There is a reason alternative metal stalwarts Sevendust exhibit said adjective in every sense of the word. They’ve outlasted every trend, every era of music since their 1997 self-titled debut album. They are the rare band in the scene who you can likely say have never released a bad album, or even one that didn’t have at least a few standout moments. When you’ve been around as long as they have, it becomes more difficult to accomplish that feat, so the fact that Sevendust have done it for so long is awfully impressive.
It’s this determination and drive that also manifests itself in the band’s extremely loyal and dedicated fanbase. And it also comes out in the individual band members themselves, with their numerous side projects also being pretty interesting (especially Projected). Guitarist Clint Lowery, in particular, is almost always working on something – truly embodying the job description of “professional musician”. Recently, he described part of the process of recording new material, as well as the band’s “mantra”.
Via a recent Instagram post, Lowery had this to say about what it’s like recording new Sevendust material – and why the band has a “mantra” that serves them well.
After a weekend of baseball tournament games I’m back at work here. This has to be one of THE most challenging times I’ve had as a writer and going into a new 7d record. Not sure what the biggest struggle is, what to say lyrically, what vibe musically, the fact that we have done so many records, the standard and bar is set higher than ever before personally. The one thing I know, I will not stop grinding until the special songs happen. I have an incredible cast of writers in our band that I lean on when I’m not feeling it. The Mantra has always been…don’t phone it in and do not release a “dud” record. It’s not easy trying to do something new, something fresh that will evolve the sound but not dilute it. We have survived decades by NOT chasing what we are told is the sound of our band. We create what moves us. If that moves you, kick ass, if that gets us on radio…great. I want people to love what we do but it’s not my first priority. We wanna like it. We have to play it, we see and feel what or core base fans respond to, THAT is a priority. I’d rather fail doing what is authentic to us than jumping through hoops to fit in and lose integrity. The process for writing a record is full filling and agonizing at the same time. It will be enjoyed and torn apart. We will hear “not as good as the first record” or “not heavy enough” “not melodic enough” “this is their best record yet” “this is my least favorite record ever”. All that comes with releases. I can live with any of that, but I can’t live with doing a record we as a band don’t love ourselves. We have a ton of work to do but rest assure, it ain’t gonna come out till it’s good enough and hits the standard we feel you, our people, our team and ourselves deserve. Ok, blah blah blah. Back to work. Love y’all
Sevendust are currently celebrating the anniversary of their 2001 album Animosity by playing said album in full. You definitely won’t want to miss out on that. It’s impressive how they’ve continually managed to outlast every trend in music, every technology shift, and anything else thrown at them.
