in my opinion. Um, but yeah, love the way and leads into the interlude, the breakdown, then, which we'll get to in a moment. The song's meaning, Stranger Inside, what's it about? Well, unlike other series of this podcast we've done where especially the Night Wish one, a lot of the lyrical meaning is open for interpretation. The band, in that case, deliberately don't really talk about song meaning they like you to have your own interpretations for each one. Shinedown aren't that band. If you ask them the question, what is this song about, they very much in an interview will tell you what it's about, and often it follows similar themes. In this case, Stranger Insiders is one of those rare occasions where that question hasn't been asked of the band. And there's a couple of reasons for that. One is because when this album came out, Shinedown weren't this uh big band they are today, where they're getting these um frequent interviews for TV stations, radio stations, magazines, etc., where these questions could be asked. Uh when Lever Whisper came out, they were an unknown entity, and these questions would have been asked in maybe the second, third album that come down the line. And Stranger Inside, when they're going back and they're talking about the history of Shinedown with uh Brent Smith and the others, they'll likely ask about things like Simple Man and 45, maybe Fly from the Inside, you know, those big singles that help them make their name and put their the Shinedown brand out to the world. They're not going to be talking about Hidden Gem Stranger Inside. So that question just hasn't been asked. Now, by interpreting the lyrics myself, I believe it's basically about mental health struggles, which is a common theme with Brent Smith's lyrics, and he does talk about it directly in some other songs as being the meaning behind those. But yeah, I think it's about mental health struggles and fighting your own personal demons and kind of hating yourself. It's almost like a inner monologue that you have with yourself, and it's kind of like there's two people inside your brain as a version you want to be, and then there's a version that sometimes you are because for whatever reason, and it's like fighting those two people. There's a lot of people that read these lyrics fans that believe this is actually aimed at another person, perhaps an ex-partner who is abusive towards you, but I think the self-reflective piece is more akin to what Shinedown usually sing about. They don't usually sing bitter songs about ex-partners or ex-friends, ex-family members that they have a toxic relationship with. More the case that they have a toxic relationship with themselves and their mental health, and that's generally what they sing about. And that's why I think this song is about the Stranger Inside is inside them, not someone else. Now, to finish off this first hidden gem track from our Shinedown series, Stranger Inside. I'm going to play quite a long clip to kind of close out the song. Uh, we get into this little breakdown part. I'm gonna replay that high note I talked about, the Stranger Inside that leads into the breakdown. I'm gonna kick it back off there, and we're gonna play it to the end of the song. Just listen to how Brent, like, when that chorus comes back in, which comes back in quite quickly, it gets repeated for a second time straight after. And Brent's just lifting that voice, lifting the whole song to its climax, to his crescendo, and really making a song go from an average song to a great song, in my opinion. Any other vocalist or band doing this song, Stranger Inside, it could be come across very generic of the time. It could be very dated. I feel by having a vocalist as talented as Brent Smith at the helm, just raises it, makes it something unique to Shinedown and lifts it from generic into hidden gem status. Let's get back into it, Stranger Inside. Coming back, that main theme I talked about, that post-grunge new metal riff of the time, comes back in to finish the song. And if you listen to the repeated chorus at the end, you know, plays it once and then they repeat it. When he repeats it, Jason Todd and guitar, he's playing some high-pitched guitar effects. It only just about cuts through the mix, but it does make it feel like that is the final chorus, that is the crescendo of the song. And it's a great little song, the absolute definition of hidden gem, because it definitely is overshadowed by the likes of Simple Man and 45 and Fly from the Inside. They take all applaud, it's all the credit. But this song is on the album, it's on the initial release of the album, not just the re-release. And it is a great little tune that they don't generally play live, but there are Shinedown fans that appreciate it, me being one, and I want to highlight to some of you people who maybe have listened to Shinedown passingly or not at all, and not listen to the albums in its entirety. So therefore, hear Stranger Inside, which is the meaning of this podcast. It's the meaning of the hidden gem tracks. It's the reason why I do this podcast is to spread the wealth of these bands. Don't just listen to Enter Sandman and Run to the Hills and Raining Blood. Listen to those gem cuts. In the case of Slayer, New Faith is absolutely one Slayer fans, I'm sure will be fist-pumping and agreeing with me there. Let's get to our second and final hidden gem track from the album Leave a Whisper. This track, Brent has said in interviews, is actually one of his favorite songs. And it's actually the final song, according to Brent, to be written for the album Leave a Whisper. We'll get to all the meanings and everything after listening to a quick clip, but this song is my second hidden gem from Leave a Whisper, and it's called In Memory. But I'm asking we're cut it right before the first chorus there, which in this song the chorus is absolutely the highlight of the song. In the case of Stranger Inside, in my opinion, it's the pre-chorus. In the case of In Memory, it's absolutely the chorus, and we'll get there in a moment. Let's talk about. I mentioned this Brent Smith, one of his favorite songs he's quoted as sing in an interview. And I also mentioned how it's the final song we've written for the album. Rick Beato, again, that YouTuber I mentioned, music producer, uh, was pushing for Brent for basically one more song. Give me one more song. Brent's exhausted at this point. He's written hundreds of songs as part of the session building for this first album. But Rick's just saying one more song. We're missing that one song. As I said, Brent is mentally drained at this point, and he's not really supportive of the idea of one more song. He's written so many songs at this point, he feels they've got enough. But Rick pushed him, pushed him, pushed him, and said, Yo, if this was easy, everyone would be doing it. I know you have one more in you. Just reach down and find it. And that night, the first lyrics popped into Brent's head, which were some of the ugliest things took the longest time to make. And some of the easiest habits are the hardest ones to break. And from there, the song wrote itself for Brent. Now the song's meaning is open to interpretation again for the same reasons why Stranger Inside kind of is, but it's a strong link to new beginnings, moving on from a toxic past to better yourself. Again, open to interpretation whether this is about an ex-partner, toxic family member, the singer's alter ego, his personal demons, I lean towards the latter for the same reasons I did with Stranger Inside. Uh let's get back to it in memory.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:43

