Seether Bassist Dale Stewart Talks New Album ‘The Surface Seems So Far,’ Fatherhood and More Ahead of Pittsburgh Show

Dale Stewart, bassist for post-grunge band Seether, thinks there should be a calculation for “road years,” similar to the mathematics surrounding dog years.

“It’s like, how old are you in years of riding? In years of riding, I’m 73,” he said with a laugh. “If you believe the equation.”

In real life, Stewart is only 44, but hundreds and hundreds of shows would put him much older in “road years.” According to setlist.fm, Seether played 190 shows in 2008 alone, bringing the band’s total already past 1,800.

“It was a crazy time. And it was just nightly shows. A lot of times we would go to radio stations and do an acoustic performance during the day,” Stewart said in a call from his home in Georgia. “So you would go in, do four or five songs acoustically and do a meet and greet, and then do the show that night. So it was almost like two shows a day.”

“It was a really fun time in hindsight, but at the same time it was really exhausting. It’s a huge workload. But when you’re young, you can handle it. I think we’re all middle-aged now, and we’re not as resilient as we were in our 20s or 30s.”

By comparison, Seether’s upcoming five-week co-headlining tour with Skillet seems like a drop in the bucket. The tour, which kicks off Tuesday in Asheville, N.C., heads to Pittsburgh’s Stage AE on Monday, with Tim Montana and Royale Lynn opening the show.

Seether is touring to promote its new album, “The Surface Seems So Far,” which drops Friday. The band’s ninth studio album, which features plenty of raw but radio-friendly songs, has been in the works for months, and Stewart can’t wait for the band’s fans to hear it.

“We’re really proud of it. I think it’s a great album,” he said. “I know everyone’s like, ‘Oh, the songs are great. You’re going to love it.’ But I really think it’s great. … You’re always cautiously optimistic when you put out an album. You’re like, ‘OK, well, let’s expect the worst, but let’s hope for the best.’”

The first single, “Judas Mind,” has already reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart and sets the tone for what has become a heavy album.

“We get together and make lists of what should be on the album, on the final version. And it turns out that a lot of really heavy stuff made the cut. And like you said, it’s very Seether. It’s not a big change,” he said. “… I think we’re staying true to ourselves and just making music that we love. We’re just making music that we want to hear.”

“It definitely feels like us. It’s a little heavier. I think there’s a certain maturity to the album, to the songs. And I think that comes through. But it’s definitely a Seether album that gets straight to the point.”

With the upcoming tour, Stewart is looking forward to adding new songs to the mix of their hits like “Broken,” “Remedy,” “Breakdown” and “Fake It.”

“I love playing new songs. Some of them, we’ve been playing them for so many years, like ‘Fine Again’ and ‘Broken.’ We’ve been playing them for over two decades now. So we’ve played them literally thousands and thousands of times,” he said. “And I still love those songs, and they have a very special place in my heart. But at this point, the songs almost play themselves. But there’s almost no thought about it.”

“It’s just muscle memory. You drink two double whiskeys and the music plays itself,” he said with a laugh. “With the new songs, you can still mess it up.”

Although Stewart is looking forward to hitting the road, he will miss his family, with a 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son at home.

“Maybe it’s a good thing they’re little, because the little boy really doesn’t understand,” he said. “My daughter is just starting to realize that I’m not here anymore. She understands now that Daddy has to go to work.”

---

Related

• Singer-songwriter Victoria Canal talks new album, helicopter ride with Tom Cruise and more
• Megadeth bassist James LoMenzo talks career-defining gigs and current lineup ahead of Pittsburgh show
• Pittsburgh Area Concert Schedule 2024

---

Seether frontman Shaun Morgan said in a recent interview that he was leaning toward the “dad rock” aspect of the band since most of the members are now fathers. Stewart, who said the band “still has a lot of things that make them angry, enough to write heavy music,” said his perspective changed after becoming a parent.

“You have a different outlook on life, you have a different set of issues and things to consider,” he said. “We all have kids now, and now we’re worried about our kids, what the future holds for my kids and this and that. Having kids really changes you. I didn’t realize what a profound change it would be.”

Stewart said there’s a different kind of satisfaction in playing live, something that simply can’t be replicated.

“You want to go out and play shows and get on stage and feel that just from the crowd and the adrenaline rush,” he said. “And then that first song, you hear people cheering for you and you see their faces light up and you play a song that you know they’ve been waiting for. There’s nothing like it. And once that drug is in your system, it never goes away. It’s there for life and you kind of shape your life around that desire to feel that feeling and the music.”

With Seether’s tour for his new album just starting, the need to start working on new music isn’t there.

“Towards the end of this touring cycle, we’ll start thinking about new music, coming up with ideas,” Stewart said. “Being an established band now, we don’t feel the rush of saying, ‘OK, we need to get an album out ASAP. We don’t want to lose this momentum. We don’t want the fans to forget about us.’ At the beginning, we can’t afford not to tour, we can’t afford to take too much time off to write.”

“Whereas now we can take a step back if we’re not convinced that an album is ready or that there’s enough material to make a decent album. … So not having that time crunch and that pressure, it really helps a lot.”