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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 band mates 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 Led Zeppelin-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 evolution 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 evolving 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 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."
And now, Creed's third and newest effort, WEATHERED,
is sure to recapture that spirit. |