You guys are so funny.... In a radio interview in Australia, 1994 on Triple J, Louise explained the song was about her vile and uncontrollable temper. She would scream the most vicious abuse at her family and friends when she had one of these massive tantrums, saying things she would feel terrible about later.
She, her family and her closest friends saw her as a completely different person when she was in this state, so she tended to think of her temper in the third person, someone she called The Seether.
Louise explained that she could feel this temper coming on, but there was nothing she could do nothing about it, gentle or harsh: 'Keep her on a short leash', 'rock her in my cradle', 'knock her out', 'cram her back in my mouth'.
The Seether of course 'is not born like other girls' because she comes from within and Loiuse 'knows how to conceive her' because The Seether is part of her.
As an extension, The Seether could also live in other girls of all ages, sizes and races, something she could identify with and talk about, because if a guy sang about the same thing he would be considered sexist.
During the interview both girls were laughing about all the whacky meanings people had attributed to the song. Read the lyrics though with this in mind and they all make sense.
Thank you! And Nina's nod to "Seether" in "Volcano Girls" ("Well, here's another clue if you please: The seether's Louise!") certainly agrees with this. Though, Nina wrote the song, not Louise...
Thank you! And Nina's nod to "Seether" in "Volcano Girls" ("Well, here's another clue if you please: The seether's Louise!") certainly agrees with this. Though, Nina wrote the song, not Louise...
Well, that's a lie by either Walternate, or Louise, because Louise didn't write the song, Nina did. And Nina said in a recent interview with Spin that she wrote it after her friend got pregnant and failed at trying to give her self an abortion, and couldn't afford to have it done professionally. So, there you go.
Well, that's a lie by either Walternate, or Louise, because Louise didn't write the song, Nina did. And Nina said in a recent interview with Spin that she wrote it after her friend got pregnant and failed at trying to give her self an abortion, and couldn't afford to have it done professionally. So, there you go.
@walternate Song was written by Nina, but both Louise and Nina credit it to what you described (and it has nothing at all to do with abortion). Here's from an interview from Radio.com (June 17, 2014) for the 20-year commemorative anniversary of the song single release:
@walternate Song was written by Nina, but both Louise and Nina credit it to what you described (and it has nothing at all to do with abortion). Here's from an interview from Radio.com (June 17, 2014) for the 20-year commemorative anniversary of the song single release:
Nina Gordon: "No, it’s not true! I haven’t heard that one. I thought you were going to say something way scarier. [laughs] Many songs, when I was writing early on, were inspired by William Blake. But “Seether” I don’t think was. It’s possible that the idea of the “seether,” a character, a made-up person…I did...
Nina Gordon: "No, it’s not true! I haven’t heard that one. I thought you were going to say something way scarier. [laughs] Many songs, when I was writing early on, were inspired by William Blake. But “Seether” I don’t think was. It’s possible that the idea of the “seether,” a character, a made-up person…I did love how in Blake’s work, he would just come up with these mythical character names, like Dr. Seuss or even Prince. So it is possible that the character or even creature could’ve been inspired by the Blake-ian tendency to do that.
I had a really strong desire to hurt somebody. I had this vision of taking a person’s face and scraping it on the sidewalk. And it was very disturbing, this vision. And I saw the person’s face looking back at me after I had done that, looking back at me like “How could you do this to me?” with outrage. And I was really terrified of that instinct in me to want to hurt someone like that physically. So I thought, oh my god, I’m seething with this anger, this violence, and this desire to do something really awful to somebody. So I thought about seething, and I thought I’m gonna write about the “seether,” this internal rage in me."
Louise Post: "That’s all in there too! Nina didn’t set out to write a feminist song or song with feminist content, but that is what was inherent in the song. I guess to go a little deeper with it, she and I grew up the ways we grew up. We had some relationships with people in our families…where we had a lot of anger and rage that was boiling under the surface that we really had to get out artistically and creatively. And I think “Seether” represented that coming of age for us, coming out of the closet creatively and beginning to express ourselves as young women."
Personally, I always felt this song perfectly described when a woman (speaking about myself mostly, but could be other women too) is menstrual and uncontrollably angry and feels little self-control over her own emotional outbursts. That was how I always interpreted Seether.
