BIO

Everything happens for a reason. The majority of global belief systems have this concept at their core. Notables from actress Marilyn Monroe to the Greek philosopher Leucippus believed in this. Fundamental to the matter at hand, it is a belief held by Scott Weiland, Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz, the members of Stone Temple Pilots. How else to explain the present beatific state the band currently inhabit than the concept of “divine obstacles” being deliberately placed in front of the band members in order that they fully realized their potential, strength, willpower and creativity. “Stone Temple Pilots,” the group’s sixth, eponymously titled album, due out May 25, 2010 via Atlantic Records, is a testament to this concept.

Stone Temple Pilot’s opening salvos revealed them to be Rock animals draped in traditional songsmith clothing. Equally at ease with the riff driven swagger inherent in “Sex Type Thing” and “Vasoline” as they were with the shimmering elegance that inhabited “Creep” or “Sour Girl,” the bands all-encompassing approach proved that any genre-specific tags gave short shrift to the sheer scope of their collective oeuvre.

Links

• Band homepage: www.stonetemplepilots.com
• Myspace: www.myspace.com/stonetemplepilots
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stone-Temple-Pilots/134914122905
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/stpband

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Like a stone worn smooth by a millennia of weathering, Stone Temple Pilots skipped across the mirror-plane of the 1990’s, skimming its glassine surface at habitual intervals to scoop up their latest bounty in an ongoing plethora of accolades; an 8 times Platinum debut album, 16 singles on the Billboard rock chart (six of which peaked at #1), a “Best hard Rock Performance” at Grammy in 1994 and the sale of nearly 40 million records worldwide before entering a period of suspended animation in 2001.
Emerging from their cocoon in 2998 the band reconvened for a tour that touched thousands upon thousands of fans thirsty to hear authentic organic music played by craftsmen at the zenith of their talents. For their first album in almost a decade Stone Temple Pilots decided to look inwards and mine the abundant resources they themselves had acquired since their inception. Their first decision was the resolution to help the new album themselves. “Producing the album meant a lot to the band,” emphasizes Dean. “We’ve worked with some amazing people in the past but this was a bid statement for us. We have high expectations we put upon ourselves and we have high expectations we put on one another.”

Subsequent was the luxury to record at their own pace realized by using the band member’s individual studios; Eric’s Bomb Shelter Studios, Robert’s Homefry Studio and Scott’s Lavish Studios. States Robert, “I’m most proud of the fact that in addition to the writing and arranging we took the initiative to record and produce in our own studios. It felt like a graduation to me, to an area where we encompassed all aspects of making our records from start to finish.” Explains Dean, “we didn’t have a time constraint and we didn’t have to appease anyone.” In our own souls it was something we wanted to accomplish.” Past Stone Temple Pilots albums featured meticulously crafted songs in a cornucopia of styles but “Stone Temple Pilots” contains arguably the most diverse collection of music in the bands career. What influences lead to the additional components the band has woven into it sonic blueprint? “Life itself” declares both Dean and Robert, “we’ve all become parents, we’ve matured and we’ve learned how to simplify things so they’re running somewhat smoothly. There are not many bands from our era with all the original members and there is a chemistry to this band after being together for so long. We know how to write songs with one another and that’s the major factor that allowed us to make this record on our own terms.”

“We bring in musical elements including Brazilian, Jazz and Country and introduce it via a Rock format that’s what sets us apart from other bands” Dean enthuses. “The multiple elements we have harnessed are also one of the reasons non of our albums sound like the one previous.” Another notable difference on “Stone Temple Pilots” is that “I’m soloing on almost every song whereas on “Core” there were solos in maybe 4 or 5 songs.” Scott is adamant in his praise; “Dean really stepped it up on this album.
Even a cursory listen to the album will reveal an entire band who have stepped it up. “Between the Lines” kicks proceedings off as if to remind everyone that even after several years away, Stone Temple Pilots is, above all, a Rock Band. Weiland’s no-apologies lyric rides a deliberately Dylan-influenced melody with a massive Pop hook in the chorus guaranteeing that the song will buzz around your brain long after the album has ended.

