INTERVIEW: Shaun Morgan Looks Back at Earliest Days of Seether

"You know what's funny is every step of the way we had claw our way to the next level."

Seether's Shaun Morgan joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday (Dec. 4) and spent a lot of time reflecting on the earliest days of the band's career. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

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"You lose a battle of the bands, normally you go, alright, well we're done. And we said, no, let's not be done because that competition sucked and we know those other bands suck, so there's no way that was legitimate."

Morgan was looking back on the first battle of the bands they competed in. After they didn't win, they felt compelled to keep pushing forward and do things on their own.

"We managed ourselves for a long time and we booked tours in a pickup truck with [bassist] Dale [Turner] and my brother. My brother was doing sound, he'd never done sound in his life, but he knew how to sort of twiddle some knobs to make it sound okay."

As he shared several significant obstacles Seether faced over the years, Morgan admitted it's crazy that they're still releasing new music and touring.

"It's cool how far it's come," he shared.

"I guess that's something to be super thankful for ... We've toured with so many bands that were, I thought, great bands and that no longer exist or have had hard times have really struggled to stay relevant — which is normal."

Shaun Morgan Opens Up About Releasing New Music

While he looked back on the many years of Seether's struggles and successes, Morgan also shared his thought process about what's next for the band.

"We have a great label that supports a vision for the band going forward," he said.

"It's a little too early to sort of really know what the future is, but there's going to be a slightly different approach going forward as far as releases and things go with maybe more of a focus on a single at a time."

He said they may opt to do singles for the next few years instead of recording a full album. Though he loves the experience of listening to a band's record in full, he recognizes that times have changed.

"We live in a playlist kind of world and we live in a singles-driven world," Morgan said.

"I think that the world has changed so much. We look to bands like Bring Me the Horizon...they'll release albums eventually if they feel like it. They just do a steady stream of singles and I feel like you have to look at one of the bands that's the biggest, most innovative bands in the world and then you also just have to use common sense and go, alright, CDs are a thing of the past [and] streaming entire albums is for the core fans."

Morgan said he will always love the full album experience and fretting over a tracklist, but he he also shared a bit of relief with the idea of only focusing on singles for now.

"I have to write a song at a time instead of having to write 30, 40 and then whittle that down to 15 and then cut that down to 10 or 11," he said.

"I've already got about 18 ideas and I can now go, alright, cool, is anything in here something that I would consider single worthy? If I find 10 of them, there are 10 that I think I could work on and turn into songs that I really think represent the band."

What Else Did Seether's Shaun Morgan Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

How fatherhood has changed his perspective as an artist and songwriter: "It just comes down to, you really work smarter and not harder. I've worked hard a long time ... We hope to maintain the momentum, but not at the cost of our families."
How Covid also changed his view of life: "[It] really woke me up...I was like, 'Oh, you know what? I'm useless. I don't count in this world.' Cool, well then I'm going to count where it matters most anyway and it shifted my whole perspective."
A message to fans who think they're talking to him on social media: "I vehemently despise any social media. I was on Twitter for about six months and I could tell even then I was going to get myself in so much trouble, man. I've got to quit. I don't have anything. I don't have Facebook. I don't have Instagram. I don't have any of those things. And people are constantly saying, 'Hey, I gave you $10,000.' No, you didn't give it to me, bro. You gave it to someone else because I wouldn't be asking you for money, first off, but secondly, just do some due diligence. I've said openly many times, I don't have social media."