Seether still riding the long, hard road
"There's been a lot of bands you don't hear about anymore that have fallen by the wayside," says Seether frontman Shaun Morgan. "A band like Crossfade, we toured with them in 2005. They did very well for themselves with their first album, but they all have day jobs now. It kind of breaks my heart. I thought they were a big band, and I don't know why they haven't continued to have success." "I guess we've worked for everything we got," Morgan says. "We've never come out and had massive album success from the get go. ... It's a long, hard road." For years the new rules of Internet fan engagement confounded Morgan. He has neither a Twitter nor a Facebook account ("I don't see why I should be directly accessible to everyone"), and lives tucked away in New Hampshire. "I'm not a big fan of human beings in general, which is (why) I live as far away from them as possible. It keeps me sane to distance myself, because I find myself disappointed in humans a lot." "I was bullied in high school, and I wasn't very popular. When you're a kid playing in bands, you wanted some recognition and you wanted to stand out, and to be seen and heard. But the older I get and the more I've been doing this, the less I want to be seen and to be in a spotlight. It's an existential crisis — I'm trying to figure out the balance." Morgan, if you hadn't guessed already, likes a good rant; he's famous for it. Don't get him started on downloading. Or selfies ("We live in a world that celebrates mediocrity and stupidity"). And, should you ever find yourself in casual conversation with him, it would probably be best not to mention Twitter. But Shaun Morgan 2015 is also friendly and cheerful in ways that Shaun Morgan 2005 likely was not. What happened? "I got old," he laughs. "I think you direct your passions at things that are worthwhile. ... You can spend your time doing something constructive rather than (losing) your temper. I just turned 36, and when we first started this band, I was barely 23. You spend time learning how you want to be, and who you want to be as a person. I think you do mellow out as you get older. I'm p----- off at different things, things that are important. Back then, I was just p----- off in general." Things have mellowed for Seether internally as well, though maybe not by as much. The band's lead guitarist left and was recently replaced by Seether's guitar tech. In the band's early days, "we (also) had about seven drummers in the space of six months," says Morgan, who notes, not without pride, that this is more than Spinal Tap had. "We're an old married foursome," he says. "We get on very well. We see each other more than we see our families and our friends. Lineup changes are inevitable … but we didn't have the luxury of being a high school band who met at school and have been real good buddies forever and can just sort of iron things out. We've sort of had to do trial and error. As a band, we feel good. … Right now, we're still in the honeymoon phase."
Seether get no love from US radio
Seether frontman Shaun Morgan says rock bands are finding it more difficult to get their music played on radio in the US. The South African vocalist says many rock stations have switched their focus to “alternative” acts, leaving many groups sidelined. Morgan tells Sticks For Stones: “Here in the States, it’s becoming more difficult. Alternative radio stations just don’t want to play songs with guitarists. They play 90s alternative bands like Alice In Chains and Nirvana, but they don’t play new bands with guitar. “They’re, like, ‘That’s not alternative anymore.’ That’s just how it is now. If we’re lucky enough to get played on radio, we’ll get played right after a Lorde song, which is fine. I like Lorde, but I don’t think she’s a goddamn rock artist. She’s not alternative. I think she’s more pop.” He continues: “I think there’s a weird sort of grey area about what is rock music and what is alternative. It seems like alternative stations think they’re the cool kids of the radio world. They can make and break careers. “There’s a lot of bullshit bands coming out and a lot of bands being ignored because they play guitar. We used to be one of the five or 10 bands they’d play all the time. If we put out a single, they’d play it because we’d done so much for them. But now they’ve switched and we don’t get played at all.”
How South African Band Seether Is Shifting The Narrative On Police Brutality
As the roll call of police killings of unarmed black people has grown over the last year, public outrage has split into two, seemingly opposite sides. Some have stood in solidarity with the black lives lost, while others pledged their allegiance to the police officers performing an incredibly tough job. It often looks as if there's no middle ground. But Shaun Morgan, frontman for the South African band Seether, believes it's possible to see more than one point of view -- even in these terrible situations. Morgan and video director Sherif Higazy have teamed up to introduce “Nobody Praying for Me,” a new interactive video that provides participants with five clickable viewpoints on the day that the fictional Jake Young is gunned down by a cop. Morgan and video director Sherif Higazy have teamed up to introduce “Nobody Praying for Me,” a new interactive video that provides participants with five clickable viewpoints on the day that the fictional Jake Young is gunned down by a cop. The circumstances are intensely familiar. Young is a regular black teenager who, a la "Fruitvale Station," moves through an average Tuesday until he and his friends are mistaken as suspects in a robbery. Other vantage points capture Officer Holloway, who ends up killing Young, on his daily beat; the stark contrast between liberal and conservative media coverage of the death; and cell phone video of the incident from a bystander. HuffPost talked with Morgan, who grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, during the apartheid era, about the new project. