Seether live: Nothing fake going on at Wellmont Theater (Corey Lowery Interview)
The South African rock band Seether has been around since 1999 and are known for songs like “Fine Again,” “Fake It,” “Remedy,” and “Words as Weapons” to name a few. If the raw lyrics, and Nirvana influenced style are not enough to bring you out, their new guitarist and backup singer Corey French Lowery might be. Lowery is an American musician, songwriter and producer. Before Seether, he was in bands such as Saint Asonia, Stuck Mojo, Stereomud, Eye Empire and Dark New Day. He spoke about tattoos, lyrics, family and how to remain grounded. Lowery explained while he loves writing lyrics and may some day do so for Seether, for now, “if anything I hope to inspire from a riff or just sitting in a room talking music…” “He’s [lead vocalist/rhythm guitarist Shaun Morgan] done such a great job as a songwriter through the years, the last thing I want to do is interrupt his natural flow.” Lowery and Morgan have many similarities, such as how they grew up. Their writing style is also similar. “We write about the bad stuff to purge,” Lowery said. He added that a lot of the fans can relate to that. The band still draws a younger crowd. Lowery said perhaps that is because “a lot of younger people are still going through some stuff,” adding, “A lot of us couldn’t afford therapy – music is our therapy.” The trick, he says, is to tell the truth. “The hardest thing to do is to be sincere, it’s kind of hard to put yourself out there like that.” Seether, including guitarist Shaun Morgan, will play Wellmont Theater Sept. 20. Lowery has several tattoos, many of which are Native American symbols. He explained, “Three crows for my wife and daughter and me.” When asked if being a musician adversely affects his family life he said his mother and father also played. “I played music my whole life… I was lucky enough to find someone who would support it.” Lowery explained that he likes to work with local artists, many of which have not hit the big time yet. “I think some of the best singers I ever heard will never get a record... It’s very stormy weather in the music business.” He described the industry as one that requires hard work but also a lot of luck. Whether a musician makes it or not,Lowery had some great advice for those getting into the music business. “Try to surround yourself with people who ground you.” Lowery described his life off stage as being a regular guy, taking out the trash, and simply being himself. The show, he said, will be a lot of fun. The set will have some new songs. “We are now coming into ourselves with a brand new type of energy... It’s going to be Seether live - nothing fake going on on stage.” As to why after all these years he keeps playing, “I play to fill the holes within me.”
John Humphrey – Seether (Rockpit Interview)
Andrew: It’s good to talk to you again, we spoke last time when you came over to Australia which was I guess a couple of years ago right? John: Yeah I think 2015 right? Andrew: Yeah something like that, how did the tour end up going for you? John: As I recall, great! It’s funny, some tours become a blur, you play so much but my memories of Australia and New Zealand have always been great shows. Andrew: It’s always good to see you back in the country again, obviously you have been on the road since the new album came out so how has the tour been going so far and how are the new songs going? John: Great man! I was just speaking to another interviewer before and it just blows me away after all these years, 15 years for me with this band and putting out albums and going on tour around the world and still doing it after all these years. People care and come out to the shows, it’s amazing and it blows us all away and feel very fortunate. The tour has been great, “Poison The Parish” the newest album is doing great. Two singles from the album, “Let You Down” and “Betray And Degrade” have done very well, been to Europe now and the States and now we’re headed back to Europe, Australia, New Zealand and then South Africa. Andrew: We’ll get to the tour a bit later but with the new album, I suppose compared to previous material it’s maybe slightly heavier than what you have done before. Is that something that’s fair to say? John: Yeah I think absolutely. I think that was one goal in mind is maybe mix wise on previous albums the guitars weren’t quite what we had hoped. This was the first album that officially Shaun [Morgan, vocals/guitar] and the band had produced itself, we had worked with some great producers, Brendan O’Brien to name one. Great producers but you fully trust them for the time being for the making of that album as another member of the band and he mixed the two records that he worked on, so great stuff but I think it was a very conscious effort on this album to bring back the heavier side of the band and to showcase that. We always get, ‘Man you guys are always heavier live’, and I think sonically with this album we wanted the guitars to be very present in the mix to make the songs heavier. Andrew: So because you’ve given the songs more heaviness and given them a more lively feel, has that translated to the older songs as well to give it a heavier tone when playing them live? John: Yeah I think the band has always sort of had those elements anyway, we have songs like “Broken” that we’ve done for years or “The Gift”, or what have you but the band is also a guitar oriented straight up rock band and we’ve always had that sort of edge so it felt very natural to produce “Poison The Parish” in the direction that it went ultimately. It wasn’t like we struggled to be a heavier band, we are a guitar oriented heavy band and that’s a pretty natural aspect of the band. Andrew: Yeah and as you mentioned, people have said you do sound heavier live so because of the way you play live, is playing live a big part of the band’s sound? If that’s a big part of what you do, has that translated into the studio when you record these songs? John: Yeah absolutely. With this album, the material we had never played live prior to recording it, Shaun had written the music and then sent the demos to Dale [Stewart, bass] and I to learn so we would get together and rehearse prior to going into the studio and learn it and you play it just like you would live on stage. A little rehearsal room with the amps cranked, we’re kind of in a cirlce, I’m playing drums, amps are facing me and things are loud and rocking and we’re learning the songs just like from the beginning where you learn a song to take it out on tour or what have you. I think again the band is a touring band, we’re a live band and the album isn’t recorded live per say. We started with the drum tracks and overdubs and stuff but I think it feels pretty organic, pretty natural. There’s certainly musicians playing on the tracks, there’s not a bunch of layering and 85 guitars. I mean really, Shaun is an awesome guitar player and just a couple of tracks doubled, it sounds like Seether and it doesn’t take a wall of guitars. The band, just the three piece or in our case when Clint [Lowery, guitars] was with us last year, a 4 piece, the band is what it is live just as it is on record. Andrew: When you go out on tour and you rehearse the new songs, how do you go about picking the songs you want to go play live? Do you rehearse all of them or do you know when you record them which ones you want to take out on the road? John: Yeah that’s a good question. We usually find out prior to a tour what the singles are going to be and we’re in a fortunate position to be in a band for 15 plus years with a lot of singles so it’s sort of a mix. We have a lot of fans that follow us for many years and they want to hear maybe some deeper cuts and then you got people that have waited a long time, for example coming out to Australia and New Zealand, we haven’t been there since 2015, who want to hear the singles or the songs they’re familiar with too. So it’s trying to kind of catch a happy medium, the singles themselves back to back take up almost an hour anyway. So if you’re doing a 90 minute show…again that’s a great position to be in, to have had successful singles that take up almost a 90 minute show, that’s really saying something. So in the case of a new album, OK so this is going to be the single so we learn that but for example one of my favorite songs which we’ve been doing which isn’t a single is called “Stoke The Fire” which is the first song on the album and we’ve been using it as a show opener because it’s a great album opener and that’s a song that’s not a single. So we get out there and we’ll talk about it and we’ll be like, ‘It will be great to do “Stoke The Fire”‘, so we learn that and add that. I always kid that when we record an album, with the marketing and you have to get the wheels turning and get the album ready for release and stuff, it’s funny as by the time you’re rehearsing for a tour, you sort of have to relearn the songs that you recorded. So yeah you’re right, we have to discuss, ‘OK now what, we going to do Stoke The Fire? OK’. So we listen to it and kind of get it back fresh in our minds to practice and play live. Andrew: Are you ever tempted to really cut out a couple of the bigger hit songs and just throw in some deeper cuts that people may not be so familiar with just for your own sake of wanting to play a different song? John: We’ve done it on occasion and we’ve even thrown in a cover song which is fun to do, just because that’s how it started. Before we were a band doing Seether, we were in cover bands learning other people’s songs and so we still like to do songs from bands that have influenced us or even currently that inspire us like Thrice which we were doing a song from that band recently. So I mean that’s fun to surprise fans with too but it’s hard to decide to cut out a “Remedy” or “Fake” it Or “Broken” or something, there are certain people that want to hear those songs and expect to hear those songs. So again it’s a tough position but it’s a good position to be in. Andrew: Yeah definitely. Now you mentioned before about being around for a number of years now and the motivation seems to be the live show aspect, being on tour and seeing the fans. Is that the biggest motivator in keeping the band going? John: Absolutely. I’ve said it from the beginning, this band has been a touring band and when we go out on any given album cycle, and obviously there will be breaks in between but usually out no less than 18 months on a given tour cycle. So yeah absolutely it’s about playing live, that’s what it’s about personally for me as a drummer and as a musician is that live moment playing those songs and getting the feedback instantly there from the crowd and hopefully no bad shows. Thank god knock on wood we haven’t had any train wrecks or anything, live but we’re human too, we get tired or homesick or sick literally just like anybody else who is out and working and doing their thing. But for the most part we have a lot of fun and love travelling and very fortunate to do what we do. Andrew: Just before I let you go, do you have any advice for people making that long trip from Europe or the US to Australia? Because it is a long flight obviously, how do you deal with that kind of thing? John: That’s a great question! I’ve flown a lot and for me to pass the time, I still have an iPod classic, the older one and it’s loaded with my music collection. I’m a huge music fan so I love listening to music or audio books just passing the time, obviously with technology it’s really great to be able to communicate with my family be it phone or skype or whatever. I have 2 kids back home and so it’s tough leaving them behind but again thank god for technology I’m able to keep in touch with them. But yeah just audio books or music on the plane passing the time and hopefully keeping your sanity! We have fun man, we crack up a lot, we laugh a lot and that’s what it’s about. Andrew: Yeah definitely. Well it’s been great chatting to you today as always and we’re looking forward to seeing you back in the country. Thanks for your time and we will see you in May! John: Looking forward to it, thank you!
