Fake It

Fake It

Seether

On “Fake It,” Seether’s singer Shaun Morgan is voicing his thoughts about what he percieves is a lack of “realness” (i.e. being vulnerable and honest) in a large portion of people in modern society.

In an interview with Revolt In Style, Morgan explains:

Some of it was inspired by L.A., some was inspired by, well, my sister. She’s fifteen and she represents what I would consider kids of today, and what I feel kids of today are like. […] It’s sad that being an individual makes you an outcast as far as kids are concerned. I guess it’s always been that way, but it just seems to be worse today. […] If you don’t have people striving to be themselves, or to be creative, then ultimately people just burn. Concentrating on their physical appearance more than their personality.

The song has a distinct bass line and a heavy guitar sound during the chorus. The original version of the song was first recorded in Morgan’s bedroom and was an iTunes exclusive bonus track named “Quirk.”

“Fake It” is the first single from Seether’s album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. The single reached number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100, the second highest of Seether’s singles after “Broken,” which reached number 20. It reached the number one spot on both the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks charts.

Reflecting the theme of the lyrics and using a meta narrative, the music video shows the shoot of a music video. The various settings slowly begin to blend together, revealing the different music video tropes to be faked in some way, through the use of props, bluescreen, or computer manipulation.

Drummer John Humphrey told andpop.com about it:

It’s shot with a Hip-Hop video vibe; we’re in the jet and we’re partying, and then there is this big epic scenic set where we’re jamming, and it’s snowing on us for no reason, and there are lots of girls, and then the backdrop falls and shows how it’s just a set. It’s hilarious. The point is to show how fake and pretentious it all is. How shallow [the industry] can be.

“Fake It” was the official theme song of the 2008 WWE No Way Out pay-per-view event. It also appears on the soundtrack in the video game Burnout Paradise.