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What will this interactive add to the police brutality narrative? Violent crime is obviously part of our everyday lives, and it’s unfortunate. But I wonder how often we choose to look deeper to why a person acted violently. I hope this video can spark a debate and get to news channels, where we can speak about it on that level, to make it more than just a band making a video trying to make a statement. And even if just 10 percent of the people who watch the video come away with something, and go out and try to alter their perceptions or behavior or alter their prejudices -- which is very difficult to do because prejudices are so deep-rooted -- it would be amazing. We’re trying to do something that’s meaningful, and all it takes sometimes is one person to effect change. Do you think this project will humanize cops and victims alike? Our goal was to humanize both cops and victims. I think that we have to be sympathetic and judgmental of both of them. We are trying to show that while the policeman overreacted and he was unjustified in his actions, ultimately, however, you are sympathetic to the fact that it’s not necessarily his fault because that’s all he knows. The kid should not have reached into his pocket with his back turned to him -- that’s passive-aggressive action. ... That’s the point. As a cop, you don’t know -- and if you take the time to wait [to] find out, you might be dead. There are always two sides to the story. On the other hand, the cop is already judging these kids based on their skin color, and that’s because of what he’s been taught by the media. Again, that’s our point. Before you make any snap decisions, you should look at the whole picture and then make the decision. Ultimately, we should be sympathetic to the kid who died in the video. However, it’s important that there is a dialogue where you go, "Hey, that cop looked like he was terrified, and hey, how would I have acted if I were him?" What does this project say about policing? In the video, the cop made a mistake but, by the same token, it’s ... because of how we’ve been brought up and how we’ve been told that a black kid with a hoodie, for example, is a bad kid. The nature of the cop’s job is such that he has to make quick judgment calls, and the fastest way to do that is to fall back on stereotypes. So really the whole point is to try and shift the way we look at things and to not always leap to our preconceived conclusions, which are mostly racially biased and profile-based. Because, honestly, that’s what we get fed all the time. Like if you get on a plane and there’s a Muslim fellow on the plane, everyone looks at him like he’s a bad guy. He’s not a bad guy just because his faith has been represented as being a bad faith to follow. I’ve been guilty of that, too. As a police officer, you live in this constant fear scenario, where you don’t know what to expect so you always fall back on what you’ve been taught as far as a racial or a visual profile. That’s very unfortunate, and it’s getting worse and worse instead of better. Unless we start to act and reach out and change that, then it’s never going to -- it’s going to just become a downward spiral, and we are going to see a lot more of this kind of violence. I noticed that the white cop shot Jake, but the black cop called "gun." Was that intentional? If so, why did you set it up like that? Yes and no. Just like in the case of Freddie Gray, black police officers used just as much brutality as the white cops. So I think these are two different issues -- racism and police brutality. In our video, having the white cop shoot the innocent black kid makes the viewer think he is racially profiling [the kid], but his black counterpart was the one yelling "gun." So we really don’t know who to blame in this scenario. There was also almost no time between the "gun" call and the shot. Was that intentional as well? Yeah, it was intentional. We were setting the cops up to be trigger-happy and shooting the alleged suspect without any valid evidence [he was] carrying a weapon. This is too common an occurrence in policing, and we wanted to highlight this in the story. Lastly, the difference in media coverage -- liberal vs. conservative -- is noticeable in the project and in real life. Why did you decide to highlight both angles? I wanted to make a point, especially now when you hear about another shooting every week and it’s portrayed differently on Fox or MSNBC. ... Our goal is for people to educate themselves and make an informed decision on their own, rather than being told by any [media outlet] saying, "This is what you should be thinking. This is what is right." I think governments have too much power and the media has too much power, and I think they fear our thoughts and our opinions through the way they deliver the news. Our goal is for people to sit back and go, "Hey, maybe he’s got a point. Maybe they have a point as a band. Maybe we should think for ourselves for a change."
Seether's Shaun Morgan Accepts 'Artistic Expression' Award
Earlier this week in Las Vegas, SEETHER front man Shaun Morgan received the respected "Artistic Expression" award at the Awards Of Excellence from the National Council For Behavioral Health for his outstanding work as a suicide prevention advocate. The National Council For Behavioral Health is the unifying voice of America's mental health and addictions treatment organizations, serving ten million adults, children and families living with mental illnesses and addictions. Morgan is the creator of the Rise Above Fest, which has become the number one suicide awareness music fundraiser in the world. The singer has worked diligently over the past five years to raise awareness and funds for suicide prevention, mental health support and to help remove the stigma around depression and mental health issues. The Awards Of Excellence honor exceptional people and organizations that improve the lives of people living with mental illnesses and addictions, increase understanding of behavioral health in their communities, advocate for public policy reforms, advance professional development and devote their lives to helping others. Morgan was nominated among over thousand other advocates and is incredibly honored to have been acknowledged for a cause that means so much to him. Morgan lost his younger brother, Eugene, to a suicide in 2007, which lead him to create the Rise Above Fest as a way to honor him. The festival's name is taken from the song "Rise Above This", which Morgan wrote as a message to his brother. His brother took his own life before he ever got a chance to hear it and Shaun had the opportunity to open this week's award ceremony in Las Vegas with an emotional acoustic version of the song. He was then presented with the award and gave an incredibly touching speech. Along with the awards, Morgan received a $10,000 grant which will go to Rise Above Fest partner SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education),one of the leading national not-for profit organizations dedicated to raising awareness and educating the public about mental health and suicide prevention.