Shaun Morgan of Seether
You’re heading back to Australia to see us and now with such a vast catalogue do you now find it harder to put together set lists when you need to start taking out some loved tunes? Yeah, I mean you try to play the stuff that people really want to hear but by the same token you really want to play the newer stuff, so it becomes a little difficult. It also depends some nights you just want to play for longer and I might throw an extra song in because hell why not we’re having a good time. These tours they’re always such a whirlwind because we have to play three different cities three days in a row which means you have a morning flight every morning quite early in the morning I think you’re up at about 4am to get to the airport on time so you can get to the airport on time and with all the gear we have to fly with as well. So it’s quite a lengthy and drawn out process every morning so that does sort of put a dampener on just how much energy we have left for the rest of the day. When it comes to sets we try to play the ones that we recognise are what fans like to hear the most, then some new stuff, then occasionally we’ll throw in something we haven’t played in a while or we’ll do a cover of some sort. So set lists can be quite a pain especially when you’re trying to please everybody, we’ve played some songs thousands of times and it would be nice to give those songs a rest every once in a while, not to retire them they’re just not as exciting as the newer stuff, often we’re still trying to figure them out and get a feel for them but yeah, it can be a little difficult at times but at the end of the day we just want to make the people that come to the shows happy and hopefully we manage to do that. In terms of new music we just had ‘Poison The Parish’ out last year, how has the cycle been since its release? It’s been good, the singles have been doing well, the crowds have been doing well, I think the crowds have been getting bigger than we’ve had in the past and just in general the whole atmosphere is great. We’ve had Clint Lowery play guitar for a while and he’s gone back to Sevendust now because they’ve got an album coming out so we’ve got his brother coming out who will be with us on this tour, that’s Corey Lowery. So that brings a lot of positive energy, I don’t know everything just seems really good, everyone’s in a good mood and everyone’s getting on really well it’s the opposite of a lot of bands that have been together for so long and start hating each other *laughs* and start asking for separate dressing rooms and different buses, this is a different scenario all together, so for us I mean it’s going well. The singles have done well, the videos have been well received, the tours are doing well, so I know it’s been a long time since we’ve been to Oz and I’m hoping that people don’t forget and we have good turnouts and we have fun like we always have. It’s the heaviest album you’ve made in a while, did you go into it with that idea in your head of making a heavier record? It wasn’t a real plan from the beginning because normally what I do is I just start writing stuff and see where it goes and the more I was writing and the more songs piled up the more I gravitated towards just having that heavier sort of riff type music that we used to have, certainly the stuff we used to write when we were younger and you almost had to under think some of the stuff because what I’ve done on some albums is I’ve overthought it and I’d overcomplicate the songs and I’ve tried to be too clever and I like the albums but I always felt like now in retrospect I wasn’t being 100% genuine as far as really trying to play music that I loved to play. I think at the time that was what I was in to so it’s not like I was being a charlatan for the years and then suddenly I was like this is the real me it was all just a question of I was trying to be too clever in some places musically and I just wanted this to be more straight ahead and I produced it with Matt Hyde an engineer and he’s a producer in his own right and he’s produced the Deftones and most notably ‘Gore’ that album that came out a few years back. He brought a real positive energy to the studio and we were just working fast and we were getting sounds and we simplified a lot of the stuff so we didn’t have to do, a lot of producers in the past would put layers and ultimately in the mix what would happen is you end up mixing the albums and the real rock side of it I felt was homogenised and pasteurised and what came out the other side was a little too clean and shiny and that’s I think was for me one of the reasons I wanted to get into producing our albums because I have a vision that I want to present and don’t have to pander to a producer if I’m the one calling the shots. It’s a double edged sword because all the pressure is on your shoulders and you have to perform and put out an album that can live up to all the expectations but can also stand up to the others, and I mean I think the songs on this record are personally my favourites in a long time just because they were just went back to what the band is about which is guitar, drums, bass, and vocals, there were no keyboard parts and no percussion parts here and there and there’s a time and place for all that stuff and I didn’t want this to be a poppy kind of album certainly sonically I dint want it to be slightly dumbed down and glossed over and tailored for a mass audience. You obviously want people to listen to the music, obviously you want the music to be accessible, I think you do that through the way the song is written and the melodies you select and the lyrics you write I think that should be enough. I don’t think you should then have to go in and say well let’s turn the distortion down to five instead of ten just because that’s a little more pleasing to the ear, to me that’s dumbs it down a little bit and that’s not taking anything away from those procedures that’s just not the way I wanted to approach it this time, and I always felt at some point I was going to go back and have those albums remixed and remastered and have more of that sort of dirt and that urgency put back into the music that I felt was stripped away by overthinking. Have you thought about doing that for an anniversary or something like that? Yeah most likely I think what might be interesting is next year will be twenty years since we formed, so it’ll be our twentieth anniversary so maybe that’ll be a good time and would be good timing as well because it’ll be at a time when we’re off the road after an extensive tour so we’ll have some time to sit back and really dive into the catalogue and see. I also want to release the Saron Gas album we did when we were called Saron Gas from 199 until 2001 we were called Saron Gas so I want to find that album and release that and maybe have some of that remastered and redone and I don’t know if a box set is a little presumptuous of us or not but I do think that it is a way that I would like to present otherwise I have to wait until 2022 to hit the twenty year anniversary of ‘Disclaimer’ then I can really start putting them out there the way I imagine them sounding, So you may have to wait a few more years but I definitely do think as far as I’m concerned there will be re-releases just with a different mix and a different mastering because again I was never really sold on the sound because I was just a kid at the time and I was told by these guys these big power producers and they walk in and it’s intimidating you don’t understand that you have the right to stand up and say no that you don’t like that and that you can actually put in your opinion and you can shape the way that it sounds, there’s a lot of guys that come in and create the impression that you are just there to do what they tell you. So now that I understand that that’s not the case I can go back and revisit those for anyone that’s interested I mean nobody buys albums anymore but it would just be cool to peruse at their leisure on one of the streaming services, but I do think it’s something I’d like to do just purely for my own satisfaction. Although vinyl has made a big comeback so you never know, you could put them out and do it that way? Yeah I think vinyl I mean it’s huge now again but I think that our fans are not necessarily vinyl buyers, our vinyl never does really well, if you look at numbers of streaming versus shows and merch sales if you compare all of the stuff that we do vinyl is the one that seems to not work for us, maybe we don’t have enough hipsters as fans *laughs*. I’ve got maybe four or five records that I have that were given to me or I bought out of pure nostalgia and I’ve got a little cheapo record player but for me there’s a very cool misty eyed kind of thing about putting the needle on the record and watching it spin and I feel like it’s almost a travesty that I’ve got this crappy system that I play it on, I should get a better one. It’s just not worth me investing on something like that because I don’t really sit and have a room… John our drummer you should see his record collection it’s phenomenal, he’s got thousands of records and actually bought one of those record store display shelves and all his LP’s are alphabetised *laughs* and all pristine and all in little sleeves and the guy is very anal about it. You walk in and at first you say well this is over the top but it’s just passion, it’s his passion to collect this stuff so if more people like John listened to our music I’m sure our vinyl would be more viable. We did some picture discs on the last album too which I thought were kind of cool it had the artwork with a clear plastic sleeve and different artwork on either side of the record itself which is kind of cool. I don’t think I’ve actually paid too much attention a lot of things have happened, actually this year has flown by and it’s frustrating because the older I get the faster the years go by and I really wish it was the other way around. *laughs* Lastly let’s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2018 Seether will… Hmm… by the end of 2018 Seether will *laughs* I don’t even know how to finish that, Seether will have toured another six solid moths of the year in 2018 and they will take a well-deserved Christmas break to be with their friends and family. Then start right up again at the begging of 2019, that’s how it goes for us man, it’s the little engine that could and unfortunately never, ever stops but we’re good with it, we’d rather be busy than not be wanted at all.
