Rip It Up Magazine

September 1999

Creed have risen to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world by releasing just one album. They are about to reveal their follow-up, Human Clay. David Long met them in Christchurch and found Scott Stapp had a message.

Whilst for some bands a simple equation of money spent = popularity is a fairly easy sum to work out, with Creed things are very different. They recorded their debut for just $6000 and put it out on their own label. It's now sold 1.2 million copies in the US alone, mainly by fans spreading the word, state by state, country by country, talking about Creed.

Our original plan was to do a photo session in Christchurch with the band. Lots of arrangements were made planning locations, choosing photographers and sorting out how we could get the images back to our Auckland office in time to meet our printing schedule (we're already 5 days past deadline). With everything set and the photographer busy polishing his lenses, a call comes through from Epic promotions in the morning saying the band don't want to do the photos anymore. Great, brilliant, bloody fantastic, not only will we have to fall back on our standby Creed cover (always have a plan b) but the band sounded like being a bunch of arrogant American wankers, with egos bigger than the Statue of Liberty. This was looking like being an arduous interview.

Creed's gig at the Westpac Trust Centre was on the Saturday but they had been sampling the delights of the Garden City since Thursday. We meet at the salubrious on the inside, ugly eighties monstrosity on the outside; Park Royal Hotel.

"We've been hanging around", says Creed's frontman, Scott Stapp. "Went to the casino, a couple of guys went skiing and we've all kind of regrouped from jetlag". Stapp fails to mention the two TV interviews and a handful of radio interviews he's done since breakfast. However, he seems very relaxed, as does bassist Brian Marshall who sits rather quietly with us.

The timing for the band's first ever show in New Zealand kind of falls between two stalls, rather late for their 1997 smash, My Own Prison (which went triple platinum here) and a wee bit too early doors for the follow up Human Clay. Not that this seems to bother the NZ public. The Christchurch gig was bumped up to the huge Westpac Trust Centre and the Auckland and Wellington dates were sell-outs. As mentioned earlier, the first album was recorded for a sum that could have been the budget for drum sticks on the new album. But there were no delusions of grandeur for Human Clay and the band approached the recording process in a very relaxed manner. "We didn't think too much about what we'd do", states Stapp. "We just did what's natural. We write constantly, so we didn't go into the studio and say 'OK, let's write an album'. We write on the road, we write at home. It's just who we are. It's our personality and in our nature". "We recorded it exactly the same way as the first," chips in Marshall. "Money isn't what makes a good album," adds Stapp. "It's the quality of the music and what you put into it. We felt no need to move into a five star hotel in LA and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. We get most of our creativity and inspiration just from normality".

Creed hail from Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida. "It's a small college town, smaller than Christchurch," explains Stapp. "About 250,000 people live there and about 90,000 of them are college students, it's a real laid back country town".

Don't expect Tallahassee to become the next Seattle or Athens, Georgia though. Despite Creed putting the city on the musical map, the scene is pretty poor there. Student cover bands and Creed tributes seem to be the order of the day. Stapp has heard a few renditions of his songs and thought they were "terrible but they're having a good time and it's a cool respect thing for us. You know you've made it when you've heard your songs in karaoke and in an elevator and we've heard both". One of the ideas we had for our time together was to take the band to see Canterbury take on Taranaki in the NPC. [Regional teams playing rugby - BIG NZ sport] Whilst they were keen on going to the match, time commitments put paid to the idea. They are however, fans of the game, albeit rather amused ones. "We get it on TV in the States," says Stapp. "I think it's dangerous but it's very exciting though. I don't understand all the rules but I definitely wouldn't want to play it with those guys, you've got to be real tough to play it, no pads like we have".

It's unusual for a band of Creed's stature to play three gigs in NZ. Most just come to Auckland, with the odd one adding on a Wellington show. Very few make it down to the South Island. Stapp made it clear why they were going to be playing as many dates here as Australia. "We want to play where we have fans. We're not making any money playing here, we're here because the record's doing well and there's a lot of people who want to see us play." But there is a master plan behind their philanthropy. "We want to conquer the world. Right now Metallica are the biggest and we've got 15 years to top them."

Aha, is this the first sign of egos run amuck? No. it's just the bands pursuit to strive for perfection.

"We all come from very sporting backgrounds and we look at our band in a competitive way, not that we're competing against other musicians, but that as a band we want to be the best that we can collectively and that's what drives us. The songs are just what they are, but on the outside, yes we'd like to be the biggest rock band in the world."

A fact which is brought up all the time with Stapp is his strict religious upbringing which was not all that far away from Steven King's novel Carrie. He wasn't allowed to listen to rock music as a child and it was this battle against the hard line Christianity preaching forced upon him which dominated the lyrics of MOP. It was as if he was publicly exorcising himself. "So I held my head up high/ Hiding hate that burns inside". (MOP), "Love am I unholy/ Lies are what they tell me/ Despise you that control me", (Torn) Yet despite this fundamentalist Christianity, Stapp still holds strong religious beliefs. Many people think of Creed as a Christian band but whilst all the members in the band believe in God, they shy away from such labels. As Stapp's life has moved on, so have his lyrics, which are no longer dealing with his inner spiritual battles.

