{"id":21958,"date":"2014-06-27T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=21958"},"modified":"2014-06-26T09:01:13","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T23:01:13","slug":"shaun-morgan-of-seether","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2014\/06\/shaun-morgan-of-seether\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Morgan of Seether"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cThe biggest challenge really is to just stay around and to stay relevant and to keep making music that people want to listen to, and to keep challenging yourself every time you make an album as you have to retain a sound that is comfortable and familiar but you also have to make it more interesting and personable with some boundaries because you don\u2019t want to bore yourself or anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: On their sixth full-length album Isolate and Medicate, multi-platinum alternative rock trio Seether strip their trademark melodic thrash to its core and deliver the most poignant, passionate, and powerful record of their illustrious career. With rigorous minimalism and maturity, chief songwriter Shaun Morgan \u2013 long one of rock\u2019s most unheralded melodists, has become a composer of deep emotion and clear-eyed vulnerability. The band too has developed into one of rock\u2019s most fearsome units, playing with precision, grit and authority, yet still light on their feet. After 15+ years of hardscrabble success, it\u2019s evident that Seether felt like survival was not enough. They had something to prove with this new album \u2013 somewhere farther to go.<\/p>\n

After a few failed attempts, we were finally able to catch up with Shaun of Seether to talk about their new album \u2018Isolate and Medicate\u2019 as well as longevity, challenges and when we might see them back in Australia\u2026<\/p>\n

You\u2019re about to release your newest album \u2018Isolate and Medicate\u2019 is there one word that you could use to describe it that you feel sums it up perfectly?<\/strong>
\nGee that\u2019s a difficult question, it\u2019s way too early in the morning for me to use my brain that hard\u2026 I don\u2019t know *laughs* honestly I couldn\u2019t just sum it up in one word. Maybe, melodic\u2026 that was a good one, thanks for starting off on the easy question *laughs*<\/p>\n

No worries, so what does the title represent to you?<\/strong>
\nI like to sum up the album writing process every time I like to knee deep put a bow on each one with an album title, basically with this one it\u2019s pretty straight forward man, I just spent a lot of time by myself in isolation and unfortunately I would get very hammered all the time and write music, so it\u2019s kind of fun, but it was just my coping mechanism. At the end of the day that\u2019s where all the songs came from and so like I said, when we were in the studio and we\u2019d be busy writing the stuff, you need to sum it all up and give it the final touch and that seemed to be the best name for this album.<\/p>\n

You say you isolated yourself, was that a specific driving inspiration behind the songs for this album?<\/strong>
\nWell I don\u2019t know that isolated myself as I felt like I was by the outside world, it\u2019s just weird when you finish touring with everybody for two years and then you go home and everybody just ignores each other, it\u2019s really bizarre and I live up in New Hampshire and I was about as far away from everybody as I possibly could be. I don\u2019t know, I just feel basically a lot of the time I felt unappreciated at times, and I know it\u2019s a horrible feeling when you feel like nobody gives a shit you know what I mean? It\u2019s a question like while we\u2019ve just been seeing each other every day for two to three years and now I don\u2019t hear a single thing from anybody, so it sort of makes you question a whole bunch of things, it makes you question whether or not the relationships are based on anything besides the touring process, but I think the lyrics other than that as well there\u2019s a lot of stuff that\u2019s social commentary about how I think everything\u2019s screwed up right now, in some places anyway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>You worked with Brendan O\u2019Brien as producer once again, what is it that he brings to the band that works?<\/strong>
\nWell he\u2019s just fun to work with first of all, and I think he\u2019s just a creative genius, he\u2019s been doing it for almost thirty years and he\u2019s still going strong and he\u2019s still working with massive artists all the time and he brings a lot of creativity and he helps us make the songs as good as they can be without losing the essence of the band. Basically he says \u2018hey man, bring your amps and your guitars and it\u2019s going to sound like your band, it\u2019s going to be songs that you\u2019ve written but we\u2019re going to make them as good as we can and as interesting to listen to as possible\u2019 so as opposed to most producers that we\u2019ve worked with, you go in and they have a whole rack of guitars and amps, and say \u2018well usually we use this amp and this guitar combination for clean sounds and this guitar amp combinations for distorted sounds\u2019 and that\u2019s why all of our albums started to sound exactly the same, they have a formula and that\u2019s just not the way to do it. We\u2019re not making a producer album, we\u2019re making a band album with a producer\u2019s help, a lot of these producers it\u2019s just ego, they miss sight of the fact that it\u2019s not about them and about how many sales they\u2019re going to drive this weekend it\u2019s about the band and the band\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

