Photo Credit: Ebru Yildiz
“That’s my favourite thing about playing festivals,” says Eric Bass, as he chats to Bring The Noise UK backstage amidst the buzz and energy of the Download Festival. “Drawing people in. I mean I love the fact that people here to see us play, but it is about bringing in new people too. It’s about growing the fan base…”
We’re backstage at Download Festival, and under the warm glow of a glorious sun, spirits are high and riffs are even higher. For Bass – Shinedown’s bassist, producer, and creative linchpin – festival sets are more than just a gig. They’re a proving ground.
“We always ask every night, ‘Who’s seeing Shinedown for the first time?’” he says, leaning forward with real enthusiasm. “Like, that’s amazing, you know? And if we can bring 10 percent of those people back, then it’s great, yeah, for sure.”
But there’s a science to it too. Compared to a full headline show, a festival slot demands precision and power – no room for fluff, no time to stretch out.
“The setlist has to hit hard,” he explains. “You know, you’re on the clock. At a festival it’s bad form to go over your set time. You’re not on on time at the beginning, and you’re overtime at the end. Tonight, we’re actually trying to squeeze in, like some extra, like some magic dust. Well, we’re trying to squeeze in an extra song tonight, so we’re worried we might go over. We’re trying to get a banger set together. But like, you know, when it’s your headlining show, usually you just have all the time you need. We can play, we can play 25 songs.”
While Shinedown continue to dominate arenas and festivals alike, Bass has been quietly forging a new path – one that’s entirely his own. His upcoming solo album is a deeply personal, fully self-produced passion project that’s been years in the making. And unlike Shinedown’s collaborative process, this time, Eric had no one to lean on but himself.
“Any time I write music, anytime Shinedown write, music is always very personal. We always write what we know. We write from experience. This is different because it’s my own. Everything is me, personally in that record, and there’s a lot of, it’s all my DNA in there, and it’s all my experiences and kind of put into these characters and put into a different form.
“It’s a concept record, but and then, you know, playing the instruments and doing the production and the engineering and the mixing and and doing the whole thing myself, it is, it is a huge responsibility. But the great thing about it is, it seems easier to do than it is to do a Shinedown record, because I feel responsible for others when I’m doing a Shinedown record, right? You know, I’ve produced a mix of the last two Shinedown records and other songs prior to that, I’m producing, mixing the new Shinedown record. It’s, it’s, you know, I take it on my shoulders and I, and those are my brothers and my, you know, and the people that I love, and so I’m taking that responsibility.”
It may sound like a control freak’s dream, but the reality came with its own set of pressures.
“It seems like there’s a lot more to there’s a lot more at stake for me personally, making a Shinedown record than making my own record, because my own record just has to sound the way I wanted. It has to be the way I wanted to be. The other thing, man, that I didn’t really think about in making my own records, that I don’t have any other opinions around which is a good thing if you’re to be free and to make a, you know, something free flowing. But it’s also, I forgot how used I am to being able to bounce things off of other people.
“Hey, is this? Is this, chorus, as good as it can be. Is this lyric, great. Is this, you know, not having that. There was, was sort of a gut check, because it’s like, no. Now it’s, it’s 100 per cent on me now to to set, to decide whether this is good or not.”
Interestingly, he didn’t even let the band hear it until it was fully finished.
“They didn’t hear till it was done,” he revealed. “Oh, they heard me working on some of it on tour so that I would play the musical bits of it, yeah, but I didn’t do any of the vocals or anything. I actually wasn’t sure some of it might have been a Shinedown record at one point, like we was just kind of just kind of doing what I always do, working on music.
“I think Zach really liked it out of the gate. That was cool. I sent it to Zach, and he was just like, he seemed kind of blown away by it, which was awesome. That made me feel really great. But I mean, we’re all wildly supportive of each other, and it’s we would make, like, we’re never gonna have some kind of monster movie, you know, like, like, we talk things out, man. We, you know, we all love each other. We, we, we hash things out, we have problems and we support each other.”
Shinedown’s bond remains unshakeable – and as Bass puts it, refreshingly drama-free.
“We’d make a really boring reality show,” he laughs. “I love the fact that my brothers and my band are supportive of me in that record. And, I mean, you know, they love talking, talking about it. They love bringing it to the forefront and and making it part of the conversation. And look, I mean, you know, we all do better when and it goes the same for the other guys, like, if they have things that they’re doing, like, I want to see them succeed. When they succeed, I succeed. We all succeed together. So, yeah, man, it’s been, it’s been really fulfilling in that way.”
