SEETHER - Dale Stewart
Celebrating the Release of Vicennial - 2 Decades of SEETHER
Written by: Tom Wilson – Sense Music Media
SEETHER bassist Dale Stewart is sitting in his home in Savannah, Georgia, on a break from their tour with radio rockers THREE DOORS DOWN. Where his neighbours might have rifles on the wall, Dale has racks of his chosen weapons: guitars (including, notably, a blue Dimebag Darrell signature Dean, complete with lightning bolts.) Pouring a drink to mark the release of Vicennial, their greatest hits compilation spanning two decades of hard-hitting rock, Dale shot the shit on getting older and growing up behind South African razor wire.
The Interview
You guys just did the Aftershock Festival. Because people have a very artificially inflated sense of A) how much money rock bands have, and B) what actually happens backstage, how has COVID affected the amount of strippers and cocaine?
I think me being married has affected the levels of strippers and cocaine, more than COVID! [Laughs] It’s funny. All of our generation of bands … We’re all getting a little older now, and most of the guys are married and have kids. Not all, but most. I was laughing the other day, speaking of THREE DOORS DOWN, I was sitting down talking to Brad [Arnold], their singer. THREE DOORS DOWN is a kind of middle-of-the-road rock band that doesn’t sound very “edgy”, let’s say, but man, those guys used to be the wildest dudes. Some of the wildest dudes you could ever hang out with. But now, the conversations we have … “You’re on blood pressure stuff?” “Oh yeah, my doctor has put me on it.” [Laughs] … It’s the furthest thing from what it used to be, back in the day. But that’s what happens. Everybody gets a little older, so you play a festival like Aftershock, and James Hetfield’s walking around and he’s completely grey. You’re like, “Look at Hetfield!” We did one the other day with JUDAS PRIEST, and Rob Halford looked like Santa Claus with this big white beard … All these gods of rock. They’re a lot older than we are, but I feel like we’re kind of next to be the old guys at the festival. It’s funny how things change, and priorities change, and guys are there with their families and their kids. There’s no more hookers and coke. It’s now families. I still do my fair share of drinking, but that’s really my only vice left at this point. [He raises a glass in toast.] Cheers to that! [Laughs]
I was a child of the nineties, so all of my musical idols were bands like SLAYER and PANTERA. I’ve noticed that most of my musical idols are in their fifties, and almost everyone has quit drinking! [Laughs]
That’s the thing! … Most guys have quit drinking, but a lot of those guys are what’s called “California Sober”, which means they just smoke a lot of weed now. [Laughs] It’s like, “I quit drinking, man. I’m working out. I’m good!” It’s like, “Dude, you smoke more weed than Willie Nelson!” I mean, that’s cool, I don’t care. Weed’s probably a hell of a lot better than drinking, for the body. It’s kind of funny that they consider that sober, but to each their own. I’m not going to judge. I love my whiskey. I’m a drinker. I’m South African, man! We drink! It’s very similar to Australian culture. You drink, you watch rugby, you fish. It’s just part of the blood, you know? I don’t know that I’d ever stop. I’m not an animal like I used to be, but I still enjoy a scotch or a bourbon, or a beer when it’s hot enough. I don’t want to live without it – that’s no way to live!
Like Australia, people have a lot of preconceptions about life in South Africa. People think we’re all alcoholics who wrestle crocodiles, and when people mention South Africa, they picture big compound houses, and that it can be a very dangerous environment. To what extent is that accurate? What was it like growing up in South Africa?
The stereotype that we live behind barbed wire fences and stuff, that one’s kind of true. [Laughs] If you don’t have burglar bars on your house, and razor wire on your fence, you’re kind of asking for trouble. So you do kind of lock yourself away. There’s a lot of crime. But yeah, the biggest stereotype when I first came to the States, was that people think there are wild animals roaming around. “Oh, where did you live? Do you have to avoid lions?” Well, no, I grew up in a suburb, just like you did! [Americans] can go to Yellowstone or one of their national parks and see buffalo and wolves and stuff. We can go to Kruger Park and go see the lions, and there are lion parks and game reserves, and guys who have farms with game to hunt – that kind of stuff. So you can see that stuff without going too far, but it’s not in your backyard. I think that was one of the falsehoods there. It’s not everyone – it’s just the odd person who’s like, “Oh, did you guys ever ride zebras?” And I’m like, “No.” [Laughs] I’m a white kid from the suburbs. It’s not that different from the States. And then we’d tease people. “Oh, this one time I was riding my giraffe to school, and it got attacked by a hippo!” “Oh, really?” “No, man. Seriously, you believe that?”
I feel like the movie Crocodile Dundee did for us what Lethal Weapon 2 did for South Africa.
[Laughs] “Diplomatic immunity!” I loved all the Crocodile Dundee [movies], but people think that it’s all guys hunting kangaroos and the outback and wrestling crocs … I don’t want to generalise, but I think it’s different now with things like the internet. There’s so much information out there. But pre-internet, if you grew up in the States, there was no real reason for you to have a knowledge of what was going on in Australia or South Africa, because it had no bearing on your life. Whereas I grew up listening to bands that were American, and whenever there was a movie, it would be set in L.A. or New York. I was familiar with the cars that people drove and how they spoke and the different cities and cultural stuff like Thanksgiving. I knew about all that stuff from sitcoms and movies, so I felt like I almost knew America before I even set foot there … So much culture stems from America. A lot of culture begins here, so they don’t really have to look elsewhere.
The compilation that you’ve got coming out now, you got fans to submit artwork. What can you tell me about that? What spurred that on?
You know, we were trying to think of ways to include fans through the lockdown and COVID and everything. It was very hard to let people feel like they were involved, or include them in our lives without being able to do meet-and-greets or physically play shows. We felt like that was one of those interactive things where we could get people onboard and get people excited about it. We did a livestream as well where we played live shows during the lockdown. We’re getting ready to do another livestream now, on November 11th, where you can actually get on our website and go and vote for ten songs that you really want to hear. We’ll be doing different shows in different time zones, for the different markets. All kinds of little things like that. We’re trying to involve people and interact with our fans, while we can’t be there physically. We’d love to come play in Australia, but with lockdowns and this COVID shit, it’s hard. Hopefully this is the tail end of things, and hopefully next year or 2023 we can come and physically play again, and travel will be completely open. Until then, this is a way for us to roll with the punches, and make lemonade from the lemons. It’s just born out of necessity. It’s actually been kind of cool. The artwork turned out really great – some great submissions. There are some really talented people out there.
Vicennial – 2 Decades of Seether is out now.