{"id":34512,"date":"2018-05-01T07:27:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T21:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=34512"},"modified":"2018-05-01T07:28:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T21:28:22","slug":"shaun-morgan-of-seether-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2018\/05\/shaun-morgan-of-seether-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Morgan of Seether"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: On the back of their heaviest album to date, SEETHER are intent on blasting the roof off with equal measures of ferocity and purpose. This is a band that knows how to connect with an audience, whilst delivering all the blood, sweat and sheer musical brutality that transports fans to a state of nirvanic rhapsody. SEETHER\u2019s existence itself is an act of rebellion, weaponized to cut through the noise with truth telling clarity and undeniable authenticity. SEETHER are not your bog-standard riff-mongers. This is a multiplatinum rock anthem machine whose live performances are armed with soaring guitars and monster melodies delivered with an atmospheric crunch that will leave fans blissfully drained.<\/p>\n

While he was in Nashville we gave Shaun a call to catch up and fill us in on the band\u2019s upcoming tour of Australia, their latest album \u2018Poison The Parish\u2019, the creative process, vinyl, and much more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been three years since we last chatted, so let\u2019s catch up. How have the last three years been for you?<\/strong>
\nWe took the bulk of 2016 off to write the album and sort of regroup after a long tour, then May of 2017 we\u2019ve basically been touring since then. We\u2019ve had some time off here and there to catch up with family and stuff like that but for the most part but I think we\u2019re right in the middle of the process for this tour and I assume we\u2019ve got at least another year before we get to call it quits and write a new album.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re 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?<\/strong>
\nYeah, 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\u2019re having a good time. These tours they\u2019re 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\u2019re 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\u2019s 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\u2019ll throw in something we haven\u2019t played in a while or we\u2019ll do a cover of some sort. So set lists can be quite a pain especially when you\u2019re trying to please everybody, we\u2019ve 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\u2019re just not as exciting as the newer stuff, often we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

In terms of new music we just had \u2018Poison The Parish\u2019 out last year, how has the cycle been since its release?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s been good, the singles have been doing well, the crowds have been doing well, I think the crowds have been getting bigger than we\u2019ve had in the past and just in general the whole atmosphere is great. We\u2019ve had Clint Lowery play guitar for a while and he\u2019s gone back to Sevendust now because they\u2019ve got an album coming out so we\u2019ve got his brother coming out who will be with us on this tour, that\u2019s Corey Lowery. So that brings a lot of positive energy, I don\u2019t know everything just seems really good, everyone\u2019s in a good mood and everyone\u2019s getting on really well it\u2019s 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\u2019s going well. The singles have done well, the videos have been well received, the tours are doing well, so I know it\u2019s been a long time since we\u2019ve been to Oz and I\u2019m hoping that people don\u2019t forget and we have good turnouts and we have fun like we always have.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the heaviest album you\u2019ve made in a while, did you go into it with that idea in your head of making a heavier record?<\/strong>
\nIt wasn\u2019t 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\u2019ve done on some albums is I\u2019ve overthought it and I\u2019d overcomplicate the songs and I\u2019ve tried to be too clever and I like the albums but I always felt like now in retrospect I wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s a producer in his own right and he\u2019s produced the Deftones and most notably \u2018Gore\u2019 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\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019t have to pander to a producer if I\u2019m the one calling the shots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s a time and place for all that stuff and I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t think you should then have to go in and say well let\u2019s turn the distortion down to five instead of ten just because that\u2019s a little more pleasing to the ear, to me that\u2019s dumbs it down a little bit and that\u2019s not taking anything away from those procedures that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Have you thought about doing that for an anniversary or something like that?<\/strong>
\nYeah most likely I think what might be interesting is next year will be twenty years since we formed, so it\u2019ll be our twentieth anniversary so maybe that\u2019ll be a good time and would be good timing as well because it\u2019ll be at a time when we\u2019re off the road after an extensive tour so we\u2019ll 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\u2019t 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 \u2018Disclaimer\u2019 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\u2019m 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\u2019s intimidating you don\u2019t understand that you have the right to stand up and say no that you don\u2019t like that and that you can actually put in your opinion and you can shape the way that it sounds, there\u2019s 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\u2019s not the case I can go back and revisit those for anyone that\u2019s 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\u2019s something I\u2019d like to do just purely for my own satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Although vinyl has made a big comeback so you never know, you could put them out and do it that way?<\/strong>
\nYeah I think vinyl I mean it\u2019s 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\u2019t have enough hipsters as fans *laughs*. I\u2019ve got maybe four or five records that I have that were given to me or I bought out of pure nostalgia and I\u2019ve got a little cheapo record player but for me there\u2019s a very cool misty eyed kind of thing about putting the needle on the record and watching it spin and I feel like it\u2019s almost a travesty that I\u2019ve got this crappy system that I play it on, I should get a better one.\u00a0 It\u2019s just not worth me investing on something like that because I don\u2019t really sit and have a room\u2026 John our drummer you should see his record collection it\u2019s phenomenal, he\u2019s got thousands of records and actually bought one of those record store display shelves and all his LP\u2019s 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\u2019s just passion, it\u2019s his passion to collect this stuff so if more people like John listened to our music I\u2019m 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\u2019t think I\u2019ve actually paid too much attention a lot of things have happened, actually this year has flown by and it\u2019s frustrating because the older I get the faster the years go by and I really wish it was the other way around. *laughs*<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2018 Seether will\u2026<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 by the end of 2018 Seether will *laughs* I don\u2019t 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\u2019s how it goes for us man, it\u2019s the little engine that could and unfortunately never, ever stops but we\u2019re good with it, we\u2019d rather be busy than not be wanted at all.<\/p>\n

Seether in Australia & New Zealand May 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wednesday 23rd May – Sydney, Metro Theatre<\/p>\n

Friday 25th May – Melbourne, The Forum<\/p>\n

Saturday 26th May – Brisbane, Eatons Hill<\/p>\n

Tickets from: www.davidroywilliams.com\/tours\/seether-2018\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

Latest release:<\/strong> Poison The Parish (Out Now \u2013 Caroline Australia)<\/p>\n

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