“Huckleberry Crumble,” “Hickory Dichotomy” and “Fast As I Can” roll along like freight trains about to come off the rails but incorporate seasoned Country licks that would seem out of place in the hands of less talented musicians.
Dare If You Dare” and “Cinnamon” suck you in to a Zen-like swirl that recall the headiest ingredients of the late 60s British Pop enigmatically merged with the most contemporary of influences. “Like Ian Curtis meets The Beatles,” laughs Scott.
“Mayer” is perhaps the song that benefits the most from the band’s arsenal of varied musical elements. “We always try to take influences from everywhere, whether it’s a bossa nova like we did on “Shangri-La Dee Da” or song like “Mayer” which is very R&B” explains Scott.

The lyrics also share the music’s ebb and flow. “I told stories on this record,” Scott reveals. “You travel around the world, you meet people, you experience things and you discover that there are so many stories to be told. I had a lot of fodder for genuine heartfelt lyrics.”

“Bagman” throws down the lines, “There was a dream/When we said we would be free/But now is the time to be real.” Never have Stone Temple Pilots been as real or as free as on this album.
Like piercing the membrane into an alternate musical reality where craft always takes precedence over glitz and talent always triumphs over headlines and reality shows, “Stone Temple Pilots” is the highest peak on the band’s enduring landscape. The music is both challenging and familiar at the same time giving the listener a skewed sense of déjà vu. But then again, déjà vu is perhaps fates way of telling you that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. And if the members of Stone Temple Pilots feel the same sense of déjà vu it’s because they’re right in line with their own destiny.

BIO

Early in 2007, producer Rob Cavallo asked Shinedown frontman Brent Smith about his goals for the band’s new album. Smith didn’t hesitate.

“I said, ‘You know what — when I’m dead and gone, when everybody in this band has passed or what have you, I want the world to remember this as a record that needed to be made, and that there was a reason for it,’ ” Smith says. “That was the motivation behind this album.”

Links

• Band Homepage: www.shinedown.com
• MySpacce: www.myspace.com/shinedown
• Twitter:  www.twitter.com/Shinedownmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Shinedown

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“And part of the reason it took so long to make!”

Welcome then to THE SOUND OF MADNESS, Shinedown’s third album — and the Florida rockers’ boldest effort to date. Like its two predecessors, 2003’s Platinum LEAVE A WHISPER and 2005’s Gold US AND THEM, THE SOUND OF MADNESS offers a brave and unsparing look into the soul and psyche amidst a fierce musical attack that, even in its quieter moments, vibrate with the passion, energy and focus of a band with high-minded ideals and limitless ambitions.

Smith and company began the recording process for THE SOUND OF MADNESS with the formidable task of following up two massively successful albums that yielded a staggering seven consecutive Top five rock and alternative radio hits that included “Fly From the Inside,” “45,” the chart topping “Save Me,” and a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man,” along with a reputation as a hot live band with an insatiable appetite for the road. However, after one listen, it’s clear that the band didn’t shrink from the task. Where THE SOUND OF MADNESS differs most is in its growth; it’s the product of a group that has developed an even clearer vision for how it wanted to impact an audience.

“Lyrically, these songs are the most blunt that I’ve ever written,” says Smith, who formed Shinedown with drummer Barry Kerch in 2001 in Jacksonville, Fla. “I feel that on this record I wrote what a lot of people want to say, but they just don’t know how to say it — not that I should tell anyone how to live their lives, but I’ve had these experiences and these thoughts that are in my head. And I can’t believe I’m the only one who feels the way I do. So I just tried to express that in the most artistic and the most honest way I possibly could.”

