Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Eric Bass (Shinedown) is thrilled to announce his debut solo album Eric Bass Presents: I Had A Name. A concept album set within a sprawling new world, I Had A Name was written, recorded, and produced entirely by Bass. The record will be released on February 28, 2025 and is available for pre-save/pre-order now at https://onerpm.link/IHadAName. Check out lead single and music video “Mind Control” HERE.
“We live in a world right now where music gets homogenized and maybe everything sounds and feels the same. I wanted to create something different and I hope listeners hear that,” Bass shares. “Lyrically and emotionally I hope it empowers them and they can see themselves in the characters and stories I sing about.”
He continues: “We all go through dark times and hardships, but there’s always a way out. I think that’s what being a human being is about. I feel like Earth is a test and we’re here to prove ourselves, go through things and come out better on the other side.”
On the new single, he adds: “’Mind Control’ is part of a larger story than I’m telling on this record and in the graphic novel that goes along with it. We’re following this character Devaren as he’s talking about his disdain for the population and how he can’t stand them, but at the end of the song he has this reflective moment where he actually regrets everything he’s been doing. The interesting thing about the characters in this story is that they represent a different part of my neurodivergence and mental health journey. In ‘Mind Control’ Devaren represents the depression that has crept into my life over the years that I didn’t see coming. I just had to personify that in a character so in ‘Mind Control’ it has taken over, but ultimately in our story it will be defeated.”
I recently had the opportunity via Zoom to discuss the album’s release with Eric in a very enlightening discussion
Eric Bass: I like your shirt (Interviewer was wearing a Shinedown t-shirt)
Antihero Magazine: Just something I found in the wardrobe. No, actually I put it on especially. Thanks. You have released your first solo album. What inspired the concept of “If I Had a Name” and how did it evolve from an original idea to a full album?
Eric Bass: Yeah, so it actually coincides with the graphic novel that I’m working on still currently working on, actually, the graphic novel started the whole process and somewhere in there I decided that I started putting together some pieces of music while I was on tour and went to the band and said, Hey, I’ve got these few pieces of music I’m putting together. Are we ready to start working on a new record? And I think Brent said, absolutely not. So I said, Hey, I’m going to use these things for my own project. It was very interesting to take snapshots of this story that I was writing and take these moments in time in the story and create songs for them. It chose me. It wasn’t something that I set out to do necessarily on purpose. It just kind of came to me. And interestingly enough, now the record is done before the book. So yeah, it kind of took on its own personality for sure.
Antihero Magazine: Can you tell me more about the character? Is it Devaren and what he represents in the album narrative? Is that yourself or is it sort of, it may be, it may not be?
Eric Bass: Yeah. I came to realize very quickly that all of the characters are me, for better or worse, whether or not I intended to do that or not. They all sort of come out of me and come out of my psyche and my headspace, and in our story, in the actual book itself, Devar is just a desperate dictator who’s taken over this world and is mind-controlling the populace. What’s interesting is when I got into doing the record, again, a lot of my own maladies and great things about me and other things worked their way into these characters and into these stories, and Devar really came to represent the depression and the confusion and a lot of the neurodivergent things that I deal with that seem to affect my personality and quite frankly, can affect my happiness in some ways. And so that’s really what he came to represent in the record itself. And the fact that I chose to play him in the video was I thought that was kind of poetic in a lot of ways, and besides the fact that video needed to be a performance-driven video, and so I’m singing the song, so what better way to do it than for me just to sort of embody that character in that moment, which actually I found pretty easy to do, which maybe says a lot.
Antihero Magazine: Did you find that the whole album process actually served as a form of therapy?
Eric Bass: Yeah, it always does. I don’t know of any time that we’re working on a new Shinedown record right now, and it’s the same thing I can now. It can beat me about the head too. Always different forms of therapy I guess. But when you’re working on a large project, when you’re working on music, it can open you up and show you a lot about yourself. And so even in the times when it’s difficult and it might not feel very therapeutic in the end, it shows you an awful lot about yourself and maybe ways that you can work on yourself a bit and maybe find better ways to deal with things than the way you’re currently doing it. So yes, absolutely, man, and making this record was great. Therapy for me continues to be great therapy for me, actually. Just being able to do interviews and talk about it and whatnot.
Antihero Magazine: Yeah, I guess, I mean, you essentially baring your own soul so to speak, you being open as you can be.