But I'm asking you to get a lot of people.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:39

In memory is certainly one of them, especially with the way that riff comes in post chorus. It's very much similar to the opening riff A Stranger Inside, that kind of new metal post grunge era riff. Very bouncy, drop tuned, power chords esque. The chorus is where the song shines, though. It's so catchy. It's again reminiscent. Of the time, as I mentioned, it reminds me of like a Breaking Benjamin kind of song. Something you would find plastered over maybe MTV or kind of, for example, a Smash Down versus Raw video games of the time. Maybe like a Tony Hawkes Pro Skater video game. Maybe even Guitar Hero. It would fit in that video game world. Even those action movies of the early 2000s, you think of like the Vin Diesel ones, for example, Fast and the Furious, I think it would fit in with all of those. And it's because of that chorus and the way Brent's delivery is the backing vocals, the guitars, adding melody and harmony. It all works so well together. And the lyrics for this chorus as well. I mean, if I just said these two lines to you, because I can't wait for you to catch up with me, and I can't live in the past and drown myself in memories. It just sounds like a sentence you'd say to someone, but that's the entire chorus. But obviously with the melody and everything, it just works. And instead of saying because I can't wait for you to catch up with me, it goes because I can't wait for you to catch up with me. It just works so well as a little melody. It's very, very catchy. Much an earworm for me, something that'll stick in your head. And now let's get back and listen to some more of In Memory. But quickly, before we do, in this next clip, listen out for the contrast between the verse and the chorus with the guitar with Jason Todd. The guitar is very much clean-toned in the verse. And then when it comes to the chorus, a distortion kicks in. Let's listen.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:35

You're feeling your ego with what you can see outside.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:35

