Two’s Company

Seether frontman Shaun Morgan has come to our attention lately for dating Evanescence's Amy Lee, who guests on single 'Broken'. In fact, his band have been around since 1999, but only recently come to enjoy international success.  He talks to uk-fusion exclusively about Amy, the reissue of their 2002 debut Disclaimer, South Africa and Nickelback comparisons

You must be the first band out of South Africa that I’m aware of.

It’s a lot of pressure sometimes but it’s cool to have the country be recognised for something besides the apartheid.

And the cricket.

And the cricket – that at the moment sucks!  Then there’s our crappy rugby team. (laughs) It’s not something we think about a lot but every once in a while someone tells us and we’re like “Oh yeah!”  We forget about it because it’s become second-nature to being in a band.

Whereabouts in South Africa are you from?

I live in Johannesburg now.  If you go, stay away from Johannesburg, go to Cape Town.  Johannesburg is about as much fun as watching paint dry but it’s more dangerous.  You have to have eyes in the back of your head.

Are your songs inspired by that?

I’m not really political – I was more about living in a household where people didn’t try to understand you. That is what I focus on.  Now that I’ve been in the states for so long (I’ve been there for two years) I’ve got some social commentary to make too, so the next album will be a lot different but I base everything on personal experience – it’s like a diary.

How have you found the UK?

We’re excited to be in different countries for a change.  We toured America non-stop for about 19 or 20 months so we needed a change of scenery  It was cool to be on tour with Amy ‘cos I got to see her a lot more.  I lived in London for about two months.

Whereabouts?

In Southfields for about two weeks and then I moved to Kensington, just off the Olympia station.

Very nice.

Yeah, but I lived in a crappy bed-sit with people I didn’t know!  I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have a job!

When you say Kensington, it normally sounds very expensive.

It does, that’s why I say Kensington but it was a stone’s throwaway from the station so it was not as glamorous as Brixton.

Are you afraid your music will be dubbed as ‘more of the same’?

Yeah (lets out a huge sigh).  If anything, we get compared to Nickelback or Default.  I think live we don’t sound anything like those bands, it’s just some of the singles we do.  We have such a vast range on our album, we don’t try to be only heavy or try to be only soft, we do whatever feels good at the time.

So you have been compared to Nickelback a lot.

Um, I don’t have a problem with them.

Not with Chad Kroeger either?

Ha, ha!  We did one show with them and a couple of guys from the band that we spoke to were really cool and really nice to us but musically, I’m not inspired by them.  I would prefer to be lumped into the Seattle bands than Nickelback and that isn’t an intentional thing either. 

Do you think Chad’s ugly?

Do I think he’s ugly?  I will tell you there was a phase where we all thought he looked like a child-molesting uncle.

That’s a new one.  I still like ‘The Lion King’.

(laughs out loudly)  No, he just looks like that guy you don’t want to invite to the family reunion!  Our bus driver used to drive them for a while and he said he’s a cool guy.  I have no experience with him personally.  Like I said, I’m not necessarily inspired as I could be as I am with other bands.

Such as?

I really love the new A Perfect Circle album.  When I first heard it, I couldn’t stand it and then I gave it a chance and I listened to it – it’s my favourite album.  I love PJ Harvey, I love Tracey Bonham, I’m actually getting into Muse as well.  It’s like guitar heavy Radiohead which for me is really cool.

What do you think about The Darkness?
(sarcastically) Oh…wow.  They definitely have a sense of humour but the fact everyone thinks they are so awesome is very disturbing!  I’m not into the whole 80s metal spandex – I’m surprised they haven’t started using hair-spray yet.  That’s really not my scene at all; I like music that’s honest.  I love Tenacious D, they’re taking the piss and it’s real funny but I just don’t get The Darkness

Ben Moody left Evanescence due to a constraint on his working relationship with Amy.  Seeing as you’re in a relationship with Amy, how have you coped?

We’ve been together now for over a year and both of us have jealous fans – that part of it I just try and stay away from as much as possible because if you start getting involved in that, it’s ultimately going to make everything fall apart.  The main thing is we know how we feel.  If we stick to that, then we’ll be fine.

'Broken' was re-recorded for the Punisher soundtrack but as Amy established with us, this particular collaboration was planned long before. 
Yeah, the misconception will be that we jumped on the bandwagon and tried to cash in.  I wouldn’t take advantage of Amy, I wouldn’t exploit her success to create my own but that’s up to people to decide for themselves.  I do know that because of Amy we have a release.  Before people didn’t believe in the album so I guess now that we have Amy’s name attached to it, everyone’s jumping up and down, which is fine but hopefully people will see there is credibility to the album too. 

How many piercings do you have collectively?

All of us?  I have one – that’s the least I’ve ever had.  I used to have more.  Dale has two earrings and a labret, Tad has a labret and John has earrings so that’s it.

Any plans for anywhere unusual?

(laughs) No.  I had considered a penal piercing but it was something I figured (starts laughing)….

Justin Hawkins has had his done.

(laughs) None of us are brave enough to get anything more painful done.  We all have a lot of tattoos – all over our arms.  John, the drummer is the only one that doesn’t have any.  We’re more a tattoo band than a piercing band.

What’s your tour rider?

Ours is very simple. We ask for about two cases of beer, two bottles of red wine and a bottle of vodka and copious amounts of water.  We don’t have seasonal lillies or freshly pressed underwear from Spain or something – and I’ve seen some riders that are horrendous.  I had the luxury of seeing a Nickelback rider about two years ago – I tell you, it was fairly interesting! 

What was on there?

Oh, just seasonal flowers, certain mood-lighting – I was like, “Wow!  This is what happens when you become a rich dick!”

Broken  Disclaimer II  Punisher