Seether Interview with Dale Stewart
Friday, April 11, 2008, 5:28 p.m. CST
Courtesy photograph by Chapman Baehler
AARON KEKER: Hey everyone! This is Aaron Keker from Always Acoustic™. I am on the line with bassist Dale Stewart from Seether. How you doing dude? Seether is a hard rock band from Johannesburg, South Africa. Some of their most popular songs are “Broken (featuring Amy Lee),” “Fake It” and “Rise Above This.” Dale Stewart and I discussed on the telephone their musical influences, their latest album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, Lacey Mosley from Flyleaf, Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and iTunes.
DALE STEWART: Good! How you doing?
AARON KEKER: I’m doing good! Last weekend your web site was viciously attacked and was off line for several days. Any ideas on who did it?
DALE STEWART: … No. No, I was not actually aware that happened.
AARON KEKER: How did you guys feel when it… was off line for a few days?
DALE STEWART: … You know it’s… just kind of strange. You know, it’s something that, you know, bands come to rely heavily on…. You know, when something like that is down, there is a lot of communication that gets lost. So, it’s kind of weird.
AARON KEKER: I hear ya. I read online that Seether is playing at Summerfest on July 4th. Is this the first time Seether has played there?
DALE STEWART: … No, we actually have done that a couple of times. It’s… definitely one of our favorite sort of festivals to play.
AARON KEKER: You guys aren’t playing at the Marcus Amphitheatre that… day, are you?
DALE STEWART: What’s that?
AARON KEKER: Are you guys playing at the Marcus Amphitheatre that day?
DALE STEWART: … I believe so, but I am not 100% sure.
AARON KEKER: Oh! Does Shaun handle a majority of the songwriting for Seether?
DALE STEWART: Yes. Yeah, he does the majority of the writing.
AARON KEKER: What is your favorite Seether album?
DALE STEWART: … I think this last one is my favorite. You know, it’s a little bit different to what we have done in the past… and more experimental for us as a band. So, I think it’s definitely a step forward.
AARON KEKER: Yeah, it is a really good album too.
DALE STEWART: Thank you.
AARON KEKER: … What about your favorite songs on the album?
DALE STEWART: … My favorite at the moment is a song called “Walk Away from the Sun.” Also, just very different for us and … we have sample drum tracks in the beginning and you know just a couple of instruments but a piano. Stuff we never really incorporated before, so I like that one a lot.
AARON KEKER: One of my favorite albums by Seether is One Cold Night. Who decided to play that evening acoustically?
DALE STEWART: … You know that just kind of happened. You know, … I forget exactly where we were but Shaun was sick and we had a show scheduled that night… We thought we’ll just play acoustic because it would be easier on his voice… The show went down really well… You know, a couple… other people that wanted to see the acoustic show. So, we just started doing those every now and than… It actually was going to be our day off in Philadelphia and our guitar player was from there. And we were just going to play sort of a local bar there… You know, just for fun on our day off. And the label called and thought it would be a good idea if we could just record it and perform it and release the DVD… Yeah, you know, without even really intending it to be that. It’s kind of got a life of it’s own and recording and… releasing the DVD.
AARON KEKER: Does Seether enjoy playing acoustically?
DALE STEWART: Yeah, it is fun. You know, it’s different, very different to… playing a live show. You know, it’s a much more relaxed vibe. You know, a lot of songs change quite a lot… I think it’s interesting, you know, to see the way… the band interprets the songs differently… in acoustic form. You know, there’s a lot of sort of distortion and… sort of heavy stuff in our music and its kind of fun to have to work around that with acoustic instruments.
AARON KEKER: Yeah, right. Would you guys actually go on tour on an acoustic tour, like the Foo Fighters?
DALE STEWART: … We never toured on an acoustic tour but you know it’s maybe something we’d consider one day.
AARON KEKER: Right. That’s cool. I would definitely love to see that one.
DALE STEWART: Yeah.
AARON KEKER: I think it would be awesome if vocalist Lacey Mosley from Flyleaf sang a duet with Shaun on “Broken” on May 20th. Do you know if they will sing a duet together?
DALE STEWART: … I don’t know for sure but I wouldn’t rule anything out. You know, we’re all really good friends… We’re known for, you know, collaborating with bands that we’re out with and… I think it would be great. So it’s definitely possible, but… I don’t want to make any promises on their behalf.
AARON KEKER: [laughs] Right. Besides Amy Lee has anyone else performed a live duet performance with Shaun on “Broken?”
DALE STEWART: Yeah, you know. We actually just out with Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace… And Adam from Three Days Grace… would come up and sing the song with the song us and… Barry would play it and Mark from Breaking Benjamin would come up and play bass on the song. So, it’s become that kind of song, where you know we… invite… fellow artists that arrive with to come up and play and… help us out on the song. It’s… kind of a fun thing to do.
AARON KEKER: Well definitely, it’s a different feel too?
DALE STEWART: Yeah, you know, just having another guy singing it… definitely gives it a whole different sound. But, you know, Adam’s voice is great. So, it really worked well together.
AARON KEKER: That’s cool… Has Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces reached gold or platinum status?
DALE STEWART: … I don’t think it has yet. But… I think we are on our way. Not 100% sure… where exactly.
AARON KEKER: … Pat Callahan left the band in 2006 and was recently replaced with Troy McLawhorn. Has Troy replaced Pat permanently?
