How’s the Weathered Up There?

Launch.com August 23, 2002

Being in one of the biggest bands in the world sure does take its toll. That's why Creed dubbed their third album Weathered. "I think the title in itself is a symbol of what the whole band felt--we were weathered," frontman Scott Stapp recently told LAUNCH's executive editor Dave DiMartino. "We needed a break from all this to absorb it and digest it and reconnect with our friends and our family and our loved ones, and go back to working on something in the garage or taking out the trash."

But now Creed are leaving the garages and trash behind and are back on the road. Stapp and Creed drummer Scott Phillips recently made a stop at L.A.'s swanky Sunset Marquis Hotel, where they discussed success and superstardom with DiMartino, along with such other subjects as the making of Weathered, recording without a bassist for the first time, appealing to both Christian and secular audiences, dealing with slimy aspects of the music biz, and trying to make a difference via their charity project, the Arms Wide Open Foundation. Here's how it went:

LAUNCH: First things first: In light of the fact that you guys made your first album for next to nothing and now you have a big budget, how did that impact the making of Weathered?

SCOTT PHILLIPS: We did it the same way. Even on the second album, we went from a budget of $6,000 on the first one to hundreds of thousands, but we still kept it in the same way we were comfortable in making records, and that was rent a house, bring in the equipment, and doing it at our pace.

SCOTT STAPP: The reason that we do that is so we can sleep in our own beds and be with our own families. So we can have a semblance of a normal life. Hang with our friends, you know, get connected. And we own all of our own recording equipment, and everything has become a lot less cumbersome to own, so we brought in some of our own stuff and our producer, John Kurzweg, brought in some of his stuff, and we combined our systems. And that's exactly the way we did the first one but it was John's house we used, and on the second one we rented a house, and the same on the third. We just like to stay close to home.

LAUNCH: Now you know that whatever you put out, someone is going to buy--did that affect your writing process?

STAPP: I think one thing about [guitarist] Mark [Tremonti] and I's relationship, and one thing about how we approach songwriting, is we don't think too much about what it is that we're doing. We just enjoyed getting together back in 1993, jamming on acoustic guitar together and writing songs together and going to parties in college and meeting girls. You know, 'cause he could play the guitar and I could sing, and so that was kind of how it was in the beginning and that's how the relationship was founded. So that's how we wrote the second record, and it's the same way wrote this record. We never really think about the outside world--it's just we like jamming together and we knew we were going to have to write a record, but that didn't creep into our heads, it was more of "Hey, let's get together." And yeah, we knew we were getting together to write a record, but the creative process is emotion, it's just jamming. You record everything and now we have a DAT player instead of a little push-button tape recorder and cassette tape. So the technology is a little better, but the process has not changed. We'll look at each other and listen back to the DAT player and laugh, and go, "That's cool, dude. You like that?" "Yeah. I like that." "All right, we're done with that one." And then we'll be like, "We got enough songs to make a record now, let's go make a record!" You know, there's not that much thought that goes into it, except for when I take it away, after I've come up with the melodies and when I start really concentrating on the lyrics--that's when more thought starts coming into it. For me, I know a lot of though goes into it for Mark, like the whole last two years we were touring, Mark was playing guitar every day, and we weren't getting together because I wanted time to reflect and absorb everything that was going on, and but he was still playing and still writing. So those thoughts never enter our head. And the media really tries to get into our heads, and we really wish they wouldn't, because one day it's going to seep in and we're going to be trying to write a song and something's going to slip out of my mouth, like, "Dude, I don't know if that'll be good for radio. And if that ever happens, we're done.

LAUNCH: If you were to going to identify a point of real growth, compared to the last albums, where do you think you began to grow or excel in areas that you're really proud of?

PHILLIPS: Maybe there's a couple, to be honest with you. From a musician's standpoint, I think we're much better musicians than we were on the first album, or even on the second album. Sonically, I think finally--as technical as you can get, mic placements and all of that kind of stuff--the album sounds better than the other two did. And I know from [my bandmates'] standpoints, they feel like they're better songwriters than they were on the first album and maybe even on the previous album.

