Seether

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For other uses, see Seether (disambiguation).
Seether

Seether is a post-grunge/alternative metal band from South Africa. They are currently signed to Wind-up Records. Originally called Saron Gas and signed to Musketeer Records in South Africa, they changed their name in 2002, coinciding with the release of their second album and major label debut, Disclaimer.

History

Early days, Fragile, Disclaimer

Saron Gas had their origins in Pretoria, and the earliest days of the group saw their public appearances at parties, nightclubs, small-scale concerts and University venues, such as the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch, where they played for the lunch-time crowds in the Neelsie centre on the latter campus as late as the summer of 2001.

As Saron Gas, the band released its first album, Fragile on Musketeer Records, in 2000 in South Africa. Upon achieving success on the South African music charts, Wind-up Records took an interest in Saron Gas' melodic-yet-heavy sound and signed them to the label. The band was asked to change their name, however, due to Saron Gas being a homophone of sarin gas, a deadly nerve agent. The band chose the name Seether, inspired by a single by the band Veruca Salt.

Their first major release came in 2002 with their second album Disclaimer. The album spawned three singles, "Fine Again", "Driven Under" and "Gasoline," but only "Fine Again" charted with any success. The remaining singles got semi-frequent radio play on modern rock stations, but were not major chart hits. The biggest hit off the album, "Broken", was not even released as a single. Shaun Morgan has cited Nirvana (and specifically the album Nevermind) as 'the reason he picked up a guitar,' and also quotes Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains and Deftones. [1]

Success and Disclaimer II

After Disclaimer was released, the band went on a non-stop touring route in hopes of boosting sales and name recognition. Upon completing the tour, the band had planned to go into the studio and record their second release. However, they were instead tapped to support Evanescence on a worldwide tour that postponed their recording plans by almost a year. On this tour, the band reworked the acoustic ballad "Broken" into an electric ballad and had Amy Lee of Evanescence share vocal duties with Morgan during live performances. Inspired by the positive reaction the duet got on the road and perhaps fueled by a budding romance between Lee and Morgan, the band headed into the studio and quickly recorded an alternate version of "Broken" with Amy Lee on vocals. The song, along with a new song titled "Sold Me", was featured on the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher and was massively successful, bringing the band fame in the US, the UK and Australia in particular. Morgan has stated that the hit was an incident where the band was subjected to what the record company wanted rather than what the band wanted. [1] Disclaimer II, an alternate version of the original album with many of the songs remixed or re-recorded as well as eight extra tracks, was released in late 2004.

Karma and Effect, One Cold Night

In 2005, the band released their follow-up album Karma and Effect. The original title for the album was Catering to Cowards, but the band ultimately decided against the name. The album did not contain obscenities, unlike their previous releases.

While on tour for the album with Shinedown, Seether released an acoustic CD/DVD set titled One Cold Night, recorded on 22 February 2006 at Grape Street in Philadelphia. Morgan, who had been suffering from a stomach ailment, decided to do an acoustic performance of their set-list rather than cancel the show.

Guitarist departure, rehab

On June 16, 2006, it was announced via Seether's official site that lead guitarist Pat Callahan had chosen to leave the band. The exact reason for Callahan's departure is unknown. Shaun Morgan said, "Um… relieved a little… actually a lot, He was the guy in the band that was always our naysayer, and he was the negative energy as far as writing. I personally have no love lost, which is weird for some reason ‘cus he was my friend for four years. But when he walked out – it kinda walked out with him."[1]

Shaun Morgan went into rehab for unspecified addictions in August 2006, forcing the band to cancel their tour with Staind and Three Days Grace. Morgan is now out of rehab. Evanescence's hit "Call Me When You're Sober" was written about this incident.

Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Morgan claims the new album will be more diverse than previous ones. The album "is tentatively scheduled for release on October 23, 2007," but the date has been changed frequently. [1]. In an interview, Morgan claims one song has a piano in it,[1] but which one it is, as of now, is unknown.