Top 6 Things We Learned from String Theory with Seether
1. He uses songwriting as a way to rid of unhappiness. “When I’m playing music or I’m writing music it’s the closest I can get to what I’m hearing in my head. It’s the closest I can get to what I’m trying to express or what feeling I’m trying to slowly chip away at inside of me. So that’s why I don’t write a lot of happy songs because there’s no reason to get rid of happiness. We will hold onto happiness and cling to it for dear life. But when I’m angry or sad or frustrated that’s when I often find myself wandering into my studio and writing stuff and trying to get that out of my system.” 2. His childhood was full of crap. “I grew up on a pig farm and we had about 500 pigs and a couple of cattle. One of the games my brother and I would play is we would make improvised grenades out of cow turds. We’d pack them as tightly as we could and you would stick what they would call little ‘tom thumb crackers’ in them. They looked like a little tiny stick of dynamite and then you’d throw it up and it explodes and whoever gets hit by the most amount of cow crap loses. This is the kind of stuff you do when you don’t have any friends and you live out in the middle of nowhere.” 3. Moving from the farm to the city helped flame his love for music. “Farm murders were starting to happen in South Africa, which people sort of know about now but maybe not quite as much as they should, but that pushed us off the farm and into the city and basically I just became a city kid. Because I was closer to all my friends at that point I could then start playing music in bands and I could start figuring out, ‘Ok man, there’s something inside me that’s raging… I need a way to express this.’ Moving into the city was probably what gave me the biggest opportunities to start playing music with other people.” 4. He found inspiration through Nirvana… and pissing off his parents. “When I was about 12 or 13 somebody gave me Nevermind. From the very first note to the very last note on that album I felt like I wasn’t alone. Like, this dude understands me, this music is written for me. It made me feel so many things that I didn’t know were inside of me and I wanted to recreate that and I wanted to be part of that and I wanted to play along to it and I wanted to be in that world. Of course the other major inspiration was that my parents were really, really mad at the fact that I wanted to pick up a guitar and pursue this pipe dream of becoming a musician. Most of the motivation when I was really young anyway was to piss my dad off.” 5. He relies on Ernie Ball 11s all the way to 54s. “I stick with the 11s and sometimes even slightly heavier. In the studio everything is under a microscope and these hold up. Live is obviously a much more fast and loose kind of experience than being in the studio. But for the most part I like the 11s to 54s across the board. You can concentrate on more of the playing side of recording rather than the tuning side. That in itself is worth its weight in gold as far as I’m concerned.” 6. Songwriting is a fluid process and can’t be forced. “Somedays I think, ‘I’m going to write a song now,’ and I get in there and nothing comes out. Like, sometimes you get inspiration in the shower… I will literally sing this melody in my head so I don’t forget it and then I run up the stairs and sit down and try to get it down as fast as possible. To try to prod it and be awake and try to get into the studio and say, ‘You’re going to write stuff today and it better be good because your career depends on it.’ That’s difficult. So I wait until it comes from some random place.”
Rock band Seether returns to South Africa after 6 years
During a busy schedule for Seether, the band is making a quick turn to Shaun Morgan and Dale Stewart’s home country of South Africa. It’s been almost six years since the band last performed their signature power rock show here and, on May 20, the band will take over Marks Park in Emmarentia as they give the first live performance of songs from their new album on African soil. Poison the Parish is the multi-platinum selling band’s seventh studio album and was released in May 2017 - debuting at number one on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart and number 14 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart. Recorded at Blackbird Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, it marked the first album produced entirely by front man Morgan and was released through Morgan’s newly launched label imprint, Canine Riot Records (via Fantasy). So far, the album has spawned two top rock radio hits, Let You Down, which reached the number one spot for four consecutive weeks and the top-five rock radio hit, Betray and Degrade. Speaking to IOL, Morgan said the band was excited to be performing in the country once again. “I’m excited. I like performing in South Africa. The last time we were there was Oppikoppi. There’s always a sense of pride when we perform there. This time, a lot of the excitement is also around the venue - that it’s bigger,” he said with a chuckle. At the time of our conversation, tickets to the performance were almost sold out and this is something that Morgan said made the band feel good. Poison the Parish, their latest offering, which has some of the music that the band will perform live on Sunday, was titled after taking a hard and conscious reflection of the society around them. “We came to realise that we live in a society where the preachers to our children and the youth are celebrities and reality television stars. Many people just want to be famous and make money, you find cases where people sign million-dollar record deals with zero talent. So the parish is the kids who are so gullible and open to suggestion. These preachers of social media are doing our society a disservice, so basically that’s where the idea came from,” he explained. The response to their sociopolitically charged album from their audience has, according to Morgan, been encouraging. “The response has been positive. In fact, we’ve seen more interactions from this album. I feel like I don’t care about what you choose to do with your life. I respect that people will make their own decisions and live in whatever way they choose, but don’t expect me to pay attention to your life because it makes you feel better about yourself,” he said. Morgan added that he was proud to have entirely produced this album with this message, but he also admits that parts of that process had been nerve-wracking. “I have often seen these big name guys come in and say, ‘well, this is what’s wrong with your album’.That’s the idea I had of what a producer does. I think I was quite cynical. They come in and help you shape your music, they guide you in a certain direction. I wanted to give it a shot myself. It was a nerve-wracking experience. I didn’t know what to expect, but I’d been in studio so many times before that it felt natural. It was a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but I felt I’d learned enough in the 20 years I’ve been doing this for, that I could go in and give it a shot. I do feel that for the first time I’ve created something that sounds like it did in my head, so I’m quite happy to see these ideas manifest,” he said. This album, he added, reinvigorated him, as he’d started losing faith in music, and from start to finish it’s something he felt proud of, especially because this time he’d been very close to its creative process. It’s something he’s been close to emotionally. About the concert on Sunday, Morgan said their fans could expect a two- to three-hour set that takes the audience on a journey from the beginning until now. He added that while the band would consider coming back later in the year to perform at other cities, this performance has a time constraint. “We’ll try to do as many of the songs people know and love. I’m looking forward to it and because it’s just the one show, we want to make it special,” he said.
The Story Behind "Broken" by Seether
"Broken" is a song from the Seether's first major album "Disclaimer," released in 2002. Later in 2004, the song was also featured on their second recompilation album "Disclaimer II" along with a version with Amy Lee. Lead singer Shaun Morgan wrote this song, which deals with the pain of being parted from someone: "I wrote it two and a half years ago for my daughter, she was just born and I had to come to the States and I wrote the lyrics for her, it's about leaving somebody behind, you know that is really painful to do, and ultimately you're looking to the future saying "we'll see each other again and everything will be fine." The hit version, which was released as the soundtrack to the movie The Punisher in 2004, featured Amy Lee (Shaun Morgan's girlfriend at the time), who had great success with her band Evanescence. In addition to adding vocals, Lee helped arrange the orchestra on the new version. This version of the song was a big breakthrough for Seether, but in 2009 interview to Recoil, Morgan explained: "We made the mistake of being a band that has a gold album that collaborates with a band that has a ten-times platinum album. That's a big mistake. We should have met up with somebody more on our level and seen what would happen. I don't know. Obviously, it's done huge things for us and it was amazing for us. I think if we collaborate again it will be with someone who is on par with us rather than someone who is a megastar and we get to hear all the crap about how we used them for fame and glory." In 2013, Morgan explained how he felt about this version: "There are times when I'm quite proud of that version, but other times when I feel like I should have just stuck with my guns and kept the original version of the way I prefer it. But in 2004 we didn't have any say at our record company, so it was mostly a lot of decisions were made for us and we just went with them. But I wrote the string parts at the end of it, and I think that's great. So it was a little different for us. I don't think I ever imagined it to be quite so soundtrack, epically sounding. I would have preferred for it to be what the vulnerability that we wrote it with was. But it's done now." The official music video was made for the version of the song with Amy Lee. The Nigel Dick was a director of the music video. The video was shot in a trailer park that was burned down by a crystal meth lab explosion. In the video, Lee and Morgan stray through a decaying landscape. Although Seether and Amy can be seen performing together, the main theme of the video is that Amy and Shaun are looking for each other but will never meet. Lee acknowledges that Morgan is there, while Morgan doesn't feel her presence around him, which is the essence of the lyrics "you've gone away... you don't feel me here anymore".
Seether to deliver mix of classics, new songs on Oct. 23
“We though it was a great opportunity to be able to tour with Stone Temple Pilots,” said John Humphrey, Seether’s drummer since 2003. “We jumped on the idea when they approached us.” The hard rock band is known for its “heavier” instruments, but sets itself apart from the metal genre with lyrics and melody. “When I joined the band I believed from the get-go in the music,” said Humphrey. “Shaun has always been vocally honest and there’s depth to their lyrics. But we do have a harder edge and use lots of instruments.” “Did we think we’d be here today performing and putting out more music, absolutely not. First and foremost we’re musicians. That’s the heart of it and being able to do this day to day, we’re very fortunate,” said Humphrey. “It’s hard when we’re on tour, being away from our families. But when we’re on stage and performing it’s like everything goes away,” said Humphrey. “It’s about connecting with people and playing music, that’s what we live for.” Humphrey understands that Canadian fans have been waiting a few years to hear some of the band’s hits including Remedy, Country Song, and Fake It. Country Song won most active rock song of 2011 on Billboard charts and Canadian Hot 100. It was also named number one song of the year in terms of airplay by Mediabase. “Some of our diehard fans have been waiting to hear those so we have to play them,” said Humphrey. “We’ll play a few songs from our new album (Poison the Parish) and our older stuff as well, so it’ll be a good mix.”
