Shinedown comes to Graham Central

Cassanova, Cavillo, Ca…something or other.

When Shinedown frontman Brent Smith met with legendary producer Rob Cavallo, you know the guy pretty much responsible for Green Day’s entire discography, all he remembers is a name starting with a ‘C-A’.

Smith hadn’t heard about the work he did with the Goo Goo Dolls, Kid Rock, Avril Lavigne or the platinum selling My Chemical Romance.

Frankly, it’s better that he didn’t, the singer said, because to him a vast repertoire really didn’t matter.

“I wasn’t in Green Day or Goo Goo Dolls…I’m in Shinedown,” Smith said in a phone interview from the band’s stop in Fort Walton, Fla. “It was a good thing we didn’t know anything about each other (Cavallo admitted to Smith about not knowing anything about the singer or the band).”

On one of the pair’s first meetings he asked the singer about the goal of the album. Here they were a platinum band out of the spotlight for the last 18 months. The songs fans grew accustomed to --“45”, “Simple Man” and “Save Me”-- although great tracks, were starting to wear thin.

How were they going to attack the absence?

“When I’m dead and gone I want this record to resonate and be something the world needed to be made,” Smith said of making the new album. “From day one the approach was to go beyond over the top. I wanted to make the biggest sounding record than ever done before, push the envelope. And that’s what we did everyday.”

Cavallo’s reputation in the industry and perhaps part of his success has been to form a bond with the artists and pull the material from the depths of their creativity.

So far it’s worked.

“It’s really our job to make a great record. If a record comes out that we produced or my name’s on it I want people to say, ‘that’s a great record, I love the songs on it and meaningful to me,’” Cavallo said in a video interview with CrazedHits.com

“And it starts by picking an artist that you think you can actually achieve that with and that’s one of the biggest tests right there.”

Smith had his own goals and felt he had something to prove. When the band put out its last album Us and Them, the follow up to their smash debut Leave a Whisper, Smith says it was a rush job and really not something that fully represented Shinedown.

More than anything, the singer was in a different place emotionally, perhaps a little more mature and ready to commit to his longtime girlfriend, Ashley.

“I was miserable on the road without her,” he said of the mother of his infant son, Lyric. “At the time I told myself, ‘maybe there was something else out there’ but that was the most idiotic thing I have ever done. I made a trip out to New York to talk to my label (Atlantic) and told them I need no time limit on this album.”

With all of his internal changes, Smith came to the table with 60 songs, 15 of which they recorded with Cavallo for The Sound of Madness, due out Tuesday. Their first single “Devour” takes on a slight political stance against President Bush but packs a greater punch thanks to a more refined rock sound.  

“I spent 18 to 19 hours with this guy, sat right beside him in the entire process,” Smith said. “Everything was built around me and the band and how I was thinking. But this guy is a freaking maniac and genius…he’s just an absolute lover of music and it’s extraordinary to watch the guy.”

Shinedown are halfway through their summer tour alongside 12 Stones and are set to return to the Valley the same day as their album release.

“In awe of everything finally this band is the strongest it has ever been,” Smith said. “The sound I have been waiting to have since I started. In all honesty I am fortunate to have the time on this album. This is a different record altogether and definitely humbled me. Even though I have always appreciated everything so far, it has really made me appreciate and shown me how blessed I really am for the artistry I’m trying to represent on this album.”

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Miriam Ramirez covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-44468.