Eric Bass: Yeah. I mean, that’s what happened. So, I often say this is the most unintentionally autobiographical record I’ve ever written because I was telling the story of these characters. But something interesting happens when you take the story itself. Again, I’ll go back to the graphic novel, it’s very much a hero’s journey story. It’s in the vein of the Odyssey or Tolkien or Star Wars or pick your favourite Hero’s Journey story. It’s very much like that. But when you start picking those scenes and picking apart the story and putting ’em into song, and then you start addressing these things, lyrically, I have no choice as a lyricist, but to write personally about things. And so as I’m writing about these characters who I know very intimately and know very well, inevitably those pieces of my personality, and again, the things that I struggle with are the things that maybe some struggles with faith or with depression or even happy moments will sneak into these lyrics. And so what I end up writing is something that is very autobiographical, and again, as you put it, very well laid, bare, it’s just sort of, but I didn’t really realize it at the time while I’m doing it. I realized it more when I was listening back to what I’d worked on, but prior to the record being done, but listening back and going, oh man, I really said a lot here that maybe I didn’t mean to say, but I’m glad I did.
Antihero Magazine: How did your experience with Shinedown influence the design and direction of your solo work? I don’t think you can separate it. There are obviously elements of sound that come across as a little bit Shinedown-ish.
Eric Bass: Yes. Yeah, yeah, of course. Well, I put a lot of my DNA into Shinedown records. I make the records, and Zach and I have talked an awful lot about how we share guitar duties, and I am one of the principal songwriters in the band. So naturally, those bits of me that are in Shinedown, especially even in production and sound, are going to come through in this thing that I’m doing here. So honestly, as far as preparing me for it, look, I am very fortunate to get to work with one of my best friends in the world, Brent Smith, on lyrics and writing music. And he’s taught me an awful lot over the years, whether he knows it or not, just from working together about lyric writing and about trying to say more in six words than some people can say in 600, and how to really get an emotion across with the lyric.
So, I think that if there was any way that being in the band I’m in prepared me to do this, it was in that way just kind of, and I’m so used to writing with others. I’m so used to writing songs with my friends. And so, when you’re just in a room by yourself writing a lyric, you have to decide. You don’t have anyone to bounce anything off of. You’re looking down at the pad and you’re like, is this good? Does this feel honest? Does this feel like me? Does this feel like something I want to say? Is this the best way I can say this? And not having anyone to bounce that off of at the moment. You’re literally a solo artist at that point. You’re on your own. And so, I think that I was well prepared by the very talented people that I play a band with lyrically to help prepare me for doing a record on my own.
Antihero Magazine: The album itself sort of had its roots in the, or started off in this period of Covid. Was it written entirely during that period or did you just sow the seeds of it and then after that period had finished add to it, enhanced it, and actually finished it after Covid, or was it all arranged over that one period?
Eric Bass: Yeah, I started writing the musical pieces, some melodies, some lyrical ideas while we were touring on Attention, attention. So 20 18, 20 19 in there, and then I believe we played the UK, I believe we did that UK tour with Ultra Bridge was the last thing we did on Attention. Attention. I was working on it then on that tour as well. And then we took a break not knowing Covid was going to happen, right? Everyone went home, but Covid actually gave me a chance to probably finish it. I know I would’ve finished it eventually, but it definitely gave me a chance to focus. I didn’t have anything else going on. And so I finished the record during Covid. I actually finished the mixes one or two days before Brent and I started writing what would become Planet Zero. So it’s been done for quite some time. Yeah, but it was definitely just having that chance to just kind of focus on that because we couldn’t tour again, Brent, Brent actually waited on me to finish it. I was like, Hey, man, I gotta finish this record before I start writing something for Shinedown. And so it gave me the opportunity to do that. And then I sat on it for a few years because of timing and being a bit unsure of myself and whether or not I wanted to release it. But here I am. Glad I did.
Antihero Magazine: You mentioned that the album is both a dystopian story, and also biographical reflection. How did you balance those two elements in your songwriting?
Eric Bass: Yeah, again, it did not set out to be autobiographical. I said just to take snapshots and pictures of this story and create music. But as I’m pouring my heart out through these characters, and I really mean that these lyrics are very heartfelt, I just realized that I was pulling from maybe things that were going on in my own life, things that had gone on in the past, some of my struggles, and really applying them to talking about these characters. And I didn’t really realize how much each one of these characters was a piece of me until I did this part, this exercise, again, it’s one thing to write a story about characters and know who they are and know where they’re going and feel their emotions and everything. I think you have to do that when you’re writing, but it’s another thing to put it into song form.