But it's so early 2000s sounding. But this whole album is. It was 2003, it came out. It is an early 2000s album. It's gonna sound like it's time, I guess. But listen out for that in the next clip. Yes, it sounds like a breakdown from the period, the early 2000s, but I love it. That is my era, and I dig that kind of sound. It does sound dated, I admit, but I really, really like it. And I love that note Brent hits as well, leading into the final chorus, the way he just belts it out high notes, and we get into that chorus with all the soaring vocals coming in there as well. We're gonna play the last minute or so of the track, kind of close it off. If you find in these early days, Shinedown songs, a lot of the tracks kind of follow a similar format. They're still getting into the groove of their songwriting abilities, they're still working with people like Rick Beato, for example, who are obviously helping them a little bit. But you find the songs therefore have a similar structure. 45 would probably be an exception of that. But you saw it with Stranger Inside, you saw it with uh in memory. You got the main riff, the verus, post-chorus is that main riff coming back, and you got something similar here with in memory. Let's get back into it then. We'll get to the last minute or so of in memory, close out my second hidden gem track of Leave a Whisper, and then we'll round out the album. Let's listen. He said in an interview recently in more modern years that it is one of his favorite Shinedown tracks. And again, it was the final track to be written for the album, Leave a Whisper. And I'm glad it was written, and I'm glad it made the cut. What you'll find is a theme with these Shinedown albums is that they won't write, say there's 12 songs on the album, they won't write 12, 15 songs and pick the best. They will write potentially 50 or 100 songs and pick the best. I'm not saying there'll be final like produced cuts of each of those songs. Maybe they'll just do demos and then pick from the demos on which ones to polish and record. But they will do loads and loads of songwriting. That's why when you get some of these re-releases, these deluxe editions of Strindon albums, like you do with Leave a Whisper, you get some bonus studio tracks on there. They'll be the songs that were maybe cut at the last moment, didn't quite make the final listing. And one of those tracks in the later album, by the way, was gonna be one of my hidden gems. Obviously, I'm not gonna give you spoilers now, but we'll get there when we get there. That brings us to an end of the album, Leave a Whisper. That song in memory, by the way, in terms of Spotify streams, it's in the bottom clutch. So I mentioned earlier on that you basically got the singles are out and out, the higher streams with 45 number one, Simple Man Fly from the Inside, Burning Bright, followed by Lost in the Crowd, and then you get the next batch, and top of that is my first hidden gem, Stranger Inside. Then you get a little bit of a couple of million gap until you get to the next clutch, and in that clutch is where In Memory is. There are a few more songs like No More Love, Better Version, that are all higher streamed than it, but In Memory deserves it more than those for me. It's a great, great track, and I think it's one of those ones that if it's released as a single, maybe instead of Burning Bright, uh, it would be more received and known outside of just a shine-down diehards, basically. Now, in terms of the follow-up album, it's called Us and Them. We're not gonna cover it in this episode, but a little bit of background before we get there. Uh, the band didn't start work on the follow-up album until 2005. So two years after Leave a Whisper came out, due to Life on the Road being too hectic, and basically to start writing or recording material. Now, the record label Atlantic Records, when the touring finished, they basically give Shinedown a six-month time period to basically release the next record. Not long at all, especially with the way Shinedown works, where they don't write 12, 15 songs, they like to write 50 to 100 songs. There are more Shinedown songs that are left on a cutting room floor that have never been heard by anyone than Shinedown songs that have made it to the albums and heard by the general public. So the way they work six months isn't a long time, but with the success of Leave a Whisper after the singles to give the band some more notoriety, at least the band were given musical direction on the album sound. They weren't forced to be a certain type of band by the record company, they weren't being manufactured by the fashion of the time. They were allowed to go wherever they wanted to go. They had proven themselves and their sound. But that's six months that does uh play a part, and we'll cover that in the next album because the band don't feel the quality of the next album is up there with what they could have achieved if they had had longer. Um I'll be honest, I think us and them, the next album's a pretty good album. They got some bangers on there, and we will cover those in the next episode. Before we do though, Hollywood Records approached Shinedown to see if they would record a song for a Queen tribute album. And due to their respect for Queen, they accepted. I mean, it's a no-brainer, right? Queen of this legendary band being on a tribute album for Queen. Yes, not Queen themselves, but there's so many Queen fans out there that are gonna buy this record and maybe discover your band for the very first time. So, absolute no-brainer from the band to accept, regardless of their respect levels, levels for Queen, meaning they would have accepted even if no one bought or listened to the tribute album. Um I'm not sure kind of how much choice they had in which Queen song to cover, whether it was forced on them by Hollywood Records and they were told which song to do, or whether they were given a short list, or whether they had the entire Queen back catalogue to choose from. I imagine some songs were already picked off by other bands, especially since Shinedone had only had one release at this point. It didn't have the notoriety or clout to basically say, I'm doing Bohemian Rhapsody, or another one bites the dust. There would have been a shorter list, or they would have been told to do this song. And the Queen song they chose to cover is Tie Your Mother Down.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:22