On THE SOUND OF MADNESS, Smith and Shinedown express those thoughts and ideas in ways they never have before. The group’s hard rock muscles flex on songs such as the chart-topping first single “Devour,” “Cry For Help,” “Sin With a Grin” and the title track. But the likes of “The Crow and the Butterfly,” “Breaking Inside” and their followup single “Second Chance” incorporate more sophisticated, emotional dynamics (enhanced by a 20-piece string section), while Smith counts “If You Only Knew” as his first straight-up love song, a tribute to his girlfriend Ashley and a relationship that led to the birth of their son, Lyric, in late 2007.

“A long time ago I said, ‘I’ll never write a love song. I’m not that guy,’ “Smith recalls with a laugh. “I just never had a reason to write a love song before. I don’t mean to be corny, but it’s just a song that expressed how much she means to me and how she has given me more than I could ever imagine. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to repay her and thank her for everything she’s done for me.”

THE SOUND OF MADNESS also contains Smith’s first-ever political song “Devour,” which he says was inspired by Shinedown’s visits to troops in Iraq and his feelings about the end of George W. Bush’s presidency.

“I won’t lie; I got really angry,” Smith explains about the first single. “This is my statement to him; ‘This is the end of your presidency, and this is what you have to show for it’ — Not that everything he did was bad or wrong. I don’t want to get too political, because I’m not a political person. But after coming back from Iraq, I just had to write that song and get it out of my system.”

Elsewhere on THE SOUND OF MADNESS, listeners will find Shinedown waxing autobiographically (“Second Chance” is about Smith leaving his native Knoxville, Tenn., to pursue a career in rock ‘n’ roll; “What a Shame” is an elegy to a beloved late uncle) but also crafting insightful observations gleaned from the hundreds of shows and millions of road miles the band has logged.

“In the seven years of this thing called Shinedown,” Smith says, “I’ve seen a lot of different things – what we’ve all gone through on the road, things in our personal lives or witnessed firsthand through the fans that we’ve made and the relationships we’ve built with our audience. I think the biggest thing was I didn’t want to sugarcoat the way life can be sometimes. This is my viewpoint. This is my view of every day life.”

Kerch, meanwhile, says THE SOUND OF MADNESS succeeds most in putting some sonic power behind the power of Smith’s expression.

“We wanted to come out of the gate crushing,” the drummer explains. “We really wanted to make a statement with this record and make it bigger than life — a big rock album that made a statement that, ‘Alright, we’re back. This is our third record, and this is what we’re about.”

By the time Shinedown first met with producer Rob Cavallo — whose own Grammy award winning, multi-platinum track record includes work with Green Day, My Chemical Romance, the Goo Goo Dolls and Kid Rock — the frontman had a number of songs already together and further dazzled the producer by improvising a new composition during their discussion.

“I was just taken with (Smith),” Cavallo says. “He was really just on fire to do well. He’s a guy driven to win. He wants to make the best record he can make and spent a lot of time writing …making sure it all mattered.”

Cavallo, meanwhile, entered THE SOUND OF MADNESS with his own agenda for Shinedown’s next step.

“I thought they definitely had a greater potential than the success they’d already achieved,” he explains. There’s no reason a guy with that voice and intensity shouldn’t be able to go all the way. We decided to make sure that the songs had that potential.”

Smith heard the message loud and clear. He left the first meeting with Cavallo and returned with nearly 60 songs by the fall, when Shinedown entered the studio in Los Angeles. The group wound up recording 15, including some — such as “Cry For Help” — that were written in the studio during the recording process.

All the while, however, Smith says that Shinedown “wanted it loud and wanted it big and heavy and grandiose. For the heavy songs, we wanted it as heavy as it could be, but using different kinds of styles with a lot of different guitar tones.” Incorporating synthesizers and the aforementioned strings, Smith notes that, “we used a lot of really unique sounds and different variations underneath the music that you wouldn’t necessarily know were there, but, if they were gone, you’d miss them.”

