Troy McLawhorn by Andrea Leigh
I have to admit that Seether is one of my favorite bands. I think The Doors
are probably the only ones that have them beat on my list. Not only are they
extremely talented musicians, but they are just really cool guys. It only takes
a few minutes of hanging out with them to forget that they are the rock stars.
Each member of the band is pretty down to earth and none of them try to put
on a façade. Seether put on a great show at ROTR and interacted with
the audience throughout their entire set. You can easily tell that the stage
is their home and the audience is their guest.
Cover: This is not your first time playing at ROTR…
Troy: No, we played here either last year or the year before.
Cover: I know it wasn’t last year so it had to have been
the year before.
Troy: Okay, yeah. It was the year before. Sevendust played
the same day we did so we all went over to hang out and see them.
Cover: As far as ROTR and the festival atmosphere, is there
a preference versus headlining shows?
Troy: Not really, they’re both different and they’re
both cool in their own ways and they both have bad qualities too, you know what
I mean? When you play a festival a lot of times it’s raining and there’s
mud and no bathrooms. That’s the main issue…no bathrooms…port-a-potties
suck. Playing in a controlled environment like a theater is really cool because
you can control your lighting and your sound is probably better indoors than
outdoors, but there’s a lot to be said for the festival crowds. It’s
a great party atmosphere.
Cover: Has Seether been able to meet any fans at ROTR or have
you done any signings.
Troy: No, we’ve been doing interviews all day in the
interview tent. I’ve got friends out here that are all like “where
you at?”, and I’m just like “Man, I’m doing an interview.”
(Laughs)
Cover: In the hot as hell media tent…
Troy: …yeah, exactly.
Cover: You’re new CD comes out shortly. When we spoke
about a year ago you said that you were hoping you could write on this album.
Did you get to do that?
Troy: Yeah, actually we’re writing as a band. We’ve
been rehearsing in Nashville in a little rehearsal space and writing music as
a band. When Shaun feels an idea, he’ll sing something over it. Obviously,
he writes all the lyrics and melodies. That’s his thing. We’ve recorded
four songs so far and two of them came from stuff that Shaun heard me playing
so I think there’s a real collaborative effort with this album.
Cover: Will there be anything that’s really different
from the Disclaimer’s or from Finding Beauty, for instance?
Troy: I hope so you know. I hope we don’t tread the same
ground. It’s good to get off the beaten path. Not so far that people don’t
recognize the band, but just branch out a little. There is one song and when
everybody hears it I think it will catch everybody off-guard. I think kind of
like “Fake it”. The first time I heard that, I was like “that’s
different”, but it grows on you and it’s got that cool kind of swing
vibe to it. So there’s already one song down that I think fits that bill.
It might or might not be a single. We’ve been a little influenced by Nashville
I guess.
Cover: You are going to be playing later today. Is there anything
you’re going to be different during this show versus what you’ve
done on tour in the last year or so?
Troy: Seether every night has a different show. We change the
set list every night. I was just talking about this with someone. We don’t
do sound checks because we don’t use in-ears or click tracks and all that
stuff. Every night we play little pieces of music between songs and people get
on the website and want to know if that’s part of a new song, but it’s
really ad-lib so I think every night is a new show. We’re not playing
any new stuff because we don’t want it to be out there before we even
record it. We switch the setup every night and try to play something people
haven’t heard in a while. I’m not even sure what the set list is
for tonight yet. Shaun usually writes it about five minute before we go on.
(laughs)
Cover: That reminds of a question I’ve been dying to
ask. Your set list from the Tallahassee show about a year ago, the last thing
written on it was “balls and vinegar”, what the hell does that mean?
Troy: That’s different every night. There’s little
inside jokes on the set list every night. I don’t remember what that one
meant in particular.
Cover: Well, it was a long time ago, but I’ve always
thought if I got the chance to talk to you guys again I would have to ask what
that meant.
Troy: There are always little jokes. Our tour manager likes
to put jokes on the bottom that no one will get except someone in the band.
Cover: For people who are coming out to see Seether for the
first time at ROTR, what kind of show can they expect from you today?
Troy: loud and sweaty and…that’s probably pretty
much it (laughs). Loud and sweaty and a lot of drinking.
Cover: One of the reasons that I like Seether so much and why
you’re one of my favorite bands is because the lyrics are really raw.
You can tell that they’re drawn from emotion and life experience. I know
Shaun writes the lyrics, but is that something he tries to do or is that just
a part of who he is coming out?
Troy: I think Shaun is a really intelligent guy. I think he
tries to top himself with each album and that’s been a part of the process
for this album. He’s said more than once, “I really want to take
it to the next level.” Finding Beauty was a good album and it did really
well for us. I think in a way consciously he tries to make it better each time,
but then again the whole thing about Seether is the spontaneity and to try not
to over think things. There’s a balance there.