BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 05: Brent Smith of Shinedown performs at O2 Academy Birmingham on November 5, 2018 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Katja Ogrin/Redferns)
Getty"'Get Up,' at its core, is a song about empathy," Shinedown frontman Brent Smith says from New Orleans, where the band is at the beginning on a tour that will take them through a newly announced set of fall dates. That message of empathy, of "Don't be afraid to fail," according to Smith, is even more pronounced in the new piano version the band has just released. And we have the video premiere here.
The song was already a hit, with more than 37 million streams, TV performances and use of the song in the Super Bowl pregame show. But Smith and the band wanted fans to hear the song as it began, on piano.
Smith was in New Orleans following two big festival appearances at Beale Street in Memphis and Welcome To Rockville in Jacksonville, Florida. I spoke to him about those gigs, playing with the likes of metal gods Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, why the band wanted to release "Get Up" as a piano version and proudly sharing an anniversary with Star Wars.
Steve Baltin: What were the two festivals you guys did this past weekend?
Brent Smith: On Friday we headlined the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, and the following day we were third from the top on Welcome To Rockville in Jacksonville, Florida. People from all over the world come to these festivals. But we played in front of about 34,000 people at Welcome To Rockville. So started off this month with some pretty big shows. It's a busy month.
Baltin: Festivals are often reunions for bands. Were there people you were excited to catch up with at either festival?
Smith: On the day we played Beale Street there were a lot of different acts cause there were three stages. All the people I wanted to see were either onstage when we were on or I had to take care of some form of publication or had to be someplace. I didn't necessarily see anybody I hadn't seen between the two festivals. But I got to catch a lot of Khalid's set, which I was looking forward to seeing him cause he was on the same day at Beale Street. And Dave Matthews headlined the whole festival so I got to see a little bit of him. Then Welcome To Rockville it was us, Judas Priest and Rob Zombie. So I saw a couple of the people in Rob's camp we've known for years. There's always a good camaraderie, especially in May, that's kind of when festival season kicks off. But I think in the world of Shinedown we definitely have a switch that goes off no matter where we are. We definitely know when it's time to bring the hammer down and that's the beautiful thing about festivals. When you do get out there you do see people you haven't seen in a while. But I love how in the festival season there's a healthy level of competition. Everybody is coming to bring their A-game, so it's always good to see all the performers at their best. So it's healthy competition.
Baltin: It's so important to never lose your sense of fandom. So do you still get excited to play with bands that have been around 40 years like Judas Priest?
Smith: You mentioned fandom. One of the reasons I do for a living, I love what I do, but I'm also here to facilitate. I'm here for that purpose and to perform. For me, watching a band like Judas Priest as they play their set, cause when they played in Jacksonville, they didn't get up there and dig in the vault per se, it was killer, no filler. I remember back in 2017 when we got the opportunity of a lifetime to do 44 days with Iron Maiden in the U.K. and you talk about those type of bands, the fan base is something that is extraordinary to watch. I think that understanding the audience is really important, for a lot of younger bands and also the bands that have been around for a while and have curated this incredible fan base. It's something to pay attention to, something to watch. I've said it before, in Shindown we don't have one boss, it just happens to be everybody in the audience. So definitely watching some of the guys and girls that are seasoned, you can learn a lot from them definitely. Keep your eyes and ears open, they'll teach you something.
Baltin: Part of the key to longevity is keeping things fresh. So how does rearranging and giving new life to a song like you did with the piano version of "Get Up" help with that for you?
Smith: In regards to "Get Up" and the album version versus the piano version and acoustic version, the funny thing about that is that was pretty natural for us to do. It shows a different side of the song. And we've done this before on a few songs. But for the piano version for "Get Up," the song was born from the piano part. I remember being in the studio with Eric [Bass] when we were writing the song and everything was built off the piano. And of course when we did the album version of the song we added some different elements to it and what have you. But that song was always a bit more less is more. And we really feel like we accomplished that the way it sounds on the album. And it's cool because Attention, Attention, as an album had its very first birthday a couple of days ago because it was released on May 4. It's good company to be in considering it's "May The Fourth Be With You." So sharing that with Star Wars I can never complain about that. But it is a record that just turned one and that's kind of why we did it too. Like, "Hey, let's do something special for that." So we just went in, we took the vocal patterns, cause we put this mix together three months ago, and we just thought we'd release it to everybody so they could hear a different version of the song. But at the end of the day "Get Up" was born from the piano. And when you hear it too it draws you in in a different way. And anytime you can show a different kind of take of a song I find that to be endearing in a lot of ways. And hopefully the audience does too. A lot of people have been very receptive of the piano version actually. Actually a little bit more than I thought they would be right out of the gate. So obviously it wasn't a mistake to do it.
Baltin: Given that the song started on piano how gratifying has it been to hear the response so far?
Smith: I think more than anything it shows a different side of the song. When you take it all the way back to the beginning and where it was born from, I think one of the reasons people gravitated towards this new version, which is how the song was written in the first place, they hear different things. The piano version is very vulnerable. It's just my voice and a piano. There are a couple of little backing musical parts that are going in there. I remember when the album was released that was definitely the song that was instantaneous. Everybody started to gravitate towards it. The record had only been out for two weeks and people already knew the words to the song. We played it at Rockville and just to see how loud the audience sings the song now is very, very gratifying. I take a rule from the Quincy Jones rule of thought, which back in the day, when artists would show Quincy certain songs he would be like, "Okay, show me what you got." And then when somebody was playing him something really technical, whether it was on guitar, bass or piano, he would go, "That's cool, can you play it a little bit more simple?" And sometimes when you take a song back to where it was born sometimes you don't need a lot of flash. Sometimes it's all about the simple root notes and the melody. Sometimes all you need is three chords and the truth.
Baltin: What do you hope people to take from "Get Up"?
Smith: "Get Up," at its core, is a song about empathy. It's a song about not being afraid to fail cause we don't think you're gonna be defined by your failures in life. We feel that you're gonna be defined by the fact you refused to give up. It's also a song that when I look at people in the audience I feel they understand what we're trying to say in the song and that is, "I know it can be tough at times, I know the world can throw you a lot of different curveballs. Take a deep breath because it's gonna be okay. You're gonna get through it." And if that song is helping people understand that I'll take that all day.
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