Band Members
SHAUN MORGAN - Vocals, Guitar
DALE STEWART - Bass, Vocals
JOHN HUMPHREY - Drums
Shaun Morgan is a changed man. For the front man/guitarist and principal songwriter in hard rock frontrunners Seether, a new outlook on life and music has resulted in Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces (Wind-up). Easily the South Africa-bred, L.A.-based hard rock band’s strongest and most innovative studio offering yet, Morgan and his bandmates – drummer John Humphrey and bassist Dale Stewart – have delivered a succinct album built from twelve superlative songs.
Cherry-picked from the sixty tunes Morgan brought to the band and producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Three Days Grace), the concise end-product affirms Seether is boldly inventive and on their A-game. With no fewer than five potential singles, “Fake It” – the infectious hard rock smash that launches the disc – is front and center. Taking aim at the plastic people that share the Los Angeles landscape with Morgan in his adopted hometown, the track was built around a swing drumbeat and is driven by a surging, inescapable riff.
Ironically, Shaun never expected the song to be a single, and says it almost didn’t make the record. “I originally wrote it as a joke,” the Johannesburg-area native admits. “But there was something I found endearing about the song. And the more we all started to listen to it, the more we realized it had to be the first song off of the record. And I like it because it’s got a different kind of feel to it. It’s a catchy song, but in a good way.”
“We wanted to create songs that are a little different,” Morgan continues. “At the same time, there is nothing on this album that would make people go, ‘Whoa. I can’t tell who this band is.’ They can’t say we’re doing something too dissimilar. If fans are concerned that we’ve gone all pop, I assure you we haven’t. It’s not like “Fake It” is a complete departure from what we’ve done before.”
What Seether has done since 2002 – when it released its U.S. debut Disclaimer – is capture the attention of music fans across the globe with its epic riffs, thunderous rhythms and conscience-invading choruses. Certified gold the first time out by the RIAA on the strength of radio favorites like “Fine Again” and “Gasoline,” a reworked version of that album (known as Disclaimer II) went platinum when a new rendition of the ballad “Broken” which became a Top 20 pop hit.
Seether’s success carried forward with 2005’s Karma and Effect, which debuted at 8, going platinum and boasting hits like “Truth,” “The Gift” and “Remedy.” Although the latter topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart for eight consecutive weeks), it was a considerably darker effort than its predecessor( s). “That album was really dim and really heavy and acerbic because we were trying to get away from the ‘Broken’ connection,” Morgan admits. “We wanted to take back our identity.”
This time out, there’s still plenty of heavy rock music to be found. For starters, Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces hosts the cathartic, scream-driven “Fallen” and the vitriolic, angst-laden seven minute “No Jesus Christ.” But Morgan admits, “I wanted to write songs that were more melodic this time around,” he continues. “I’ve always loved the Beatles and I’ve loved pop music – which is, by definition, music that you can remember and whistle or sing along to.”
“We wanted to experiment. And because it was just the three of us [guitarist Pat Callahan exited in 2006] there were fewer minds involved to stymie or halt the whole process. I didn’t always feel the need to scream as I might have in the past and I felt like I could use sitars if I wanted. And I felt like I could explore as much of the melodic side of myself as I wanted while staying true to what Seether has always been about.”
The most evident example comes with “Rise Above This,” an enduring song Morgan wrote about his brother Eugene in advance of his tragic death this past August. With it, Seether sounds unexpectedly and ironically optimistic, unveiling a bona fide crossover smash-in-waiting that should throw fans for a loop in a good way.
“I used to think more about what the fans thought, but ultimately I wound up stunting myself creatively,” Morgan explains. “The point of being a musician and writing music and being in a band is that I can write an optimistic-feeling, accessible song if I want. Even though it wasn’t written about an optimistic experience, I opted to see a positive in the situation. Rather than my usual reaction, which would be to get all piss-y and moan-y about i