Shaun Morgan of Seether
Thanks for your time again, Shaun, now of course we’re here because you’re heading back to Australia, a place you guys are never shy of visiting, what can we expect this time around? I’m not sure yet, we haven’t been there in a while I think it’s been a couple of years now and so when we come back we’re always excited to play because it’s a bit like coming home for us in a sense, it’s so similar to being in South Africa so it’s something we’re looking forward. I think we’re gonna come, have fun and do our usual get drunk and have a good time with everyone kind of thing. With a new album in tow, and as the catalogue grows how do you go about putting a set list together these days? Well it depends, on what people want to her and what we want to play, we try and play tracks people are going to expect as they’re paying money to come and see the show and you don’t want to be the band that gets up and doesn’t play the songs they expect to hear, I feel like that’s kind of a dick move I think in a sense, you almost have an obligation to play the songs that people want to hear especially considering the popularity of some songs, now they’re not always the most fun for us to play because we play them every single time but we tend to throw in songs that we like, especially from the new album because it’s obviously the newer material for us, and it’s still the most fun to play because in the set it’s the least played of all the material we have, so I think this time we might not even come in with a set list, we might kind of go and play it by ear and see how it goes and just call songs out and make sure the other guys know what they’re doing *laughs*. I’ve been a slave to certain society for so long and I’m trying to break free from that right now, so I’m hoping that we can… it’s just supposed to be a good tenuous rock and roll time, so I’m hoping we can figure out how we can get out there and play shows without worrying too much about a set list or an order or songs that need to be played or not played you know? ‘Isolate and Medicate’ has been out for almost a year, and we spoke around this time last year, so how has the last year been for the band? Busy, very busy we’ve been pretty much going non-stop, we’ve done a lot of touring, I think we’ve been to Europe twice, we’ve done The States now… wow, I can’t even tell you how many times, I think we’ve done three U.S. tours already and we’ve got two more planned for the rest of this year. Then we’ve got a European tour planned for the end of the year, so I think we started touring in February last year, so I’m trying to figure it out because it’s almost been two years on non-stop touring so I think we’re looking forward to getting off the road at some point soon and beginning to write a new album, because that’s what’s becoming the most fun part for us is getting in the studio and writing and recording because then you take it from a point of just being an idea, a demo to a recorded property and what it sounds like when it’s properly mixed. All of it is exciting, when you don’t stop touring like we have, in the past we’ve had about two months off, so it’s been a lot of work but it’s what we signed up for, and I think this is the part of the tour when you start to thinking you want to get off the road and I want to get into the studio and make new music. We still enjoy it and we still have fun but we can see the finish line now and that’s something we’re all looking forward to now. Are you the kind of band that can write while on tour, or do you wait until the cycle has finished to do so? I try to write some stuff, it’s hard because we try and sound checks, but when you get downtime you’re trying to think about it as little as possible *laughs* because you do it all the time, all day. So I think for me it’s easier to have ideas but I feel like it’s better to have an idea of where my head is at musically, so when to comes to being off the road, and as fate has it, when we get off the road everyone will want an extended vacation *laughs* and I would be happy to get down to the studio and start the whole thing again. So I do have little snippets on my phone that I record, I used to carry an older tape recorder, so I don’t normally have a lot of things that I’m finished, but at least I have some sort of basis for when I’m done, so when it comes time to start writing music for the album, I can look back at stuff I deem was worthy or recording or that I knew was interesting enough to keep for a later date. I think there’s about thirty to forty ideas, so it will make it a bit easier at the end of the tour, but yeah, man, it’s just difficult to write, you constantly have somewhere to be or someone to talk to or a show to play, and afterwards you get a couple of drinks into you and try to go to bed. So mostly it’s written after the tour, I always have the best intentions *laughs* and I find that it’s more difficult without all the distractions around, it’s got to be in a situation where you can write and that’s all you’ve got to worry about. Six albums in, how do you keep the studio and making records interesting after so long? Well it’s interesting because you’ve got a batch of songs, you don’t know what to expect from them and you don’t know what they’re going to end up sounding like. For example I go in with a demo and I don’t even know what the song is going to sound like because I haven’t finished it yet, it’s almost like you walk in with a bunch of works in progress, a bunch of sketches and in the studio you fish them out. That’s what keeps it interesting, you don’t go in with an idea that’s already done and it’s just a mechanical process of rerecording it and making it sound better, that is one way to keep it interesting. Every single time you just challenge yourself and try different ideas, different tunings, different riffs and you try new production techniques, there’s so many things you can try, even new pedals you can try out. So we’re never at a loss for new things to try, so as long as we’re open to trying them and ultimately when a song is done, that’s when it’s ready to record. Looking back to ‘Disclaimer’ in 2002, what for you has been the biggest and most notable evolution that you feel has taken place within the band? The biggest change… maybe just the thirteen years that’s gone by and the toll it’s taken on us physically I think *laughs* we’ve been a really hard touring band for a really long time, and when you start out you don’t realise that you’re not going to be able to do it as you could when you were twenty one years