SEETHER // Triggered For Change
“I think the problem with music in general is pop music is seriously vapid and it doesn’t have much to offer. However, that’s changing, and it’s shifting more towards rock music having a lot less to offer. I think that in the 90’s and certainly the early 00’s rock music had an honest angst to it. An emo band had dramatic poetry as lyrics, but that was something that meant something to people. I don’t know how many people can identify with stuff like VIPs and strip clubs, or pants around your knees kind of stuff. I just don’t know that that’s what people are looking for. I think there’s a time and place for that. “We live in a time where people are really, really on edge. I mean, we live in a horrendous politically correct era where you can’t say anything without offending somebody, or everybody, which is ridiculous. The fact we can’t speak our minds anymore is certainly, in a public setting, a tragedy. At least for me I have music as a medium and I have lyrics where I can say stuff and the people who hear it become a bit more selective." “The sociopolitical stuff, I mean, people don’t really care. You look at something like the shooting in Vegas and nobody talks about it anymore. We don’t have any answers and it’s just been sort of swept under the rug. The night club shooting, that was also swept under the rug pretty quickly. [The] only one that hasn’t been is the Parkland High School one. That’s a really big anti-gun platform people can jump right on top of [to] support this insane idea that you can actually rid the world of guns, which is insane. “And everybody has lost hold of the fact that mental illness is becoming more and more prevalent and it’s becoming an epidemic—kids [are even] younger and killing themselves. “The main thing the world is ignoring is that there’s this massive problem that’s been created by Facebook and Google and all these people—they spy on us and they treat us like numbers, and they treat us like products. They are indoctrinating our youth and our children to believe that your only worth as a human being comes from a little thumb, or a little like that somebody sends you, and if you don’t have those, you’re useless, you don’t belong in this world, and therefore, you know, what are you even doing here? “Then you have the online bullying which often results in suicide very often and is extremely cowardly because you’d never do that in real life. There’s really never been any people that have been held accountable for that kind of behaviour. It’s all mental illness. It’s because we don’t really have families anymore, we don’t have societies anymore, we don’t have neighbours anymore. “We’ve become drones who stare into these little computers in our hands. Not unwillingly, but willingly, [we] hand ourselves over to the corporations that use us as a revenue stream. And I know it now sounds topical, because [at] this time Facebook is being held accountable for some of these things. I’ve been saying that for years, it’s disgusting that we’ve taken away the humanity of people. “My whole thing always is, if somebody comes up to me and says there’s a certain way they feel and they don’t feel like they want to be used, the answer is the fact we speak for people. I don’t say we can change somebody’s mind if someone’s going to commit suicide, that’s pretty much on them. My point is that we should offer an alternative and say, “Hey, you wanna talk about it? What should I do? How can I help?’ You know what I’m saying? There’s less and less of that. It’s easy to see that in YouTube videos of people beating the crap out of each other. Nobody helps and… Nobody jumps in to help and stop the fight, everybody goes to get the footage to get the likes on YouTube to get their ad revenue. “So again, the mindless drones we’ve all become, or certainly what our youth has become, and then give them an opportunity like a school shooting—now suddenly they’re all experts in guns, and gun policy, and they know what’s up, because they’re 17 years old, and suddenly have been given their soap box across all forms of media, and now we’re all supposed to bow to their will? “Everyone is taking [things] upon themselves, and themselves only. So what we’re creating is, selfish, robotic, drone-like human beings, that their only goal is to be famous and get on Instagram and take pictures of their asses, yet millions of people are following them, and try to make some money. It’s tragic. They’re forcing you to it. “There needs to be a change but we can’t force people to have empathy, sympathy, for other people. Literally all out there for themselves. What can you do? You know what I mean? Society, if nothing changes, is doomed. And it’s a self-inflicted wound." “Teenagers put down their cell phones for a week and say ‘Wow, I feel so much better!’ Facebook admitted openly that they created something they knew was addictive, and knew it was detrimental to people’s mental health, but did it anyways [and] they’re all billionaires now. Human beings, we’re commodities, we’re expendable commodities to be used so that some other person can get a big fat bank account. I mean, it’s just the way the world runs. The fact that I’m saying these things is actually hurting my soul. Using hashtags and all this crap that just… The more creative you get with your hashtags and the more you have at the end of a show, or a tweet, or a post, the more… Oh my god, makes me just ill to think about… “It’s difficult to change the way the world is now, because how do you teach people that are already so arrogant about themselves and their opinions are so important, how do you teach them that they’re not? How do you teach people that because they feel a certain way, it may not be what someone else feels, but you can live your life and it doesn’t affect other people negatively, or the way they live their lives doesn’t affect you negatively, then surely everybody should get along just fine. I’m cool with anybody’s opinions, if I agree with them or not. As long as they’re not trying to force them on me, or enforce ridiculous rules and lay legislation on either person because they disagree with it. I do my own thing and I exist in this world whether I like it or not. “There’s power in silence. If you just stop to listen to somebody else instead of getting hysterical and trying to out-scream them because you feel the louder you talk the less you hear them, that maybe it’s going to get beaten into their skull somehow, it’s just ridiculous. It’s kind of like, when you’re a kid in school and you choose to be diplomatic instead of getting into a fist fight. Fist fights are easy and for some people it’s fun, but it ultimately, it’s vulgar. There are other times when if you just sit back and you exchange words and ideas, and maybe you reach a consensus or you reach compromise and everyone moves on with their lives and you know, you can at least go about your days and say you’ve avoided a punch to the face." “I think too often people feel their opinions are just so important and I think that there’s not enough humility anymore. I’m seeing more and more examples of hard left wing indoctrination and there’s no other way that’s the right way. I do understand that if you have the idea that you are something else, it’s really cool to be something else. Fine. Then be that something else. But do not dare get mad at me because I didn’t ask you what your pronoun is. That’s not my responsibility. It’s you and your fantasy that you’re an alien, or that you’re a “they” or a “them” or a “z”, or whatever the hell your words of your choice is. It’s not my responsibility to pander to your little fantasy. “Everybody wants you to pander to them, and the solution is only the way that makes their little feelings not be hurt. And I’m sorry, the real world is a painful place. Reality is that our feelings get hurt, our emotions get hurt, and disappointment runs rampant through your life. “You have to work for happiness and satisfaction. You have to work for anything in life that means something. It doesn’t just come to you. And to force other people to bend against your rule, just because that’s how you feel and your little feelings are so fragile, ultimately, that’s also a load of shit. That’s just another manipulative way to have other people do what you want to do so you can get that sort of “Yeah, cool, got them. I’m superior”. It’s an amazing thing that’s happening in the world. So again, I have no problem with anybody identifying, jeez, you can be … what’s to stop me from saying I’m an old Asian woman. Or people are saying that they’re different races, or … it’s getting insane. “They can’t question you because that’s now punishable in certain states. It’s become more than a misdemeanour, it’s become an offense, where you can actually get jail time in some cities for saying the wrong pronouns. Which again, is insane. Politically, this culture is going to cause a downfall of civilization, and that may sound dramatic, but I feel that… I don’t understand why everything has become gray and it doesn’t make any sense to me. But, if that’s the way you feel, I will sit back and listen. Whether or not I agree with you, it doesn’t matter, because you can go about your business and I can go about mine, and chances are we won’t affect each other’s lives negatively or positively. “So that’s the way it should be, but nobody listens. Nobody… “I guess this is sort of ranty way of saying silence is important.”
John Humphrey of Seether and the Nixons
Hi, I’m John Humphrey and it’s an honor to tell you a little about myself for this “On The Beat.” I’m from Oklahoma and began drumming at age thirteen. My first drumkit was a beautiful (and slightly used) silver sparkle Ludwig and I formed my first band soon after receiving it. The first time I actually played with a couple of musician friends, I was seduced for life. In 1992, I joined a band based out of Oklahoma called the Nixons. The band worked hard building a regional following and sold 15K copies of an indie-release, getting the attention of MCA Records. The band’s first major label album, FOMA, featured a Top 40 hit called “Sister.” The band released two more albums, toured non-stop (something like three hundred shows a year…yes, really!), sometimes opening for bands like Soul Asylum, Radiohead, and Kiss. The Nixons disbanded in 2001—I know, sad, but more about this later. In October 2003, a good friend of mine and former sound engineer for the Nixons suggested I audition for the band Seether. (See? You never know who might help you out.) Anyway, I was the last drummer of five to audition. I was told to learn four songs but instead I learned every song off their debut release. At the audition, after running through a few songs, they offered me the position right there on the spot. My first show was in a small club in Riverside, CA. My second was in front of 22,000 people in Mexico City opening for Evanescence. (Talk about stressed!) I’ve been touring and recording with Seether for more than sixteen years now. The band has amassed twenty Top Five singles, three platinum records, and numerous gold albums. We have relentlessly toured, averaging more than one hundred twenty performances a year. Crisscrossing the globe, we have headlined and shared the stage with some of the world’s biggest bands including Metallica, Audioslave, and Black Sabbath. We are just about to head into the studio to begin work on Seether’s next album. In 2017, the Nixons (remember them?) reunited and played a series of sold-out shows. The success of the shows, and a renewed interest in the band, led to working on new music. The Nixons, via AIW Records, just released a couple of singles digitally: “Crutch” and “Favorite Lies.” The Nixons also just announced a co-headlining tour with the band Sponge. As a working musician and drummer, I feel blessed to perform and record with these two amazing bands. Ludwig drums, Sabian cymbals, Evans drumheads, Vic Firth sticks, and my secret weapon, the Carmichael drum throne, endorse me. The Carmichael throne is my go-to gear and has been a lifesaver for me. As a drummer, I suffer with some painful back issues and this amazing throne, and its unique design, allows me to play with the intensity and physicality that both my bands’ music requires. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read a few lines talking about my musical journey. I wish you nothing but great fortune in your own musical pursuits.
