Interview: Seth Salois

By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

Seth Salois (singer-songwriter, guitarist), recently released his new single: “Failed Storm Drain.”

Salois was the former frontman of now disbanded Providence, Rhode Island rock band Psycle for more than twenty years.

The new song—produced, recorded, mixed, mastered by Chris Piquette at No Boundaries Studios, with drums by Brody Briggs and guitar, bass, programming contributed by Piquette—is the debut single off Salois’ upcoming five-song EP, Between The Darkness And The Light, releasing in 2026.

In this OOTB Interview, Salois took time to discuss his songwriting process, previous band, personal life, upcoming EP, when music first interested him as a youth, and more.

Are your lyrics personal and direct or are they meant to be vague and open to interpretation? Or a little of both? How do you decide on those approaches?

For lyrics, I tend not to make them super personal and, or direct. I have always liked to give the listener an opportunity to take from the song how it makes them feel. It’s funny how even a change in one word for someone can make the song’s meaning that much more powerful.

A lot of the lyrics are usually from observation and not directly personal. It could be how something makes me feel after seeing it, hearing about it etc.

As far as deciding an approach, I usually have an idea or a phrase the creates the rest of the song—think of it as reeling in a fishing line. I think the melody, which I believe is the most important thing, can create the mood of the song, but I usually have it created from a phrase.

How is your solo approach different than Psycle?

The biggest thing about these songs is there weren’t four of us in a room creating them together. I think that was the scariest thing about doing a solo album.

I think you have to have confidence in yourself, but also take from what you have learned from other musicians you have played with.

We used to say “a song isn’t finished until it’s worn in like an old pair of boots” and knowing when to say “it’s done.”

I think my confidence in this album came from my producer Chris Piquette. We have worked together since 2017, and we sometimes share the same brain [laughs]. He pushes me the hardest and knows what I expect from myself.

We created these songs together just from demos that were basically just acoustic guitar and vocals. I had a lot of comps from certain songs; ways I wanted things to sound, but it was literally the two of us in a room with guitars in our laps, just having fun.

When did you first become interested in music, was it a moment, an event, an album, etc.? Or a little bit of all of those?

I was captured by music at a very early age.

My mom always had music on in the house and even my grandfather played the organ every night after dinner when I stayed with them, which was often.

I can’t say that playing music came easy, but the lyric part was definitely the thing that drove me towards learning.

I never took any guitar or vocal lessons… my teachings came from Elton John, Freddie Mercury, 90’s grunge and more.

After many, many unrelenting days and nights teaching myself guitar, I had one moment in college where I did an open mic in front of so many more people than I wanted to. It gave me the feeling I had been searching for, for most of my life.

After that, I have been chasing the best melody, songs, etc. and probably won’t stop any time soon.

With Between The Darkness And The Light releasing next year, what is your personal favorite of the five songs and why that one?

There is a lot of “who’s your favorite kid” in this question [laughs].

I do have a favorite, but what I will say about all five songs is I had a list... checkboxes... ideas that I always wanted to get into a song or songs that I wrote. I think Chris and I were able to check every box I had across the board with these five.

The best way to put it is, they are all… me. My influences range from as hard as Pantera to classical and everywhere in between.

Chris and I said every session that the only ego in the room is the song. Let’s just service each song for what it needs, calls for, and we knew in the end we had satisfied that goal.

Long story short, my favorite song is the title track “Between The Darkness And The Light,” I think that song has the depth, the dynamics, melody, progression, and emotion that I have always been looking for.

Unfortunately, it will be the last song released on the album, so there’s going to be so awesome prep from the other four to get you ready.

When you’re not focusing on your music, how do you spend your time outside of the studio or writing and recording?

Music aside, I have some great friends I spend time with. I have my wife and my 18-year-old son who I spend a lot of time with.

I am also a huge movie buff… can’t get enough of them, and it doesn’t matter if it’s superhero, indie, horror, B-movies, I am all about it. I guess it allows me to get out of my own head when I am not writing, recording, or playing shows.

What are your plans going into 2026? Is there a release date for the EP?

2026 will hopefully allow me to continue to push these other four songs out.

I have been playing a lot of solo shows, but I know that if there is interest in hearing these new songs live, I will put together a band to play them.

I hope that people love these songs as much as I do and I can get it to as many eyes and ears as possible.

Hear “Failed Storm Drain”