Seether

Saron Gas had their origins in Pretoria, and the earliest days of the group saw their public appearances at parties, nightclubs, small-scale concerts and University venues, such as the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch, where they played for the lunch-time crowds in the Neelsie centre on the latter campus as late as the summer of 2001.

As Saron Gas, the band released its first album, Fragile on Musketeer Records, in 2000 in South Africa. Upon achieving success on the South African music charts, Wind-up Records took an interest in Saron Gas' melodic-yet-heavy sound and signed them to the label. The band was asked to change their name, however, due to Saron Gas being a homophone of sarin gas, a deadly nerve agent. The band chose the name Seether, inspired by a single by the band Veruca Salt.

Their first major release came in 2002 with their second album Disclaimer. The album spawned three singles, "Fine Again", "Driven Under" and "Gasoline," but only "Fine Again" charted with any success. The remaining singles got semi-frequent radio play on modern rock stations, but were not major chart hits. The biggest hit off the album, "Broken", was not even released as a single. Shaun Morgan has cited Nirvana (and specifically the album Nevermind) as 'the reason he picked up a guitar,' and also quotes Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains and Deftones. [1]

After Disclaimer was released, the band went on a non-stop touring route in hopes of boosting sales and name recognition. Upon completing the tour, the band had planned to go into the studio and record their second release. However, they were instead tapped to support Evanescence on a worldwide tour that postponed their recording plans by almost a year. On this tour, the band reworked the acoustic ballad "Broken" into an electric ballad and had Amy Lee of Evanescence share vocal duties with Morgan during live performances. Inspired by the positive reaction the duet got on the road and perhaps fueled by a budding romance between Lee and Morgan, the band headed into the studio and quickly recorded an alternate version of "Broken" with Amy Lee on vocals. The song, along with a new song titled "Sold Me", was featured on the soundtrack for the 2004 film The Punisher and was massively successful, bringing the band fame in the US, the UK and Australia in particular. Morgan has stated that the hit was an incident where the band was subjected to what the record company wanted rather than what the band wanted. [1] Disclaimer II, an alternate version of the original album with many of the songs remixed or re-recorded as well as eight extra tracks, was released in late 2004.

In 2005, the band released their follow-up album Karma and Effect. The original title for the album was Catering to Cowards, but the band ultimately decided against the name. The album did not contain obscenities, unlike their previous releases.

While on tour for the album with Shinedown, Seether released an acoustic CD/DVD set titled One Cold Night, recorded on 22 February 2006 at Grape Street in Philadelphia. Morgan, who had been suffering from a stomach ailment, decided to do an acoustic performance of their set-list rather than cancel the show.

On June 16, it was announced via Seether's official site that lead guitarist Pat Callahan had chosen to leave the band. The exact reason for Callahan's departure is unknown. Shaun Morgan said, "Um… relieved a little… actually a lot, He was the guy in the band that was always our naysayer, and he was the negative energy as far as writing. I personally have no love lost, which is weird for some reason ‘cus he was my friend for four years. But when he walked out – it kinda walked out with him."[1]

Shaun Morgan went into rehab for unspecified addictions in August 2006, forcing the band to cancel their tour with Staind and Three Days Grace. Morgan is now out of rehab. Evanescence's hit "Call Me When You're Sober" was written about this incident.

Morgan claims the new album will be more diverse than previous ones. It has been said on their official MySpace that the album should be out in October and on their official website that the album "is tentatively scheduled for release on October 23, 2007." but that date changes constantly. [1]. In an interview, Morgan claims one song has a piano in it,[1] but which one it is as of now, is unknown.

According to a posting by Shaun on the band's official message board, Seether has hired Howard Benson to produce the. new album.. As of now, it is known that the album will not be a clean record like Karma & Effect. 5 clips of rehearsals of the song, "Like Suicide", have been posted on their Myspace blog and on YouTube.[2] 4 live performances of "Like Suicide" have recently been posted on YouTube. A few tracks slated to appear on the new album are - "No, Jesus Christ"; "Breakdown"; "Fake It"; "6 Gun Quota"; "Walk Away From The Sun"; "Rise Above This"; "FMLYHM"; "Don't Believe"; "Waste"; "Fallen" and "Eyes of the Devil". The first single will be out late August. According to Seether's Official Message Board, FMLYHM is shortened for Fuck Me Like You Hate Me. According to recent interview, the new album won't include any song in response to Evanescence's "Call Me When You're Sober", written by his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee about their breakup. [3] Seether recently had to cancel several shows due to the sudden death of Shaun Morgan's brother Eugene Welgemoed.

The single "Fake it" can be heard on their myspace blog, and the cover has already been revealed on myspace (album cover art illustrated by David Ho [1]).

On the Seether website [2] it is now known that there are 12 songs on the Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces album. Bassist Dale Stewart recently confirmed that Seether has produced a video for the single "Fake It" saying that it was shot in LA and had HOT girls in the video. Also on the website there is a review of the album where you find out the song 'Rise Above This' is written about Shaun's brother Eugene before his tragic death, and is an optimistic sounding song. It also says that the heaviness is still there with songs including "Fallen", "No Jesus Christ" and "Like Suicide"[/b]

Source: http://artists.letssingit.com/seether-t962k/biography