You guys are so funny.... In a radio interview in Australia, 1994 on Triple J, Louise explained the song was about her vile and uncontrollable temper. She would scream the most vicious abuse at her family and friends when she had one of these massive tantrums, saying things she would feel terrible about later. She, her family and her closest friends saw her as a completely different person when she was in this state, so she tended to think of her temper in the third person, someone she called The Seether. Louise explained that she could feel this temper coming on, but there was nothing she could do nothing about it, gentle or harsh: 'Keep her on a short leash', 'rock her in my cradle', 'knock her out', 'cram her back in my mouth'. The Seether of course 'is not born like other girls' because she comes from within and Loiuse 'knows how to conceive her' because The Seether is part of her. As an extension, The Seether could also live in other girls of all ages, sizes and races, something she could identify with and talk about, because if a guy sang about the same thing he would be considered sexist. During the interview both girls were laughing about all the whacky meanings people had attributed to the song. Read the lyrics though with this in mind and they all make sense.
Thank you! And Nina's nod to "Seether" in "Volcano Girls" ("Well, here's another clue if you please: The seether's Louise!") certainly agrees with this. Though, Nina wrote the song, not Louise...
Thank you! And Nina's nod to "Seether" in "Volcano Girls" ("Well, here's another clue if you please: The seether's Louise!") certainly agrees with this. Though, Nina wrote the song, not Louise...
Well, that's a lie by either Walternate, or Louise, because Louise didn't write the song, Nina did. And Nina said in a recent interview with Spin that she wrote it after her friend got pregnant and failed at trying to give her self an abortion, and couldn't afford to have it done professionally. So, there you go.
Well, that's a lie by either Walternate, or Louise, because Louise didn't write the song, Nina did. And Nina said in a recent interview with Spin that she wrote it after her friend got pregnant and failed at trying to give her self an abortion, and couldn't afford to have it done professionally. So, there you go.
@walternate Song was written by Nina, but both Louise and Nina credit it to what you described (and it has nothing at all to do with abortion). Here's from an interview from Radio.com (June 17, 2014) for the 20-year commemorative anniversary of the song single release:
@walternate Song was written by Nina, but both Louise and Nina credit it to what you described (and it has nothing at all to do with abortion). Here's from an interview from Radio.com (June 17, 2014) for the 20-year commemorative anniversary of the song single release:
Nina Gordon: "No, it’s not true! I haven’t heard that one. I thought you were going to say something way scarier. [laughs] Many songs, when I was writing early on, were inspired by William Blake. But “Seether” I don’t think was. It’s possible that the idea of the “seether,” a character, a made-up person…I did...
Nina Gordon: "No, it’s not true! I haven’t heard that one. I thought you were going to say something way scarier. [laughs] Many songs, when I was writing early on, were inspired by William Blake. But “Seether” I don’t think was. It’s possible that the idea of the “seether,” a character, a made-up person…I did love how in Blake’s work, he would just come up with these mythical character names, like Dr. Seuss or even Prince. So it is possible that the character or even creature could’ve been inspired by the Blake-ian tendency to do that.
I had a really strong desire to hurt somebody. I had this vision of taking a person’s face and scraping it on the sidewalk. And it was very disturbing, this vision. And I saw the person’s face looking back at me after I had done that, looking back at me like “How could you do this to me?” with outrage. And I was really terrified of that instinct in me to want to hurt someone like that physically. So I thought, oh my god, I’m seething with this anger, this violence, and this desire to do something really awful to somebody. So I thought about seething, and I thought I’m gonna write about the “seether,” this internal rage in me."
Louise Post: "That’s all in there too! Nina didn’t set out to write a feminist song or song with feminist content, but that is what was inherent in the song. I guess to go a little deeper with it, she and I grew up the ways we grew up. We had some relationships with people in our families…where we had a lot of anger and rage that was boiling under the surface that we really had to get out artistically and creatively. And I think “Seether” represented that coming of age for us, coming out of the closet creatively and beginning to express ourselves as young women."
Personally, I always felt this song perfectly described when a woman (speaking about myself mostly, but could be other women too) is menstrual and uncontrollably angry and feels little self-control over her own emotional outbursts. That was how I always interpreted Seether.
@walternate You know that songs can be about more than one thing, . . right? And that songs frequently have subliminal content? Right?
@walternate You know that songs can be about more than one thing, . . right? And that songs frequently have subliminal content? Right?