My Own Person
Powerplay - June/July/August 1999
Richard Blundell goes head to head with... Creed
It is the afternoon of Creed's debut UK show and the band are undergoing a hefty interview schedule at the Epic Offices in Central London, including a phoner interview back to the States - go figure! Looking more than a little weary (the band having only recently flown in following a gig in Milwaukee the previous day) singer/mainman Scott Stapp, affable drummer Scott Phillips and dosed up bassist Brian Marshall are set for another going over before being given a chance to escape to The Borderline to prepare for tonight's show.
Given Creed's runaway success in the States, it could be argued that tonight's gig will be seen as nothing more than a minor workout, an opportunity to air new material in front of a crowd which won't really give a shit. Or it could be that the band will be desperate to give it their best shot, to increase their profile in a country which hasn't exactly been forthcoming in it's praise of these triple-platinum selling rockers. Stapp has no startling preconceptions of what to expect from their first visit to the UK.
SS: "I think everything has happened so easily for us in the States that our natural human emotions would lead us to think that the same thing is going to happen over here. But we've talked amongst ourselves and realise that it may not be the same; it's a different culture and a different way of life here. So we've decided that we'll do it exactly the same way as the States - one person at a time - if we play in front of 10 people then we'll give it all we've got and hope that 20 people will come back the next time. That's how we built our following in the States; grassroots, word of mouth. A lot of people would think that's hard to go from playing arenas and theatres to coming over here and playing in front of 250 people, but it kind of gives us a chance to be a little bit more experimental, to play our current album and then really try a lot of new material live and see how it affects the crowd. We see it as a chance to have a little more freedom on-stage than we do in the States."
Oh the States. That minor musical territory over which Creed, in the last 18 months, have staked a significant musical claim. Who would have thought back in 1997 that a debut album recorded for $6,000 and released on a small independent label would have created such an impact? Stapp freely admits that their success has come quicker than expected...even though it was expected.
SS: "It's weird, we used to sit at Scott's house where we rehearsed and bullshit about how huge we were going to be if we ever got a record deal, just talking shit, but it actually happened and we were surprised at how fast it happened. I know my expectations for the first album were that if we could sell 250,000 albums then that would be a really good start and then we could increase on that and maybe by our third or fourth album hit platinum. That's the way I thought it may happen. Fact is though, we're at three million albums now and we're heading back up the Billboard Top 200 - we're at 31 right now, we've been on the chart for 79 weeks and it's still moving up! That's where it starts blowing my mind - like when's all this going to go away - we're ready to make a new album and they're talking about putting a fifth single out! We're like 'please don't, let's make it stop!'"
Although Creed were confident enough to predict their own future success, the reasons behind it are a little tougher to nail down.
SS: "That's something you can't plan. From my standpoint, as a writer, I just write about what I hear and what I see, I don't write wondering whether people are going to catch this or not - I can't do that. If I knew why people wanted to go buy Creed records, I could probably write a book, make a million dollars and say 'here's the formula for going triple platinum!' You really don't know the reasons and I think it's when you say that you do know, that's when you fail. You've got to keep writing for yourselves and for each other, writing music that gets all four of us off when we're alone in a practice room jamming together. When we think a song is awesome, then that's a keeper. There's no real formula or answer to the success, except that there are a lot of other people out there that are just like the four of us and like the same kind of music and sound we do."
The modern rock scene in the States is still fairly vibrant, but there do seem to be an awful lot of rock bands who get signed to a major then disappear after one shot. With this apathy affect Creed or do they see their 'one fan at a time' approach creating some longevity for their support from both label and fans?
SP: "I think the trouble with a lot of those bands is that there's just so much hype built up around them from the label's perspective. You know, they go around telling people how good they are, you've got to see them live, they're going to be huge - and then when it hits, people don't quite get it. It wasn't really our choice to get onto a smaller label and build it up a fan at a time, but it worked for us."
SS: "We just kind of became this grassroots phenomenon - we had no media attention, no press, we weren't on MTV and we weren't doing interviews, but there were still 2,000 people at our shows every night. It didn't start that way - we'd play to a 100 people, then we'd go back and there would be 500 people, then we'd go back and there would be 1000 people..so Creed kind of evolved into this band where our fans were like 'this is my band, I told you about them and that's why you're here!' Then that person would tell someone else and so on. it's not like we made it by being on the cover of Rolling Stone. That might come now with the next album, but with this one it was a real underground, pass the word kind of philosophy.."
SP: "...and I think that's the kind of philosophy where you gain lifelong fans, not just a fan of this particular song."
SS: "No one knew what we looked like until we went double platinum! Around then, we started getting in some magazines, so we really feel we have a core fanbase that like us strictly because of the music. You know, we didn't sell a million records because some photographer could put makeup on us and make us look cute so a bunch of thirteen year old girls would like us. I think we have some pretty serious fans that we've affected in a deep way who will be fans for life."
Even though Creed have only made recent headway into the UK press, a common recurrent theme has been how reminiscent of their songs are to the likes of Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Whilst Stapp doesn't exactly bristle at the mention of those names, it's clear the subject has cropped up numerous times in the past!
