In a new interview with Ronni Hunter and Lewis of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station, SEETHER frontman Shaun Morgan explained why he and his bandmates aren’t ready yet to perform any of the material from their recently completed follow-up to the “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” album, which came out in 2020. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET: “We live in such a horribly overconnected world that even the smallest things that make life slightly more exciting, even for us, I think it’s cool. So, if we played [the first single] live, it would be all over the Internet by the next day, and then it kind of blows the surprise. And maybe we should, so we don’t talk it up too much. And [people will be], like, ‘Oh, this is what it was about.’ But I think anticipation is a good thing.
“We finished this in January, we mastered it in the beginning of February, so we’ve been sitting with us for a long time too,” he explained. “So we’re also excited to get out and play it. But, again, I think anticipation is not to be underestimated as far as just how much it can mean when you finally get to the day… You used to wait for album releases, like, ‘Oh, my God. Finally we can go to the store and we can buy the album. We can go home. We can read the lyrics,’ all those kinds of things. Those don’t exist anymore. More often than not, albums just kind of arrive and [you’ll] be, like, ‘Oh, they have a new album? I had no idea.’ And that’s kind of a sad world. We used to all line up around the block to go get a new album when it came out, so any bit of anticipation we can [build is what we intend to do].”
Asked if there is an increased amount of pressure every time he and his SEETHER bandmates go into writing a new album, Shaun said: “The idea is not to put any pressure on yourself with a deadline. And when it’s ready, it’ll be ready and you’ll know. So if you had a deadline, you’d panic and you’d write stuff for the sake of writing it. But I think, at the end of the day, as long as you understand that once it’s finished, it’ll present itself as finished, and then you can go, ‘Okay, it’s finished,’ and you can move on. But, having said that, then you get into recording, and you’re done recording, and you’re, like, ‘Ah, I should’ve changed that,’ and now it’s too late. You can’t change those words anymore. So it’s always evolving, and it’s always a process. But I think, as far as from, ‘All right, we’re done with that tour. Let’s take a couple months off, and then we’ll start again.’ It’s always a thing of, like, ‘All right, well, let’s see what happens.’ And the first three months might be garbage, but at least it’s starting to get the gears moving again. And then eventually there’s a stride that you find yourself in. And then, again, it’ll complete itself and you’ll know when it’s done. And then it’s, like, ‘Hey guys, label guys, we’ve got this album for you.’ And, thankfully, they’re not a very intrusive A&R company; they pretty much leave us to our own devices. And that’s great too, ’cause you don’t have some guy breathing down your neck and trying to put his thumb on the scale to make you sound a certain way or do a certain thing.”
Earlier this month, Morgan told The Mistress Carrie Podcast that the new SEETHER album is “done. Currently, I think it’s an 11-track album with two bonus tracks,” he said. “The [first] single’s already been picked out. It’s the opening track to the album. The single is, I think, coming to radio in, like, July. And then the album is, I think, slated for September 20th. But the single will be called ‘Judas Mind’.”
He continued: “We can’t play it live yet, ’cause I don’t really wanna spoil the surprise, but, yeah, I think it’s a great album. I’m hoping each one’s better than the last one. It’s been four years, so it’s a little bit long, but it’s also been really weird times worldwide. It feels like everything’s kind of getting back to normal now. So I don’t know that the next album will take four years, but I’m excited about this one.”
In July 2022, SEETHER issued the deluxe edition of “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum”, containing 22 tracks in all, five of which were previously unreleased. It includes all 21 songs recorded during the “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” sessions, along with the alternate version of “Wasteland” that was originally featured on the 2020 “The Purgatory” EP.
Produced by Morgan and engineered and mixed by Matt Hyde (DEFTONES, AFI),the acclaimed “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” (“If you want peace, Prepare for war”) was released in August 2020, spawned three No. 1 singles on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and at Active Rock radio and garnered some of the best reviews of the band’s storied career.
Since forming in Pretoria, South Africa in 1999, SEETHER (Morgan, Dale Stewart, John Humphrey and Corey Lowery) has amassed a global, devoted fan base with an unbroken sense of purpose and commitment. Their impressive sales and chart history includes three platinum and two gold albums, 18 No. 1 singles, 21 Top 5 multi-format hits, single sales topping 17 million and over two billion streams worldwide across all platforms. SEETHER is Billboard‘s No. 8 all-time mainstream rock artist, which covers the over 40-year history of the chart’s existence.
SEETHER recently completed “The Tailgate Tour” with longtime friends STAIND. Also appearing on the bill are SAINT ASONIA and Tim Montana. Produced by Live Nation, “The Tailgate Tour”, which reunites STAIND and SEETHER for the first time in years, launched on April 22 in Brandon, Mississippi, with dates across the U.S., including Franklin, Tennessee; Portland, Maine and Grand Rapids, Michigan before wrapping up in Pelham, Alabama on May 15.
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