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Artist of the Month:

Seether Releases Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces

Published November 2, 2007

This South African-bred, L.A.-based hard rock trio has found new musical ground to explore with their fifth full-length release Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, now out on Wind-up. Vocalist and guitarist Shaun Morgan, bassist Dale Stewart, and drummer John Humphrey are sure to capitalize on the success of their previous releases while issuing a different and deeply considered CD produced by Howard Benson.

"We wanted to create songs that are a little different," Morgan said. But he also wanted to reassure fans that Seether is still the same hardrock band. "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."

Since 2002, when Seether released its U.S. debut Disclaimer which certified gold, the reworked version of that album Disclaimer II has gone platinum, and 2005's Karma and Effect debuted at number 8 on the Billboard charts and went platinum as well.

The new release is sure to follow on that success with songs like the cathartic, scream-driven "Fallen" and the vitriolic, angst-laden seven minute "No Jesus Christ." Morgan notes, "I wanted to write songs that were more melodic this time around. I've always loved the Beatles and I've loved pop music. 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.”

As for his ultimate goal with Seether's third studio disc for Wind-up, Morgan concludes, "I wanted it to be as powerful as one of those live albums, with nine singles on it. And that's a product of condensing sixty tunes down to ten. And then we worked extremely hard on those ten to make them really good songs. I wanted to have an album that was that powerful, something that I was really proud of from start to finish."

Mission accomplished.