A little over a year ago, a band called Saron Gas was everyone’s favourite at rock concerts and music venues, especially in Gauteng. Twelve months later, a name change and a six-figure, 10-album deal with United States label Wind-Up later, Seether are now the latest rock act to take the title of international darlings wooing crowds across the US.
If this sounds likes like something scripted by a Hollywood screenwriter, it is because the dream that bass player Dale Stewart and lead vocalist Shaun Morgan now live could quite have easily been the inspiration for what threatens to become a worldwide smash hit phenomenon with its roots firmly planted in Africa.
“It’s been like starting out as a new band all over again,” Morgan admits, with his recently acquired American accent hinting. “The only real difference, though, is that everything is on a bigger level.” Having paid their dues, the Jozi boys left South Africa as heroes, having played to capacity crowds at the 5fm birthday bash in 2001, their biggest audience since forming. With keen memories of 20 000 fans screaming their names and mouthing the words to their hit singles such as 69 Tea, Gasoline and Fine Again, the then intrepid trio and their managers jetted off to New York. With their Saron Gas debut album Fragile in hand, US producer extraordinaire Jay Baumgardner set to work, taking already sweetly crafted tracks (to the credit of local studio owner and equally competent knob twiddler Brian O’Shea) and making them even bigger.
Happy in the knowledge that their songs are now being played on US radio and with their Ryder rental truck fuelled and ready to tackle another town at a moment’s notice, Seether, including new drummer Nick Oshiro, understands that world domination might take a while.
Seether’s newly released international debut, Disclaimer, dropped in at number 97 on the Billboard charts the week it was released, and in its first month moved the equivalent of platinum status (50 000 units sold) in South Africa. “After six weeks the album has sold 65 000 copies and still there are people out there who don’t know who we are,” Morgan pontificates. “Basically we are going out there and playing every opportunity we get. America is so vast, that’s why it takes bands years to break in the US and become known.”
Living the MTV lifestyle — living between New York and Los Angeles, selling albums by the truckload and having your videos flighted around the world — boggles the minds of most who tune into the DStv channel, but when South Africans get the nod from the world’s superpower, the prospect is a tad surreal. “It’s the first time we’ve had roadies that set up your guitar, a dedicated bus driver, managers that make sure you have money and sound guys employed solely to service our live shows. It’s bizarre being a part of this well-oiled American machine and being in a place that you’ve grown up getting to know through movies and music videos. It could unseat the most grounded person. We spotted our video on MTV last night and we all just started laughing because it is totally incredible. The one thing I dreamed about is staring back at me on the screen.”
When Seether signed their record deal, they were distinctly aware that their lives were about to take a sharp right turn into the competitive world of rock’n’roll mayhem. “We knew from the start that once this thing took off, none of us could hold it down,” Morgan confirms. “Everyone kept saying that the really hard work starts once the album is done and I can now confirm that they weren’t kidding. To give you an idea, we now had our first five days off since May.”
The expectation is that this band is bigger than just impressive first-week album sales, and with getting to live your dream comes monumental responsibility. “The reason why Dale and I are here, two South Africans traversing the globe, is because we’ve believed in this for so long and so much, that no member of this band would ever disappoint or let the other down. They always say that South Africans work the hardest and hell, yes, were proof of that.”
Forging new ground for others to follow is also something of which the band is very aware. Artists the likes of Steve Louw and bands the calibre of Boo! have each laid a brick in the proverbial road being paved for fellow Africans to navigate their way on to international stages and possibly Pearl Jam-style acclaim. “Were so proud of what we’ve done so far,” Morgan asserts. “Even if it ended all tomorrow, just the things we’ve seen and stages we’ve played, people we’ve met and the things we’ve done — it’s been really amazing for us. What we are doing is very much set in; if it works for us, it could work for Jimmy 12″ or Marlowe next?”
From being local protagonists to becoming international stars literally overnight can mess with anyone’s head, but for this grunge-tinged trio, hype does not faze them one iota. “I think if we believed the bullshit propaganda that follows us around, we might be in trouble,” Morgan insists. “Every band is as good as their live show. I don’t think it’s even gauged by the number of albums you sell. As far as your integrity and your performance goes, that’s as good a band as you are. At all times we remember playing at the Big Easy in Kensington to two people and the Nile Crocodile when no one pitched, and we remember those shows all the time to help keep things in perspective.”
A simple philosophy, but one so simple it actually works. With their diary already booked up well into 2003 and a European release scheduled for early January, the songs we all know and love and which we have lived with for close on three years will get another lease on life when our proud rock revolutionaries take on the continent.
Seether’s Disclaimer is out on CD