SS: "Well, we were writing songs when those bands were just breaking. It just happened to be the kind of style Marc (Tremonti - guitarist) and I played. Marc was very much into Black Flag, Black Sabbath, old Metallica, the real heavy stuff. At first, I was like 'dude you are way to metally!' and from my standpoint I had to learn how to sing with that style of music as I was more into music where the vocalists were very strong. So we just grew our sound together naturally - we never set out to try and sound like any other band, this is just how the four of us sound when we play together. In the States those comparisons have stopped now because people know that we're a rock band, that those other bands are rock bands too and that there's bound to be similarities - Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were really the last bands to play dark, commercial music and we probably grew up listening to the same music they did; Led Zeppelin; The Who; Neil Young, stuff like that. I think the only Pearl Jam record I owned was "Ten" - and everyone in the world owned that record! We're all fans of those bands but they weren't influences on us as a style. For a while we didn't even know what our sound was. I remember asking our producer, way before we were making the record, 'when do you find your sound and discover what you are as a band?' He just told us to play and that our sound would develop naturally. Over time, a year and a half of constant rehearsals and practice and playing, our sound just evolved. That happens to a band if you're dedicated to your songs and your music. I don't take offence at being compared to Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains though because they are two very talented successful bands."
The band are rightfully indignant at the misinformed 'credit' that Creed received for "reviving the corpse of grunge."
SS: "Well, the only true grunge band was Nirvana and, unfortunately, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains all got thrown into that category because they were also from Seattle. All three of those bands were rock and roll bands; Alice in Chains were a very 80's metal influenced rock & roll band that had a darker, more evil sound."
SP: "Listen to their first record (Faceless).that's not grunge at all."
SS: "The same with Soundgarden; very metal based but slightly darker, and Pearl Jam, initially they were very blues based. Grunge is really just punk chords played backwards with a heavier guitar and then slowed down, like a more melodic form of punk. The trouble was that our society had such a lack of pure rock and roll for so many years that they didn't know what to call these bands, so they were just tagged as grunge."
Talking of tagging, the grunge label tends to carry an equally concerted effort to paint Creed as a miserable bunch of guys - so how true is this image?
SS: "It just depends on where your inspiration comes from.when I'm happy, I don't write songs I go out and party. My inspiration comes from moments of deep thought, sometimes depression, sometimes anger and sometimes bitterness. It's just not a true picture of the band though because this is our therapy, it's how we get rid of our problems and deal with our inner struggles...through our music. Behind the scenes, we're just a normal bunch of happy-go-lucky guys."
SP: "I think it's also because over here in the UK, rock is not a big part of radio. It's very pop, very techno, R&B orientated and if you're not a fan of that style of music then all rock bands sound the same, don't they?"
SS: "It doesn't bother us though, it just gives us more people to laugh at when we sell four million records overseas. The more people that I've got to prove wrong, the harder I do my job. It fuels me to prove people wrong. I've been doing that my whole life and if I have to do that until the day I die then that's what I'll do. It just throws gas on the fire and keeps it burning harder within us."
It's a fair assumption to make that the accessible nature of the lyrics on "My Own Prison" certainly helped create a demand from fans who could identify with Stapp's sentiments and life-shaping decisions. Will there be a temptation to recreate similar themes for the new album?
SS: "I still question that in a couple of songs on the next album. I think it's so important for people to search and find their own answers because when they find the answers it will mean so much more to them. That's very important to me; not to try to give any answers but to ask and find it for yourself if that's important to you. To me, searching for growth and wanting to grow as a person is what living life is all about - that's what keeps us from being robots. That was all I wanted as a kid, to be able to think for myself and to do this and do that. I didn't want to be some crazy kid, I just wanted to be 'normal', but because of how my family was I couldn't do those 'normal' things. The freedom that I lacked in choices and in my mind as a child, is the freedom that I crave and want other people to think about."
Having brought the subject of family up, it creates a potential avenue into and area which some artists are justifiably reluctant to venture. However, given the blatant marketing licence that has been made from the teenage Stapp's departure from his strict religious upbringing at home, it seems only reasonable to wonder what his parents make of his success so far.
SS: "Well...(sighs)...there are so many answers to that question. I will always love my parents because I know they meant well. They're very supportive of me now, which is a little bit of a bitter pill for me to take because when we were starting out and I was just about to drop out of school, when we got our record deal, my father told me to get back in school because that wasn't going anywhere. Now he's my biggest fan and trying to tell me he always knew I could do it, which kind of bothers me to a degree. Even family can become bandwaggoners, just like fans. Their son being a nationally know person in the States kind of make them look good. It bothers me, but what can I do about it? They tried the best they could to raise me and I became my own person and, whether they liked it or not, I achieved my goal."
The band have just about finished writing songs for their follow up album which they will start recording on 6th April and aim to have mixed, mastered and the whole nine yards by 19th June. Songwriting, as on the debut, has been handled by the Stapp/Tremonti partnership.
SP: "We've completely finished around 19 songs and have another 6-7 that are not yet done. We really feel that that the album is within the 19 songs but we'll probably go in and record everything we have and choose the best for the album."
SS: "This album has been even more of a Marc & mine collaboration than the debut. The guys still help out with the arrangements and we still work together on songs but you can have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians! At this stage Marc and I are the primary songwriters but we'd be more than happy if Brian or Scott came to us with a kick-ass Creed song-you know, everyone still has their say and if we don't like something then we'll tell each other. That's the cool thing about our relationship, we just want to make our songs better."
The new album is slated for a US release in mid-September with, hopefully, the UK following suit one month later rather than the eighteen it took "MOP" to make it over here..
SS: "We want to try and keep the release dates close as we only want to tour for around six months a year. We could probably play our US dates in 3-4 months and then play Europe two or three times so we can just do one album, cover the whole world touring and then free up time to write more songs."
.Richard Blundell