Seether brings ‘The Surface Seems So Far’ tour to Cedar Rapids

When Seether frontman Shaun Morgan and bassist Dale Stewart left South Africa for the United States in 2002, they had little idea what was in store for them: a tour with Nickelback that would give them their first exposure to arena audiences; the gold and platinum albums they would record with some of the best-known producers in the hard-rock genre; and 20 #1 U.S. radio singles they would release along the way.

Nor could their younger selves have imagined that, having accomplished all of that, the band would be out touring 23 years later to promote a self-produced album that harkens back to the spirit and approach of their DIY years in Johannesburg.

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“It's definitely a throwback to the old days, where we can do whatever we want,” said Stewart of the sessions for Seether’s latest album, “The Surface Seems So Far.” “If you want to get crazy heavy, you do it. If you want to do something that sounds a little bit weird, or totally different from the rest of the album, just go ahead and do that. And so it's liberating and a lot of fun to be in the studio now and just feeling the energy.”

For Seether, taking the production reins into their own hands — while bringing in Slayer and Deftones engineer Matt Hyde to man the recording console — turned out to be the best of both worlds.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to work with a bunch of top producers who have done great stuff, like Howard Benson, Jay Baumgartner and Brendan O'Brien, who’s a musician in his own right and has a track record that’s as long as your leg,” Stewart said. “So we’ve learned a lot from guys like that. But I do feel that, when you work with a producer like that, it's almost their job to kind of pump the brakes a little bit. And now, it’s more like being in a garage band where anything goes.”

Stewart is particularly proud of the album’s second single, “Judas Mind,” which takes the album’s dynamic range and compresses it into a single song. Combined with Morgan’s vocals, which sound more like Kurt Cobain than Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, the arrangement feels like a nod to one of Seether’s earliest inspirations.

“Nirvana was obviously a giant band, and we were very influenced by them at that time,” Stewart said. “So I think that, yeah, that's probably where that kind of feeling comes from.”

Back when Seether started out, they were largely influenced by the music they’d listened to in high school, which included groups like Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC and Pantera, who were the band that made Stewart realize he wanted to devote his life to playing music.

“When I was growing up in high school, your identity was tied so much to what music you listened to,” said Stewart, who started out playing guitar in other bands before switching to bass in Seether. “The rock kids were kind of grouped together, and then the kids that were into hip-hop had their own little clique. So you kind of pigeonholed yourself, because you didn't want to alienate your buddies who were into bands like Sepultura and Metallica.”

It wasn’t long before Seether began developing their own sound and a growing audience to match.

“We were becoming the big fish in a small pond there, and ended up crossing the ocean to come to America, which was definitely a culture shock,” Stewart said. “I'd never left the country before stepping on an airplane in South Africa and then landing in New York City, of all places. So it was intimidating, but it was also really exciting, I think. We were hungry and driven and willing to do whatever it takes.”

More than two decades later, Seether is still eager to take their music on the road. “I guess I'm grateful that we came along when we did, because we were one of the last bands to kind of come up the old-fashioned way, you know, and do hard touring. And now, I feel like we have a decent level of success, and we’re established enough to where we’re not going to be forgotten overnight. So we can spend a bit more time, you know, working on new music, and if we're not happy with something we’ve done, we can say, ‘We're gonna need another couple months.’”

And it’s a pretty safe bet that long-time fans will continue to connect with their music, even if, as is the case with “The Surface Seems So Far,” it doesn’t always stick to the strictly metal sound fans might expect.

“I think it's still very much Seether,” said Stewart of “The Surface Seems So Far.” “We just have a broader range of influences. As you get older, you start listening to more genres and different artists, and I think that expands your musical palette. But I still think we sound like us.”