By: Amanda Waschuk (Calgary Correspondent - Canada) 

Currently on tour with Veer Union and Inward Eye, Seether is heading across Canada in order to promote their new album "Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces" and to stir up interest for their 2009 forecasted new album.  The show started off a bit slow with lead singer Shaun Morgan looking as though he had just rolled out of bed.  The set consisted of a lot of slower tunes, including their hit "Broken", which was re-released with Amy Lee of Evanescence adding to vocals.  But this mellower-than-expected show is alright for a Monday, unless you're a diehard Seether fan looking for an evening of hardcore, head banging music.  As the saying goes, they saved the best for last and played their hits "Fake It" and "The Remedy," where Shaun looked genuinely shocked at the loud cheers of approval.  With much gratitude, Seether exited the stage promising to be back soon. 

Before the show, drummer John Humphrey and bass guitarist Dale Stewart were able to give me a quick interview on importing the band to North America, experiences of shows past, and plans for the new album.

Amanda:  You're originally from South Africa, what brought you to North America?
Seether (Dale):  We got a record deal in South Africa and it's not a very big country so there's only so much you can really do down there.  You can play every major city in a week.  And then you just wait for a festival.  So we kind of hit a wall in many ways and wanted to be exposed to more people and play for a bigger market.  We thought Europe because it's quite easy to get into London but quite difficult to get into America as a South African (to get a Visa).  We were kids at the time and didn't have real estate or anything...

Amanda:  So you packed up your bags and left, there was nothing waiting for you on the other side?
Seether (Dale): The only reason we were able to come over was that Wind-Up Records heard the album we had recorded and really liked it and they called us up and said, "Hey we'd love to meet you guys".  So basically they kind of sponsored us and took responsibility for us, said we were going to work for their company and we managed to get our Visas.  So we went over to the States and the rest is history.

Amanda:  What is the music scene like in South Africa?
Seether (Dale):  It seems to be getting a lot better.  When we left it was kind of tough, especially as a rock band because there's not a lot of rock fans.  The majority of people listen to local music and we were always a band that stuck out and sounded like we were from Seattle, or at least that's what people said.  Nowadays there's a TV station dedicated to rock music and it just seems like there's a lot more support when we go back now and we're playing arenas which we'd never been able to do before.  It definitely seems that there's a lot more support now. 

Amanda:  Do you feel the Internet has a huge impact on helping to promote bands?
Seether (Dale):  Oh yes, it's completely changed the whole industry and I think it will continue to do so.  Soon it's all going to be digital, iTunes and videos and movies and stuff.  It's going to be hard to find CDs soon, like how you have to go to a vinyl shop and sift through to see if you can find something.  Now there's going to be CD shops.
(John):  It's hard to say, I hope in some ways that since it's easily accessible that new bands, even unsigned, can be discovered, say through myspace.  Those are outlets that we didn't have when we were younger.  Hopefully it will create more of a fanbase and support rock music and live music.  What's kind of disconcerting at times is ringtones tend to outsell a whole single.  It's as though music, in a way, is becoming a sound byte.  Hopefully that's not a continuing pattern. 

Amanda:  A few years ago, you did a cover of a then recently released Nirvana song, do you find you aspire to be like them?
Seether (Dale):  I don't think so, but they're definitely one of our rock influences and especially for Shaun.   

Amanda:  That's why he started playing guitar, right?
Seether (Dale):  Yes, and I think for all of us.  It's impossible to ignore such a huge band.  We do all kinds of covers, we're doing a Stone Temple Pilots song right now. 

Amanda:  Which one?
Seether (Dale): Creep.  And we just did a Beatles cover for iTunes.  When we do it, it's out of respect.  So it inspired us to want to play and affects the way we sound.  Not that we're comparing ourselves to them but it's an homage. 

Amanda:  Have you done any Kiss covers (looking at John's Kiss T-shirt)? Because on your myspace there's a picture of Shaun blowing flames out of his mouth Gene Simmons style.
Seether (John): No we haven't, but it's definitely a band I grew up with.  I grew up a product of the 80s with all those big productions, so when I'm 12 years old and Kiss comes through blowing stuff up it's pretty impressionable and attacks all the senses of an impressionable mind so Kiss kind of changed my life for sure. 

Amanda:  You collaborated with Amy Lee of Evanescence for your song "Broken," but claim it was more what the record company wanted than what the band wanted, can you expand?
Seether (Dale):  "Broken" was originally a very stripped down acoustic type song and we were approached by the producers of this movie called "The Punisher" asking if we'd be willing to do a version for the movie.  And we thought it was a really good opportunity.  We originally wanted Amy to sing on it in the studio, so we figured we'd make it a soundtrack song but then it got really big and the label wanted to take advantage of it and re-release our album with this one song tacked onto the bottom.  But the problem with us is we'd already sold half a million of the original album so we don't want to go and add a song and have those half a million people have to go and buy another CD for one song.  We didn't think it'd be cool to anger the fans.  We wanted to add an EP so that's why the re-release had 20 songs plus videos.  We wanted to make it worthwhile to buy the new one.  Initially we were against it, but this compromise worked out.  And that song did a lot for us.

(John): Yes, it's a very bittersweet sort of thing.  There's always the joke that "you're Amy's backing band why did you quit her?".  People didn't realize it's a Seether song.  But at the same time it did a lot for us and got our foot through the door.  We love Amy, she's an amazing talent and this song laid the foundation for our next single "Remedy".  And the next album debuted number 8 in the states (Karma and Effect). 

Amanda:  Do you think record labels have too much control over the final product?
Seether (John): There's always politics when the producers are involved with the band.  But the people who put up the money to market you and put you in the studio are the label and should have a voice as well.  It is music business and unfortunately business comes into play.  But we have a great label, earlier we were talking on the radio about how Finger Eleven are label-mates of ours and they're a really career-oriented label, to give them some props.  We were able to release an acoustic album of the greatest hits of Seether.  So this is a label that gives bands the opportunity to grow, not just have a hit and go on to the next thing. 

Amanda:  Which tour has been your favorite and who were you on tour with at the time?
Seether (Dale):  I think one that stands out was with Audioslave.  We got to meet the guys and they're a very talented band.  We got to play huge venues, we played Madison Square Gardens.  We played, showered, then went out and watched their whole show.  As a fan and an artist it was really cool, then we got to go and play in front of these huge crowds.

Amanda:  Which was the worst show you ever had?
Seether (John and Dale): San Diego!
(John):  It was a radio festival and we just didn't fit on the bill at all.  It was an odd, young punk-rock thing.  Artistically it wasn't a good fit.  But we took it in stride, we were all making fart sounds at each other before we went on then went out and did our set.  Shaun didn't talk at all, we just got it done and over with. 

Amanda:  Did the crowd respond?
Seether (John): Golf claps.  All we could do was laugh. 

Amanda:  2009 marks the tenth anniversary of Seether and you plan on putting out an album for that, have you started work on it?
Seether (Dale):  We haven't, we've just been throwing ideas around as we're not really sure what we want to do yet.  We may possibly release the first release we ever had which is exclusive to South Africa.

(John):  And all our demos.  We're pretty busy right now though, 5 or 6 shows a week, we haven't been focusing on it too much. 

Amanda:  After ten years, with everything you know now, would you go back and change anything?
Seethe (Dale):  No, I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason.  And maybe if we'd done things differently... that butterfly effect where if you kill one butterfly it could affect the course of the world....I think we're all pretty happy with the way things have gone.

(John):  With all the mistakes, looking back we learned and that's what made us make different decisions next time.  I think we have a nice career.  And once again with the label we're with we've accumulated a bunch of work.