SHINEDOWN Guitarist Says 'Smarter Audiences' In Europe Were More Receptive To 'Amaryllis'

ThisIsNotAScene recently conducted an interview with SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ThisIsNotAScene: "The Sound Of Madness" was the album that went stratospheric.

Zach: Oh, yeah.

ThisIsNotAScene: Did that put pressure on you then to follow up, with "Amaryllis"?

Zach: I guess it depends on who you ask. [laughs] If you ask me, then yeah, but if you ask Brent [Smith, vocals], then I don't think he was that worried about it. I think me and Barry [Kerch, drums], we were the most… I mean, Brent was drinking a lot during "The Sound Of Madness" record touring. I mean, he's been off drugs now for seven years, but he was still drinking, so I think it was, well, it wasn't a blur, but it was different for him. I mean, for us, I saw the success that came with that record, and I was, like, "I hope we can top this!" and I honestly think we did. I mean, obviously, the industry has gone down a little bit, and this record didn't sell close as to as many records, but you know…

ThisIsNotAScene: Is that one more popular over [in Europe] then? I mean, it's darker?

Zach: Yeah, "Amaryllis" is bigger over here than it was in the States.

ThisIsNotAScene: I thought it seemed more favourable to the European market.

Zach: Yeah, I think it's a more artistic record too. I mean, I think [laughs], this is where I get into trouble… I think, there's smarter audiences over here. I mean, I'm not saying anything against my country, I love my home. I just think that there's people in the States who just want to hear the same record over and over and over and over again. That's not a fault though. There's bands that I hear, that I love, that progress, and I'm, like, "I wish they wouldn't do that!" But that's why I think this record did better over here. It's a little smarter than "Sound Of Madness".

ThisIsNotAScene: Well, one other thing I wanted to talk to you about was the acoustic covers… What's happening, and what's the status with that?

Zach: We are trying to figure it out right now. It should be all cleared up. At first it was going to come out, and it was going to be no problem. We were going to do it, film it, release it. We were going to film it really cheaply, but then we got Darren Doane, the guy who directs all our videos, to do it, so it looks really cool, sounds really cool, and then we wanted to release it as an album too. That's when you get into publishing, you have to get permission, and two of the artists were, like, "We don't like anyone covering our songs." I'm not going to say who. BON JOVI [laughs], and so that was kind of that. It's going to come out. It will be out soon.

ThisIsNotAScene: Is it going to come out as an album?

Zach: Yeah, both, and I think you'll be able to like buy the videos on iTunes too, but they'll definitely be on YouTube too.

ThisIsNotAScene: OK, was it fun to do?

Zach: Oh yeah, it was great. It was so much fun. Brent's such a good singer. I love hearing him sing songs that aren't ours. I mean, we did it in two days. Five songs a day, super simple. I mean, "Nothing Else Matters" by METALLICA took three takes. Everything else was like one take or two takes. We did this version of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. We didn't rehearse it. I just kind of started playing, and he started singing it, and just became this kind of special moment. All the lights in the studio are off, so it's a really dark video, but it's really really cool.

Read the entire interview at ThisIsNotAScene.