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Seether's Shaun Morgan (center) switched from
playing "cheesy Pop" to writing dark Power Rock, with
great success.
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When Seether finished a showcase gig that the band hoped would lead to a contract with Wind-Up Records, singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan was anything but optimistic.
"We went in there and I think we all felt we had (stunk) it up because we hadn't played as well as we could have because we were so nervous," Morgan recalls. "We were packing up, and I was thinking 'Well it was a nice trip to New York. Hopefully we'll do it again some day.' And they sat us down and said 'We'd like to welcome you to Wind-Up.' I started crying because it was one of those moments I'd been waiting for my whole life, since I was 5 years old or whatever."
The thought of a blown audition was particularly painful for Morgan, because no Rock band has come out of South Africa and made an impact in the United States.
"At the time I saw it as a make-or-break opportunity," Morgan admits.
It's now a year after the audition, and Seether has begun to get known to far more people than just the employees at Wind-Up. After completing a string of gigs last summer as part of Ozzfest, the band's debut CD, Disclaimer, was released and spawned a Top 10 Modern Rock single, "Fine Again."
Seether's sound -- an in-your-face mix of modern Metal, Nirvana-ish Grunge and emotionally charged lyricism -- seems well suited to radio. Tracks like "69 Tea," "Needles" and "Sympathetic" nicely combine tuneful hooks with aggressive guitar riffage. On "Fine Again" and "Broken," Seether show a talent for agitated balladry, while songs like "Gasoline" and "Pride" emphasize the harder side of the group's sound.
It's a promising next step in a music career that was so important to Morgan, 23, that it played a key role in his decision to run away from home at age 17.
"I had been playing in a band that I wasn't allowed to be playing in," says Morgan, who spent his adolescent years living with his father in Johannesburg after his parents divorced when he was a child. "They had an opportunity to be on a soundtrack, like basically it was a compilation in the hometown where I grew up. They were trying to promote the band in the area. My dad wouldn't let me do it. I ran away from home to do the demo, which then turned out pretty badly. It was just something that I felt I needed to do, because that's how much I believed in it."
Morgan's life in general was anything but enjoyable by that time. Raised by a father who discouraged his interest in music, he had attended an all-boys school since age 12 that shared many of the rigid structures and restrictions of military school. His father refused to allow Morgan to attend a co-ed school because he felt the educational quality of those schools wasn't on par with the all-boys school.
"It wasn't a military school per se, but it was set up very similar," Morgan says. "You had to say 'Please' after every sentence to anyone who was in a grade higher than you. So basically I would have to say 'Good morning, please.' (The upperclassmen) could push you around and make you do anything they wanted."
Just prior to leaving his father, Morgan's spirits had gotten so low he literally had a gun in one hand and his guitar in the other as he briefly considered suicide. Music won out. He joined a group that would eventually end up as Seether -- although at the time it bore little resemblance to the hard-rocking, emotionally charged band of today. Like many South African groups, they specialized in what Morgan termed "cheesy" Pop-oriented love songs. Morgan was simply a hired gun, playing rhythm guitar and providing backing vocals.
That began to change one day when the group decided to rehearse as a trio while the lead guitarist and keyboard player were out of town. Morgan suggested that the group play his song "69 Tea." As time went on, Morgan got to do more writing. Gradually the other band members all quit, and Morgan ended up fronting what essentially was a different band. By this past January, Morgan and bassist Dale Stewart (a replacement for the original bassist and songwriter) were the only members of Seether.
Before that point, though, an earlier edition of Seether made an impact on the South African music scene with their debut CD, Fragile. It was that album that also paved the way for the group's deal with Wind-Up.
"Everyone in South Africa said it wouldn't sell because it was (too) Rock in a predominantly Afrikaans or native African scene," Morgan says, noting that indigenous music and Pop are the reigning styles in South Africa.
Instead, Fragile sold 15,000 copies -- a huge number in South Africa. Hoping to start a career in the United States, Morgan sent that CD to every record company he could locate.
"Eventually it somehow went from Sony Germany, and it got sent to Wind-Up," he says. "I think we got a phone call about a week later saying 'Would you guys like to come out and play a showcase?' "
Morgan, of course, wouldn't have missed it for the world.
SEETHER plays Bogart's on Wednesday with Trapt and Smile Empty Soul.
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