During a recent interview with
Cutter and
Kaytie of
Razor 94.7 and
104.7,
SHINEDOWN drummer
Barry Kerch said that his band is "a full democracy." He explained (hear audio below): "
Brent's [
Smith, vocals] the 51 percent, because he's gotta be the captain. Every ship has a captain… You have to have a leader, and
Brent's good at it. He's driven in a way that I don't have, and he's got the gift of gab, which I can talk to you guys and talk to anybody, but when it comes to business and getting in there and getting in somebody's face, I don't have that. I'm too nice — I'm very nice."
According to
Kerch, everyone in
SHINEDOWN has "equal" say. "And if somebody's upset or doesn't like something, we're gonna figure it out and find a way to massage that situation to where we all agree on it," he said. "Like, we'll never do a political record, 'cause there's varying political views, so why would we bring that out there? We don't wanna alienate half or bring in a half or any of that stuff — it's not who
we are as a band. Just conscious decisions like that. 'Hey, how much are we gonna spend on this show?' 'Do we need to fire this person?' We talk about it. We have meetings. And one cool thing that we always do before we kick off a tour cycle, we get in a room — the four of us — and hash it out. So we bring anything up that bothered us in the past. We sit down and have our little, like the '
METALLICA movie moment' where we just call each other out, tell each other the problems we're having, come to conclusions, and then we can start with a fresh slate. And it makes everything a lot easier."
Kerch, who said his bandmates call him "Grandpa," told the
El Paso Times in 2018 interview that the
SHINEDOWN members are always there for each other. "We take care of each other," he said. "That's the one blessing. I've been there from day one and I've seen it all."
"Attention Attention",
SHINEDOWN's sixth studio album, debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock Albums chart back in May 2018.
SHINEDOWN kicked off its 2019
"Attention Attention" world tour on February 20 in Estero, Florida at Hertz Arena.
Photo credit:
Jimmy Fontaine