Kerch says Cavallo’s role in helping attain that layered sound cannot be understated. “He brought to the table not only knowledge of music in general but a lot of patience and a real comfortable environment,” Kerch recalls. “He would sit on the couch and we’d be playing a take and he’d pop up and go, ‘Oh fuck! This is what we have to do!’ and come out and literally show us. He was so energetic and made everybody want to do better.”

That bigger sound on the album is mirrored in the new lineup of Shinedown, a revamped edition of the band that, along with drummer Kerch (or ‘the almighty Barry Kerch’ as Smith likes to say), includes Eric Bass on bass and former touring guitarist Zach Myers as a permanent fixture.

“All of a sudden it started growing into this other thing,” Smith says. “These guys are brilliant, brilliant players. It’s a reinvention, and it’s stronger.”

Smith plans to take keep this “new reincarnation” of Shinedown on the road for quite awhile, too, making sure THE SOUND OF MADNESS is heard worldwide. A justifiable pride in the album as well as a growing international fan base for the band will lead to an even further evolution in which the record that “needed” to be made will similarly need to be heard in a live setting.

“I sometimes look at Shinedown as an entity unto itself,” Smith says. “It keeps evolving all the time, like it actually has a heartbeat. It’s not a machine; there’s actually blood flowing through it. From the time we came up with the name, it’s felt like it’s conducting us and flowing through us. It’s weird — but it’s pretty wonderful, too.”

BIO

The Cult emerged in 1984 as one of England’s leading post punk rock revivalists. With a nod to the mysticism of the Doors, the psychedelic guitars of Led Zeppelin, and the three-chord crunch of AC/DC, the Cult culled a rabid following in their native Britain with hit singles like “She Sells Sanctuary” from the classic LOVE album. The band broke into the American hard rock market with “Love Removal Machine,” from the Rick Rubin produced Electric. But the groups largest commercial success came in America with Sonic Temple, which reached the Top Ten of the Billboard Charts.

Links

• Band Homepage: http://www.thecult.us/
• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thecult
• FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/officialcult
• Twitter:  http://twitter.com/THE_CULT

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The hit single “Fire Woman” helped propel the album into an American Top Ten record, and within no time the Cult were hanging out with the likes of Aerosmith, as well as supporting Metallica on the Damaged Justice tour. Though the group was experiencing its best sales, it was fraying behind the scenes, due to infighting and substance abuse.. The resulting album, Ceremony, was released in the fall of 1991 to weak reviews and disappointing sales. Following the release of Ceremony, the group took a break for the next three years. In 1993, the band released the U.K.-only hits compilation Pure Cult, which debuted at number one. By summer 1993, the Cult had a new rhythm section and recorded The Cult, which was released in late 1994 to poor reviews and sales.

In spring 1995, the Cult disbanded, with Ian Astbury forming the Holy Barbarians later in the year. Billy Duffy briefly played with Miles Hunt’s Vent 414 before leaving to pursue a solo project. In 2000, the band’s catalog was remastered and reissued, and Pure Cult was released in the U.S.. It was followed by Rare Cult, a six-disc box set of rarities. The Cult resurfaced in June 1999 at the Tibetan Freedom Festival. This version of the band recorded the 2001 album Beyond Good and Evil before the Cult was retired again, as Astbury joined former Doors members Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek in the Doors of the 21st Century.

In 2007, it was announced that Astbury had left the band to rejoin Duffy in a new version of the Cult, with Chris Wyse on bass, John Tempesta on drums, and Mike Dimkitch on rhythm guitar. They signed to Roadrunner Records and released Born into This later that year. The album received critical acclaim and re-established the Cult as an artistic force in the new millennium. In the summer of 2007, the first single “Dirty Little Rockstar” was the number one ad across the board at all rock radio formats in the U.S. The record did equally as well overseas as it did in the US. The band embarked on a full tour throughout 2008 to support their latest release.