All For The Live Experience: A Seether Interview
Your New Zealand fans are very excited about the fact that Seether is coming back to New Zealand! “Yeah we’re excited about coming back I think we haven’t been there… I think it’s been since 2015 was our last trip…” Yes, you played at the Logan Campbell Centre – it was a great show! “We always have a great time there!” Well Seether certainly has a lot of fans here in New Zealand and of course you just released your new album Poison the Parish last year so they are looking forward to hearing some of that new material live! “Yeah, we’re looking forward to playing it for sure.” Alright, so let’s get down to it John and hit you with a few questions [laughs] “Absolutely! That’s what I’m here for!” As I just mentioned, Seether’s latest album is entitled Poison the Parish and its being touted as your heaviest album to date. Is that a statement that you would agree with? “Yeah, absolutely. I think it was a mission statement of sorts you know? Shaun produced the album and there was a real conscious effort to make this album have a bit more edge, have the guitars way more present in the mix than maybe some previous albums. The band is still the band I just think that sonically and musically the guitars are very present. It was sort of a plan to maybe return to form, something maybe in the vein of Karma and Effect [2005] you know where we had songs like ‘The Gift’ and ‘Because of Me’ or you know ‘I’m the One’ on an album which were heavy but at the same time melodic songs that the band were always kind of known for and everything in between. But yeah with Shaun producing it, it was definitely bring back guitar and really taking things to the edge sonically for the band.” You mention the term ‘mission statement’ so this was a conscious deliberate move rather than something that grew organically? “I think it was a deliberate move absolutely, you know obviously with Shaun producing and the band sort of doing it in house, we just sort of looked at each other and went ‘Man we’re gonna make a rock album, a heavy guitar album, the band are known for that’. We also listened to our fans you know, and hopefully with each album we’ve always grown musically, artistically; but a lot of them are like ‘Man I love Karma and Effect’ or ‘I love the heaviness of that would you do an album like that again?’ So yeah I think there’s absolutely a conscious effort on our part to make a heavier album this time.” Obviously as the drummer of the band you have a pivotal role in creating the foundations from which songs can be built; what inspires you personally when song writing or creating a new album? “For a drummer you know my job is to musically sort of stand out of the way – I’m really good friends with and an admirer of Ray Luzier who is the drummer for Korn – and he was talking about a lot of drummers have a real tendency to play to drummers you know like ‘Let me do this cool fill, make this real complicated’ you know? The job of the drummer for like Korn, or for Ray or for me being in Seether is to frame the song; to make the song the best it can be. Like you said, setting the foundation, making it solid and as the drummer setting up the song, framing the song and basically, quite honestly, sort of staying out of the way. In laying the groove and keeping it solid, but not throwing in you know fancy fills, drum tricks and things that entertain me. It’s about playing the song and making the song the best it can be; Seether is a song orientated band you know, first and foremost and that’s what should come through. As a drummer I feel that that’s my job.” I know some of your earliest influences were Keith Moon, Tommy Lee, Peter Criss; but what inspired you to actually first pick up the sticks? “For me, Kiss was one of the first records I had and obviously seeing these guys on T.V. – but really it was being a band geek at school growing up! I just loved drum core, I loved marching band, I just fell in love with it. I got my first drum kit when I was thirteen and I’d say everything really changed for me when two of my friends – who played bass and guitar – came over to my house and the three of us played together. Like I said I was thirteen, ultimately that became my first band and I’m sure we sounded horrible but to me I was in heaven. And to play music with other guys, creating music, maybe we were doing a cover, or maybe we were kinda jamming on our own riff; little bit of both as I recall but I mean it was just the greatest time I’ve had in this world and that was a game-changer for me, feeling what it was like to play with other humans and creating music, or trying to create music. I knew then – as crazy as it sounds – that’s what I wanted to do for my life and I wanted to sustain that feeling and that was it. That was when it changed.” Now for all the New Zealand drum disciples – and we have quite a few of them in New Zealand – a bit of a technical question for you. Are you still a Sabian Cymbals guy? “Yes, I play Sabian Cymbals, I’m endorsed by Ludwig Drums – that’s my drum company – I play Evans Drumheads and Vic Firth drumsticks.” So you’re with Ludwig now because didn’t you use Crush Drum Kits previously? “Yeah I was with Crush for a while, but those guys broke off from another company called ddrum; and those guys formed Crush. It’s a smaller company and it’s a great company, but I had been with Ludwig before and then I just returned to home basically. And nothing against Crush but you know what can you say? Ludwig man, it’s just a legendary name, it’s been around forever – Jon Bonham, Buddy Rich, Ringo Star – I mean it’s freakin Ludwig, that’s home for me so I went back home!” Fair enough – and thank you, up and coming musicians always like to know what their favourite artists are using! “My oldest son is in a music school; and there are just so many talented kids you know? Musicians, singers just it seems like so much more than when I was starting out, there are just a lot of talented kids in the world, it’s great to hear.” I think in some ways the digital age has made music more accessible to the younger generation and it’s inspiring a hell of a lot more of them to try their hand at creating something musically… “Yeah absolutely – and at an early age too. It’s amazing!” I read quite a while ago that you were offered a scholarship to Berklee College of Music when you were younger – which you actually declined? “Yes, I did. I was actually in another band at the time which – well we didn’t make it – but this is how you are. I would say I would change my decision if I could go back in time, but ultimately you know I ended up here, so what can you say? Yes that band didn’t work out but all these years later I’m very fortunate to have landed as the drummer for Seether. I can’t say that I made any wrong decisions other than – yeah I was scouted and offered an initial scholarship at Berklee and didn’t take it. So I guess in some ways it looks like ‘God, what a fool!’ It’s such a great school; but you know, here I am, Seether, I’ve been with them for fifteen years so luckily that panned out you know?” [laughs] I don’t think you’re a fool at all; you had to follow what your gut was telling you at the time. But what interests me is that they headhunted you. Do you believe this was a combination of natural talent and practice or the fact that you practiced every single day? Because you strike me as being that sort of kid at the time! “That’s it! I worked really hard at it – you know some things came naturally, I think to be a musician it comes easier if you have a certain amount of natural ability – but I definitely worked really hard at it. What actually happened is I was scouted a year or so before I actually graduated high school. I had played a musical – I had been in marching band like I mentioned, jazz band, concert band all through my middle school and high school years – but I had done a musical with a college with college students. They had lost their drummer and they needed me to quickly set up and fill in, so I did these run of musicals. Just being the sophomore in high school… and so a scout was there you know unbeknownst that a young drummer was going to be filling in; so I think that said a lot about my work ethic and my ability obviously at such a young age. It was a pretty cool sort of circumstances!” You once also stated that the 2011 album ‘Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray’ was your favourite Seether album to play on so far – do you still feel the same way? Or has Poison the Parish exceeded that for you? “You know it’s so tough – yeah I’m very proud of the latest album, I think the songs feel very natural and the album came together very organically. It took us not a lot of effort really to record, we did this old school. We got into a practice place, Shaun showed me and Dale all the material, he had given us demo’s to rehearse; we came together and just made it Seether’s. Seetherised it if you will and then it was just about getting into the studio and capturing the performances. So I’m proud of this album, you know I guess a lot of bands or artists would say their latest album is their best – but you know I have a lot of favourite moments throughout my career with this band. I have an interesting perspective in that the only album I’m not on is the first one, Disclaimer [2002] but I had to learn that inside and out – talk about work ethic – to audition for the band. I went out and bought that album literally and then sat and learnt every song, inside and out, backwards and forwards in preparation for my audition. So as a fan, not having been there to record that album, that’s one of my favourites just because I look at that one as an outsider. And we still play songs like ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Driven Under’ to this day and it’s still one of my favourites and I’m not even on it you know? But there are a lot of highlights for me; ‘Remedy’ is one, ‘Fake It’, ‘Country Song’ off Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray and ‘I’m The One’ off Karma and Effect. There are a lot of highlights you know? ‘Careless Whisper’ which was a complete fluke; to do that cover for an iTunes thing that ended up being a very successful sort of remake for us, that was a lot of fun and that was a complete fluke! I think it turned out great; we recorded that at Electric Lady Studios in New York City – a legendary studio. And that’s a highlight for me as well so I have a lot and just the same I am proud of Poison the Parish.” Yes I think ‘Careless Whisper’ caught a few people off guard! [laughs] Yeah! And certainly the band you know? Certainly the band! We just did that for fun, just having fun, we’re all eighties kids and we wanted to just … and the damn thing took off! It just did great, and I’m proud of it, I am!” It’s a great song – not just your cover of it but the original as well. It’s a classic! I think a lot of your fans though would have been like huh? With all the covers you could have chosen to do… [laughs] “Right! And then you get someone younger that had no idea that it was even a cover … that cracks me up when a young one be like ‘Oh I didn’t