GODSMACK's SHANNON LARKIN: 'We Never Try To Reinvent The Wheel As A Band'

PureGrainAudio.com recently conducted an interview with GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

PureGrainAudio.com: Now that [the new GODSMACK album] "1000hp" is done and complete, how do you feel about it and are you satisfied with the outcome?

Larkin: Yeah, man, I think we say it every time, because every record is our baby, but I certainly think this is our best effort to date. It sounds the best out of all of our records and it just far exceeded what we thought a new GODSMACK record would sound like. The writing process near the end was a bit different, and there were a couple of songs that just sort of happened and were created up in our headquarters that just gave us a new burst of energy and added a new element to our sound. Sort of a dirty-rock, punk-rock vibe, and the first two singles we release will be more in that sort of vein.

PureGrainAudio.com: With the incredible success of your last record, "The Oracle", was there any pressure to follow it up?

Larkin: I don't think there was any pressure to follow up "The Oracle". The only pressure was making a record that our fans were going to love, our label was going to love, and our management was going to love. All those, in that order, are the most important things. We kind of put ourselves last on that list. A lot of bands don't care about it and write music just for them. We do care, though, because we wouldn't be able to do this dream for a living, so the pressure comes from writing a record that everyone will love.

PureGrainAudio.com: You guys have been at this for almost 20 years and have outlived most of your contemporaries. What do you think is the reason for that?

Larkin: Well, you know, we never try to reinvent the wheel as a band. It goes back to the fans; we understand what they want and what they expect and we are not all of a sudden going to try and write a different record or try out a new sound. We pretty much know what our strength is and we stick to it. We keep motoring on, man. We are like the Everyready bunny and we keep going. We are not kids, and it is in our DNA. I think we can keep going forever until we are too old to be cool. We think about that a lot now, because we are in our late 40s, but as long as we can continue to make great records and not look like douches doing it, then we will keep going.

PureGrainAudio.com: Did you ever imagine 20 years out you would still be doing this for a living?

Larkin: Yeah, I always thought I would. I am unique in a sense that I have never worked a real job in my life and I played my first club gig when I was 13 years old. I have played drums ever since for a living. I was a starving artist for 20 years before I got the call for GODSMACK. I still would not have quit drumming, I was doing some session work, but at one point, I did think I might do something else. My mom is a hairdresser, so I thought of doing something like that. Watching her my whole life making people happy and making them look good would have been an option for me. Fortunately I never had to do that. So to answer your question, I can see myself doing this to the very end. It might not be in GODSMACK, but when I am in my 60s and 70s, I will go back to the great American music that started it all, the blues.

Read the entire interview at PureGrainAudio.com.