old, and I think that that is nature running its course, and don’t get me wrong, we still have a good time, we still have a couple of drinks and we still rock out, but you tend to drink less now because the hangover takes longer to go away *laughs* stuff like that. A couple of us have got issues, as far as physical issues after years of playing and how much we put into it, so you come off the road and you need to go see a chiropractor *laughs*, usually you come off the road an you go on vacation. Musically I think nothing’s changed and I think we’re more comfortable than we were back then, back then it was more of a question of ok we have to find where we fit in the musical landscape, we have to find where we fit in and I think now we just don’t care about that, we just write music we enjoy and we love to play and haven’t really given any thought about what’s going to happen to this album once it’s released. Obviously you have to think about that because you want to keep building your fan base, but by the same token I think that when I was twenty one years old and writing songs and I was a pissed off teenager, now I’m just a pissed off adult and there’s a difference. The way you approach things is very different and I think your outlook is very different, so you try to express yourself in a smarter way and less straight forward, and I think maybe I just want to be a little bit more poetic at times and have a little bit more of a song structure and be a little more creative. I think as far as all of that has gone, in my mind this is a very simple album, very straightforward whereas years gone by the albums had become a little more complicated, lyrically and or musically and sometimes not both at the same time, we concentrate on making music so that the lyric can be more complex or that the music can be more complex, or other times we just make things more interesting. That’ll be for me the biggest changes in that I’m comfortable with what I do with music , I mean you always need validation because you’re always going to be insecure about things, it’s such an introspective thing, but you need someone to say ‘oh that’s really good’ because if you don’t hear it you feel like you’ve lost your touch. So I’ve grown accustomed and capable to what I’m doing, so as long as I’m making myself happy and keeping myself interested, then that’s all I’m concerned about right now. You’ve been doing this for quite some time, what’s the biggest thing you learned about the industry that you didn’t feel would be a part of it all when you started the band? I didn’t think that EDM music would be such a big thing, I didn’t think record stores would be gone, so those are two massive changes and I didn’t understand it. You know, and I shouldn’t say this is lack of foresight but I never imagined being able to walk through the city of New York, or Manhattan and trying to find a CD and not being able to find a CD store to buy one in, and that happened a few years back, maybe two or three albums back, we were actually in the city and usually it’s a good luck thing when you go out and you buy the CD on the day of its release and I remember we were there a couple of years ago and there was nowhere to buy one, the only CD stores you could find were little Indy ones that had hard to find music or hipster music, it wasn’t like the old Virgin’s used to be, to Tower Records, so that was a huge loss to music, and I think the pop culture itself, I think the second part to see how it almost became a homogenised version of itself over the years and then kids have no problems stealing music but they also have no problems taking a whole bunch of money and spending $300 – $400 to see the same fucking song for three days in a row *laughs*, I just didn’t imagine that’s what it would become. So it’s interesting, I find that I listen to most musical styles and I try to find things that are not completely annoying about everything and there are certainly some enjoyable elements about that kind of music, but I never for the life of me thought in this day and age that we would be talking about guys with laptops and that’s it, there’s no instrumental skill at all, I mean having said that, I know it’s horribly generalised, but they’re not musicians, they’re good with computers, and that’s just my opinion but I find it kind of stupid because when I was growing up the coolest thing you could do is be in a band, now the coolest thing you can do is have a laptop and you can make electronic noises come out of it, it’s just bizarre to me. *laughs* Lastly, let’s predict the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015, Seether will? By the end of 2015, I will be 37 years old and hopefully a lot less jaded than I’ve been, I guess that’s the best I can do *laughs*
Seether's John Humphrey still honing his craft after 10 years
It has been nearly 10 years since grunge metal band Seether began to take off. Drummer John Humphrey remembers the band wrapping up a tour with 3 Doors Down and recording "Broken" with Amy Lee of Evanescence for "The Punisher" soundtrack. The ballad peaked at number 20 of "Billboard"'s Hot 100 list and launched Seether into stardom. Now Seether celebrates its sixth album, "Isolate and Medicate," released this summer. Humphrey said the band tracked the album in January -- the whole process took 15 or 16 days. It only took Humphrey two or three days to finish all of his percussion pieces. The band was pumping out songs left and right. Humphrey said it was partly due to Seether working with producer Brendan O'Brien again--they worked previously on "Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray." "We worked with Brendan and learned song arrangement and structure," said Humphrey. "We'd start to play and ask ourselves, 'What would Brendan do here?'" "We don't get caught up on every little note," he said. "We want the crowd to be loud, the guitars to be loud and the drums to be loud." Humphrey, 44, has been playing the drums for almost 30 years now and one thing he has noticed about his drumming is that he's always learning. "You never (peak) and that's the beauty of it," he said. "I'm always trying to hone my craft." Even now, Humphrey learns by watching other drummers like Alex Van Halen, Buddy Rich, Steve Smith, Dave Grohl, Matt Cameron and Ringo Starr as a source of inspiration. Touring with other bands and working with different producers have also helped Humphrey adapt his own style that's progressed along with Seether over the years. "Musically, we have evolved but the same basic fingerprints are still there," he said.
