SEETHER INTERVIEW
Twinmusix got to speak to Dale Stewart from Seether about their upcoming album and more.
TM - Hi, This is Amelia, Elizabeth and Harrison from Twinmusix, How are you?
DS - I am alright, we have our new album done "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" and we are about to release it. We can't get on the road and tour and it's a little frustrating, but could be worse I suppose.
TM - What can fans expect from your new album Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum?
DS - It's kind of an angry and screaming album, but very much Seether. I think it sounds like an old school Seether. We have worked with a lot of producers over the years and generally, when the producer and the record label get together they think it's their job to make a band like us more radio-friendly and take that edge off.
We always thought that was the case in our last albums. The producers normally soften it down and around the edges. We have stopped using producers and do everything in the house. We can do what we want. I think this new stuff is reminiscent of the garage Days were there weren't any rules and you weren't writing a song to appease a record label or a producer, you were just playing what made you feel good or playing the music you wanted to hear. It is especially cool to be in the position and where we can do that.
TM - That sounds like a lot of fun, you got to go back to the roots and release what you wanted to do. Instead of being told what you can and can't do.
DS - Absolutely and especially when you were trying to be creative. It's hard to take those comments and not take it as a criticism. Music is such a personal thing, it's awesome to write the music the way we want to. We listen to music that we would want to play.
TM - What was your writing and recording process for your new album Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum?
DS - The recording was pretty seamless. It is the writing that takes the majority of the time. Once we got together in a room in Nashville and start jamming new stuff, it worked out. The key is to get your music together before you go into the studio. There is no real writing or needed when you are in the studio because you know this studio costs money. We had all our parts down and in order and we knew our parts back to front. We went into the studio at the end of last year. We nailed the drum tracks in a couple of days and picked back up in January and finished the rest of it.
It was fun, Sean produced this album again so it was just us and our engineer in the studio. It was a cool environment. We had a studio called Dark Horse out in Nashville, is this weird little log cabin that was almost out of a FairyTale. When you are driving up on the place it was cool and Charming and there were a lot of good vibes. It was a cool place to be and a cool place to hang out. We stayed at Sean's place because he lives out in Nashville, there was a lot of camaraderies and it was a lot of fun at night. We would break out the grills, cook food and hang out. In the day we were in the studio recording and it was all really fun.
TM - How did you come up with your Album cover for Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum and is there a meaning behind it?
DS - I don't know if it has a meaning behind it, but Sean did the album cover and I think it turned out pretty cool. He also came up with the title to the album "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" which is in Latin, it means if you want peace to prepare for war. I think pins in culturally with what's going on right now in the world, I think everything is kind of crazy right now.
TM - A shout-out to your engineer as well, because it's good to include everyone in the music industry. Can you tell us more about him?
DS - Yeah, he's a guy that we have had for a while. Matt Hyde and I worked with him on our last album. Sean and he have worked together as well. We go way back with Matt and he's like a one-man crew. Hs is a nerd with the gear and recording systems. He knows his way around. The man doesn't sleep, I don't know how he does it. He drinks a load of coffee and smokes cigars. We get there in the morning he's already in the studio working on stuff. When we leave he works through the night and we will be recording all day. In a studio environment, there will normally be an engineer and then assistant engineer to help out, there might be another guy to edit this stuff too that you recorded that day. He does all that on his own, he spends all night editing so we can come in and recorder the next day. I don't know how he does it, he is a machine.
TM - How did you come up with your video for dangerous and what made you want to make it a cartoon?
DS - It was out of necessity with the whole COVID Lockdown. We had to think out of the box and that was one of the options that we discussed with our label. They sent through a couple of different artists and we loved the style of the animations being a little creepy and a little weird. Shaun came up with the idea of a Little Red Riding Hood with a twist. It's just meant to be a cool little story to the song and once they have lifted Lockdown we will go back to doing normal music videos again. We are all in Nashville now because we are doing a live stream on Sunday, one cool thing about this lockdown is it forces you to think outside the box and approach things a little differently out of necessity.
TM - Tell us about your live stream.
DS - It's going to be worldwide it's 3 o'clock central time US. We are using our lighting guy we use for the tours and he is coming up with some cool lighting for the songs. They are bringing in 11 cameras, people have been doing a lot of live stream stuff. We want it to feel like a proper live show so we are going to have proper angles of the camera and a proper light show. Hopefully, we don't stuff the songs up because we haven't played in a long time.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
DS - Maybe an alternative pop band, Twenty One pilots would be fun and it might be fun for them to take one of our really heavy songs or maybe not a heavy song. Mabey "Remedy" put their little spin on it. That would be fun. I know I'm old because there are so many new bands and I'm like oh what's this crap. I sound like my parents, so I'm glad there are some new bands that I do like.
TM - We are all in our 20s and we listen to music from the '60s to today.
TM - What's your favourite memory of watching someone else perform live?
DS - I have a couple of great memories. I was a music fan first and that's the great part about this job, you get to play with bands you're a fan of and you get to watch music you love from the side of the stage. I have a top 3 that are seen live and they are not all rock music.
I don't want to say I take it for granted but you see so many rock shows and non-rock shows. A stand out for me is Elton John's red piano in Las Vegas, It was amazing. I took my parents to see it in 2009.
I got to see Nine-inch nails about 5 years ago, they got this circus Soleil team to design the set. They had an opening night in LA and my buddy and I got some tickets, it was unbelievable, it blew me away, it was insane. I also saw Sigur Rós and it blew me away it was beautiful.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
DS - Hang in there, we will be back as soon as we can. This Lockdown sucks, we are a live band first and foremost. We love playing live, touring and meeting the fans. This has been taken away from us now, it kind of sucks.
We can't wit to get on the road Again and start saying so everyone takes care of each other. We will be back as soon as we are allowed to. Thank You to everyone for supporting us and we hope you enjoy our new album and if you miss us check out our live stream on Sunday.
TM - Thank You for the interview today, catch you on the road somewhere.