SEETHER // The Big Seether Manifesto

Back in the scene and stronger than ever, Seether return to our ears with their new album Poison The Parish, released today through Spinefarm/Canine Riot Records.

After the enigmatic South African rock band dropped three pre-release teasers, we couldn’t help but revel in the direction their latest album is taking.

Hungry for more, we sat down with drummer John Humphrey to talk about the album.

“Seether wanted to reclaim its rock so to speak,” John began. “In previous albums we’ve let producers, who we truly respect mix the albums, and they have their sound and their visions for it which we’re always really respectful of. But this one, because Shaun produced it [and] the band was heavily involved, it’s got some balls to it.”

John is of course referring to the album being entirely produced by frontman Shaun Morgan’s own label, Canine Riot Records.

“We wanted big drums, big guitars and minimal over-dubs. We really wanted it to be like how the band is live which is a heavy, rock, guitar orientated band.”
[JOHN]

“Shaun definitely had the weight of the world on his shoulders as producer. I know managers and the powers that be were looking to see what Seether were going to come out of the studio with,” he admitted. “But at the same time, this isn’t our first rodeo. We’ve worked a lot and, without breaking an arm to pat ourselves on the back, I think we’re quite capable of producing our own music that we think is good. We too are fans of the band and ultimately I had confidence in us that we would be able to produce something that, at the very least, we as Seether fans would like.”

Overall though, the goal of Poison The Parish was simple.

“We wanted big drums, big guitars and minimal over-dubs. We really wanted it to be like how the band is live which is a heavy, rock, guitar orientated band.”

We moved on to speaking about the evolution of Seether and how the band has grown since John joined in 2003.

“I’d like to think we’ve all become better musicians and as people our life experiences and the things that we go through, all of that has influenced the music. I think we just have a great chemistry and like you pointed out, I’ve been with the band for 14 years now so I feel very grateful to still be in a band talking about a new album that’s coming out, after all these years.”

Obviously we asked about an Australian tour. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long.

“Yes absolutely, its in the works as we speak. Hopefully towards the end of this year or early 2018, we’ll be coming to Australia and New Zealand. We have to, it’s been too long and we have to get back there. It’s a beautiful country.”

So there you have it. Seether, back to their rock roots and planning an Australian tour within the year. Could we ask for anything more?