DALE STEWART: Yeah. You know, he’s with us permanently now. And… it’s been going really well… The shows been great and having another guitar player again definitely fills the show out. You know, we played a three piece for a long time… You know, have been twirling the idea about getting another guitar player for a while but… it’s very hard to get that guy. You know, that’s why we just took our time and we didn’t want to sort of rush into anything that might end up not working. And… you know, when I heard that Troy’s tour almost was coming to an end. You know, we thought let’s give him a call and see if he wants to do it because we’ve been friends for years… so, called him up and started playing. And yeah, he’s gonna stay now.
AARON KEKER: That’s cool. Give Shaun my condolence regarding his brother’s passing ––
DALE STEWART: Thank you.
AARON KEKER: Is the video “Rise Above This” a tribute to Eugene?
DALE STEWART: Yes, definitely… I’ve seen it on TV on the actual final edit that I’ve seen they actually show a picture of him… You know, and have the dates of his last and right at the end with his picture but I think when they play it on TV they kind of cut it off before that, so… that’s a pity. But, it’s definitely a tribute to him.
AARON KEKER: Yeah. I noticed that cuz I downloaded, you know, the video from iTunes. I noticed ––
DALE STEWART: Yeah.
AARON KEKER: That it did not have it on there ––
DALE STEWART: Yeah.
AARON KEKER: I was like, am I looking at the same video.
DALE STEWART: Yeah. [laughs]
AARON KEKER: [laughs] I read somewhere online that Nirvana inspired Shaun to pick up a guitar. What other bands or musicians inspire Seether?
DALE STEWART: … You know, there’s so many… Very much the grunge scene inspired us because you know that’s when we were growing up and really starting to get into music, and appreciate music and starting to learn to play music… So yeah, those bands definitely and all of the sort of big four or five grunge bands… You know, bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Gun N’ Roses… Our drummer John’s very much into like Motley Crüe and Kiss and stuff like that. So really, you know newer bands Tool, Deftones, Korn… You know, A Perfect Circle… A couple of new bands Rage Against the Machine. You know… I think basically anything that doesn’t suck. You know, that you can listen to and appreciate. That’s great, you know. Even if it’s subliminal, I believe everything you hear and everything that makes you feel something when you listen to it will in turn inspire you even if it’s not on a conscious level but it will definitely change the way you think about music or to see music.
AARON KEKER: Right. So, you guys kind of listen to the heavier kind of music?
DALE STEWART: … Generally, yeah! But one of my favorite bands is Sigur Rós and you know, Counting Crowes. And I know we all have that softer side. You know, John loves Elvis and Shaun loves The Beatles… You know, there is so much good music. You know, throughout the years that good rock music whether it’s real mellow or real heavy… You know, we definitely are fans of a whole wide… sort of span of the whole thing and I think that shows in our albums. Our albums are very sort of dynamic in terms of you know, a mix between some real heavy stuff and… some stuff that is just really stripped down acoustic type stuff. So you know, we listen to that and everything in between.
AARON KEKER: So, you guys would love to… tour with any of those bands then?
DALE STEWART: … Yeah, you know, I think I would love to tour with Pearl Jam. I guess they are really the only guys around. I heard that STP is reuniting and I think we have a couple of shows with them. So, really looking forward to that… But yeah, a tour with Pearl Jam would be just awesome.
AARON KEKER: Yeah. Yeah. STP actually is going to be at Summerfest the same day that you guys will be there.
DALE STEWART: Yeah, that’s right. Okay, yeah. Pretty excited [laughs], about that.
AARON KEKER: [laughs] So… what has the reaction been like when Seether performed a cover song of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab?”
DALE STEWART: … Yeah, you know… I think generally people liked it… You know, we got some good commentary… from fans. But we tried to play it one day live at a show and it really didn’t do well at all. So, we only ever really played it that one time and then… you know, pretty much just left it on… as sort of online, you know Yahoo music type things.
AARON KEKER: Right. So, I am assuming then you won’t be playing… “Rehab” on this tour?
DALE STEWART: No. And it’s a fun song to play and I think it actually translated well into a rock song. But… yeah, we played it at one show and people just didn’t, blanky stared at us.
AARON KEKER: [laughs]
DALE STEWART: Damn [laughs], maybe not a good idea.
AARON KEKER: All right, final question. … After the tour with Flyleaf, what’s next for Seether?
DALE STEWART: … When the tour wraps we are going to go to Europe. … Do Europe for about a month… And after that we’re coming back, probably doing another run through the states… After that I am not sure. But I’m sure its gonna entail more touring abroad… The albums doing really well fortunately, so you know we probably will be touring for the rest of the year. Be out and just hitting the road hard.
AARON KEKER: Right. So, you guys probably do not plan on releasing another album probably in the next year maybe, huh?
DALE STEWART: … No, we probably will tour the rest of this year out and than maybe early in the New Year start concentrating on writing a new album and recording a new album.
AARON KEKER: Are you guys like planning on releasing like any additional videos on tunes?
DALE STEWART: … Possibly, yeah. Yeah, we actually… have something coming up with tunes. Going to be doing an iTunes Essentials… which will feature some you know, cover songs that we’ll do and some of our songs stripped down acoustic… live interviews and stuff.
AARON KEKER: That’s awesome.
DALE STEWART: Yeah, it should be something cool for the fans.
AARON KEKER: Yeah. I love those stripped down you know, songs.
DALE STEWART: Yeah. I love those iTunes Essentials, very cool.
AARON KEKER: So, all right. Well, thanks a lot sir. And… you know… I will see you guys in May.
DALE STEWART: Cool man! Absolutely!
AARON KEKER: So, talk to you soon dude!
DALE STEWART: Okay man.
AARON KEKER: All right man. Bye.
DALE STEWART: Talk to you later. Bye. Bye.