STAPP: You know, we just wanted to take the sound that we had and just kind of go to extremes with it. We feel like that on this record, with the chill songs, on the softer songs, we went as far as we could go with those--as Creed, we can't go any farther than that. And with the harder songs, we hit just as hard, but I got a feeling we're going to start dabbling into even more heavier music, 'cause me and Mark are both interested in that, and when I got interested in that and said something to Mark, his eyes just lit up. So I know that's a direction that we will go in the future. But this record just kind of stretched everything that we already had there, and Mark really got to demonstrate on a couple of songs his soloing ability, which I believe he only got to do on one song before, really. And we always wanted to bring back the guitar solo, because we always thought that was so cool. And our funny rationale about it was like, "Dude, I need a break onstage, I'm singing all the time onstage and I never get a chance to take a break. Would you like start soloing more?" And saying that to a guitar player...I said that in the most innocent way, and he was like, "OK," and just looked at me like he's so cool. But you know, I just wanted a break, but then we started talking about it, and we really want to bring that aspect back to music. Also, we've dabbled a lot between the three of our influences. I think this is a record that really shows the different influences that the three members of the band have, and each member was allowed to go somewhere, even if they initially didn't think that's where they should go. Eventually we all started appreciating and enjoying what the other person was into, and that made its way into our music. Lyrically, you know, I don't think too much about how I write. It's more about how it's put together and the point I'm trying to make and what I'm trying to say. I never analyze myself, so I don't know how it compares to what I've done before. I know that I still have a lot of things to say and a lot of things to write about and a lot of things to base the lyrics on. But I don't know how to really analyze those.

LAUNCH: What are some of the things that happened in your personal life that you brought to this record?

STAPP: I think the title in itself is a symbol of what the whole band feels or felt--we were weathered. We needed a break, we needed to step away from all this and absorb it and digest it and reconnect with our friends and our family and our loved ones, and, you know, go back to working on something in the garage or taking out the trash or being just...

PHILLIPS: ...conduct a normal life.

STAPP: Yeah, but in the lyrics specifically, I dealt with the feeling after reflecting on the last six years and then reflecting on things as I'd gotten older. I began to have concern from a civic and social perspective, and that's really where my thoughts were and where some of the themes were. They're just a reflection, and the titles in themselves speak volumes.

LAUNCH: Since this is the first record without a full-time bassist on board, did that drastically affect the making of the album?

STAPP: I really didn't even notice.

PHILLIPS: I'd almost say it made it a little bit easier.

STAPP: We didn't have to go over and say, "Wake up, wake up! Did he just fall over in the middle of his bass recording? Someone call 911!" You know, we didn't have to deal with things like that. It was a different kind of experience. And not to say that every kind of experience was like that. We're kind of like a caricature. We're like a Spinal Tap movie. But it was just initially, Scott and I just wanted to play bass on the record and...[to Scott P.] what did you say yesterday?

PHILLIPS: Hindsight being what it is, we probably would have sucked.

STAPP: So it's a good thing that Mark did it [played the bass parts]. I mean, we did have some input in the melodies of the basslines--our producer really helped him get into the mindset of a bass player, because what Mark says a lot is, "I always thought the bass was cake and easy, but it's different going from a lead guitar player to picking up a bass and not wanting to translate that to a bass." It's realizing the bass player's role, and so it's like he had to jump into a different character, go from being the co-frontman in a rock band to being a bass player and getting contact with the drummer and the rhythm section. And you know, he did it and he did it well, and I think that the album sounds great...the low-end perspective and the drums and the bass connection. Mark pulled it off.

LAUNCH: I know all the music was written prior to September 11, 2001. Do you think that anybody might look at the songs as reflections of what happened at the World Trade Center and Pentagon?

STAPP: I think people take music and apply it to what's going on in their life and what's going on around them. And that can be done with a lot of songs. Like, not to use Enrique Iglesias as an example, but look at that "Hero" song he has out. Do you think he wrote that song with the intent that there's going to be catastrophe and all of a sudden law enforcement and firefighters were going to be reintroduced into our society as heroes? No. And that's how we were. People ask us if we changed anything after September 11 even though the songs were written, and we didn't event think about it, actually. We were glued to the television and then kind of in a state of shock, actually, because we had timeline. It got kind of pressured down at the end so we could meet our deadline for the album to come out on November 20, 2001. So with all of the events that surrounded it, we didn't have time to change any of the words.

"Our position is a unique one, because a lot of kids who wouldn't get to have a harder-edged rock record in their house have parents who say, 'It's OK if you listen to Creed,' because they're not worried about mind pollution and negativity."

LAUNCH: Speaking of change, has your huge success changed you? Has it made you nicer, has it made you more elitist, whatever?

PHILLIPS: We're still a bunch of rednecks from Florida.

STAPP: Yeah, that's true. But I got a pretty nice house. I'm not living off Ramen noodles.

PHILLIPS: I like to go back to that every now and then just to see how it was.

STAPP: It's definitely changed us. I mean, come on, we'd be lying if we said it hasn't. It's completely changed our life. My concerns, the things I get upset about, are not the same things I would get upset about seven or eight years ago. Has it changed my character, the kind of person I am, the way I treat people? No. And the band for me specifically can validate this. I'm the same exact way back then that I am now. I think it's changed them more than it's changed me--and let me clarify that: They're more confident, they're more secure, and they speak their opinions more. I'm so glad that now I'm not going, "OK, I want to do it this way and they're like. [head nodding], 'OK.'" I need feedback, something, you know? And now it's even more of a band than it was before. But from a character standpoint, we've never let any of this sink in, because if you let any of this sink in, I don't think your brain can handle it, and I think that's when you go off of the deep end. So it's all kind of a big joke. We mean the music, but just all of the peripherals and that extra stuff, it's not real, and you just gotta look at it that way.