And then either in first, second, or third person start telling stories about these characters, and I have to write honest songs. I’m not one of these people. I can’t really write something I’m not feeling, I can’t write a song about something that doesn’t mean anything to me. I mean, I’ve done it. It doesn’t turn out very well. Let’s just put it that way. So in that man, the autobiographical part just snuck into these songs, and you take the bridge in a song like Azalea where it has the breakdown, it’s the piano. And you basically, I, as the songwriter, I’m talking to Azalea and telling her that she can’t give up. And it’s like, well, that’s kind of me talking to myself. We all go through those periods of wanting to cash it in and just give up, and you realize that you’re not done yet and you have to keep going. And that’s a conversation I could just as easily be having with myself than with a character. So again, this thing just became a pretty autobiographical thing, unintentionally
Antihero Magazine: Doing the album, doing all the instrumentation, and producing yourself, did it present any particular challenges? Obviously, you have producer experience, and you have worked with other artists, but did it provide any particularly challenging moments for you doing everything essentially, it stops with you now. It’s not the band name when this goes out, it’s your own increased pressure.
Eric Bass: Yeah, a lot of challenging moments. I mean, a lot of fun too, but a lot of challenging moments. I think the drum recording was a long drum recording, took about a week and a half to do, and I often say I performed the drums rather than played the drums. I set them up on stands, so I played everything with my hands, basically. So it was kick drums, snare like this, and I’ve got a video of it I need to put up somewhere. I recorded the whole thing video-wise, recording everything. But then I went back and overdub symbols. I played in marching bands in high school, so my hands got very good. My feet are not very fast, and I wanted all this fast kick drum stuff, so I had to kind of resort to doing it this way, but I wanted to put my DNA into it.
It’s not like you can’t just program drums, but it’s like I wanted it to be performed and to have some blood, sweat, and tears in it. And it created a really unique drum sound too, because I had to play everything. The drums were done with mallets, actually, because I had to do the kick drum right here, snare, but sometimes I’d have to do kick here too. So I had this hard mallet, not like the ones Lars Ulrich reuses, but more like the white, white-headed almost like it looks like a soft mallet, but it’s hard. And that created a unique sound on the drums. And also when I’m doing this, I’m actually hitting the drums probably harder than I should, so I didn’t have a lot of finesse. It was just all brawn. And so sometimes it kind of choked the drums out, but it gave him a tone that I probably wouldn’t have gotten any other way. But that was difficult, man. I realized how when I ask a drummer as a producer, Hey, can you do one more take or Can you do this again, actually physically what I’m asking them to do? But I got through that part of the process. And then the vocals, learning how to, I spend 85% of my life as a backup singer. I sing, I Back Brent up every
So, it’s not so much about singing, it’s about getting emotion across and emoting. A lot of people don’t realize that, or people who aren’t performers or musicians don’t realize that It’s not really about hitting the notes as much as it’s about getting the emotion across that you’re trying to, whatever you’re trying to convey to people. And so really being hard on myself about that, I ended up doing a lot of handheld microphone rather than a studio microphone, just because I found it easier to emote singing into a microphone like this than standing in front of it with headphones on. So those were probably the two most challenging things. Everything else, the instrumentation of the bass and the guitar and the keyboards is just stuff that kind of comes more naturally to me than those other two things.
Antihero Magazine: You mentioned the graphic novel. How does that compliment the album, and will the release actually have the both novel and album packaged together, or will they be separate?
Eric Bass: So the graphic novel is very detailed. It’s probably going to be a very long graphic novel, and it is just one part of a story. There are other episodes to go after this, but I’m looking forward to the last quarter of this year. So toward the end of the year. And interestingly enough, I do have some songs, a couple of songs that didn’t make the record, and then some re-imagined versions of the songs that I did. At some point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to use them or not, but same lyrics, maybe the same lyrical content from the songs, but with different music, or maybe a different chorus with the same verses. I was just experimenting with things. So it’s possible that I could put some of that stuff out when the graphic novel comes out. I absolutely always saw this as something that does get packaged together. And I am releasing vinyl and CD for the record when it comes out here on the 28th of February. But definitely it’s a very art-driven project, so variant covers and that sort of thing, and really trying to do something unique when the book comes out. For sure. Yeah, so that’s a long way of answering your question.
