Live Music Adelaide was fortunate to catch up with Seether bass player Dale Stewart this week, right after they have released their sixth studio album ‘Isolate and Medicate’, and on the eve of a tour that will take them through the U.S., Canada and Europe.
I asked Dale what the reaction to the new album ‘Isolate and Medicate’ has been like and how was the mood in the band as they prepare to tour off the back of their latest opus. ‘It’s really good actually, we’re pretty proud of the new album, the response has been really good in the first couple of weeks, we’re motivated, we’re ready to get up and play. Taking a nice long break was good as well, we’ve come back with recharged batteries and a full tank and we’re ready to go out and play some shows.’
To my question of whether touring off the back of a new album added another dimension to proceedings, the Seether bass player’s philosophy was pretty simple ‘We just do our thing man, we just consider ourselves the working man’s rock band, blue collar rock, we just do our thing. We try not to put too much thought into it, we just try to get up there have some drinks, make some noise, work up a sweat and we have fun doing it, so that’s pretty much our motto I guess.’
On listening to the new album it comes across heavier than its predecessors, was this a fair evaluation? ‘I think so, yeah, I’ve heard people say that and I’ve heard people say that it’s really poppy. I think it’s heavier and I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff. You know it retains a sense of melody in the songs, so you know there might be a really heavy guitar work but then there will be like a very prominent melody in the chorus. That’s always been important to us to retain that sense of melody, however heavy something is it needs to have a melodic edge to it. I enjoy playing the heavy songs, I like that but we like to have that melody there to sing along with.’
The writing process this time around was more of a collaborative effort, so rather than Shaun (Morgan) working on the ideas in his studio, Dale explained ‘We just went in and jammed, you know, like old school garage days. It was fun man, we didn’t try and put ourselves under too much pressure, just went in and just jammed. I really enjoyed that, I feel like that’s the most fun I’ve had, when you get in that environment, three guys in a room just jamming, kind of having fun playing music. It kind of comes from the heart, you’re not sitting behind a computer trying to record stuff, thinking about it, overthinking it there’s all this energy, it comes from the heart.’
Unfortunately for the Australian Seether fans there is no plans to hit our shores in the near future as the current tour doesn’t wind up until mid-December when they play St. Petersburg in Russia. Dale left me with these words for their Aussie fans ‘Thank you for supporting us, I feel like there is a lot of loyalty from the Aussie fans. Every time we go over there you see a lot of the same faces, you make friends along the way. Thanks for letting us come and hang out in Australia and play great shows, play to a good crowd and not have to get proper haircuts and real jobs.’
'Isolate and Medicate' is out now
Interview by Mike Trandafil
I asked Dale what the reaction to the new album ‘Isolate and Medicate’ has been like and how was the mood in the band as they prepare to tour off the back of their latest opus. ‘It’s really good actually, we’re pretty proud of the new album, the response has been really good in the first couple of weeks, we’re motivated, we’re ready to get up and play. Taking a nice long break was good as well, we’ve come back with recharged batteries and a full tank and we’re ready to go out and play some shows.’
To my question of whether touring off the back of a new album added another dimension to proceedings, the Seether bass player’s philosophy was pretty simple ‘We just do our thing man, we just consider ourselves the working man’s rock band, blue collar rock, we just do our thing. We try not to put too much thought into it, we just try to get up there have some drinks, make some noise, work up a sweat and we have fun doing it, so that’s pretty much our motto I guess.’
On listening to the new album it comes across heavier than its predecessors, was this a fair evaluation? ‘I think so, yeah, I’ve heard people say that and I’ve heard people say that it’s really poppy. I think it’s heavier and I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff. You know it retains a sense of melody in the songs, so you know there might be a really heavy guitar work but then there will be like a very prominent melody in the chorus. That’s always been important to us to retain that sense of melody, however heavy something is it needs to have a melodic edge to it. I enjoy playing the heavy songs, I like that but we like to have that melody there to sing along with.’
The writing process this time around was more of a collaborative effort, so rather than Shaun (Morgan) working on the ideas in his studio, Dale explained ‘We just went in and jammed, you know, like old school garage days. It was fun man, we didn’t try and put ourselves under too much pressure, just went in and just jammed. I really enjoyed that, I feel like that’s the most fun I’ve had, when you get in that environment, three guys in a room just jamming, kind of having fun playing music. It kind of comes from the heart, you’re not sitting behind a computer trying to record stuff, thinking about it, overthinking it there’s all this energy, it comes from the heart.’
Unfortunately for the Australian Seether fans there is no plans to hit our shores in the near future as the current tour doesn’t wind up until mid-December when they play St. Petersburg in Russia. Dale left me with these words for their Aussie fans ‘Thank you for supporting us, I feel like there is a lot of loyalty from the Aussie fans. Every time we go over there you see a lot of the same faces, you make friends along the way. Thanks for letting us come and hang out in Australia and play great shows, play to a good crowd and not have to get proper haircuts and real jobs.’
'Isolate and Medicate' is out now
Interview by Mike Trandafil
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