2009 saw the band revisit the LOVE album with a series of sold out shows across the globe. Retracing the footsteps of tours from their origin, The Cult played to sold out theaters, and standing ovations. They performed the LOVE album in order, finishing the set with the haunting Black Angel, which up until this tour had only been played live a handful of times. The band had planned to end the special concert series as 2009 came to a close. But due to demand they will perform LOVE LIVE in both Australia & Japan in May 2010.

The band recruited producer Chris Goss in early 2010 to produce the next Cult release. The next music will be delivered in a series of capsules, heralding in a cutting edge delivery of music that is sure to help redefine music delivery for years to come. Four tracks have been captured, and are earmarked for a late Summer release. The music will be packaged with original short film, conceptual photography, and modern art.

BIO

There’s something almost intangible about a band with strong chemistry. When the guitarists vibe off each other just right, the bassist is lock in step with the drummer, the music almost transcends the musicians. And when the vocalist is feeding off the power of the other players, almost anything is possible. It’s something Sevendust learned early in their career when guitarist Clint Lowery joined forces with the eclectic Atlanta group.

Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Myspace

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“I knew once I got him in there that he could definitely change the band fully,” says drummer Morgan Rose. “His background vocals and his writing style and guitar playing were the final ingredients for us to become the band that we needed to be.”

With Lowery as a major contributor, Sevendust released four albums that stretched the limits of hard rock and metal, combining elements of thrash, classic metal, southern rock and soul into songs that were both sinfully tuneful and ruthlessly aggressive. Then in 2003, after the release of Seasons, the guitarist quit to focus on his other band Dark New Day. Sevendust continued for three more albums, and enjoyed considerable success, but something was clearly missing. So, when the band reunited with Lowery in early 2008, it was like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle was finally reinserted and the picture was again complete.

“It was really cool having Clint back in the band,” vocalist Lajon Witherspoon says. “That energy was great and it was really exciting to be able to work together to really hone in on what we had before and make it even better.”

The band’s new record, Cold Day Memory, capitalizes on all of Sevendust’s chemistry and potential. While the band’s last few efforts were mainly heavy and rhythmic, the new songs balance brutality with textural passages and infectious counter-melodies. There are even fleet-fingered guitar solos. But whether confronting the listener with double-bass drums and staccato power chords or using melodic arpeggios and soft brush strokes to sweeten the sound of Witherspoon’s multi-faceted vocals, Sevendust sound excited, energized and ready to take on the world.

“We wanted to change the template completely from what we did with our last album Hope and Sorrow, Rose explains. “We were going, ‘Let’s bring back those other elements Clint brought in that made us what we were. So we sort of made a silent agreement that we were going to let Clint run wild. We said we’ll jump in when it’s time, but if you’ve got an idea let’s go with it.’”

“I just wanted us to do what we do best,” Lowery says. “We have a lot of melody that’s a cool contrast to the heavy music that we play. So, you’ll have a melodic chorus that comes out of nowhere, but we still have aggressive vocals there. And I did a lot with the harmonies, but I also did a lot of the heavy vocal stuff as well. So it was a challenge for me to really dig in and find a voice that was aggressive enough to where it sounded sincere enough to put on the record. We’re a very heavy, but melodic band and I wanted to maintain that.”

Throughout, Cold Day Memory is inventive, immediate and infectious. “Unraveling,” the first single is vintage Dust, a dynamic radio rocker that combines Witherspoon’s pained, melodic vocals with angry bursts of distorted guitar, peaking with a chorus made for driving with the pedal to the floor. “Splinter,” which opens with galactic sound effects, showcases the band’s heavier side with an opening guitar line reminiscent of Iron Maiden and a chugging riff that feeds into surging verse that bristles with animosity. Yet no matter how loud it gets, Witherspoon’s acrobatic vocals – which see-saw from an enraged howl to a vibrato-laden croon – keeps the song from flying off the rails. Other tunes are more experimental. “Karma” features jazzy, twanging guitars, a tumbling tribal beat, chiming guitar harmonics and vocals that build from a whisper to a scream. And “The End is Coming” incorporates electronic effects and string samples into an apocalyptic, harmony-laden amalgam of doom and dreams.