Your mama says you're told, your daddy says you won't. It's time to turn his house! Go get out of my house! So I am a gap from York!

SPEAKER_05 1:39:05

The Queen cover, tie your mother down there, which I think Brent Smith sounds great there. I mean Freddie Mercury, right? You no one is Freddie Mercury, no one's ever gonna be able to replicate what he does. Adam Lambert does a great job now with Queen when they're touring live. Paul Rogers did a decent job before that when they were touring live post Freddie Mercury's death. But I think Brent Smith does a pretty good job there. And it's interesting the way they try to record it, like you as a Queen song, with the way the vocal harmonies come in and kind of take over the mix ahead of the guitars, the drums, the background instrumentation when those group vocal harmonies are going on in the chorus with the tie your mother down and tie your mother down, which is kind of reminiscent of the Queen recording and the recording of the era Queen were in. I think Queen did it more because of the technology at the time. I'm pretty sure they could have had a better sounding mix when Shinedown did the cover, but they chose to honour the Queen version in that way. And it's a tribute album, so I give them credit, and I think it's the correct decision for them to do that. And that brings us to an end of this first episode on our Shinedown series. The next album, Us and Them, comes out in October 4th, 2005, and we will cover that in episode two on our Shinedown series. Thank you so much for joining us on Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems podcast. This is the start of the Shinedown series. I won't bring out all the Shinedown buttons like I did at the start of the episode, but please, please do join us for episode two and beyond. I estimate there'll be about seven to eight episodes in a series. And I hope you join us for each and every one. And I hope you've enjoyed this particular episode too. And if you have, please go ahead and listen to our back catalogue in our podcast. Listen to the series on Iron Maiden, listen to the series on Nightwish. I haven't mentioned it on this episode yet, but we do alternate formats on this podcast. This is the one where we pick out the big band, we cover their story, their discography, we pick out those hidden gem tracks and dissect them from each studio, release each album. But there's another format we do where we the hidden gem isn't the song, but it's the bands themselves. Those bands that don't get the love and credit they deserve. And we've done a series there on the Diablo Swing Orchestra, who are the most unique and creative band personally I've ever heard. And if it's a band that needs more credit for what they do, it's the Diablo Swing Orchestra. And the other series we've done on that is on the band The Answer from Northern Ireland, giving a modern twist to the classic rock sound. If you like the sound of any of them, please do go check them out. Uh, we'll be back on episode two when we cover the second Shinedown release, us and them with some banger tracks like I Dare You Heroes Save Me. This is when they're all over WWE pay-per-view TV. So if you're a fan of professional wrestling, you're gonna recognize some of these songs, even if you're not a Shinedown fan. And please do hope join me for that. This is Rock and Metal's Hidden Gems Podcast. If you've got any requests or bands you want me to cover, please see the email address in the podcast episode description, the bit no one reads, and send us your email with your request, and we'll do our best to adhere to that and do that series for you. I am your host, Daniel Stuckey, and thank you for listening. I'll see you on the next one. Bye-bye.