Rock band Seether finds "Beauty" amid adversity
NEW YORK (Billboard) - When rock band Seether releases its third studio album on October 23, frontman/chief songwriter Shaun Morgan is well-aware that fans will examine the new songs for references to his turbulent personal life.
"Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces" (Wind-Up Records) marks the group's first release since 2005's "Karma & Effect," which opened at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 713,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
In that time, Morgan's highly publicized relationship with labelmate Amy Lee of Evanescence came to an end, and that band's hit "Call Me When You're Sober" was directly inspired by events that led Morgan to check into rehab in August 2006.
Morgan, a South African native who lives in Los Angeles, calls rehab "an interesting experience" where some of the new songs got their start. But he says he had no interest in writing a response to "Call Me When You're Sober" or to dwell on Lee.
"I decided to take the high road," Morgan says. "There's one song about that, 'Breakdown,' and it's not even that aggressive; it's more like, 'What did I do to you, man, to say all those things about me?'
"But I don't hate her; in fact, I miss that girl sometimes. And I wish her well. She deserves happiness."
Another new track, "Rise Above This," was inspired by Morgan's brother, Eugene, who committed suicide in August while on tour with the band. The band was also rocked last year when lead guitarist Pat Callahan quit acrimoniously.
Morgan says he wrote about 50 songs for "Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces," and frequently butted heads with Wind-Up executives who said they couldn't detect any singles.
The 12-track "Finding Beauty," which was produced by Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, Daughtry), has its share of such Seether headbangers as "Like Suicide," "Breakdown," "FMLYHM" and "6 Gun Quota." There are also mainstream-friendly rock anthems like "Rise Above This" and first single "Fake It," which is currently No. 3 on Billboard's airplay-based Mainstream Rock chart.
But Morgan, bassist Dale Stuart and drummer John Humphrey experimented with their sound on the seven-minute, Tool-echoing epic "No Jesus Christ" and the carefully crafted dynamics of "Walk Away From the Sun" and "Eyes of the Devil."
"We wanted to write and explore the more melodic and musical side of everything," Morgan says. "We can be heavy and rock out, but we can also write songs that can compete with any other song out there. That was a really big motivation."
While Wind-Up is hoping Seether will score its first platinum certification (U.S. shipments in excess of one million units), Morgan says it is not a priority for him.
"I think it would be a validation for us as a band to have a platinum album on the wall," the South African-born Morgan says. "But it's not something I focus my energies on, especially not when I'm writing songs or touring."
Reuters/Billboard