While Cold Day Memory is easily Sevendust’s most accomplished release in at least seven years, it wasn’t an easy album to create, especially for Lowery, who went above and beyond to prove himself. “I was second-guessing the hell out of myself and driving everyone else in the band crazy,” he says. “I was questioning whether everything I did was good enough. So, it was the hardest record for me because I was putting a lot of pressure on myself.”

Sevendust started working on Cold Day Memory at Room 56, their practice space in Atlanta in May 2009. With the help of Lowery’s brother Corey (Stereomud Dark New Day) who engineered and produced, Sevendust wrote a batch of high quality demos, including one, from which they procured the title of the album.

“It’s kind of funny because we were writing a song and I couldn’t come up with lyrics for the chorus,” says Lowery. “So I just threw in a bunch of words that sounded cool, and one of the phrases was ‘Cold Day Memory.’ We didn’t end up using the lyric, but when I came up with it I thought, ‘That sounds like a cool title for a record.’ So I put that back in my mental Rolodex. Then, when we were up in Chicago in the dead of winter, and it was such a dismal scene every day with the clouds, the snow and the rain, I started thinking back to that title, and I was like, ‘Man, that pretty much explains this whole experience.’”

In October 2009, Sevendust flew to Chicago to work on Cold Day Memory with producer Johnny K (Disturbed, Three Doors Down, Staind) at his Groovemaster Recording Studios. There, they spent three months reconfiguring their arrangements and fine-tuning their playing until the songs were tight and powerful.

“The schedule was brutal,” Witherspoon says. “We worked from 12 to 12 every day. We went through the works, but it went down really well. We did the vocals in this big booth that we built upstairs that overlooked the whole city, and along the way it became known as The Zone. And The Zone had rules. You weren’t allowed in there if you were too rambunctious. You couldn’t talk too much. It almost made me feel like when I was a wrestler in high school and you were going on deck. You were getting ready to go to The Zone to do your magic.”

More often than not, the vocal melodies and harmonies on the demos were different than those on the final takes. And the final takes were rarely the same as the 10 or 15 that preceded them. In the studio, Johnny K worked quickly, but he liked to examine multiple options from different angles.

“I tried a lot of different singing styles because we wanted to make sure we had a lot of things to choose from,” Witherspoon says. “But that was fun for me, man, and it felt like incredible conditioning because I was able to not only do vocals with Corey [Lowery], but then turn around and go back over those songs with Johnny K to tweak different things that he wanted to hear.”

All five band members contributed to the lyrics on Cold Day Memory, and the songs were works in progress up until the moment they were recorded. In the end, the band crafted songs that encapsulated their experiences with the world and one another. Witherspoon, who recently became a father, penned some lines about commitment and responsibility, while Rose, who was going through a painful divorce, wrote lyrics about heartbreak and disillusionment. “Unraveling,” which was co-written in Malibu, California by Lowery and Dave Bassette, is about the collapse of a relationship and “Confession” indirectly addresses Lowery quitting and returning to the band.

“Since we all write, it’s hard to tell exactly what each song is about, but we like to leave it up to the listeners to decide for themselves,” Rose says. “It’s funny because in the end you almost don’t know what you wrote. I remember telling [guitarist] John [Connolly] one time, ‘Dude, that was an amazing line you wrote,’ and He went, “What are you talking about? You wrote that.”

Despite it’s unconventional creation, in the end, Cold Day Memory is a cohesive return to form that restores everything Sevendust pioneered and excelled at in the late ’90s with the writing and playing chops the members have developed since then. Moreover, it’s a modern sounding disc that uses the latest technology to create timeless tunes.

“It just brings a more musical side back to us, but at a more seasoned level,” Witherspoon concludes. “I’m just glad we’re all back together like this. I feel like this is a great album, and it’s only the beginning of a lot more stuff to come.”