"It's not as prevalent as on the last album because I've kind of dealt with that. Each album is a snapshot of your life and the way you are. I was stuck in a rut for five years, but I've formulated some views and I've hung on to them. And I've moved on. I try to challenge myself lyrically to write about things I've lived with. Fortunately I have a background that isn't very common in rock'n'roll and I have a lot to draw from."

Creed played at this year's Woodstock festival in New York State. A three day extravaganza that ended in an ugly orgy of violence, with tractor-trailers set ablaze, vendor trailers overrun, authorities pelted with bottles and, most sickeningly, at least six victims of rape and sexual assault. Whilst Stapp enjoyed his own bands performance, he was obviously left jaded by what occurred on the final day and this touches a raw nerve. "The concept behind it was great, trying to get people together and build a community spirit- we had a good time. But I think how the crowd responded on the last day was more disheartening than anything else. It kind of showcased the mentality that is so prevalent in the youth of today, the feelings of being violent. I hope that's not where we're heading. I hope that this was just a small right wing sector of society. Part of the reason that happened is because the youth and the music together have no common voice. That was the story with '69; the music was the voice for the people and it was a way for you g people to express themselves and unite with common ideals and mentalities. That's not happening anymore, music's no longer a voice for a generation and that's disheartening. I would hope the one thing this band could do before we ended and throw in the towel, is become the voice of this generation. To bring that mentality back because music is so instrumental in change and now it's really got a bad rap". Why is it that festivals work everywhere in the world except in America? (we won 't mention Sweetwaters right now)[Big festival sorta like Woodstock but smaller that went bust and many bands didn't get paid]. "I don't know maybe it's respect. It doesn't seem like Americans have respect for each other anymore. It's all about selfishness and your own agenda. I don't think this generation can think through anything of any serious nature that would draw them together and make them have a common spirit. In Europe, because of everything they've been through and because of their culture, the people seem so proud of where they're from and who they are. Just the fact that the guy you're sitting next to comes from the same town makes you brothers and there's a common bond and a unity that you don't see in the United States. There's a real anger running through the States and I don't understand where it's coming from. It's the mentality of the culture, it's what's in their heart and that's what scares me the most. Having a nine month old child it makes me wonder what kind of world am I bringing him into. I can now fully understand my parents philosophy of wanting to shelter me. We wrote a song called 'One' that was specifically about unity and racial equality but the bottom line for that song was affecting people for change one person at a time. I can't change the world, nor can you. But what we can affect is the people we come into contact with on a regular basis. And we can excite change and a new way of thinking in people one person at a time. It's a kind of dream like way of looking at things and something that probably could never happen but that doesn't mean I can't talk about it or wish it. Being raised as an American who'd never traveled, I had this mentality that I was at the centre of the universe and there was nothing else out there but me, my life and the USA. You're indoctrinated when you're little that the USA is the best place to live. But once you start traveling, you realise all the lies you've been fed. It's like an epiphany, your eyes are open all of a sudden and you don't know how to take it."

Is that frightening?

"Yes but it's also very exciting that I know all my dreams and hopes don't rest in America."

So it's apparent there are no big egos in Creed, it's just that they didn't want to do yet another photo session. Which is understandable, if a little disappointing for Rip It Up. Stapp even ended up saying that if any of the band members started moaning about bread being the wrong shape, there would be swift retribution.

"There's no Spinal Tap with this band, the four of us are our worst guardians. If someone's acting that way we're the first to say, 'Don't act like a fucking rock star, you dumb ass, you were flipping burgers two years ago'. No-one's ever really gotten that way. There's a line from a song in the 60's, I forget who wrote it, but it was 'Everyone else has changed but I've stayed the same' and that is the most predominant attitude that we've seen. We've all stayed the same, we're the same four guys we were before any of this happened, everything else and everyone else has changed. Every one of our friend's perception of us has changed, and our families, so there 's kind of an expectation that we're supposed to behave in a certain way and because we don't we've become boring. Maybe that's why were not all over the magazines and tabloids because we're not trashing hotel rooms or getting in drunken brawls or punching out reporters". Once the interview was officially finished we continued having a general chat, and whilst we don't normally print comments that are said off record, the following quote from Stapp cannot go unreported.

"When I came through the airport here, this guy helped me with my luggage and said to me 'sweet as'.[As in 'sweet as honey' or cool, man!] I've never heard this expression before and I thought he said "sweet ass" and I thought 'Oh no, this guy's coming on to me".

Right now, especially after Woodstock, rock music needs some new heroes. The old guard are washed up on Jack Daniel's, cocaine and self obsession, while many of the younger stars can't manage to see past getting a chick after each show.

We could do worse than get behind Scott Stapp.

.David Long