Shinedown: A Glimmer Of Hope On The Dystopian Planet Zero
The year is 2050; skyscrapers have collapsed into rubble, Mother Nature is reclaiming the land, the destruction of the internet has sent civilisation spiralling out of control, and alternative rockers SHINEDOWN penned the soundtrack to this downfall 28 years earlier with their seventh LP, Planet Zero. The concept record ties itself together with robotic and dystopian intervals, the dialogue and subject matters an eerily accidental continuation of their previous album ATTENTION! ATTENTION!. Drummer Barry Kerch explains that “when SHINEDOWN write a record, we write about what we all know and what we’ve been through. Especially these last three years in the States with all of this divisiveness, it’s a reflection on what’s been going on.” Unlike the vast majority of modern music consumption, Planet Zero forces you to listen to it’s entirety in chronological order, the way the band intended.
“We fought numerous times over the track listing, and there’s always a fight. It wasn’t too bad this time around actually,” explains Barry. “We were looking for that punch in the face as this record is a little more aggressive sonically.” Instead of a spaced out 360 degree sound like on previous records, Planet Zero comes directly at you with the full force of a great typhoon and goes for the headshot. “If you listen to Brent’s voice, it’s right there in front of you and all the music’s pushing behind it.” You’ll still find the staple SHINEDOWN ballads, but the messages are heavier, creating tension followed by a much needed release over and over again.
A lyric that appears on the track Hope, ‘afternoon tea with the impending doom’, conjures up images of the downfall of civilisation as we know it. “The immediate visual that came to my mind would be sitting on top of a high rise, looking down upon a cityscape,” imagines Barry, “and it’s just crumbling all around you, all while you’re sat there sipping tea.” It isn’t just the singular track though that explores a desolate Planet Earth, as the whole record follows a theme that would have the writers of Black Mirror going weak at the knees and fighting over the rights to the narrative. “I’ve never seen Black Mirror, but if our album was transformed into an episode, it would very much be Orwellian in nature. This group setting in a futuristic cityscape and that ‘follow your leader’ type of dystopia, where you’re losing your self-will and your self-choice.”
One such futuristic dystopia and often times perilous landscape, is the internet. Many musicians are now under immense pressure to be constantly sharing their private lives in a desperate attempt to build followers with the lure of their lifestyles and sneak peeks into usually intimate moments, not just the music. Even for an everyday average Joe with nothing to prove, this is exhausting. “I hate it. I’ll be the first one to say it, as much as social media is great in some respects, as with Instagram I can follow people that interest me like other drummers, chefs and friends, but I have enough friends, I’m not trying to make new ones. I don’t like the pressure of having to post something cool to show what you’re doing that day. There’s too much fakeness out there, it’s all bullshit and people trying to get you to think they’re cool. You’re not cool. You’re just not, nobody is.”
A musician’s material isn’t just their livelihood either though, it’s also a personal outlet and a way to explore and expose their emotions and leave themselves bare for all to see. Needless to say it’s a gamble when you display your work for the public when the internet is rife with trolls with nothing better to do than sit typing away obscenities into the comments section of every social media post. “I don’t read comments because I’m a sensitive musician, I’m an artist and those things hurt. It’s hurtful what people say to you, it’s destructive, and it’s not good for your mental health.”
It’s not all death, doom and destruction though, as SHINEDOWN wouldn’t be SHINEDOWN without their signature bright and uplifting messages that weave themselves around the album like a magically-imbued protective thread. Dysfunctional You explores the acceptance of what makes us odd and quirky and encourages us to celebrate the weird and the wonderful, whether that be a subtle habit or a mental/physical health condition; it’s all a symptom of being human. Barry admits that “I can be a little OCD at times and things have to be symmetrical. If I’m putting a room together, I can’t have the pillows all over the place, they have to be symmetrically placed otherwise my brain will freak out.” On the opposite end of that spectrum, he’ll also be the first to admit that as the primary chef of his household, he can create a mess like it’s nobody’s business, as even the seemingly simple act of cooking eggs ends in the destruction of his kitchen. “I’m also a super-nerd when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, board games, and fantasy universes. I love it all.”
The hobbies and interests outside of music don’t just stop at interior design, cooking and board games though, as Barry also loves a decent horror movie. Like any rebellious teenager, you go for the things your parents disapprove of. Barry on the other hand, went for the things his entire religion disapproved of. “Growing up in a Catholic household, seeing The Exorcist at such a young age really weighs on you and it’s stuck with me ever since.” With the 1973 supernatural horror movie taking first place on Barry’s list of favourite horror flicks, the first two A Nightmare on Elm Street’s come in at a close second, placing Johnny Depp’s B-list movie From Hell at number three. “I’m not keen on the modern stuff because I find they’re too flashy and in-your-face, there are no good storylines and they bum me out. There’s too much ‘look! We got you! We made you jump!’.”
The real horror however, will always be the reality of war and the constant battle inside our own heads. In a world of darkness and decay, what is it about his chosen career that keeps Barry and SHINEDOWN coming back night after night? “It’s not the easiest choice. Everybody thinks it’s what they see on TV or in MÖTLEY CRÜE’s The Dirt, and it can be that way for some bands, but it’s not for us.” Despite the mental battering of missing families and homes, they wouldn’t trade it for the world. Whilst the majority of the population will spend their lives a slave to the grind, Barry has “the best drug on the planet; being able to play these shows and being able to say I’ve had a successful career doing exactly what I love. Not many people get the chance to look back on their life and say they enjoyed working. I’m not gonna have to suffer that pain, which is such a gift. But that luck didn’t come without a shit ton of sacrifice and a lot of hard work.”
Planet Zero is out now via Atlantic Records.
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