know, you know my mom played me the original, and I’d never heard it! I thought that was your song!’ that cracks me up!” Speaking of the new album – and you just touched there briefly on the creation of it – Shaun sort of creates the base or the seed of most songs and then he passes it on to you guys, correct? “Yes exactly, and in the case of this latest album, he had put together demo’s and songs at his home studio and he – at the time – had sort of a keyboard set-up where he could simulate drums and at least give an idea of the beats and kind of an idea of what he wants for the song – to frame the song. And then he gives it to Dale and I to humanize it and make it sort of our own, to own the parts so that we’re comfortable with it and any ideas that we wanna interject, well we’re open to that to, Shaun’s a pleasure to work with and we’ve created a lot of music together and it’s been a lot of fun.” For you now it’s been fifteen years with the band hasn’t it? “Yes fifteen years this year.” Does it honestly feel like fifteen years? “No! I mean it really doesn’t; I can’t believe it. As a musician I’m very fortunate to have been with this band and to have this kind of time and to still be doing what we started out doing together in 03’, it’s pretty amazing, it blows me away!” Shaun stated that it’s about ‘Having honesty in your music’ and I personally think this is a great statement that sums up who Seether are as a band really well… “Yeah, absolutely I mean that’s one thing we are; you don’t go chasing trends you can’t do that. You have to be honest with yourself, to yourself and with no pretence and I think Seether does that. I mean the music that you hear comes from three guys on tour – in this case four guys on stage – we play with no track which is a rarity now. It’s just the four guys up there making the music live. But yeah I think lyrically, musically, stylistically the band is truly what you hear and what you see, you know that’s being honest. And that’s definitely Seether!” It’s interesting that you mention that – it is a thing for most live bands to play with tracks – so why do you choose not to? “I mean we don’t really need it quite honestly. I mean we come from the school of the live experience is different from the album. Maybe the songs aren’t replicated to the tee of an album but you know that’s what it is, what it means to be a musician, at least to me. Every night the experience; you have good nights, you have bad nights but at least they’re real, I mean it’s about the human experience; it’s about interacting with people. It’s about looking out into the crowd and how that makes you feel and how that makes you play – mistakes and all, warts and all! That’s about being a musician and playing it live to live. Otherwise that’s air-drumming, that’s air-guitaring when you’re out there and doing tracks… and you’re not really singing it’s all track, you know that’s not performing, that’s not being a musician, I don’t get it at all. That’s karaoke [laughs] that’s not even that! It’s just a weird concept and that’s not why you get into this to do that you know?” I wholeheartedly agree, that’s the beauty of live music. Speaking of music, just out of interest, what is your favourite track off the new album then? “It’s the first track for me, it’s ‘Stoke the Fire’ which we have been adding to the set. In Europe it was the one that started off the set. ‘Gasoline’ has been the lead off track to start any show for many years. It’s really hard to find a song to replace that one – we tried other songs in the past but finally, I think we’ve found a song that’s done that and that’s ‘Stoke the Fire’. I just love that track, it kicks off the album and it’s right now kicking off the live shows so… ‘Stoke the Fire’ is right now at the top of my list, favourite song off the album!” And with this tour where you play three shows in New Zealand – which is fantastic for the fans – what can we expect? A mix of old and new? Maybe some deeper cuts? “All of the above and we might even throw in a cover – that’s how you start out right? You start out a cover band… we haven’t forgotten that, and there’s still songs, even new songs with a band like Thrice for example one of our favourites – you know ‘Black Honey’ is a song we do by them. So we’ve been known to throw in a cover or two even during the show, but yes exactly, we’re kinda in a fortunate position; like I said for me fifteen years on you’ve got singles, a lot of singles over the years, but you know it’s a lot of fun to play the stuff that aren’t singles like mentioning ‘Stoke the Fire’ which isn’t a single per say but it’s a great live song, so yeah you can expect a great mix of old and new, singles, deep cuts and maybe even a cover!” Well if you throw in ‘Careless Whisper’ I would be eternally grateful [laughs] “Well we’ve got Corey Lowery who’s with us on this tour, great producer and musician and he’s a guitar player for us on this run and so maybe we could do that. It’s been a long time – and I hear ya, I’d love to play it live again too!”
Seether Frontman Shaun Morgan On Mental Health, New Beer Release
Grit Daily: You’re playing at the first Exit 111 rock festival in Manchester, TN in the fall. What are you expecting from the fans at the well-known home of Bonnaroo? Shaun Morgan: Rock festivals are always a blast to play because there is so much enthusiasm from the crowds. I feel like people really let loose and enjoy themselves with abandon which makes for an incredibly positive and vibrant experience. I expect this festival will be no different especially considering the bands on the bill. It is incredibly diverse and some of my favorite bands are playing so I’ll be having fun regardless. Bonnaroo is a different type of festival, which I’ve never attended, so I can’t make comparisons, but I am confident this festival will be a huge success. GD: How does it feel to be playing on the same roster as legends Guns n’ Roses and Def Leppard? SM: That’s mind-blowing! Both bands are legendary in their own rights and I listened to them well before I played in my first band as a kid. I’m pretty sure we covered their songs when I was 12 so this is a surreal moment to consider. Growing up in South Africa we were never exposed to many American bands so we were never able to see them in concert at all. I will definitely be reliving parts of my childhood watching these to great bands play live and it’s an absolute honor to be on this roster. I may need to frame a poster from this festival to have a reminder of how special this actually is. Rising above GD: The festival teamed up with your organization Rise Above to give a dollar from all ticket sales to SAVE. Tell us a bit about your involvement with the charity. SM: The concept for the Rise Above festival started years ago in New Hampshire, where I was living at the time. The aim is to raise awareness for suicide. The catalyst for that was my own brother’s suicide, which led to my desire to turn tragedy into beauty with the intention of really shining a light on the current suicide epidemic. The first year was very small but we moved the festival up to Maine and it began to grow exponentially after we partnered up with S.A.V.E. which helped us really expand the reach of the underlying message. Dr. Dan is one of the driving forces behind the charity and having people who sincerely want to help and be part of a discussion that is painful to have is incredible. Together we built the festival into the largest gathering in the world in support of suicide awareness and I am extremely proud of that. We have since ended our association with the people in Maine and are now aiming to rebuild the brand and the message in Tennessee. GD: Why did you also want to involve SAVE in your new beer, Alain’s Ardent Ale? SM: I wanted to create a beer brand in an effort to create a tangible way for people to be involved in Rise Above, as well as to provide a pleasurable experience at the same time. This ale is a perfect way for people to be able to support a charitable organization whilst at the same time sipping on a craft brew that was developed with love and dedication. It is my hope that this beer can bring people together and open broader discussions pertaining to suicide. I hope this inspires other people to join the cause and to try to make a difference, no matter the size. Playing through the pain GD: What keeps you inspired as an artist, songwriter and performer? SM: Music is now and always has been my passion. That’s the simple truth of it. I keep writing music because I need the catharsis of the process and I love being able to extract music from my head to be able to actually hear it coming through speakers. Lyrically, I always have inspiration because every song is a snippet of a passage in a diary, or a snapshot of something buried deep inside my subconscious, and therefore there is endless material. I am just truly grateful that the ditties I come up with resonate with people and they feel compelled to support me and the band, and continue to come to shows. That is an inspiration in and of itself. GD: How do you all keep a healthy headspace on tour when your schedules get chaotic? SM: That’s a tough one because it is incredibly difficult. Leaving on tour means leaving behind loved ones and the people who are most important in your life. I used to turn to drugs and alcohol to help me cope, which is ridiculous, but that was how I chose to numb the pain and the fear and the boredom. These days I go to bed early and speak to my girls at least once a day. I try to have a video call with my daughter every night before she goes to bed and speak to my fiancé as much as possible. I put a lot of people through a lot of terrible things with my past behavior and now I approach my life differently. Meditation helps in some cases as it allows you to settle and quiet the mind every morning which sets a precedent for the rest of the day. Being surrounded by good people helps with morale and mindset too, so that’s very important. GD: What misconceptions do you feel there are around mental health in the music industry? SM: The biggest misconception is that musicians don’t suffer from mental health issues like everyone else. From the outside looking in, it seems to impossible to fathom someone with wealth and fame being depressed or suicidal. That’s from a purely materialistic view because money doesn’t buy happiness, self confidence or internal peace. Money doesn’t magically alter your brain chemistry and rewire you to feel “normal,” just as fame doesn’t alter a negative self image and magically transform you into a confident person. I have battled depression and suicidal thoughts my entire life. Raising awareness of it doesn’t make that disappear. Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe to some, but I never said I didn’t struggle with the exact same thing I am trying to raise awareness for. In fact, I feel it better qualifies me to be able to see the struggle from the other side which allows for a compassionate approach, rather than a disdainful one. I guess my point is that musicians struggle just as much as other people, regardless of their assets and the adoration.
