================================================ Subject: FW: Creed Interview from MTV.Com From: "]\\[][G}{T§TÖ®]v[" To: Date: Sat 16 Feb 2002 12:22:08 -0500 ================================================ Creed is spoiled, and they don't get to pick their singles. Red for details. ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Creed Discussion Sent: Saturday, October 23, 1999 2:41 AM Subject: Creed Interview from MTV.Com I didnt know if this was posted already.... I just found this on MTV.com MTV: You guys are on tour right now with "Human Clay." How has it been going? Scott Stapp: It's been real hectic, but it's been cool, getting back into the swing of being out on the road. It's real exciting, because we're in a different position now than we were when we began our first tour to promote "My Own Prison." We're starting in much bigger venues, arenas and theatres, and it's amazing. Full-scale rock show. It's cool. MTV: What adjustments did you guys have to make for this tour because of the larger sized venues, or did you have to make any? Scott: Just more lights and bigger stage stuff, but we had to rise to the level of the show. We had to improve our show and make it more for your money. We always want to try and keep our ticket prices down, and we fight about that a lot. We want to give our fans the most we can give them for what they pay, and we really feel like with Creed, Our Lady Peace, and Oleander, right there alone is a strong bill. MTV: Did you guys have a say in that? 'Cause it is a killer bill. Scott: Yeah, we put it together. You know, we had a lot of bands submit albums to us for the tour, and those were two bands that we like. Oleander is a new and up-and-coming band in the same situation we were two years ago, and we like their record. We like their music. Our Lady Peace has been around a long time. I mean, you don't realize how many hits they have until you go see them live. It's just like every other song you're like, "Oh, I didn't know they did that." MTV: Your new album shows that you've grown, both in your sound and your songwriting, since "My Own Prison." When you play live, how are your new songs working out with your older ones? Scott: It's actually going really, really well. I think there's a couple spots where the song order might need to change just a little bit, but right now, it's flowing really well. I think we're doing seven or eight songs from the old record, seven or eight songs from the new record, every night. So we're playing a good hour and a half, hour and forty-five, trying to give as much as we can. It was kind of a natural progression for us, and we did definitely grow. It's a good thing. MTV: A lot of bands need more time to take a leap like that from their first album to their next, you know, take a couple of years off to work at it, but it seems like you guys just went right back in the studio and did it. Scott: We don't stop working. That's the thing about this band. We write continuously, and "Human Clay" was written on the "My Own Prison" tour. The tour was over, and we're like, "We've got all these new songs, let's make a record. We're ready." "My Own Prison" was kind of old to us, so we went right back in and punched it out. I don't know if we'll do that again. After all this is said and done, we may need just a break, both mentally and physically, from the whole rock machine. We are already writing songs for the next record; we've got about five or six going in. But I think we may just relax, drink some margaritas by the beach or something. [Laughs] MTV: How long are you guys planning on touring? You could easily stay on the road for two years with this album. Scott: We're just taking each run as it comes. This is a seven-week tour, and then I believe we go to Europe for a couple weeks, and then we're taking off from December 15 until New Year's Eve. We're going to do a New Year's Eve show in Lakeland [Florida]. Then we're pretty much taking all of January off, just to recoup and relax. We're just going to keep going as long as our fans want us to tour. We're not going to do it like we did with the last record, where we went out for nine months at one time and never came home in nine months. But if we can go out three weeks at a time, take a week off in between and just stay fresh, then I think we'll want to be touring. MTV: You learned how not to tour last time around. Scott: [Laughs] Yeah, we did. We really did. MTV: Now, with "Human Clay," the album itself sounds live, like you went in there and just played. Scott: Since the album was written in the live setting, on tour, that's what we wanted. We wanted to capture what we were live on a record, but also to put it together on a record, which I think we did. I think it flows real cool, and there's some cool stuff in between songs, so it's like a good record you can listen to and hear new sounds and things all the time. But to capture that live feel was something that we wanted to do, and I think we did. MTV: Even the tracklist itself, the order of the songs, it feels like a live set. Was that something you guys put a lot of thought into, the order of the songs? Scott: I think I did that in about fifteen minutes. [Laughs] I'm the set list guy. That's what I'm good at, I think. I'm good at putting together set lists and organizing songs for flow, and the guys kind of leave that up to me 'cause they're always happy with it. So I whipped it out, and it probably took about fifteen, twenty minutes, and they looked at it, and they were like, "This is cool." So we went with it, and that's exactly how I approached it. I said, "I want this record to be like I would play a set live." That's how we did it on the first record, so we said, "Why fix it if it isn't broken?" MTV: Did you guys know right off the bat that "Higher" was going to be the first single? Scott: We're not a singles-oriented band. We write albums. We just kind of turn the record in to the record company, and whatever. We all had our own opinions on what the first single should be, but it seems that "Higher" was the right choice, I guess. As far as we're concerned, just put out anything, it doesn't matter. MTV: Right off the bat, that song just shot up to number one on rock radio. How do you feel about that? Scott: We're kind of spoiled, man. I mean, it's our fifth one, and so it's hard to get excited like we did on the first one, you know? I think we're kind of getting in the mindset that everything we put out is going to be number one, and I think we need to get knocked down. I really do. I think we need to put out a song that maybe breaks the top twenty, so we can get brought back down to Earth a little bit and realize that this doesn't happen to everybody. I'm serious. I mean, we owe it all to radio. Radio made this band, and we'll never forget that. To unsubscribe or change your preferences for the Creed-Discuss list, visit: http://www.winduplist.com/ls/discuss/form.asp