According to a posting by Shaun on the band's official message board, Seether has hired Howard Benson to produce the new album. It is known that the album will not be a clean record like Karma & Effect. In fact, the first single, "Fake It", has several instances of the word "fuck".

According to a recent interview, the new album won't include any song in response to Evanescence's "Call Me When You're Sober", written by his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee about their breakup. [2] The single "Fake it" can be heard on their myspace blog, and the cover has already been revealed on myspace (album cover art illustrated by David Ho [1]), also a minute long sample of "6 Gun Quota" has been added to their myspace.

Seether has recently chosen to release the full new album for a sneak peek listen at <http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/cc-common/mfeatures/test/player.html?apid=2793&son=0&tot=13&type=aud&mid=163585&gateway=exiting>

According to the Seether website[2], there are 12 songs on the Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces album. Bassist Dale Stewart recently confirmed that Seether has produced a video for the single "Fake It".

Seether recently had to cancel several shows due to the sudden death of Shaun Morgan's brother Eugene Welgemoed. On the official website there is a review of the album that states that the song 'Rise Above This' is an optimistic-sounding song about Eugene before his tragic death. It also says that the heaviness is still there with songs including "Fallen", "No Jesus Christ" and "Like Suicide".

Unreleased Songs

As Saron Gas -

  • "Skin The Tiger"
  • "Walk"
  • "Runaway"
  • "Raggedy Anne"
  • "Blind"
  • "Cry"
  • "Ode To A Bitch"
  • "One On One"
  • "Mr. Perfect"
  • "Sand"
  • "More Than I Deserve"
  • "Understand"
  • "Rain" - An early version of "Fade Away"

As Seether -

Titles in bold are available for download or other means.

Cover songs

While touring with Dark New Day, Seether invited some members on stage to cover:

Trivia

  • Following a deal with Wind-Up records, Seether became one of the many bands whose music was added to the video sharing website YouTube in order for it to be used by users as backing audio for their own uploaded video clips.[3]
  • Shaun's actual surname is Welgemoed, but since their relocation to the US, he chose his second name, Morgan, as a surname, as nobody in the US could pronounce his real surname.
  • Boomer (Morning X) (radio personality for WXEG in Dayton, Ohio) was the first DJ in the United States to play Seether on an American radio station (back when he was the afternoon drive DJ at WXEG).

Songs in Popular Culture

Discography

Albums

Date Title Label Charted Positions Certification
2000 Fragile (as Saron Gas) Sony BMG
Musketeer Records
2002 Disclaimer Wind-up Records #92 US Gold
2004 Disclaimer II (Disclaimer re-issue) Wind-up Records #12 NZ, #38 Australia,
#38 Austria, #43 Germany,
#53 US, #53 Switzerland 		Platinum
2005 Karma and Effect Wind-up Records #8 US Platinum
2006 One Cold Night Wind-up Records #50 US
2007 Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces Wind-up Records

Singles

Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock US Pop 100 Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks Australia Singles Top 50 5FM Top 40 Chart 5FM MTV TRL Radio Vodacom Hi 5 @ 5 Tuks FM Chart The Tuks FM SA Top 10 The Tuks FM Listeners Top 10
2002 "Fine Again" #61 #6 #3 Disclaimer
2003 "Driven Under" - #13 #13 Disclaimer
2003 "Gasoline" - #37 #8 Disclaimer
2004 "Broken (ft. Amy Lee)" #20 #4 #9 #40 #3 Disclaimer II
2005 "Remedy" #70 #5 #1* #73 #42 Karma and Effect
2005 "Truth" - #25 #8 Karma and Effect
2006 "The Gift" - #29 #8 Karma and Effect
2007 "Fake It" #92 #7 #2 #85 #39 #5 #25 #19 #4 #9 Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
  • Spent 8 consecutive weeks at number 1.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/features/5323/
  2. ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1564949/20070717/seether.jhtml

External links

Official sites

Other links

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