Eric Bass of Shinedown chatted about his debut solo album “I Had a Name,” and being a part of the digital age.
How do you approach the song selection process for your debut solo album?
Yeah, look, there are 2 or 3, maybe 4 songs that didn’t make the record. Honestly, I just sat down and decided to write snapshots of scenes from this story that I was writing in graphic novel form, which will be out later this year, but under the same name. I had a name.
And as I’m writing this story, and I decided to write songs for it, I just pulled snapshots that I thought were interesting.
I pulled pieces and parts of the story that I thought were interesting, and the record is chronological, but it’s not really telling the whole story, it’s just pulling these snapshots.
So, you know, when it came to the subject matter, I wanted that to make sense. I wanted the journey to make sense all the way through. I actually tried a couple of different versions of the record with one or two less songs than what are on there now–the final–but it just didn’t feel right to me taking those off, so I left them in.
So they just had to be songs that spoke to me. They had to be songs that I felt were worthy of being on the record at the end of the day.
What is your personal favorite song on the record?
Goodness, that’s tough. When you say favorite song, I think of 2 or 3 things. The song that is most personal to me is a song called Goodnight, Goodnight. I think that one was probably written from a more personal place than any of the others.
All of the songs are extremely personal to me, but that one, just what it stands for, kind of about saying goodbye to or saying goodnight to a former part of yourself and wishing that part well knowing that you’ll never be that person again.
So, that’s what that song is about and it means a lot to me.
What inspires your music and songwriting?
Exercising demons inspires me. Being creative is the only thing that really makes me feel great.
Aside from, you know, spending time with my wife, she’s very precious to me. We’ve been together since we were teenagers and I’m 50 years old now, so that’ll tell you how long that’s been. But yeah, therapy inspires me to write songs.
Knowing that I can’t not do it and in the times of my life when I’m not–and look, it’s not just songwriting, it’s book writing, it’s painting, it’s filming, directing music videos, it’s editing music videos, it’s recording music, it’s engineering records, it’s mixing records. Anything like that.
Anything in my sphere that I do that I feel like I’m lending myself creatively to is what inspires me. It’s what keeps me going. I know it’s maybe a roundabout way of answering your question, but I’m inspired by outrunning the demons. Cause if I stop doing those things, it usually doesn’t go well.
How does it feel to be an artist in the digital age?
I think about this an awful lot. There’s a Beach Boys song that Brian Wilson wrote: I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.
Sometimes I feel like I wasn’t made for this time. I would love to have had the abilities that I have now in the early 90s, late 80s, even the 70s, man.
I think that span from the 70s through the 90s was such a golden time for music and my soul feels like it belongs there.
However, the digital age of music has allowed me to create the way that I create, which I feel very fortunate about. And it’s an interesting time to learn how to create music. I started creating music when digital stuff was just coming on.
I mean, it was just starting. I think my first band recorded some 2-inch tape stuff, but then we went right to ADAT tapes. It was like the first digital tape format.
So I kind of came up with the digital stuff. The other side of that is if you’re referring to streaming and that sort of thing and AI and all of this.
It is unfortunate that that our art, and when I say our art, I mean anyone creating music, has been rendered virtually. Worthless in a monetary way.
You’re kind of made to feel as if it’s worthless and you have to remind yourself of the worth that it does have. It has a lot of intrinsic value. It helps an awful lot of people. It makes it a lot harder to make a living. You know, I’m very blessed. I’m not complaining about that.
Please don’t get me wrong, but I think about musicians who aren’t in the position that I’m in and just how difficult it is for them to get by and to try to make music and make art.
That’s a real shame when you have individuals who are making millions, if not billions of dollars off the backs of musicians. But that’s kind of how it’s always been, isn’t it?
We’ve always been an odd kind of servant, I guess. But I really do kind of pine for a simpler time of music making–analog recording and putting your music down on vinyl and even CDs.
I know that’s digital, but putting them in a format where it had some worth outside of just intrinsic value.
What do your plans for the future include?
Long term or short term? Short term, I’m gonna eat some lunch here in a minute. With Shinedown, we just released two new tracks.
We’re in the process of writing and I’m producing and mixing the next Shinedown record, so we have some tours coming up as well.
That’s really what my future involves right now, as well as finishing the graphic novel. Those are the big things on my plate right now.
What is your advice for young and emerging artists?
Two things. Well, I’ll put this into one thing. I’ll put it in one concise thing. Don’t chase money. If you’re gonna do art, you have to do it because you love it. It’s insanely difficult if you care about it. It’s really difficult. I’m not saying writing songs is difficult.
I’m just saying getting through the industry, getting through the grind of making big records or not even big records, but making any record, is difficult. It’s very hard. And if you’re not in love with what you’re doing, you’re gonna wash out anyway. But to those who do love it, don’t give up on it.
It doesn’t mean you’re gonna be wildly successful, but it means you’ll be wildly happy doing something you love. And I know way too many of my friends, who are way more talented than I am, that got seduced by a salary at a job.
Someone offered them a big sum of money to come work for them or they went and became a lawyer or something else outside of this, and they go off into the abyss every day with their head hung low because they didn’t follow their dream.
They didn’t follow what really made them tick. I heard a quote one time that said, “a salary is what they bribe you with to give up on your dreams.”
I guess I did put that back into two pieces of advice. Only pursue this if you really love it because it’s going to be insanely hard. But if you do decide to pursue it, stay in it, whatever that means.
It doesn’t mean it has to be your main source of income or anything, but don’t ever stop if you really love it because you’ll regret it for sure.
What does the word “success” mean to you?
I don’t really have a marker for success. I don’t feel successful now, to be honest with you. I guess success for me would be going from project to project with great enthusiasm and doing the best work you can.
If you’re a songwriter, it’s going from song to song and writing the best song you can and doing it with enthusiasm. If you’re a recording engineer, it’s going from record to record and doing the same thing.
Because you find out very quickly that when you are “successful,”–this is how a lot of people view me–the things that you thought equaled success (i.e., money, fame), these things are worthless.
They don’t amount to anything. I’m not saying that you don’t need money. I’m not going to be a hypocrite, but you realize very quickly that money doesn’t equal happiness and neither does fame.
For me, the happiness is found in the work. It’s going from one thing that you love doing to the next thing you love doing with enthusiasm, that’s success. And at that point, if you’re doing that, the money and the fame and all of these things don’t matter.
I just said I don’t feel successful, but I guess maybe by my definition I do feel successful because I try to go about my life that way.
What would you like to tell our readers about your new debut solo album? What’s the one thing you want them to get out of it?
I really just set out to make an album that I loved and that spoke to me that I thought was interesting…that I thought was an adventure when you listen to it, both lyrically and musically. I want them to get out of it whatever they need out of it.
Because that’s what it did for me. I got out of what I needed out of it. Again, I made something for myself and I just hope that everyone else enjoys it.
“I Had a Name” is availble on digital service providers by clicking here.
To learn more about Eric Bass, follow him on Instagram.