John Humphrey of South African Rock Band Seether: The Blast Interview
Blast Magazine: Originally, the band was called “Saron Gas” but when some of the members were replaced, the name was changed to “Seether” in 2002. What was the reasoning behind that decision and where did the name “Seether” come from? John Humphrey: While the band was recording what was to become our first album, “Disclaimer,” 9/11 occurred. Things were very sensitive at the time and the label didn’t feel confident in working with a new band called “Saron Gas.” So, the band had to come up with a new name. The name Seether comes from a song by the band “Verulca Salt”. They had a hit in the mid-90’s called “Can’t Fight the (Seether).” Blast Magazine: Each of your album covers are very different in style and message. How do you come up with the title for each record and how do you choose which picture will be seen on the front? Humphrey: A lot of the art ideas and imagery come from ideas Shaun [Morgan] has. These ideas are, sometimes, based on over-all vibe of an album. On the recent album Isolate and Medicate, Shaun described some ideas to our guitarist, Bryan Wickmann. Bryan then painted and developed the front cover. Blast Magazine: Your latest album, Isolate and Medicate, focuses on individual struggles and feels more personal than some of your previous music. Was each song written individually or did you agree on a message for the album prior to its creation? Humphrey: I can’t really speak to Shaun’s bases for his lyrics but I do know they are sometimes personal and can also be a form of therapy for him. However, I believe the lyrics are open enough to allow the listener to make his or her own interpretation. Blast Magazine: In 2009, you released a fantastic cover of Wham’s song “Careless Whisper.” Why did you choose to record that song? Humphrey: We were asked to record a Valentine’s day song for iTunes. As we are not a “lovey dovey” type band, we decided to have fun with an old song. Since all of us are kids of the 80s, the song was one we had grown up with. It wasn’t a song you would really expect to have us cover and we loved that. It was great to take the song and totally change the feel of it. Fortunately for us, the idea worked. We are very proud of how the song turned out. We have also covered our namesake song, “Can’t Fight the (Seether).” Blast Magazine: What is the craziest thing that a fan has done for you? Humphrey: Nothing really crazy. Recently, we had a huge crowd of fans gathered around and banging on our bus in Paris. It felt like the Beatles or something. Generally, I’m very impressed, sometimes moved, by our fans. We have been given original art, notes, and letters of inspiration. We have also been around long enough to inspire fans to start their own bands. I am a fan of a lot of rock bands and can really appreciate how they feel. Blast Magazine: Was there ever a moment where you didn’t believe that music was a viable career option? How did you recover from that doubt and what would be your best piece of advice for an aspiring musician dealing with those same emotions? Humphrey: There were many time of frustration. But, just like any new band, you have to pay your dues. You have to play a lot of shows, start the buzz and grow your fan base. Hopefully, you’ll get that shot as an opening band and receive some exposure, that way. It takes a lot of hard work and persistence. You also have to write a lot of songs. You have to be honest with yourself as the first song you write may not be a hit. I’ll put it this way, if you are looking for overnight fame and fortune…this may not be the business for you.
Seether Are Triumphant Over The Enemies They Made In South Africa
“We’ve had quite some time off actually this year,” he admits of the three-piece that started life in Pretoria, South Africa, back in 1999, taking on the Seether moniker in 2002 when they signed with a US label and released debut album, Disclaimer. “We’ve been touring a lot smarter than we usually have. We don’t just hit the road for six months and play Florida 15 times and Texas eight times and just do the same circuit over and over. We’re doing short bursts of really intense touring, take three or four weeks off and then going back out. This time we’re going to New Zealand and then Australia, and from there we come straight back to the States, land July fifth and our first show is July seventh. That tour runs four-and-a-half weeks, have three days off and then fly to Europe for five weeks, playing some new countries in Europe we haven’t played before.” When Morgan talks about something he’s passionate about, he speaks a hundred miles an hour — a definite ball of energy, and a ball of energy that, like most bands, knew the band had to get to the US to really achieve their goals. As it happens however, there were also less savoury reasons for leaving home, as the now Nashville-based musician admits. “We were at a point in our career where we’d hit a glass ceiling in a sense, because there was nowhere else for us to go. We’d made some friends but also made some enemies and unfortunately our enemies at the time, they were the ones that were controlling all the festivals and all those opportunities to play in front of thousands of people. We’d done a couple of those festivals and pretty much done all we could do in South Africa, and then we got signed by Wind-Up Records in New York City, so we recorded there and did so much touring there that it ultimately made sense to make the move. “I think what happened subsequently, those people that ran those organisations got seen for the kind of people they were, got exposed for their less than stellar work ethic. I don’t wish any ill on them at all — I certainly did back then — I just think if you gave them enough rope they’d hang themselves, and that’s what happened.”
Sound Check: New year should bring Seether’s next new music
The stuff’s [Isolate and Medicate] fun to play,” says Morgan, 36, who formed Seether (under the name Saron Gas) in South Africa with bassist Dale Stewart in 2000 before they moved to the U.S. “It’s really groove-y and we play a lot of the heavier side of the stuff on the album so it’s definitely more of put your head down and rock out kind of thing when we play those songs. So we’re really enjoying it. “And sometimes you even wind up playing and going, ‘Oh, I wish that part was longer, ’cause I really enjoy playing it.’ That’s a good sign.” “Isolate and Medicate” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 when it came out, launching rock radio hits such as “Words As Weapons,” “Same Damn Life” and “Nobody Praying For Me” to join previous Seether favorites like “Broken,” “Remedy,” “Fake It” and “Rise Above This.” A new label, the Bicycle Music Company, has allowed Seether to take its act to even more territories around the world, and Morgan says that in Europe the band found “a far, far more enthusiastic heavy rock market than there is in the States.” Seether plans to serve all its constituencies with some new music in the near future, too. Morgan predicts the group will wrap up touring by the end of this year, with a return to the studio on tap for early 2015. “I always have that sort of urge, you know what I mean?” he says. “There’s always something going on in my head that I’m willing to write about, and I’m always looking to write something. I haven’t had the time so far, but I’m getting to the point where if I don’t do it soon I’m gonna lose my mind.”
