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Subject: Fw: Creed for Success: Shun the Spotlight

From: "]\\[][G}{T§TÖ®]v[" <NightStorm_Draco_@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <CREED-DISCUSS@WINDUPLIST.COM>
Date: Thu
12 Jul 2001 20:45:33 -0400
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Richard typed this out from a local newspaper a couple years ago... some
more good reading...
¤]\[][G}{T§TÖ®]v[¤

In a message dated 10/26/99 4:05:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
danamgar@yahoo.com <mailto:danamgar@yahoo.comwrites:

Hey All:
This article appeared in the Entertainment Section of my local newspaper.
Thought it was a fairly good article and represented the boys well. It's
fairly long, but worth the time, so, here goes:

By GEOFF BOUCHER
LOS ANGELES TIMES
(Published: Friday, October 22, 1999)

All those celebrities who complain about the unrelenting glare of the
spotlight should give Scott Stapp a call. You know Stapp -- he's the lead
singer of that big rock band, you know, the one with the new No. 1 album in
the country?  No, no, not them. That other band -- you know, Creed.
What, you mean you haven't heard of them? "Anonymous. ... Yeah, we hear that
a lot, and it's not such a bad thing," Stapp says. "We've sold millions of
records, and nobody knows what we look like."
Indeed, the Florida band remains somewhat faceless despite selling 4 million
albums in the past two years, which is more than either U2, R.E.M. or the
Smashing Pumpkins during the same span.
More impressive than the sheer album sales may be Creed's methods. It has
cultivated a loyal fan base with intense touring, a savvy Internet presence
and a strong showing on rock radio. But resisting what Stapp calls the
"glitter machine" has given Creed a low profile even among industry types.
"We've done really well with their new album, but I couldn't name a guy in
the band," admits Bob Feterl, regional manager for the Tower Records retail
chain. "But more power to them if they can make it work."
Some big-selling "anonymous" bands continue chugging along -- think
Collective Soul -- while others develop a personality, such as the Goo Goo
Dolls, who started a late-career surge once singer John Rzeznik was pulled
forward and presented as the group's face. Stapp says Creed has not dwelt on
its anonymous appeal but has looked to Metallica and Tool as bands with
integrity that have used touring to create a career.
"We aren't in it for the quick buck," Stapp says. "We're about the songs."
And what is the Creed sound? Straight rock that echoes grunge acts such as
Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, and most often finds its lyrical focus in
matters of spirituality and metaphysics, reflecting songwriter Stapp's
childhood as the son of a strict Pentecostal minister in Orlando, Fla. His
father's strident ways and the sight of congregation members speaking in
tongues left the young Stapp alienated, but he says he can't separate
himself completely from that heritage.
"Organized religion -- I didn't want anything to do with it, and I still
don't," Stapp says. "But my father used to make me write the Psalms as
punishment, and that is still there in my songwriting...I still think about
bigger things. Is there a God? Why am I here?"
While critics have been lukewarm on the band (they often drift into the
vocabulary of faint praise, calling it "solid" and "hard-working"), the
group's melodies and melodrama play well in the heartland, as does its
roadwork ethic, says Sky Daniels, general manager of Radio & Records, a
radio industry trade magazine.
"Their success is a testimony to the fact that there's always going to be a
market for intelligent, melodic, memorable songs in the hard-rock vein,"
says Daniels, a former deejay.
The songs, such as "One" and the title track from the first album, "My Own
Prison," might be memorable, but what about the band itself? "I couldn't
name two guys in the band, no way," Daniels says.
The band's die-hard fans can -- for the record, they are Stapp, guitarist
Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips.
"My Own Prison," recorded for $6,000, was the best-selling hard-rock release
of 1998, and became the first debut album to spawn four No. 1 songs on the
rock radio airplay charts.
The hunger for the band's sophomore effort, "Human Clay," helped it debut
last week at No. 1 on the charts, beating out other new releases that
enjoyed far more hype via publicity and traditional marketing, such as discs
from Garth Brooks, Marc Anthony and Sting.
That's not to say that the album arrived in a vacuum.
Daniels pointed to the Internet campaign set up by the band's independent
label, Wind-Up Entertainment, as a model for how to spread the word about a
new album and give fans samples of the music. They are also on the road, of
course . "Touring," Stapp says, "is what we are about."
They might be road warriors, but the growing stature of Creed is forcing the
band members to give in somewhat to the glitter machine. They appear Tuesday
on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," they've been tapped as executive
producers for the soundtrack for the film "Scream 3" and, perhaps most
telling, their first major video, for the song "Higher," is putting a face
to the band on MTV.
How does the band feel about that? Stapp had a hard time disguising his
disdain for the process when he was interviewed by MTV this week. "We don't
like the video," he said during a snippet that will present him to new fans
as a face for a faceless band. "It's not what we envisioned. ... We're not a
video band, we're a rock band."

AMEN to that!! And ROCK they do!!!!!
-Richard

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