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| It's not easy to find a success story as genuine as Creed's in popular culture these days, with all the carefully scripted rises to glory and the falls that inevitably follow careers built on hype. If any band in recent years can claim to have ascended strictly on its own merits, it's Creed.
This Florida-bred band went from zero to sixty, (or, more accurately, from zero to selling more than fifteen million albums) by virtue of a combination of finger-on-the-pulse songs and powerful live performances, rather than a raft of hype. "With My Own Prison, I knew we had the talent to get a record deal and I knew we had songs good enough to get played on the radio, but I never had any expectations of reaching this many people," says Creed's dynamic frontman, Scott Stapp. Nonetheless, the band's success has been truly phenomenal. Creed was the first band in history to have four Number One Rock Radio singles from a debut album -- a feat even more impressive in these days of love-'em-and-leave-'em, one-hit wonders.
On the strength of their singles, including the crushing title track and the more pensive "What's This Life For," Creed topped countless year-end charts and was recognized as the Rock Artist of the Year at Billboard's 1998 Music Awards. Their debut album was also the #1-selling Hard Music album for 1998 on SoundScan's Hard Music chart and to date has sold more than five million copies. Since the release of their second album, Human Clay, Creed has upped the ante yet again. "Higher," the first single from their already 10x Platinum sophomore release, broke the Active and Mainstream Rock airplay records for the most consecutive weeks at number one, holding the coveted spot for eighteen weeks. Furthermore, Creed was recognized once again as the Rock Artist of the Year at Billboard's 1999 Music Awards.
"We're the type of band that functions really well under pressure, and there was definitely a pressure to try to top ourselves this time," says Stapp.
"Not so much what we sell, because we don't really care about that. We wanted to make a really great record. The band's goal has always been to make records that are solid from start to finish; records that take you through an entire range of emotions."
Those sentiments come across loud and clear during stretches of Human Clay. On "What If," Stapp's baritone turns fierce when addressing those he feels have judged him unfairly over the years -- a pitch that's matched by the searing guitar lines that Tremonti turns out. The intensity comes through in more subtle ways as well, as in the plaintive tone of the album's first single, "Higher," which finds Stapp seeking refuge from the rigors of the outside world, as his bandmates erect a majestic wall of riffs to ring his discourse. Throughout Human Clay, the entire band is on a quest to explore different sonic territories, ranging from the styled eastern modalities of the album's first track "Are You Ready?" to the lush balladry of "Wash Away Those Years." While Stapp grants that the band's increased resources had some impact on the structure of Human Clay - the first album was recorded for a mere $6,000 -- it's clear that Creed's progress is far more than just a matter of dollars and cents. For Human Clay, Creed once again turned to longtime friend and producer John Kurzweg to ensure that they captured the anthemic guitars, dramatic vocals and bold lyrics that made Creed's brawny-yet-intimate sound a radio staple for two solid years. Together with Kurzweg, the band recorded the new album in a studio they constructed in a house just outside of Tallahassee. On Human Clay, Stapp contemplates how responsibilities, choices and actions impact people. The album's songs explore fears of growing up and letting go of youth ("Never Die") conscience ("Faceless Man") and betrayal ("Beautiful") among other topics. Creed challenges their listeners to think without preaching or pretending to have all the answers. Balancing Human Clay's hard rock sensibilities is "With Arms Wide Open," a deeply personal song that Stapp wrote when he learned he was going to become a father. "I think my songwriting is very direct and understandable," says Stapp. "People can relate to that, so that's something I didn't want to move away from. At the same time, we're a little bit older and more mature now and we've been through a lot in the past two years, so we were looking to put things across in a way that reflected that." In many ways, Creed has been changing gradually since the band played its first dates together five years ago. After high school, teenage acquaintances Stapp and fellow songwriter Tremonti took different routes, but both ended up in Tallahassee, where they recruited bassist Brian Marshall (who is not a member of the band at this time) and drummer Scott Phillips to form Creed. Within a few months, they had meshed their wide-ranging influences to create the band's rich musical texture. Creed's reputation for dynamic, passionate live performances has led to consistently sold-out shows. During the past two years the band has played to more than two million fans worldwide, not including the enormous crowd who witnessed their awesome performance at Woodstock '99. Creed gave fans something special to remember the festival by when they invited Robby Krieger, guitarist for The Doors, to join them during their performance on the main stage. When Stapp introduced Krieger, the crowd of approximately 200,000 erupted in cheers and shouted along to Doors favorites "Roadhouse Blues" and "Riders On The Storm." Krieger also stayed on to play slide guitar on Creed's "What's This Life For." "We were out on tour for a long time, and wherever we went, there were people telling me how much certain songs meant to them and how they felt so close to them," says Stapp. "That means more to me than any other kind of attention. It's important to feel as if you're doing something worthwhile, and in this band, I feel like I am." It will only take a few listens to Human Clay to see that they are. The hard rock four-piece Creed was formed by two Florida high school friends, vocalist Scott Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti. The duo lost touch after graduation, but reunited in Tallahassee after Stapp underwent a few years of hard times. Stapp and Tremonti became Creed with the addition of bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips, with many of the group's lyrics obliquely addressing themes of Christian spirituality (Stapp's father was a Pentecostal minister). After being remixed for major-label release on Sony, the group's debut album, My Own Prison, did extremely well on the pop charts, selling over four million copies. Creed also scored four number one rock radio hits ("My Own Prison," "Torn," "What's This Life For," and "One"), making them the first band to accomplish the feat with their debut album. It was still charting in the Top 100 when the follow-up, Human Clay, was released in 1999. Human Clay debuted at number one, and its lead single "Higher" spent 17 weeks on top of the mainstream rock airplay charts. Human Clay went on to sell over six million copies, and had returned to the Top Ten a full year after its release, following the group's successful summer tour in 2000.
That year, Marshall left the group to pursue other interests; Brett Hestla was named as his replacement for their US tour and the immediate future. It's 1998 and grunge was dead two fads ago, but somebody forgot to tell the guys in Creed. Armed with an arsenal of Pearl Jam-esque, Alice In Chains-sounding Big Rock songs, this Tallahassee, Florida group proved, once again, that nothing can keep a good rock band down. Questioning the lines between spirituality and religion--as a child, singer Scott Stapp was forced to transcribe sections of the Bible as punishment--the band's tormented lyrics are filled with enough angst-lite to walk the fine line between religious and secular fans, strangely attracting both in droves. Creed's debut, My Own Prison, surfaced quietly in the Summer of 1997, when ska and swing bands were coming off as too trendy, techno music too foreign and modern rock too wimpy. The alternative musical landscape was left fragmented, and with most of the early-'90s grunge knockoffs dead and gone, a door was left wide open for some basic troubled rockers. Creed's deep-toned rock wailings crept onto radio stations, into clubs and straight into ears of millions of fans, but no one could tell you how or why. Hip radio stations joked as they spun the first single, the album's title track, which led to successful second ("Torn") and third ("What's This Life For") singles, all which had amazingly long tenures on the charts. One year after the release of My Own Prison, the album was certified double-platinum and continued selling stronger than ever as the band moved onto releasing a fourth single. Though the band and the record label are ready to put time into a new album, the longevity of My Own Prison is keeping the band on the road and the album on the radio. Though a follow-up album is definite for Creed, it's a ways down the road before they'll need it. Creed's next album "WEATHERED" promises to be 10x better. The first single "My Sacrifice" is available now and can be downloaded on this website. |
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