Caleb Shomo Opens Up About Beartooth's Latest Album

On Tuesday (Sept. 22), Caleb Shomo joined Loudwire Nights to celebrate the recent release of Beartooth's sixth studio album, Pure Ecstasy. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

"I just feel like a big weight has been lifted," Shomo admitted to Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong about the release of the album.

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"I just feel very at peace. We have so much touring coming up. I've been really sinking my teeth into rehearsal and practice and working on my voice and show — all good things, all very good things."

That feeling of peace is something Shomo doesn't take for granted. As he reflected on the earliest days of Beartooth, he shared that he never had any sort of idea that this music would still exist 15 years later.

"I mean, when I started it, I didn't even think we were going to get signed," Shomo said.

"I didn't think it was going to be anything serious. The truth is, at the period when I started it, I thought I was going to get off the road forever ... I was 19 years old and I was like, I've done my time on the road. I'm going to be a producer full-time and I'm going to stop doing this."

Of course, Shomo had no idea what was to come for Beartooth, who are currently on the road all over Europe.

"I'd say the plans may have changed a little bit — but I wouldn't change it for the world."

Tracing Pure Ecstasy Back to One Song

For fans who have followed Shomo's recent, incredibly personal but also quite public and open journey, there is no doubt that they were encouraged to hear how happy the frontman is right now throughout the conversation.

That's not to say the journey has been easy, but it has led Shomo to a place where he has been able to open himself up through his music in ways he has never done before.

"I think this record has been the biggest time that I've felt the most tension, the time that I've felt the most fear and the time that I've hit that place," he said.

"Every single song on this record, in one way or another, that kind of fear reared its head and it required a lot of help to push through that and to make the record that I wanted to make and that I felt like more than I even wanted to make, that I needed to make to help me out in my own life, to help process things that I was going through and to continue on with the mission of Beartooth."

That mission from day one has always been for Shomo to create music as if nobody else was going to hear it; he'd write, let his feelings out, process those feelings and work through it in the music.

For Shomo, one of the most significant songs from Pure Ecstasy that captures that mission is "Free."

"I mean, pound for pound, I think if you really trace everything back, that's the most important session on the album," Shomo said about "Free."

"Making that song really changed everything. That gave me the understanding of what I needed to do, that gave the direction to the whole kind of art and what the point of it was. It took writing something really scary to get there, but I'm so proud of that song in hindsight and I'm so proud of this record in hindsight."

What Else Did Beartooth's Caleb Shomo Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

One of the most important lessons he learned while making Pure Ecstasy: "I had to lean on my friends. If this record process has taught me anything, it is the simple fact that I just cannot do it alone. There are times in life and there are certain areas of my life that I need to keep to myself, that I need to keep personal and that I need to work on inwardly, but there are just times in life where you can't do it by yourself. And as much as I tried to do it by myself, it just wasn't enough. I needed my friends to keep me accountable, to check in on me, to be able to vent, to be able to just spend time with and not feel like I was alone. And that's how I did it."
Realizing the significance of Pure Ecstasy: "It was definitely in waves. I mean, definitely proud of it, so proud of 'Free' after it happened, so proud of al this stuff as it was happening. I was proud of the work, I was proud of the result. But also at the same time, during the process, in the middle of it, it was just so heavy and intense that I kind of just had these blinders on and I was just working. And that was getting me through life at that period of time, being able to just completely bury myself in the music and in the work while it was happening. It was like an escape."
How the press cycle has been for Pure Ecstasy: "I just feel honored. I mean, the fact that people want to spend their time asking me questions about music I make, that's ridiculous. That's insane. And I have to look at that for the blessing that it is. I honestly don't know — I'm not tired of any questions yet and I'm excited for more, which is rare. That's not usually where I'm at when I'm doing press every day and doing tons and tons of interviews. But it's been really cool and it's been a really empowering process so far."