In a new interview with Metalshop TV, SHINEDOWN singer Brent Smith and drummer Barry Kerch spoke about the progress of the writing and recording sessions for the band’s upcoming eighth studio album. Barry said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Listen, it’s not quite done yet. When it’s done, it’ll be out. I can tell you there’ll be two more songs that come out this year, and you will get a record next year, probably, I would imagine, within — we’re hoping for March. We’re close, but we’re never gonna release anything that isn’t up to our standards, and we’re just not there yet. So, soon. Next year.”
Added Brent: “Our whole thing about it was this: it was the idea of if we do it in a traditional setting in regards to releasing the record that we are creating right now, it would be a lot longer of time since the last album. And so we said, let’s give them a couple of songs earlier in the year and then give them two more songs at the back half of the summer into the fall and announce the record in the fall, and it’ll be out next year — probably late February, early March of 2026.”
Kerch and Smith also talked about SHINEDOWN‘s massive success in the U.S., with Barry saying: “ Radio built this band, for sure. This band was built on radio, because, look, we’ve been around for 22 years, 23 years, but really touring for just 21 years. And we never said no to radio. ‘Hey, you wanna play our radio fest?’ ‘Can you come do an interview?’ ‘Can you come do these things?’ And when you do those things, you gain mutual respect and then they might play your song a couple more times that week or whatever. So this band was definitely built on radio, and we will never turn our backs on radio. However, things have changed over those 20 years. And yes, Spotify‘s important. Yes, iTunes is important. Yes, Pandora‘s important. All of those outlets are important. To me, I look at it, and I think Brent would agree on this, is I want our song played on all of those things, and I want it to climb all of those charts. I wanna be on the top of all those playlists because the youth goes to those maybe more than they do radio, but all of it puts yourself out there and makes the band grow even more. So I think all of those outlets are important. They all just do different things. And, yeah, we could talk about Spotify maybe not giving back as much as artists would like and things like that, but the devil is who you know, and it is what it is these days. So you still wanna grow with all of those organizations.”
Added Brent: “One thing that I’ll say about the radio, though, because when you’re being specific to said the United States and Canada, they’re similar, but the difference in the u the U.S. to any other country is this, and I can just be honest about it. The platform for streaming broadens you out to an entire planet, but you’re competing with 240,000 songs a day on just the Spotify streaming service alone. And it’s not even counting Apple, Pandora, Shazam, Amazon — I can keep going — YouTube. I mean, people need to understand also, too, as far as streaming is concerned, YouTube is the number one place to listen to music. It’s the highest, and it’s not even talked about, but that’s where most people listen to music. But in the United States of America, there’s 50 states. In those 50 states, there are multiple cities. And in those cities, there are multiple towers that curate to that market. And you have AM and FM [radio], so you have talk radio, and then you have radio. Usually talk is AM, but FM, you have country music, you have alternative stations, you have rock stations, you have pop stations, you have hip-hop stations, you have urban stations, you have rhythmic stations. There are so many towers in every state, in every city. There’s a culture in each one of those cities and there’s a branding, if you will, and something that separates that city from every other. And their market share and their community, they double down on that. So it is a different thing in the U.S. than any other country. ‘Cause you’ll go into the U.K., there’s three radio stations. You’ll go into even the Czech Republic, I think there’s one station. So the dynamic of that — yes.”
Smith continued: “This is the way we’ve always looked at it, and I mean it from a global sense too. The reality is that the way that I’ve always seen it and the band has seen it and why radio is such a predominant thing for us, is it did build our band, because there were moments with the streaming services where they wouldn’t give us playlisting, but radio was always there. We’re also a band that’s on five formats in the United States. So it’s not just one style of music or one type of listener. And to their credit, I would say this: streaming will get your music played, but radio will give you a career.”
Earlier this month, SHINEDOWN released a brand new single, “Killing Fields”, via Atlantic Records. The track arrived just days before SHINEDOWN headed off on the largest and most ambitious tour it has ever set out on in its career. Performing at arenas all across the country, the tour kicked off on July 19 at Boston’s TD Garden and the next day they performed at Madison Square Garden (the first time they have ever performed there as a band),as well as Los Angeles’s Kia Forum on August 3. Joining on the second leg of the tour are BUSH and Morgan Wade on all shows.
“Killing Fields” is the third new song SHINEDOWN has made available in 2025 after the simultaneous release of “Three Six Five” and “Dance, Kid, Dance” in January. Breaking rules and doing what few artists have been able to achieve, “Three Six Five” is currently charting at five different radio formats: already hitting No. 1 at Alternative, it also has hit Top 10 at Hot AC and AC, No. 16 at Active Rock and is approaching Top 20 at Top 40 radio.
The massive support at radio can also be derived from the inspirational message of the song. Upon release of the animated music video, which featured storylines of three people each dealing with loss in their lives over the course of a year, and how they navigated through it, inspired fans all over the Internet. Many wrote in their own stories of loss and used the comment section of the video almost as an online therapy board.
Released simultaneously with “Three Six Five” was “Dance, Kid, Dance”. The song has literally made history for the band as when it reached No. 1 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart, it marked SHINEDOWN‘s 22nd song to reach No. 1 on the chart. On the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart (where it also hit No. 1) SHINEDOWN became the only band in the chart’s history to get 20 No. 1s on the chart. Not to mention when the song entered the Top 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, SHINEDOWN tied with the FOO FIGHTERS for the artists with the most songs to hit the top 10 in the chart’s history with 32 songs each. On Mediabase, SHINEDOWN holds the record for the most No. 1s, No. 5s and No. 10s on the Active Rock chart, with a total of 24 No. 1s on the Mediabase chart. All these incredible accomplishments continue to solidify that SHINEDOWN have made a name for themselves in rock and are one of the biggest bands in the world.
This year has also come with some historic wins for the band as they recently took home two trophies at the iHeartRadio Music Awards where they won “Rock Artist Of The Year” and “Rock Song Of The Year” for “A Symptom Of Being Human”. The awards were in celebration of the banner year they’ve had as “A Symptom Of Being Human” has hit nearly 125 million global streams and charted at five radio formats including a No. 1 at Active, Top 10 at Alternative, Top 10 at AC, Top 15 at Hot AC and a Top 20 at Top 40. The song, off SHINEDOWN‘s “Planet Zero” album, resonated with fans across the globe for the unifying message of its lyrics: that it is our human connections that matter the most.
Smith and SHINEDOWN bassist/producer Eric Bass co-wrote “Three Six Five”, while “Dance, Kid, Dance” was written by Smith, Bass and Dave Bassett. The songs were produced by Bass at his own Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina.
For the tour, SHINEDOWN has teamed up with Musicians On Call and will be donating $1 for every ticket sold for the tour. As the nation’s leading provider of live music in hospitals, Musicians On Call (MOC) has delivered the healing power of music to patients, families, and caregivers in healthcare environments for 25 years. More than one million people across all 50 states have experienced the joys of live music in the hospital setting through MOC‘s bedside, virtual, and streaming programs. MOC volunteers perform live for children and adults facing any health challenge, including Veterans recovering in VA facilities, family members supporting loved ones in need, and healthcare workers caring for patients. The collaboration is just one of the many charities SHINEDOWN supports as they frequently give back to organizations in need.
Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz