Shutdown are excited to announce the release of By Your Side, the NYHC institution’s brand new, six-song EP and first offering of new material in 25 years. A collection of passionate songs that are fueled by the same fiery intensity of the band’s youth but imbued and inspired by an outlook, worldview and wisdom that only comes with age and time, By Your Side transcends the genre and shows how effectively the band can write songs that appeal beyond the confines of the scene.
Additionally, Shutdown has released “What Are You Thinking?” today, a new single inspired by bassist Dion DeNardo’s son being diagnosed with autism, and a song that confronts and comes to terms with the challenges that this diagnosis posed for him. “That diagnosis taught Dion and even myself – because my oldest son is on the autism spectrum – to open ourselves up and learn more about who we are as people, especially compared to what we were taught when we were kids,” says vocalist Mark Scondotto.
While it’s a song that slots seamlessly into the Shutdown canon, it’s also one that obviously couldn’t have been written when the band first began. As if to drive that point home, it ends with all the band members’ children singing its chorus over an acoustic guitar. It’s the quietest moment on the EP but also its most powerful; not only does it demonstrate how well the band’s message resonates, but it serves as a symbolic passing of the torch to the next generation.
There are some bands that are just like old friendships – even if you haven’t spoken (or written music) for a while, you can pick up right where you left off. It had been an incredibly long time since New York hardcore outfit Shutdown had written a record together – 25 years, to be precise – but one listen to By Your Side and it’s almost as if that time has never passed.
Formed in Brooklyn in late 1994 as a bunch of teenagers, the four-piece quickly settled into their own skin. They solidified the line-up – Mark Scondotto on vocals, Steve DellaCroce on guitar, Dion DeNardo on bass and Jimmy McCormack on drums – and, after a handful of EPs and split 7″, released their debut full-length, Against All Odds, in 1998. An EP called Something To Prove came out the next year, followed by a second full-length, Few And Far Between, in 2000. Though young, the overriding sentiment of those songs was one of positivity despite the circumstances, and the band channeled that optimism and defiance through their raw and breathless take on hardcore. Straight edge and no bullsh*t, the four-piece soon became a known name in the scene … but then things slowed down and eventually just came to a stop. Life, as life does, got in the way.
“We never officially broke up,” says DellaCroce. “We needed to stop touring, and we started doing a few other things. We all tried to play when we could, but it wasn’t consistent. A couple of us had side projects going so we could keep playing, and we would write some Shutdown songs once in a while, but we realized we needed a plan of what we wanted to do and what the band should sound like. We’ve talked a lot over the past couple of years about how we’ve evolved and grown as musicians and songwriters, and we wanted everyone to hear what we were talking about.”
Given the state of the world right now, the community, optimism and hope the songs on By Your Side offer is not just important, but truly revolutionary and necessary. True to its title, it’s a companion, a friend, something to turn to when things get tough – because things always get tough. These six songs are a vital reminder that they also get better.
“That positivity is just how we roll,” DellaCroce summarizes, “because it helped us when we were angry teenagers. To this day, when we write songs, we write them for us and whoever likes it likes it, but obviously it speaks to a lot of people and it’s helped us survive this long as humans. So it was essential to keep that message going with this EP.”
“There’s a lot of hope on this release,” Scondotto summarizes. “I really think that’s what the world needs right now.”
