Shinedown is trying something new with their latest single, “A Symptom of Being Human.”
Brent Smith and company are bringing the track, which appears on their new album, Planet Zero, to pop radio. While they’ve had pop success in the past — “Second Chance” hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2009 — with “Symptom,” they’re starting the single at pop instead of waiting for it to cross over on its own.
“There’s a certain direction we want ‘Symptom’ to go in to start to look at other audiences, people that don’t know who we are, and really having a fundamental plan with sharing that out to have a wider range of ears on what we’re doing,” Smith tells ABC Audio.
Smith hopes that bringing “Symptom” to stations playing artists such as Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd may encourage them to add more rock bands to their playlists.
“There’s a lot of music out here,” Smith says. “There are other bands … the listeners for those formats may be really, really interested in.”
More than that, though, Smith wants Shinedown’s music to “go in front of as many people as possible.”
“We wouldn’t have written it if we didn’t want the whole world to hear it,” he says. “Why does it have to be solidified just to one format? Why can’t it be broad?”
For those who are already on the Shinedown train and crave the heavier stuff, another Planet Zero single, “Dead Don’t Die,” is lighting it up on rock radio. With “Symptom” at pop, Smith is hoping to bridge the gap between all Shinedown listeners.
“‘Dead Don’t Die’ is gonna go here, and ‘Symptom’s’ gonna go here, and a year from now, everybody will meet in the middle,” Smith says.
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