Shadows Fall Reflects on the Past

There's a flurry of new and exciting activity surrounding Shadows Fall. While the band is experiencing an incredible period of change, the quintet is relishing it. Vocalist Brian Fair reflected on the band's trajectory and how they got from A to B, telling Noisecreep, "We had an amazing run with Century Media that opened up many doors and taught us even more. This lead to our decision to sign with a major label like Atlantic Records to see what that world was all about. We realized quickly that the entire music industry was in a state of flux and panic as sales figures and profits were dropping by huge percentages each year. It was time to change up the business model in a way that would help break the cycle of large unrecouped budgets and put the power and profits back in the hands of the band."

Once the band realized this sad but true reality of the music business in 2009, it partnered with Warner Music Group and ILG, where Shadows Fall will operate much like their own label. Fair said, "In a traditional record deal, the band is fronted large amounts of money by the label and they control the spending for promotion and video that then must be paid back through album sales, leaving the band as the last ones to get paid as the money trickles in. In our current deal, we have the power of a major label distributor combined with the everyday input of an independent label that understands our music and scene." It appears that for their next record, Shadows Fall have struck an artful balance between art and commerce.

"We've always been a band that prided ourselves on being involved in every aspect of our career," says Fair "A lot of this stems from the days when we didn't really have a choice. We put out our first record on our own, booked our first tours and handled all the day-to-day work, learning various aspects of the music business the hard way through trial and error." The band has navigated the independent and major label systems throughout the course of its career and with the release of its sixth studio album, it is once again doing its own thing!