Using him again, did you set out to do anything differently for this album compared to your last?<\/strong>
\nNo, I think we went in knowing the songs better than we usually did and we went in with sort of a \u2018let\u2019s get these songs down and get them sounding as good as we possibly can and then let\u2019s just get this album finished\u2019 as much fun as it is making albums, it\u2019s the least fun part of the job, it\u2019s like writing the music is awesome, then you get in the studio and you have to be professional, I don\u2019t like being professional *laughs* you get in there and you have to play properly and it\u2019s like lyric writing time and that\u2019s like the business aspect of the whole thing, but we did it and at least with Brendan it doesn\u2019t feel like a chore you know what I mean? We like being in the studio but I don\u2019t think we consider ourselves to be a studio band, we consider ourselves to be a live band.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been in Seether for the best part of fifteen years now, what do you still enjoy about being in this band?<\/strong>
\nNothing\u2026 *laughs* I must say that I enjoy that we\u2019re still here. We\u2019ve been touring for a long time and bands have come and gone and fallen by the wayside and have been dropped from labels and are either managing or tour managing or teching for other bands. I think it that sense whatever we are doing we are doing something right, we still have a career, we\u2019re still putting out albums, we now have a better label with better people and it\u2019s almost like we\u2019ve taken a big step forward in our career with this album and with a new label. For some reason for us it just keeps getting better and better, and I hope that trend will continue, so that\u2019s the best part about it, that we\u2019re still here doing this, especially when I run into old guys that we toured with back in 2002, we were all baby bands and we were the opening band of three bands and now I run into those guys and they are literally like \u2018I tune guitars for this band now\u2019 and \u2018I\u2019m tour managing this band now\u2019 and they had the same dreams that we did, so now it\u2019s just kind of sad as you see a part of them has died now that they\u2019re on the other side of the business. I think that part is really cool that we can still do it and we\u2019re still together.<\/p>\n

What do you see as the biggest challenge that has taken place within the band since your time together?<\/strong>
\nThe biggest challenge really is to just stay around and to stay relevant and to keep making music that people want to listen to, and to keep challenging yourself every time you make an album as you have to retain a sound that is comfortable and familiar but you also have to make it more interesting and personable with some boundaries because you don\u2019t want to bore yourself or anybody else. For example \u2018Words As Weapons\u2019 as a song is slightly different song for us but I think it\u2019s still reminiscent of our band and represents our band. It\u2019s funny our fans, every time we put out something new they have mixed reviews and it\u2019s almost like the songs have to grow on you for some time for the old stalwarts, the ones that feel like they have an ownership and that their opinion means a lot more than it should I guess. We put out \u2018Fake It\u2019 and there was a mixed response, we put out \u2018Country Song\u2019 and some people just about disowned us, but I don\u2019t write the music for other people man, I write this music for myself and if I was trying to write what the people wanted to hear I\u2019d lose my mind because I don\u2019t know what they want. I write music that I want to listen to or that I think is fun to play and I think literally at the end of the day it\u2019s just interesting music, I don\u2019t give anything behind that, so that\u2019s all I care about, at the end of the day that\u2019s just what it is, it boils down to we make music that I think needs to be challenging in a sense and it needs to be interesting and it needs to have an element of tongue in cheek, humour and you can\u2019t take yourself 100% seriously all the time and I think that people take this thing so seriously and it\u2019s supposed to be fun so we\u2019re just having fun.<\/p>\n