Seether: Stoking The Fire In Cincinnati
I can still remember when I bought Seether’s first record, “Disclaimer,” back in 2002. I’m talking the initial release, not the Amy Lee infused “Disclaimer II” re-release from a couple of years later (though it was equally as great.) The music was so raw and fresh. As I listened I couldn’t wait to hear what the next song was going to sound like. Fifteen years later I had a similar experience with the band. This time it was a concert, not a cd that had me fueled with anticipation. Now, I have seen Seether plenty of times live over the years and they have never left me disappointed. But there was just something a little extra special on this night at Bogart’s. As I stood and watched the show, I had that same feeling of what’s next that I did when I first listened to the band. The only difference was that I had heard all of these songs before…many times. As a few days have now passed, I think I have finally been able to put my finger on what struck me so deeply that night in Cincinnati. This new band that I discovered and loved back in 2002 are now hard rock icons. With six full-length studio albums, the guys have created a catalog of music that is untouched by their peers and new bands alike. As they played those legendary songs, one right after another, the magnitude of how great Seether is as a band just overtook me. Again, I have always thought they were great, but watching them at this stage of the game, it was on another level. While the band’s classic tunes like “Gasoline” and ” Rise Above This” were definitely highlights of the night, Seether was not a band relying on their past. The setlist also included plenty of newer songs from the latest release, “Poison the Parish” and 2014’s “Isolate and Medicate.” I believe the true testimony of Seether’s greatness is how well the newer material melds with the staples of their back catalog. It’s just another thing I love about these guys. With every album that they release, I have never felt cheated or that the guys were out of ideas. There has always been purpose and passion contained in every album they release. They truly seem to get better with each album, and the same can be said for each time I have seen them in concert. As a photographer in the photo pit for the first three songs, I was left a bit miffed. Lead singer, Shaun Morgan made it all but impossible to get an ideal shot of him during the performance. He had his long hair thrown forward over his face to cover any part that his extensive facial hair did not. But as a fan, I have not squabble. Because the Shaun Morgan on stage this night in 2017 is the same guy that I remember seeing back in the early 2000’s. He is a guy who is only interested in playing his music. He has no aspirations in being David Lee Roth or Steven Tyler. He comes off as a shy yet gracious guy who would just as soon be playing off in the shadows as he would in the spotlight. Bassist Dale Stewart was solid as always providing the ying to drummer John Humphrey’s yang. Humphreys is the guy in that band that always impresses me the most (and not just because I am a huge fan of his other band…The Nixons.) His intensity just seems to increase with every album and tour. His playing brings a savageness to the band’s sound. The band rounded out their sound on this tour by bringing out Clint Lowery from Sevendust to assist Morgan with guitar duty. The band sounded amazing. They did fill up their stage with lights and risers this time around, but the band on stage was still that hungry band that I dug back in 2002.
Interview With Shaun Morgan From Seether About Suicide
“It’s different for everyone,” Shaun said. “There’s no handbook for it [this kind of grief]. It took me years to come out of that. I spent a lot of years in the bottom of bottles.” We both agreed this is one of those things you don’t really understand until you are going through it. “I spent a lot of the time wishing it was me instead,” he said. “I felt that everyone liked him more. He was the life and soul of every room he was in.” When I asked Shaun if he was religious he said, “Not anymore,” not after his brother’s suicide. His father was raised Catholic, and Shaun himself was neither overly religious nor anti-religious, but he feels that he can’t put faith in people or a religion that has never had his back. He said having something like this happen to him made him mad. “If there was a God, I would like him to come down here so I could fuck him up,” he explained. “It’s different for everyone,” Shaun said. “There’s no handbook for it [this kind of grief]. It took me years to come out of that. I spent a lot of years in the bottom of bottles.” We both agreed this is one of those things you don’t really understand until you are going through it. “I spent a lot of the time wishing it was me instead,” he said. “I felt that everyone liked him more. He was the life and soul of every room he was in.” When I asked Shaun if he was religious he said, “Not anymore,” not after his brother’s suicide. His father was raised Catholic, and Shaun himself was neither overly religious nor anti-religious, but he feels that he can’t put faith in people or a religion that has never had his back. He said having something like this happen to him made him mad. “If there was a God, I would like him to come down here so I could fuck him up,” he explained. "I found, for me, it is turning to a creative outlet, writing music about it, obviously. My sister was a long way away so it was difficult to try and be supportive of her. I regret that I wasn’t available to her more emotionally, but I wasn’t available to anyone. It’s hard to be there for someone when you’re in a complete emotional desert yourself. You gotta find something that makes you happy. I couldn’t put my faith into a God or religion to have my back, that has never had my back in my life. But I understand for a lot of people there is solace in knowing there is something beyond this." I found, for me, it is turning to a creative outlet, writing music about it, obviously. My sister was a long way away so it was difficult to try and be supportive of her. I regret that I wasn’t available to her more emotionally, but I wasn’t available to anyone. It’s hard to be there for someone when you’re in a complete emotional desert yourself. You gotta find something that makes you happy. I couldn’t put my faith into a God or religion to have my back, that has never had my back in my life. But I understand for a lot of people there is solace in knowing there is something beyond this.