LAUNCH: Because of the amount of records you've sold, people write about you a lot. Is there one thing that people always write or don't get about Creed?

STAPP: You know, we just have great fans, and we just try to focus on the positives. And we had to learn that along the way. If you start reading your own press clippings, it'll drive you nuts, man. You even get to the point where you tell your friends, "No, I don't want to hear this--let's watch some Monday Night Football and drink some beers and have some chicken wings or something. Don't talk about this--let's be normal." So, no.

LAUNCH: One frequently asked question that I noticed on your website: "Is trying to be play to the Christian audience a hard thing?" Is it a hard thing?

STAPP: Yeah, our position with our audience is a unique one, because a lot of kids who wouldn't get to have a harder-edged rock 'n' roll record in their house get to have Creed in their house. Parents are like, "It's OK if you listen to Creed," because they're not worried about mind pollution and negativity, things that as a parent you want to protect your child from. I do the same thing with my son. We never write with the intention of appealing to either audience. The easiest way to explain it is, I know how I'm supposed to be, I know how a good person is supposed to act, I know how I'm supposed to act in a situation, I know how I'm supposed to handle things from a psychological standpoint, how I'm supposed to handle problems. I don't always handle things that way, so I write a lot about how inside I feel is the right way to react in this situation, the right way I'm supposed to think. When I feel this way, how am I going to get where the light is, how am I going to get out of this situation and be happy? How I deal with anger? So a lot of that encompasses a lot of different things that were in my background, and I think as I mature as a man, as I become a lyricist and a writer less concerned about those issues, I've found some peace and I've figured out where I fit into all of it. So it's kind of like we're slowly drifting from addressing certain issues which we were always addressing and trying to figure out. It was never, "Hey, believe this!" It was, "Hey, I'm a pretty confused kid here and I had a really weird upbringing and I don't know what to believe." And that kind of goes back to everyone's perception and their background and what's going on around them--that affects how you hear music. And so that's what we love about it. People just take this and take that and they make each song their own, and that's why we love doing what we're doing. Because people are actually doing what Mark and I set out to do--and that's to make songs to make people think and have something to say. And no, we don't think we're walking a fine line and have to placate either side; we just do what we do and if it works or if we lose fans, that's something we can't be concerned about, man. At the end of the day I have to live with this record, Scott has to live with this record, and Mark has to live with this record--what it says and what it's about. It's our legacy, and so it has to be everything we want it to be and it can't be for any specific reason, or else we can't sleep at night.

LAUNCH: The flipside of that is that you guys do so well, I'm sure slimy parts of the music business must expose themselves to you. Are you disenchanted by them?

STAPP: It depends on what gender it is. Kidding!

PHILLIPS: I think what we try to do is surround ourselves with people who have been there from the beginning--people that we consider family and that we can put a lot of trust into to keep out a lot of that sleaze factor. I mean, there's things that go on that no matter how well you shield yourself, and they're going to affect you. You deal with them the best way you can. But most of the people that have been with us have been with us since we just got out of the bar scene, and it's people that you can trust and don't have to feel that you have to be watching over their back 24 hours a day as well as watching your own back.

STAPP: Many people have been taken advantage of by their nearest and dearest friends and loved ones. That's just a sad fact of life, and the record industry just complicates that even worse. But like Scott was saying, we've maintained a real healthy balance with that, and that's something that we've got a firm handle on, and people we can trust, like Jeff Hanson, Jeff Cameron, Gary Whitfield, Dave Johnson. All these people that handle the aspects and also the record company--signing with an indie was the best thing that ever happened to us, and I know that everyone can't do that and have what happened to us happen to them. But I sure wish they could, 'cause you have so much more input. We were Wind-Up's firstborn, so all they worked on was us and we had this whole record company that was just working on Creed. So failure was not an option. That was the way we went into it anyway, but then we had a record company that was that way too. And that developed a level of trust, because we were all having to work together, and I think that was rare in the industry up until that point.

PHILLIPS: I think it all comes down to the three of us, between Scott and Mark and myself having a pretty decent knowledge, if not a good knowledge, of the business and how it works. We try to know as much as we can so we have an educated guess if someone in our camp is saying, "You need to do this."

