Interview with Sean Tibbetts

On March 2, heavy rock band Sault released its debut album, “Seeds of Power”, and it seemed like the perfect moment to ask founder, Sean Tibbetts, a few questions about the band, the music, and the album. Check out what Sean had to say about everything, below:

Hello, Sean! How are you?

Sean: ''No rest ever! I will sleep when I’m dead, I guess.''

How did Sault come to be? How did you ‘recruit’ the members?

Sean: ''I had an idea about seven years ago to write a solo album. Just a bass instrumental album but soon realized that I wanted to be able to tour during Kamelot’s down time so I put a band together. Curtis Jay, my guitarist, was and still is a tattoo artist who worked for a friend of mine in Florida. We met while I was receiving a tattoo. Our singer Riggs was introduced to us by One Eyed doll singer Kimberly Freeman. The drummer was originally Casey Grillo on the CD but he became too busy to finish it so I asked King Diamond drummer Matt Thompson to finish it and he gladly accepted.''

How would you describe the music to someone who doesn’t know the band?

Sean: ''It’s somewhere in the middle of hard rock and metal. I want to challenge myself to write in unfamiliar style. I've been playing metal most of my life so I wanted to see what I could come up with. We went into the project saying we were not going to use any double bass drums on the album at all. We used it in a few short spots but mainly as accents not as the main drive of the songs.''

How involved were you in the creative process for the album?

Sean: ''I am the founder and driving force behind the project. We all had a creative hand in the writing of all the songs. None can really say that any one song is yours or mine because we all contributed our to own parts. Creative freedom was the underlying theme of this album. I wrote the bass, Curtis wrote the guitars and so on. All the songs may have been based off any one of ideas but in the end we all had a hand in it.''

Is it difficult to be creative with Sault after doing the music style of Kamelot for so long?
Sean: ''It being a new style, it was all new and fresh. The hardest part was to not over play and let the music breath. I would often find myself over thinking parts and making them too technical for the song.''

Did you write any lyrics for the album?

Sean: ''No, I stayed away from that. I had everyone do what they do best. Riggs is the singer so I felt he needed to do the lyrics. I stuck to the bass for this one.''

What is the main inspiration behind the music?

Sean: ''I can't really say any one thing drove me to write other than maybe my resentment for being complacent. I like to keep myself busy. The entire album was written over five years, in between Riggs and my touring. One more reason the songs all have a very different fell from each other.''

What are the seeds of power the title refers to?

Sean: ''It refers to this entity we created called Sault and that this is just the beginning. We planted the seed so it can grow. This is our first album of many to come.''

I know Casey Grillo was supposed to be the drummer, but in some videos we see a different face behind the drum kit. What can you tell me about this aspect?

Sean: ''Like I said earlier, Casey didn't have the time to complete the project and Matt wasn't available for the video shoot so I asked Coma Cluster Void drummer Chris Burrows to play in the video shoot. He did a fantastic job and nailed the songs. It’s not a surprise because he is an amazing drummer. ''

How did you find the time to work on both “Seeds of Power” (Sault) and “The Shadow Theory” (Kamelot) in 2017?

Sean: ''We wrote over the last five years so that wasn't an issue. We actually finished recording the album a year ago. Last year was mainly mixing and mastering then shopping for a label. We eventually decided to go for it on our own, and put ‘Seeds of Power’ out ourselves. There are so many bands doing it themselves now that we thought why not.''

Is Sault a studio project or will we see it on stage someday?

Sean: ''Sault will diffidently be heading out on the road I'm just not sure when. We have had a few tour offers but they conflicted with scheduling, so we had to pass. I am confident the right one will come up and we will be heading to a town near you soon.''

What is your favorite song on the album and why?

Sean: ''That is tough for me to say because I like them all, but if I had to pick I would say it’s a toss up between ‘Guilt’ and ‘Fragile’. ‘Guilt’ is such a driving song, and has a little distorted bass solo at the end. ‘Fragile’ has a very funky beginning that goes into a dreamy kind of euphoric tapping part. I could play that kind of riff all night.''

Generally, an album’s artwork is the visual representation of the music. Do you feel this is true when it comes to Sault? Who created it?

Sean: ''Gustavo Sazes created the artwork for me. He asked what I wanted and I said something steampunk-ish and I am a fan of skulls (my tatts are all skulls), so he came up with our band mascot Old Saulty. He did a great job on the cover and all our merch.''

Are you pleased with the music you have created? Is this what you envisioned when you started the band?

Sean: ''Am I pleased? I am blown away by all the great response the album is receiving. It turned out differently than I envisioned because I asked everyone to write what they felt best fit the part. When I would think the song is going one direction it almost always went another. It was exciting and creative.''