Seether's Shaun Morgan: 12 records that changed my life
1. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991) “This is the album that inspired me to play guitar. As a kid, I felt like I really identified with Kurt’s lyrics, and it made me feel like someone else out there got me… almost like I wasn’t alone any more. I must have been about 13 years old, so this was right I was getting really pubescent, feeling all sorts of emotions about stuff. “Kurt Cobain was a combination of so many different things… looking at each one, he wasn’t the greatest singer or guitarist or whatever - but when you put it all together, you got pure rage! “Because of him, I saved up some pocket money and bought my first guitar for 500 rand, which is next to nothing in British pounds. It was a Marlin model with a Floyd Rose bridge in a black and luminous green finish.” 2. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine (1992) “I used this album to teach myself how to play guitar… and at one point I could play it the entire way through. I think Tom Morello is one of the most inventive guitar players out there. “His riffs are almost like funk-metal, which is a really difficult thing to pull off. Yet he does it with such a great groove, loads of anger and yet it’s beautiful and melodic. “You might notice anger is a bit of theme here… I didn’t get on with my parents, so I was angry all the time. It was so simple: one guitar, which didn’t get doubled much at all, vocals, bass and drums - and it still sounds brilliantly heavy to this day.” 3. Deftones - Around The Fur (1997) “I was in college when I heard Deftones for the first time. Hearing the intro drum fill to My Own Summer (Shove It) still gives me goosebumps. It’s another album I had to learn the whole way through, from start to finish. To be honest, any album that inspires me that much will involve hours jamming along to it. “It’s like Stephen Carpenter can dream up riffs, then wake up and finish writing them. We got to play with them a couple of years back and hearing those songs live, in front of thousands of people, made me really emotional. My eyes started tearing up!” 4. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) “Maybe I have this inherent fascination with funk? Who knows! I had quite an eclectic group of friends growing up - we were all playing in various bands. I think one of the sexiest basslines ever written is on Give It Away. It’s the kind of riff that makes you want to shake your head and jump around with your dick swinging in the breeze! I still listen to it a lot. “Sir Psycho Sexy is another one big one for me - it’s almost a bit creepy. They were still young and all about boning back then - it was well before they started putting ‘California’ in every song, haha! This album got me through a lot of stuff over the years…” 5. The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) “It’s almost like The Beatles' grunge album. Listen to how John Lennon is screaming on that first song! There must have been a lot of drugs involved. The way the album moves and flows is beautiful, almost like it’s one long song. “My dad was a Beatles fan, but he had never really exposed me to it. I found this record in his collection when I was a teenager and it looked like there were 1,000 people on the cover. I thought to myself, ‘That’s a big band!’ “I loved all the songs, melodies and instrumentation. There weren’t any limitations to what they were recording - if we did an album with sitars and harpsichords people would wonder what the fuck was happening! But The Beatles had that ability, and it was because of their diversity.” 6. Korn - Korn (1994) “I heard the Korn debut in 1996 because of the South African lag - back then we used to get everything two years later. Just listen to Blind and the way that song starts… the anticipation they build up is unbelievable. “After listening to Nirvana, then Kurt dying and finding not much in the years in between, I heard the intro to Blind and it was crushing. The last half of the 90s would have sucked without Korn. I definitely think they shaped how that decade turned out, and thank God that they did! “I love their latest album, too; it’s a return to what their first few records were like. Jonathan’s doing more of his old-school singing, before he did all the vocal training stuff, and I love that raw sound. Head’s been back in the band for a little while - not that the riffs were bad with just Munky. But with the two of them combined… they’re unstoppable, like the Lennon and McCartney of metal.” 7. Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar (1996) “I lived in a very Christian household, so what better way to rebel than crank up the Antichrist himself. The songs on this album are so creepy, the riffs are great with interesting melody choices - which is weird for Manson, as he’s not much of a melody kinda guy. “I used to smoke weed when I was at college and would zone out listening to this. It was my happy place: Antichrist Superstar and marijuana. And it was the cheap shit you buy on the corner, too… it wasn’t anything good. During that time, this band were on a ton of drugs… which, not always, but often makes for a better album. It turned out like this crazy conceptual rock opera.” 8. Pixies - Surfer Rosa (1988) “I always loved the quirkiness to this band. The lyrics had this bizarre, poetic sense to them, delivered in this epic, raw-edged insanity. “I still listen to Surfer Rosa once or twice a month to recapture how it made me feel as a kid. It encapsulated everything I felt about the world and all the different mood swings - like how lyrics could be inane one moment like ‘buy me a soda’ and then off into something else completely different. “They are one of the few bands from my youth I’ve gotten to see live, along with Rage and Korn. But I never saw Nirvana or the Chili Peppers, either. There’s something about Frank Black that totally fascinates me; it was almost terrifying how heavy they could suddenly get. I’m glad they’re still around…” 9. Silverchair - Frogstomp (1995) “We still cover Israel’s Son every once in awhile… can you believe he was 15 years old at the time of this?! When I got this, I thought, ‘What a son of a bitch!’ He wasn’t even supposed to be the singer, but they didn’t have one so there he was playing these insane riffs with amazing lyrics and melodies. “That was so inspirational: he found his voice very early on and became so prolific. This album holds up today and it’s 22 years old. My favourite song of theirs is Ana’s Song (Open Fire), which came a couple of albums after… Daniel Johns wasn’t this angry little kid whose voice had just broken any more; he became a man. The transformation was quite amazing.” 10. System Of A Down - System Of A Down (1998) “When I first heard this, I thought, ‘What the fuck is happening here?’ It’s one of the quirkiest records ever made - it shouldn’t have worked or translated to the mainstream as it did. But man, it’s a seriously good album! “Toxicity was great, too, but this first one was super, super-angry. They were really pissed about the world - and I’m not usually much of a political band kinda guy - but I can’t count how many times I drove down the highway screaming about ‘the Kombucha mushroom people!’” 11. Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (2006) “This is when they started getting really sad. Jesus Christ is one of my favourite tracks; the lyrics were really beautiful and had such depth. I always wished I could write like that - it’s the way Jesse Lacey presented the imagery as whole. “It was literal but also not literal, and because of that, his lyrical prowess always astounded me. You don’t want to skip a single track on this record, that’s how good it is. The music isn’t heavy at all, but if I’m feeling a little melancholy this is what I stick on.” 12. Thrice - To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere (2016) “This is a very recent album, obviously. I’d never really been a fan before, but I was driving when I heard Black Honey on the radio and nearly crashed my car, haha! As a songwriter, I felt like it was pretty much perfect in construction. The guitar tones, vocals, lyrics… all of it was amazing. “This album made me a fan, to the point I was listening to them a few times a day. I was literally obsessed! It would also make me feel better when I was in a bad mood. I’m not a religious person like their singer Dustin Kensrue, but I don’t have to be. It’s all about the structure and imagery… plus, his voice sounds so good on this.”
