Currently supporting their third album, The Sound Of Madness, Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch recently spoke exclusively with BW&BK; scribe Aaron Small.

In the song ‘Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide’, vocalist Brent Smith name checks “Anna Nicole” – Playboy’s Playmate Of The Year in 1993, who would ultimately die in 2007 of “combined drug intoxication.”

“The song isn’t necessarily about her, but it’s about that scene. About being stuck in that, dragging yourself down and having those people around you that can drag you down. It was kind of a personal reflection on people in this band that were letting that happen. Nobody’s a saint and everybody’s had their issues. Some people can rise above, some can’t. It’s a reflection of getting yourself stuck in that hole, with those enablers around you, so you either go out or you don’t.”

Simplistically prominent, the artwork adorning The Sound Of Madness is black and white, done up like an old 45 sleeve with a hole in the middle depicting five birds in flight. An immediate association to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds is almost unavoidable.

“Absolutely. Everything was intentional. Originally there were more birds, but we wanted five to represent the band. Having the sparse white, the label (Atlantic Records) kept coming back saying, ‘people will refer to it as your white album’ (in reference to THE BEATLES’ self-titled release from 1968). Is that so bad? I’d love to have The White Album, or The Black Album (referring to METALLICA’s self-titled CD from 1991) – fine, great. That wasn’t the intention. We just wanted that sparseness. We thought it was striking and that it would stand out, not only on the store shelf, but to us as well.”

It’s drastically different from the artwork that accompanied the first two albums.

“Yeah, we thought they were a little too busy and a little too metaphoric. I think we went over the top and got lost in the jumble. It’s a little much. For this one, we went with the polar opposite and the cool thing about having that cut-out is all the different circles where the lyrics are, you can turn that around and create your own album cover. That’s kind of the premise behind it.”

As far as the title, The Sound Of Madness, goes…

“It is what it is. It fit 110% because madness is what we’ve gone through and madness is what the songs are. It’s not just good or bad. Madness isn’t necessarily a negative term. Madness can be in the morning when your alarm goes off. Madness can be you’re out of coffee or your child’s screaming. It’s your own personal thing. Sick as a dog and you’ve got to overcome – any of that. It’s just what came out of us. We had a bunch of album titles and I can’t remember any of them because The Sound Of Madness was the perfect choice.”

Shinedown is utilizing every avenue available to get their music out there. You’ve got two songs on the video game Rock Band: ‘Devour’ and a song that’s unavailable anywhere else, ‘Junkies For Fame’. What is that song like and why did you decide to give that tune exclusively to Rock Band?

“‘Junkies For Fame’ was a fan favourite. That was one of the first songs written for the record. We did a small tour before going into the studio. On that tour, we were trying out some of the new songs. The ones we had were: ‘The Crow & The Butterfly’, ‘Junkies For Fame’ and ‘Devour’. They were still in the rough form, but we were trying them out on the road and the crowds really loved ‘Junkies For Fame’. When it came time to do the album, we recorded it but it didn’t fit the feel of the record necessarily. We still wanted to do something with it and Rock Band was interested in us when they heard ‘Devour’. But they wanted an exclusive song. So what better way to give that to our fans? Not only is it out there, they can also play along with it. Eventually it will be released as a digital download.”

Was this studio experience an in-and-out, get it done type of deal or was it a more relaxed, atmospheric, feel the vibe session?

“It was a vibe thing. It was take your time, get it right and we’ll get it done. When we first approached Atlantic about doing this record, they asked if we could do it in six months and we said no, we can’t. They asked how much time we needed and we said, we don’t know? They gave us whatever we needed. It took 18 months writing and recording. Really, the recording process was about five or six months – and it was worth it. We put everything under the microscope and I’m happy with all of it.”

The end result is a great rock record, not some sub-genre or splintered variety.

“I’m glad you realize that. We want to be known as a rock band, not a southern rock band or a heavy metal band, not an alternative rock band. We’re just a rock band. We play rock music and we love rock music. That’s what we do.”