Has there been one moment that stands out for you as your \u2018wow, we\u2019ve made it\u2019 moment?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t know, there\u2019s been many moments where I\u2019ve said \u2018wow this is awesome\u2019 I don\u2019t know that we really think, we never really sort of go \u2018wow we\u2019ve made it\u2019 it\u2019s a weird thing. I never really pay attention to the media side of it because often you\u2019ll get a thousand good things said and one bad thing and that one bad thing will drive me insane, so I sort of choose to remove myself completely from that experience. There\u2019s been great moments when you get on stage and there\u2019s 50,000 people out there and you\u2019re opening for Metallica, that\u2019s awesome\u2026 those are the time you go, man this job isn\u2019t that bad *laughs* and it\u2019s good to be alive. I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ve ever felt like we\u2019ve arrived, it\u2019s an ongoing thing for us and we\u2019ll just keep trying to build it up and keep trying to make a bigger fan base, like one thing about touring Europe is it\u2019s very different to touring The States, back in The States you pull bigger crowds and a bigger audience as we\u2019ve toured relentlessly over the last twelve years, and in Europe we\u2019ve only now over the last three years concentrated on it and really put in time here, and it was no fault of the bands as we\u2019ve always wanted to come out here, and even in the last two or three years we\u2019ve started to see a massive increase in turnout and support. It\u2019s a fun process, it\u2019s almost like starting from scratch again and it\u2019s great. I think we just play the shows and there are moments when you go \u2018wow this is amazing\u2019 you know you play Download festival for example, growing up as a kid, that was one of the holy grail festivals to play, so I think maybe when we can do a thing like headline Wembley like Foo Fights *laughs* if that\u2019s even possible, that\u2019s about that only time that a band can say \u2018we\u2019ve made it\u2019 other than that I really think we\u2019ve had a whole bunch of experiences where we can go \u2018wow this is awesome\u2019.<\/p>\n

Obviously when \u2018Broken\u2019 blew up everywhere that would\u2019ve been a huge moment for you?<\/strong>
\nYeah of course, that helped us a lot initially and it was such a bittersweet thing *laughs* as it was like it almost felt like and we were told many times that we would never have been able to do it by ourselves which I think is bullshit. It definitely helped and it was interesting as I don\u2019t think that was the best song to introduce us as a band *laughs* I think if you hear \u2018Broken\u2019 and then you hear the rest of our stuff, sure there\u2019s that element to the band but it doesn\u2019t represent the band in its entirety, so definitely it helped us worldwide absolutely, I think without that\u2026 you know also with that we had a fairly incompetent record label before and there\u2019s a lot to be said for that, a lot to be said for some people that have signed a band that don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re doing, that company at one point had twenty or thirty bands and only three or four were successful, and it was always a formula. There was the Creed formula that was sold to the Christians, and let\u2019s do that again with Evanescence, and then hey here comes Drowning Pool, let\u2019s sell them to the Satanists, and then hey, what do we do with Seether because, well, no one can do anything\u2026 it was just sort of an interesting thing to see people sort of floundering for the \u2018well can we go with the South African group?\u2019 Is there an angle there? Can we use that to sell them?\u2019 but anyway, it was very good for us and we\u2019re very grateful but hopefully since then we\u2019ve been able to convince people that there\u2019s a lot more substance to the band than just that one song.<\/p>\n

Well you\u2019re still around so it\u2019s obviously working\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* Yeah absolutely, fair enough\u2026<\/p>\n

I have to ask, when do you think we can expect to see you back in Australia?<\/strong>
\nMan, I hear rumours about early next year, I\u2019m not 100% certain, but we haven\u2019t been there since 2011 which is just blasphemous, but I believe that\u2019s the rumour so you\u2019ll probably find out way before I do, but I do know it\u2019s certainly within the first four or five months of next year.<\/p>\n

Maybe Soundwave would be a perfect opportunity?<\/strong>
\nYeah that would be great man, I\u2019d love to be a part of something like that. I think we\u2019re shooting for that but I\u2019m the last guy to find these things out\u2026<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s try and predict the remainder of the year, so if you can finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2014, Seether will\u2026<\/strong>
\nBe\u2026 old and decrepit *laughs* no, by the end of 2014, Seether will\u2026 that\u2019s another one of those questions where man I have to think about this one\u2026 no, by the end of 2014 hopefully we\u2019ll be riding strong and on a second single and still touring, so by the end of 2014 Seether will still be on the goddamn tour bus, how about that one? *laughs*<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0South Africa<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0Shaun Morgan \u2013 vocals, guitar, Dale Stewart \u2013 bass, vocals, John Humphrey \u2013 drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0www.seether.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong>\u00a0Isolate and Medicate \u2013 (Caroline Australia)
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