Fine Again by Seether Song Meanings

Playing their beginning show in 650 days, on bout with 3 Doors Down during the summer of 2021, played some temporary mind tricks on Seether frontman Shaun Morgan. When the band closed out their tour around their seventh album Poison the Parish, they were already working on the next album, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, past the end of 2019, just before the pandemic shut things down.

"In my entire 20-year career, I've never gone that long without playing shows," shares Morgan. "It was a lot of nervous energy on pinnacle of everything else. An hour into our get-go prove we were 'do nosotros nevertheless remember that play?' Ultimately, we were unceremoniously thrust into the beginning of the lockdown, so psychologically it was squeamish to feel like I was worth something and that nosotros could practise our jobs and not sit around for another three months depressed."

Jubilant the 20th anniversary of the band's lifespan, and 2002 debut Disclaimer, the ring released Vicennial – ii Decades of Seether (Arts and crafts Recordings) in October 2021, featuring 20 tracks, including 16 of the band'due south No. ane hits, "Remedy," "Ascent Above This," "Fire Again," "Broken," and even a denser cover of Wham'south 1984 pop hit "Careless Whisper."

Thinking back on the band at present, more than than 2 decades since showtime forming in 1999 along with longtime bassist Dale Stewart in their hometown of Pretoria, South Africa, Morgan never expected Seether to last and then long.

"I would never take said we'd last this long, other than it's and so difficult to have any kind of longevity," says Morgan, now based in Nashville, who says he besides gained a different perspective on the band and where they are now, 20 years later after being off the route for nearly two years. "You feel so grateful that people still want to see you lot afterward 20 years," adds Morgan, who was grateful to be able to lookout man his 4-year-one-time daughter grow up while the bout was halted. "Nosotros got to run across her offset becoming a fiddling person who's got a personality, who'due south funny and vibrant and exciting. I got to experience things that I would not have seen if I had been on bout. By the same token, I don't know that my heart is in touring equally much as it used to be."

Morgan adds, "I nonetheless enjoy information technology. I think I was deflated, because we were really excited to get dorsum on tour [in 2020], and it was ripped out from underneath u.s.a.."

Seether also released Wasteland – The Purgatory EP in July 2021, which featured additional tracks pulled from the 45-fifty songs that Morgan initially wrote while working on Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. No touring planned in the next six months, Morgan is going to utilise this time to work on the next album.

"I recall that there's plenty emotional content for me to mine from the past yr to write some stuff," says Morgan. "I'm hearing things in my head and I know how I want them to sound. I'thou not some sort of malevolent dictator or annihilation. I'm simply trying to paint that picture show and only I know which colors become where, and that'due south been my process for and then long."

How the songs come from some ether is his favorite part of being a musician. "When I go into my studio, sometimes I won't have an thought, and other times I'll have a seed of an idea," shares Morgan. "I start with nothing and an 60 minutes to a couple of hours later, I have another vocal—sometimes two or 3 songs a day—then other days there's zero. I don't try to force anything."

At present 2 decades in, Seether was recently added to the Rock and Scroll Hall Of Fame'southward popular "Right Hither Right Now" showroom, joining Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Alabama Shakes, The Lumineers, The Weeknd, and Kacey Musgraves

In commemoration of the 20th ceremony of their debut album, Disclaimer, their Vicennial, and Seether'southward continuing storyline of songs, Morgan shared some "Backside the Vocal" stories with American Songwriter on five of the band'southward biggest hits.

"Words as Weapons"
Isolate and Medicate, 2004

"Words as Weapons" I had written when I was living in New Hampshire. It was very different for me. Some people have said it reminds them of a "Mad Globe" [Tears for Fears] just I don't hear that. I'yard a fan of that vocal, then maybe it was done subconsciously. It was one of the few songs I've written with a producer [Brendan O'Brien]. We put a bit of organisation on it because the intro wasn't the way it is now. I believe the bridge was originally the chorus, and the chorus was the bridge. Information technology was all sort of flipped on its caput. Information technology was one of the songs, over the course of my unabridged writing career, that was most rearranged by a producer. It's another one of those songs where people have really attached themselves. For me, those lyrics were actually far more direct but still vague enough to construct outside interpretation. When I listened dorsum to that song, I'm like, "holy cow, I was actually pissed off." I was saying mean things without directing them to anyone in particular. All the same to this day, that was 1 of those songs where perhaps it's an bibelot, but lyrically information technology still hits me in the same spot from when I wrote information technology. That i hasn't actually shifted in its meaning.