Social Impact Heroes: How Seether Frontman Shaun Morgan Is Advocating for Mental Health with the Inaugural Exit 111 Festival
"At the very center of it all, this whole movement is built around compassion for others, and abandoning old taboos and thought processes to really stare this epidemic in the face and demand it's surrender." Lead singer Shaun Morgan of world renowned rock band, Seether, shares his mission and advocacy for mental health awareness, the inaugural Exit 111 Festival in Manchester, TN, his vision for Rise Above and the most meaningful parts of his journey thus far. Tell me about how the festival’s partnership with SAVE came to be and what it means to have been able to donate so much money to the organization over the years. The first year of the Rise Above Fest, we were partnered up with a local New Hampshire chapter of a nationwide charity who seemed to have very little enthusiasm for what we were trying to achieve, so we needed to find someone passionate about the cause. I’m not sure exactly how we were put in touch with SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education), but Dr. Dan Reidenberg is the person who really sold me on their organization. He is incredibly dedicated to raising awareness about suicide and is on a tireless crusade to help families in need. We raise a small contribution to SAVE every year, and it feels like we’re doing our part in trying to affect small changes in the world. This subject is very close to my heart, so it makes me very proud that we have really created a solid platform to engage in an extremely tough conversation. This year, Rise Above has partnered with SAVE and the Exit 111 Festival for an important cause. How is the inaugural Exit 111 helping to make a social impact? For starters, it is by far the largest festival setting that we have been a part of, which wasn’t focused solely on suicide awareness. This is an incredible opportunity afforded to us by the creators of Exit 111, and we are really grateful that they have been so supportive. There is a global social network that we have access to, which has increased with the addition of our new partners at the festival; I think the impact we can have is tremendous. The major impact will be seen at the festival itself, once people stop by the tent and see what we’re trying to achieve, which will continue to grow through word of mouth and people spreading the message independently. Your vision for Rise Above was to touch at least one life and possibly make them reconsider the tragic path of suicide. Has any one individual come to you with this sort of success story? What kind of feedback have you received? I can confidently say that there is a lot of pain out there, with countless stories of suicide, suicide attempts or deep depression. I have heard so many stories, and unfortunately, most of them are not happy ones. It’s incredibly moving to be entrusted with the personal pain that people carry and to be a shoulder for them to lean on. With that being said, there are many beautiful stories full of hope and potential, and those are the moments that help to cement my dedication to helping people. I am very happy to say that there have been a number of people that I have personally spoken to in times of need who have managed to turn a corner and steer their lives in a positive direction. Every story is unique and it’s not easy, but there are some incredible kids out there who I think I have helped. I hope I have given them confidence in themselves to be able to face any challenges head-on and not make the ultimate sacrifice. You have built Rise Above into a notable organization, how do you define your type of “leadership”? Can you provide a few examples? I don’t see myself as a leader at all, not in this case. I am somebody who happened to experience suicide and wanted to prevent that from happening to other people. My main goal is to help people know that they are not alone, and that happiness cannot come from social media and the never ending quest for approval from strangers or peers. In fact, my advice is to get rid of those things completely to focus more on things that make you happy and give you a sense of meaning, which for me has always been music. I struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts like a lot of people do, which unfortunately gives me an honest perspective of what people are going through. I see myself as a facilitator more than a leader, because I am merely shining a light on the problem and offering steps towards healing and in so helping to mend myself. As a mental health advocate, what has been the most meaningful part of your journey or the organization’s journey? The most meaningful parts are the success stories from people that I meet when they are in a low place, then seeing them a year later and they are in a completely different place mentally. It is a decidedly tough journey that these people are on, and to know that I helped them to make slightly better choices or feel that I am someone who cares about them, it is a very humbling experience. By helping people who are struggling with depression and seeing them flourish, I am achieving my original goal, and then some. The entire driving force behind all of this is to show people that they are inherently important and meaningful, and each success story is another step forward for my own healing process. For others wanting to help, what are some action steps people can take to follow in your footsteps and speak out for mental health? It’s very simple to become involved, and it starts with making a decision to change your attitude and your approach to people who are struggling. If you are personally struggling, it is about realizing that it is absolutely okay to ask for help. It is about rebuilding communities through positive interaction, rather than spending your time living out your life online. I think you should reach out to people that appear to be suffering and see if there is a way to help, which quite often is simply through listening without prejudice. At the very center of it all, this whole movement is built around compassion for others, and abandoning old taboos and thought processes to really stare this epidemic in the face and demand it’s surrender. Small actions slowly compound into large ones and that is how you find yourself being part of the movement. What are five things you wish someone told you when you first founded the Rise Above Festival? Firstly, I would have liked to be warned about the magnitude of this epidemic and the avalanche of stories that come with it. I make no secret that I am dealing with my own issues, and some days it can take a real emotional toll on me. I am honored to be able to help people but I am also very sensitive to this particular issue so it really moves me and I feel every single person’s pain. That can be tough, but I am in this fight to make a difference. The other four could all be lumped together actually. I learned very quickly that there are people in this business that do not share my passion for the cause and ultimately do not make the best partners for me. We are now partnered with generous and passionate partners in the entire Exit 111 team, and we have surrounded ourselves with management and agents that are equally focused and passionate about the cause. You have inspired a movement that will continue to help so many people, what does the future look like for Rise Above Fest? What are a few milestones you hope to reach with it? We hope to build it up to a point where we can do the festival on a global scale and be able to organize satellite festivals across the world. That would be a dream come true, but exponentially better. The focus right now is on rebuilding the brand in Nashville and restoring it to its purest form where helping people trumps everything else. I am very inspired that I have a real say in how the whole operation runs, and I have rediscovered my drive for this so there are big things ahead. Hopefully, we will explore the idea of doing Rise Above festivals across the US too, once we have a few under our belt. Do you have a favorite life lesson or message that has been especially relevant in your life? My dad always used to tell me that it’s not what you say to people, but how you say it. That has always been in the back of my mind since I was a kid and I try to remember that when I interact with others. I feel like that is an especially important lesson right now in an age where we are subject to anonymous bullying online and hysterical masses. This is all about rediscovering compassion and abandoning razor-sharp outrage over subjects that won’t matter tomorrow. It would be nice if we, as a society, would take a deep breath before unleashing all the fury of the seven seas on strangers which often leads to very serious and tragic consequences. How can our readers follow you on social media? People can keep up to date by checking any of the Seether social media platforms, which will have information about everything band related as well as Rise Above news.
All For The Live Experience: A Seether Interview (John Humphrey)
Your New Zealand fans are very excited about the fact that Seether is coming back to New Zealand! John Humphrey: “Yeah we’re excited about coming back I think we haven’t been there… I think it’s been since 2015 was our last trip…” Yes, you played at the Logan Campbell Centre – it was a great show! JH: “We always have a great time there!” Well Seether certainly has a lot of fans here in New Zealand and of course you just released your new album Poison the Parish last year so they are looking forward to hearing some of that new material live! JH: “Yeah, we’re looking forward to playing it for sure.” Alright, so let’s get down to it John and hit you with a few questions [laughs] JH: “Absolutely! That’s what I’m here for!” As I just mentioned, Seether’s latest album is entitled Poison the Parish and its being touted as your heaviest album to date. Is that a statement that you would agree with? JH: “Yeah, absolutely. I think it was a mission statement of sorts you know? Shaun produced the album and there was a real conscious effort to make this album have a bit more edge, have the guitars way more present in the mix than maybe some previous albums. The band is still the band I just think that sonically and musically the guitars are very present. It was sort of a plan to maybe return to form, something maybe in the vein of Karma and Effect [2005] you know where we had songs like ‘The Gift’ and ‘Because of Me’ or you know ‘I’m the One’ on an album which were heavy but at the same time melodic songs that the band were always kind of known for and everything in between. But yeah with Shaun producing it, it was definitely bring back guitar and really taking things to the edge sonically for the band.” You mention the term ‘mission statement’ so this was a conscious deliberate move rather than something that grew organically? JH: “I think it was a deliberate move absolutely, you know obviously with Shaun producing and the band sort of doing it in house, we just sort of looked at each other and went ‘Man we’re gonna make a rock album, a heavy guitar album, the band are known for that’. We also listened to our fans you know, and hopefully with each album we’ve always grown musically, artistically; but a lot of them are like ‘Man I love Karma and Effect’ or ‘I love the heaviness of that would you do an album like that again?’ So yeah I think there’s absolutely a conscious effort on our part to make a heavier album this time.” Obviously as the drummer of the band you have a pivotal role in creating the foundations from which songs can be built; what inspires you personally when song writing or creating a new album? JH: “For a drummer you know my job is to musically sort of stand out of the way – I’m really good friends with and an admirer of Ray Luzier who is the drummer for Korn – and he was talking about a lot of drummers have a real tendency to play to drummers you know like ‘Let me do this cool fill, make this real complicated’ you know? The job of the drummer for like Korn, or for Ray or for me being in Seether is to frame the song; to make the song the best it can be. Like you said, setting the foundation, making it solid and as the drummer setting up the song, framing the song and basically, quite honestly, sort of staying out of the way. In laying the groove and keeping it solid, but not throwing in you know fancy fills, drum tricks and things that entertain me. It’s about playing the song and making the song the best it can be; Seether is a song orientated band you know, first and foremost and that’s what should come through. As a drummer I feel that that’s my job.” I know some of your earliest influences were Keith Moon, Tommy Lee, Peter Criss; but what inspired you to actually first pick up the sticks? JH: “For me, Kiss was one of the first records I had and obviously seeing these guys on T.V. – but really it was being a band geek at school growing up! I just loved drum core, I loved marching band, I just fell in love with it. I got my first drum kit when I was thirteen and I’d say everything really changed for me when two of my friends – who played bass and guitar – came over to my house and the three of us played together. Like I said I was thirteen, ultimately that became my first band and I’m sure we sounded horrible but to me I was in heaven. And to play music with other guys, creating music, maybe we were doing a cover, or maybe we were kinda jamming on our own riff; little bit of both as I recall but I mean it was just the greatest time I’ve had in this world and that was a game-changer for me, feeling what it was like to play with other humans and creating music, or trying to create music. I knew then – as crazy as it sounds – that’s what I wanted to do for my life and I wanted to sustain that feeling and that was it. That was when it changed.” So you’re with Ludwig now because didn’t you use Crush Drum Kits previously? JH: “Yeah I was with Crush for a while, but those guys broke off from another company called ddrum; and those guys formed Crush. It’s a smaller company and it’s a great company, but I had been with Ludwig before and then I just returned to home basically. And nothing against Crush but you know what can you say? Ludwig man, it’s just a legendary name, it’s been around forever – Jon Bonham, Buddy Rich, Ringo Star – I mean it’s freakin Ludwig, that’s home for me so I went back home!” Fair enough – and thank you, up and coming musicians always like to know what their favourite artists are using! JH: “My oldest son is in a music school; and there are just so many talented kids you know? Musicians, singers just it seems like so much more than when I was starting out, there are just a lot of talented kids in the world, it’s great to hear.” I think in some ways the digital age has made music more accessible to the younger generation and it’s inspiring a hell of a lot more of them to try their hand at creating something musically… JH: “Yeah absolutely – and at an early age too. It’s amazing!” I read quite a while ago that you were offered a scholarship to Berklee College of Music when you were younger – which you actually declined? JH: “Yes, I did. I was actually in another band at the time which – well we didn’t make it – but this is how you are. I would say I would change my decision if I could go back in time, but ultimately you know I ended up here, so what can you say? Yes that band didn’t work out but all these years later I’m very fortunate to have landed as the drummer for Seether. I can’t say that I made any wrong decisions other than – yeah I was scouted and offered an initial scholarship at Berklee and didn’t take it. So I guess in some ways it looks like ‘God, what a fool!’ It’s such a great school; but you know, here I am, Seether, I’ve been with them for fifteen years so luckily that panned out you know?” [laughs] I don’t think you’re a fool at all; you had to follow what your gut was telling you at the time. But what interests me is that they headhunted you. Do you believe this was a combination of natural talent and practice or the fact that you practiced every single day? Because you strike me as being that sort of kid at the time! JH: “That’s it! I worked really hard at it – you know some things came naturally, I think to be a musician it comes easier if you have a certain amount of natural ability – but I definitely worked really hard at it. What actually happened is I was scouted a year or so before I actually graduated high school. I had played a musical – I had been in marching band like I mentioned, jazz band, concert band all through my middle school and high school years – but I had done a musical with a college with college students. They had lost their drummer and they needed me to quickly set up and fill in, so I did these run of musicals. Just being the sophomore in high school… and so a scout was there you know unbeknownst that a young drummer was going to be filling in; so I think that said a lot about my work ethic and my ability obviously at such a young age. It was a pretty cool sort of circumstances!” You once also stated that the 2011 album ‘Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray’ was your favourite Seether album to play on so far – do you still feel the same way? Or has Poison the Parish exceeded that for you? JH: “You know it’s so tough – yeah I’m very proud of the latest album, I think the songs feel very natural and the album came together very organically. It took us not a lot of effort really to record, we did this old school. We got into a practice place, Shaun showed me and Dale all the material, he had given us demo’s to rehearse; we came together and just made it Seether’s. Seetherised it if you will and then it was just about getting into the studio and capturing the performances. So I’m proud of this album, you know I guess a lot of bands or artists would say their latest album is their best – but you know I have a lot of favourite moments throughout my career with this band. I have an interesting perspective in that the only album I’m not on is the first one, Disclaimer [2002] but I had to learn that inside and out – talk about work ethic – to audition for the band. I went out and bought that album literally and then sat and learnt every song, inside and out, backwards and forwards in preparation for my audition. So as a fan, not having been there to record that album, that’s one of my favourites just because I look at that one as an outsider. And we still play songs like ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Driven Under’ to this day and it’s still one of my favourites and I’m not even on it you know? But there are a lot of highlights for me; ‘Remedy’ is one, ‘Fake It’, ‘Country Song’ off Holding Onto Strings Better Left To Fray and ‘I’m The One’ off Karma and Effect. There are a lot of highlights you know? ‘Careless Whisper’ which was a complete fluke; to do that cover for an iTunes thing that ended up being a very successful sort of remake for us, that was a lot of fun and that was a complete fluke! I think it turned out great; we recorded that at Electric Lady Studios in New York City – a legendary studio. And that’s a highlight for me as well so I have a lot and just the same I am proud of Poison the Parish.” Yes I think ‘Careless Whisper’ caught a few people off guard! JH: Yeah! And certainly the band you know? Certainly the band! We just did that for fun, just having fun, we’re all eighties kids and we wanted to just … and the damn thing took off! It just did great, and I’m proud of it, I am!” It’s a great song – not just your cover of it but the original as well. It’s a classic! I think a lot of your fans though would have been like huh? With all the covers you could have chosen to do… JH: [laughs] “Right! And then you get someone younger that had no idea that it was even a cover … that cracks me up when a young one be like ‘Oh I didn’t know, you know my mom played me the original, and I’d never heard it! I thought that was your song!’ that cracks me up!” Speaking of the new album – and you just touched there briefly on the creation of it – Shaun sort of creates the base or the seed of most songs and then he passes it on to you guys, correct? JH: “Yes exactly, and in the case of this latest album, he had put together demo’s and songs at his home studio and he – at the time – had sort of a keyboard set-up where he could simulate drums and at least give an idea of the beats and kind of an idea of what he wants for the song – to frame the song. And then he gives it to Dale and I to humanize it and make it sort of our own, to own the parts so that we’re comfortable with it and any ideas that we wanna interject, well we’re open to that to, Shaun’s a pleasure to work with and we’ve created a lot of music together and it’s been a lot of fun.” For you now it’s been fifteen years with the band hasn’t it? JH: “Yes fifteen years this year.” Does it honestly feel like fifteen years? JH: “No! I mean it really doesn’t; I can’t believe it. As a musician I’m very fortunate to have been with this band and to have this kind of time and to still be doing what we started out doing together in 03’, it’s pretty amazing, it blows me away!” Shaun stated that it’s about ‘Having honesty in your music’ and I personally think this is a great statement that sums up who Seether are as a band really well… JH: “Yeah, absolutely I mean that’s one thing we are; you don’t go chasing trends you can’t do that. You have to be honest with yourself, to yourself and with no pretence and I think Seether does that. I mean the music that you hear comes from three guys on tour – in this case four guys on stage – we play with no track which is a rarity now. It’s just the four guys up there making the music live. But yeah I think lyrically, musically, stylistically the band is truly what you hear and what you see, you know that’s being honest. And that’s definitely Seether!” It’s interesting that you mention that – it is a thing for most live bands to play with tracks – so why do you choose not to? JH: “I mean we don’t really need it quite honestly. I mean we come from the school of the live experience is different from the album. Maybe the songs aren’t replicated to the tee of an album but you know that’s what it is, what it means to be a musician, at least to me. Every night the experience; you have good nights, you have bad nights but at least they’re real, I mean it’s about the human experience; it’s about interacting with people. It’s about looking out into the crowd and how that makes you feel and how that makes you play – mistakes and all, warts and all! That’s about being a musician and playing it live to live. Otherwise that’s air-drumming, that’s air-guitaring when you’re out there and doing tracks… and you’re not really singing it’s all track, you know that’s not performing, that’s not being a musician, I don’t get it at all. That’s karaoke [laughs] that’s not even that! It’s just a weird concept and that’s not why you get into this to do that you know?” I wholeheartedly agree, that’s the beauty of live music. Speaking of music, just out of interest, what is your favourite track off the new album then? JH: “It’s the first track for me, it’s ‘Stoke the Fire’ which we have been adding to the set. In Europe it was the one that started off the set. ‘Gasoline’ has been the lead off track to start any show for many years. It’s really hard to find a song to replace that one – we tried other songs in the past but finally, I think we’ve found a song that’s done that and that’s ‘Stoke the Fire’. I just love that track, it kicks off the album and it’s right now kicking off the live shows so… ‘Stoke the Fire’ is right now at the top of my list, favourite song off the album!” And with this tour where you play three shows in New Zealand – which is fantastic for the fans – what can we expect? A mix of old and new? Maybe some deeper cuts? JH: “All of the above and we might even throw in a cover – that’s how you start out right? You start out a cover band… we haven’t forgotten that, and there’s still songs, even new songs with a band like Thrice for example one of our favourites – you know ‘Black Honey’ is a song we do by them. So we’ve been known to throw in a cover or two even during the show, but yes exactly, we’re kinda in a fortunate position; like I said for me fifteen years on you’ve got singles, a lot of singles over the years, but you know it’s a lot of fun to play the stuff that aren’t singles like mentioning ‘Stoke the Fire’ which isn’t a single per say but it’s a great live song, so yeah you can expect a great mix of old and new, singles, deep cuts and maybe even a cover!” Well if you throw in ‘Careless Whisper’ I would be eternally grateful [laughs] JH: “Well we’ve got Corey Lowery who’s with us on this tour, great producer and musician and he’s a guitar player for us on this run and so maybe we could do that. It’s been a long time – and I hear ya, I’d love to play it live again too!”