Carolina Rebellion 2017: Exclusive Seether Interview + Photos
Seether's latest album Poison the Parish will be released on Friday (May 12). They are in the midst of a extensive tour, and Sevendust's Clint Lowery is helping them out on guitar. They played to a large and rowdy crowd at Carolina Rebellion over the weekend. Seether were a well-oiled machine with Lowery integrating really well. "Gasoline" lit the fire and they also played "Fine Again" from 2002's Disclaimer. It was a hit-filled set, with even their newest song "Let You Down" from Poison the Parish already near the top of the rock singles chart. "Remedy" brought their nine song set to a rousing finish.
You can see more photos of their set above. Loudwire also had the opportunity to chat with bassist Dale Stewart about the new album, the band's upcoming Rise Above Fest and other topics.
Was there anything unique about the songwriting process for Poison the Parish?
Yeah, Shaun [Morgan] pretty much did the bulk of it in his home studio in Nashville. Each album is different. Sometimes we're in a room jamming, like garage band style, straight up, sometimes Shaun will be like, "Hey, listen to this!" And then we'll get in a room for the recording process, hash them out, get them all straight. And then, sort of really the recording process then just becomes tracking. We really do our homework, so by the time we get in the studio we know the parts, got everything down, let's just lay it on tape. So, we can do a whole album in like, two weeks, pretty much. So that saves studio time, we'll just knock it out.
What are the pros and cons of self-producing?
You can do exactly what you want to do. We've had an opportunity to work with some great producers over the years. And I think we've learned a lot from these guys. Like it or not, they do have an influence on the sound. As much as they'll try not to, or try to, I don't know, it does affect the sound a little bit, even in a small way. So, doing it ourselves, it's exactly how we want it to sound. That's the mix, everything, I mean everything. I don't know if there are any real cons. We had a good time. We had a good experience, and we're happy with the results.
And you're a veteran band so you don't really need somebody micromanaging the recording.
That's the thing. We've been doing this a long time. Johnny's such an ace on the drums, I mean he's like a session guy, he lays it down. In two days he'll do 15 drum tracks, and there's minimal editing that needs to be done. I'll do the bass in two days, and then the bulk of it's your guitar tracks and singing, because that's a lot of stuff.
But I feel like when you've been in the studio a lot, and recorded a lot of stuff, it's like anything, you get better at it. I think we've earned our place to produce, we know what we're doing. Our new label's so cool, they're like, "Yeah, man, we believe in you guys, go do it."
Is that why the songs ended up heavier this time around, because you didn't have any sort of outside interference?
This is probably the most honest Seether album in a long time, the most just back to the good old days. Just hard rocking Seether stuff. Because there wasn't a producer trying to take the edge off stuff.
Did you have the title going in, or did it come about somewhere during the process?
It was towards the end. A title only comes towards the end of the process, title, artwork, track listing. That's something that I want to say it's a lost art, I think it's something people don't really maybe appreciate as much, it's something you put a lot of thought into. The artwork and track listing and everything, it's a well thought-out plan. We aren't just like, "Let's put the songs on." It's like planning a set list, you want it to flow a certain way.
Let's come out heavy, somewhere in the middle break it down, we'll throw in “Broken,” and break it right down, just a huge thing, and then we'll end heavy. It's that kind of thing, you want someone who sits down and listens track to track, looks at the artwork, reads the lyrics, like we did when we were kids.
We wanted a flow. It's a little journey. It's so weird now the world we're living in. I don't know if many people can even do that. Their fingers are going, "click," find a song here or there, and jam on to that. it's a weird world.
Your last two albums went Top 5. Do you worry about chart position when you release a new disc?
We don't really care, man, we got cool fans, they're loyal. I don't think we've really released an album yet that we lose sleep about. I hope people buy it, I hope people like it. I think we're at the point where we know some people are going to hate it, and we know some people hopefully will love it. You can't expect everyone to like it, not everyone loves chocolate ice cream.
If you like it, cool. We like it, too. And if you come to our show and you don't like it, well, maybe you'll like the next one. It's just what we do. We just make music that we like. We make the music we want to listen to.
How did Clint Lowery from Sevendust become a touring member?
He's a buddy. He's such a good dude. And he's such a bad-ass. I can't really think of anyone better to have filling that role. His backing vocals, he's such a good singer. I'm trying to fight my way through the backing vocals. I'm not a strong singer, I'm not a confident singer. I'll do things here and there. But he's doing such cool backing vocals, in addition to being a great guitar player.
We've been talking about this for a long time. "Dude, how fun would it be?" So finally we got to do it. Sevendust was taking a year off, they've been at it a long time with this one. They're having a little break. We're like, "Dude, let's do it, come on!" And it's cool. I think it's the best we've ever sounded live. So, that's cool for the fans, it's cool for us buddies hanging out, just having a good time.
Does it make you want to expand back into a quartet permanently?
I'd love it. If he leaves, it would leave a hole. We're only in the beginning stages of this run, but already I'm like, "I don't want to do a show without this guy." It's sounding so good, it's so fun. So I don't know. But I'm the world's biggest Sevendust fan. So, it's this weird thing. We'll see if we can convince him to do some more stuff.
Let's talk about your Rise Above Fest, which is coming up in July. How did it come to be held in Bangor, Maine?
Shaun used to live up there. He lived in that area. He lived in New Hampshire. He'd always talk about there were no cool festivals up here. Shaun's brother took his own life in 2007, and he's the inspiration for this festival that we do. It makes sense in that location. Because there really aren't a lot of festivals up there.
Now you're expanding to two days!
Every year it's grown like crazy. It's become this huge thing now. Korn's playing and Stone Sour and Shinedown, and we do it. We partner up with SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education). Basically we give them the money and they help out people that are having these issues. Basically tackling this issue, this problem, raising money and awareness and things.
It's the biggest thing of its kind in the world. No one's really doing something like this. It's awesome that we get to do this positive thing. Use our little platform that we've built over a long time to have like a positive effect, hopefully. And we just have all the bands coming on board. And it's a fun thing. It's a serious topic, but it's a fun day. It's awesome man, it's really cool.
Our thanks to Seether's Dale Stewart for the interview. Order the band's new album, 'Poison the Parish,' here, and check out their tour dates here.
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