"Remedy"
Karma and Outcome, 2005

"Remedy" was one of the first songs I wrote when nosotros were working with producer Bob Marlette. I was in Los Angeles, and I would go to the producer'due south house every day, and he had a studio in his garage. So he just handed me a guitar 1 day, and there was something about the guitar I just really loved playing, and so I just started riffing and making stuff upward. And so he said, "Oh, that's great let's run with that." Then we recorded the riff and he programmed drums to it, and then I came up with a poesy, and we sort of built the song that way. I went back and nosotros did the lyrics and vocals and that was the first single. That'south why I'thousand then proud of it. It's ane of those where you think "Man, I wish I could write another one like that," considering information technology'south all the same 1 of people'southward favorite songs. When we play information technology alive, it however gets one of the best responses. I wish I could come up with something in that vein, but I too don't want to repeat myself. When the first album come out Air current Up [characterization] was very determined that we simply go with the softer songs. For me, that's fine, merely that misrepresents u.s.a. equally a whole. Whereas in Due south Africa, we had success with a song called "69 Tea," which kind of put united states on the map there. At least that song represented the states equally a band, so when "Remedy" was chosen, there was a big fight, because the label didn't want united states of america representing the heavier side of the band, then I was really happy nosotros won that victory. When that single came out, information technology was the start time we saw a large jump in fandom, considering it was a more truthful representation of who nosotros are as a band.

"Fake Information technology" / "Ascent Above This"
Finding Dazzler in Negative Spaces, 2007

"Fake It" was written when I was living in LA, I was going through a really rough time. I was living in Venice [CA] and had this garage, which in LA is about unheard of. And then I prepare my computer and just had this space to shut the door and not worry near anything else. I was experimenting with pre-programming with drum samples, which I hadn't really done it earlier. One was called "Alley Cat," and it was this sort of swing beat out and I started playing the bass around it, and it ended up condign what it was, growing out of that drumbeat. Information technology was actually amend than I was expecting, so I continued writing. It probably took me a solar day or 2, considering I was trying to figure out the engineering that I was working with. I would e'er just record ideas straight to cassette record, so this was the first fourth dimension I had a computer. Information technology was fun because I sat for hours and get inspired by drumbeats, and occasionally that's been enough to inspire a song.

"Rise Above This" was when I was thinking most getting older, and the riff came because I was trying to encounter if I could write something similar to "1979" by The Smashing Pumpkins. That was the original intent behind it. "1979," I retrieve as a kid, and when some of my friends got their licenses and they had cars, and we would bulldoze around with the windows down. You lot nearly feel like low-key badass because you think you're in this car, driving down the PCH (Pacific Declension Highway) in California, but really were just a couple of kids in a car driving in Pretoria. I was trying to recreate that feeling because I was kind of downwards and miserable, to be honest. I was trying to cheer myself up. Lyrically, it was inspired by my brother'due south suicide attempt, so I kind of wrote the lyrics to him, and then before he could even hear the final song, he committed suicide, which is unfortunate. I don't know whether it would accept helped him, but I certainly would have loved for him to hear it. That'southward why we also started the Ascent In a higher place Festival, so we could raise awareness for suicide prevention.

"Dangerous"
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum, 2020

I beloved this song, but I didn't know how other people would receive it. I just thought no one would like it, and it'll probably only be on my hard drive, and maybe one day I'll do a solo thing and put all the stuff that didn't fit Seether on it. Then information technology simply came back, and so the song was on everybody's pinnacle 10 list. What I liked well-nigh that vocal is that I wrote it completely differently to whatsoever other song. This one fourth dimension I said I was gonna write a song where the instruments—at least the two guitar parts and the bass—wouldn't be doing the aforementioned thing at all if I can possibly get that to happen. Usually, you lot write a song, and the bass follows the root notes of what the guitars are doing and everything sort of follows. And in the chorus, it's all sort of meeting in 1 large crescendo, and you go back to the verses, and there'south a bit of menstruation there. Just for this song, I wanted the bass line to be something very different to the rhythm guitar, which is doing something very different to the solo guitar.

Lyrically, I was really proud of that one. I don't remember writing it like that. I don't even remember how I came up with the melody. I just ran with information technology. At that place were six or 7 guitar parts on the demo. I wanted to build information technology up as much as possible, well-nigh like doing music for an orchestra with all these different instruments playing different parts to make i cohesive song. It was a fun experiment.

When I do start writing again, I'm going to try and exercise more of that blazon of stuff. Ultimately, it'll probably stop upwardly on potential solo stuff downwardly the line.

Photos: Shore Fire Media

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Source: https://americansongwriter.com/seether-talk-20th-anniversary-go-behind-the-song-with-five-hits/

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