STAPP: I think the most disheartening thing to me was about the sleaze factor--I thought if you were playing with two or three bands, everyone went and hung out and like, played acoustic and drank beers and was like, "Hey man, let's write a song together!" And that's not how it is. It is with some bands, and when you find them you always want to be around them. But the most disheartening thing is 90 percent of the business isn't like that. And what we try to do, now that we're in the position that we're in, is when we bring bands out on tour with us, it's almost like saying, "Hey man, this is how it's supposed to be done." They get a dressing room and they get a nice bottle of champagne and they all get nice stuff sent to their room and we get to hang out and we wanna talk music and we wanna play and we get to do things like that. And that's something Mark and Tom have been especially good at, because they have easy jobs. They don't have to deal with the press as much as I do. I'm kidding, I'm kidding!

LAUNCH: As far as being lumped in with other bands, who does it bug you the most to be compared to?

STAPP: Comparisons are something that every band in the world has to deal with. When we first started, comparisons bothered us, especially when some old lady comes up to me and she goes, "You sound just like Hootie & the Blowfish!" And I'd go, "Thanks," because I know they work hard and they're great guys and they're a good band, but I didn't want to sound like them. That's their sound--we wanted to be Creed. So comparisons are just a way of life and you just have to deal with them, and it's funny how they can be so far away from what you really sound like. But people like to do that early on in your career, and I like to think that we're at a point in our career where we're far beyond comparison. It's so funny, I feel sorry for a few bands that are out now because they're getting slammed in certain magazines and being compared to us, and it's like, "Come on, man, give them a break." But they did give them a break--they're putting them all over their TV screens and putting them on the cover of their magazines, which they never did to us, so they're ripping them by comparing them to us but giving them all the press which we didn't get. Which I think, coming up the way we did, made us appreciate it more.

LAUNCH: If you had to point to an album, what would be an album that changed your life?

PHILLIPS: There's a bunch of different ones for different stages in my life. I guess probably one of the most profound ones, one that was totally out of its time, was The Wall or Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd. Which I didn't get into till '93 or '94, but it was something new. Of all the other ones, there was the Guns N' Roses when they were big. And Living Colour was big to me when they came out; maybe it wasn't necessarily that whole album, but maybe it was that time in my life where music took on a new meaning, and that was one of the bands that I was listening to on a regular basis. So I'd have to go with the old Dark Side Of The Moon there, probably.

STAPP: Mine would definitely be U2's The Joshua Tree. I don't think I took it out of my cassette deck for a year and half, two years. And when I want to go seek refuge, I dust it off. It's like if you have a Bible in your house that you never read and you don't have anywhere else to turn, you're wondering if there's something in there that's going to comfort you, and you might want to go over there and read something. Well, that's my book--go pop that on and go into a room and everything's OK, because somebody feels just like me. That's what that album made me feel like. You know: "He's been through exactly what I've been through. He feels just like me." And I felt that no one else did at that time in my life. I felt so alone in the world with my problems. So that record will always be special to me.

LAUNCH: You're on the road right now--how's that going?

PHILLIPS: I think we're all really energized [to play the new songs]. With the first album and the second album, almost all of the songs we got to perform live in front of an audience before we recorded. And this one was completely hidden, basically--there was no performance for anybody.

STAPP: Performing is a high you can't explain--it's a rush, and you get off stage and it takes you an hour and a half to calm down. And it's like, we needed a break, we needed to go into rehab from the shows, you know what I mean? It was like time to get back to reality, time to come back to earth. But we feel like we've been away for a while and we're healthy inside our minds and we're grounded, so we're jonesing to get back out there. It was good, the time off, but we're jonesing to get back out there.

LAUNCH: What's the goal for you guys now?

STAPP: The Arms Wide Open Foundation is something we're into, because once you remember all the people along the way that helped you get to where you are--even if you're not big rock stars or big film stars or something in the entertainment business, but just at the peak of your profession--you can look back and think of people that made an impression on your life. And with that in mind, that's how we want to impact people in a positive way, now that we're afforded the right to do that, afforded the financial means to do that. And so with the Foundation, we've been able to do that, get involved with some really good causes. Really, our whole focus is children and their families, and providing music programs for people that can't afford it and kids that still want it, because they don't do it in public schools anymore. It's rare to find. It's like a luxury right now, when it should just be part of the curriculum. So that's something we focus on. Also bringing parents and their kids back together, helping low-income families get a new start--their slate wiped clean. Because tragedy strikes people, and even though they may be both working hard, they may be living in a box in the street with their two kids. And all they need is someone to come in and help them get up, and that's one way we fill a void in our lives. Because money doesn't bring happiness--it definitely helps, but money doesn't make you happy. I think at least for me, and I would say this for the others as well, it's being able in a lot of ways to make other people happy and help other people through the foundation, through other foundations we want to get involved with and want to get behind. Just being able to be there and doing what we can and doing good for somebody is helping somebody. It's good to be in that position. I just see that in the future, that's something I would like to be as part of my legacy as much as what I'm remembered for what I do in Creed. That we tried to make an impact in another way.

. Dave DiMartino