Antihero Magazine: Will you be doing the artwork yourself?
Eric Bass: I hope
Antihero Magazine: But obviously, I mean, you’ve got involved at every level so far. And it’s your ideas, and concepts, are totally yours? I just wondered if you had direct input into the creation of the artwork also with the novel itself.
Eric Bass: Oh, yeah. Direct input for sure. On the album cover, these iconography, each character kind of has its own symbol. I designed those and I drew them. It’s not that I can’t draw, I just don’t draw very well. I do a lot of abstract type painting and things like that. But my good friend Rob Pryor, it’s P-R-I-O-R, not y. Rob Prior is the artist who I’m working with, and he’s not just a fantasy and comic book artist at all. He’s more of a pop culture artist. He does a lot of shows all over the world and is a very well-respected gentleman and one of my best friends. So very nice to be able to work with him on that. So we’re working on some unique ways to do the artwork in the graphic novel, which seems to be coming to fruition pretty well. So I’m excited for everyone to see it.
Antihero Magazine: What about the album itself do you plan to take on the road? Obviously, I see Shinedown have recently been added to the bill of the Download Festival, and are going to have your own plans. Will you be actually going out as yourself as a solo artist and performing these songs live? I guess that would be the ultimate sort of therapy, get out on a stage and share them with an audience.
Eric Bass: Yeah. So I had not been thinking about it, and then people started asking me and I started seriously considering it. So if it is going to happen, it would be happening at the end of the year when the book comes out because of Shinedown’s touring schedule and having to get this new Shinedown record done as well, those two things. But yeah, I would definitely do it with friends of mine. I would do it with maybe an all-star band of people from other bands together and all on the same stage and kind of make it a fun time with other artists that people would like to see, which would be fun. And I can see it being almost like a Slipknot type thing with a lot of different musicians on stage, a lot of visuals, and a lot of people just to make it happen, to kind of pull it off the way I’d want to pull it off. So maybe
Antihero Magazine: Some screens tell the story as well?
Eric Bass: Yeah, for sure. Artwork from the book, that kind of thing. Yeah, I think so…
Antihero Magazine: So, Shinedown. I mentioned that Shinedown has been added to the Download Festival. Have you had any more UK touring plans? Are they still under wraps, so to speak?
Eric Bass: Yeah, under wraps for sure. Right now we’re not exactly sure. We’re looking at some things. I can’t say too much. I wish I could, I could tell you what we have going on, but we’re really excited about Download though. We’re excited to get back and play that. We always love that.
Antihero Magazine: Just a final one. Who would you, I’m sure you’ve done many of these interviews. If the roles were reversed, who would you personally like to interview? Maybe somebody that’s inspired you, a hero, somebody maybe not even a musician, who would you like to interview?
Eric Bass: This is going to come out of left field. This could be the most boring answer you probably ever get. There’s an economist, mathematician and physicist named Eric Weinstein, and I’m actually fascinated by his brain and entirely real genius, and someone who I think I would probably say is one of the more important figures we have right now in science and in culture as well. He’s just wildly intelligent and he thinks differently than anyone I can think of, really. He’s one of these extremely hyper-intelligent individuals who also has the social skills to get his thoughts across and his points across. So I’d love to sit down and have a conversation with him. He would be wildly bored talking to me, I’m pretty sure. But still, I mean, musically, musician-wise, I think Tom Morello would be really interesting. I’ve never met him before. I’d love to talk with him, and obviously about his guitar playing and obviously about his musical brain, but also the way he thinks, just pick his brain about how he thinks socially and whatnot because it’s kind of opposite of mine in a way. But I love having conversations with people who, maybe I diverge at maybe a divergent viewpoint on certain things, but being able to have real meaningful conversations with those people and especially, and he’s so smart, I’d love to just have a conversation in general with him and then perhaps Brian Wilson if that would’ve ever been possible.
Antihero Magazine: Okay. Eric, that’s great. Thanks very much. Looking forward to seeing Shinedown at Download and then next who knows some other UK dates.
Eric Bass: Maybe, who knows? That’s correct. Yeah. Thank you for the time, my friend. I appreciate it.
Antihero Magazine: Cheers. Thank you very much. Good luck with the album.
Eric Bass: Thank you. Thank you.
Source: www.antiheromagazine.com
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