Post-Grunge Trio Seether Is Rediscovering Its Edge
South African rock band Seether has changed its sound more than once. When you've been around as long as it has — almost 20 years — you have to if you want to stay relevant. The post-grunge trio's latest album finds it readjusting to the times once again. Unlike previous albums, guitar is back at the forefront on Poison the Parish. “The intention was to turn up the guitar and bring back a little edge to Seether,” drummer John Humphrey tells the Dallas Observer. “We’ve had the honor of working with some great producers, but maybe in the end a few albums were mixed not entirely how we envisioned them.” Producer Brendan O’Brien had taken the band away from its Nirvana-inspired groove toward a more mainstream sound that emphasized lyrics over founding guitarist and vocalist Shaun Morgan’s hard rock riffs and Humphrey’s pounding drums. “I think it’s a combination of things that the band set as a goal when putting together this album,” Humphrey says of Poison the Parish, which was released in May and produced by Morgan. “A lot of it comes down to just listening to the fans, you know? We had a lot of fans going, 'Karma and Effect is my favorite album,’ and the band has always had a heavier edge to it. Producing [Poison the Parish] ourselves gave us a freedom unlike we’ve had before.” In an interview with Billboard earlier this year, Morgan said Seether has struggled with being labeled an alternative band. “Alternative used to be something that was the category [we were] in. That’s no longer the case," Morgan told Billboard. "Now it’s more that guitars are less of a player in the music, and it’s more Imagine Dragons and Lorde and stuff like that.” Writing lyrics has always come naturally to Morgan, so Seether's experimentations over the last decade have been successful. But the band members realized it wasn't the sound they wanted. “We can’t force ourselves to be something we’re not," Humphrey says. "We’re a hard rock band with a melodic vocalist with lyrics that identify with people.” A lot of people subscribe to the notion that rock's time is over, but Humphrey, who saw success in the '90s with alt-rockers The Nixons, doesn’t feel that way. “I hear that infamous quote from Gene Simmons a lot: 'Rock is dying,’” Humphrey says. “I am not too sure I totally agree. We’ve done some of these huge rock festivals that are patterned after those big Euro festivals, with 50 [thousand] to 60 thousand people in football stadiums, and they’re sold out and do very well.” The only thing Humphrey says has changed in rock since he joined Seether 14 years ago is the decline of rock radio, which he sees as a threat to the band. “Fewer rock stations mean not as many spins as there were, say, 10 years ago,” he says. “Things have changed, man. Twenty years ago, there were more rock stations. The industry was completely different. Now, there’s iTunes and the digital format. “We’re in a very fortunate position to have had a lot of successful singles with radio over the years,” he continues. “They’re kind enough to always play our singles, but we’re also a live band. Things have changed along the way as far as the band and how it has to survive. I say it’s kind of like a shark and it has to swim. A rock band has to tour, sell merch and do other things. We have to pay the bills like anybody else."
SEETHER Frontman Is 'Offended By The Vapid And Self-Absorbed Culture That Has Become Mainstream'
Asked about the overall theme of the new album "Poison The Parish" and the relevance of the album title, Morgan told iHeartRadio: "I think, on a subconscious level, that I was starting to write more and more about societal behavior, and not so much about personal relationships necessarily. "The lyrics would start out being about something specific and then start to spread the net wider to encompass more of what I see every day. I guess, in a way, this was some sort of awakening for me — the progression of not only commenting on my own life but on the people who make up this really angry society we live in. "I started being more and more offended by the vapid and self-absorbed culture that has become mainstream, and essentially, the supposed role models for the next generation. These assholes that are glorified on social media and reality television are poisoning the youth to think it's okay to be talentless and stupid, just as long as you know how to pose for a picture. It's just horrific to me." Morgan also talked about the making of "Poison The Parish", explaining: "The writing was done in the usual way where I hole up in my studio for months and write as many songs as possible until I am satisfied that I am ready for an album. Then a selection process happens so that we have the final fifteen tracks which are to be recorded. "I produced this album and Matt Hyde engineered, so that was a first for me. "I knew what I wanted this album to sound like and I felt that the songs were as good as they could be, as far as the demos went. "We treated every song the same and didn't focus more on singles or what could be perceived as such. The goal was to make the album and then make those decisions. "Every time we have made an album before there were certain songs that were earmarked for radio and they received more attention than other tracks and I felt that was a disservice to the band and to the listener. "This album is the closest reproduction of what I heard in my head that we have had and I'm very proud of that."