Oregon Music News

Michael Sweet (left) with Oz Fox

Stryper is Christian rock’s best selling band of all-time. And they have the gold and platinum records to prove it. Their biggest selling albums to date are 1986’s To Hell With The Devil and the follow-up 1988’s In God We Trust. Formed in Orange County, California by brothers Michael Sweet (singer/guitarist) and Robert Sweet (drums), the band enlisted the services of Tim Gaines (bass) and Oz Fox (guitar) to round out the group. Stryper gigged around SoCal and developed a loyal following–quite a feat for a band that was lumped in with the “hair bands” of the day while also proudly proclaiming their faith in song. If the songwriting and the musicianship wasn’t there, they would have gone as quickly as they appeared. And with MTV hit singles and videos like “Calling on You,” “Free,” and “Honestly,” Stryper also broke into the mainstream.

Stryper had gained considerable momentum until they changed the formula in 1990 with the Tom Werman-produced Against The Law. Gone was the yellow-and-black stage attire and familiar band logo, and the songs kept their values of faith intact, albeit without bold evangelical lyrics as in the past. The album was met with a lukewarm reception by their core audience and critics, though it did spawn a couple of moderate hits in “Lady” and their cover of Earth, Wind and Fire’s “Shinning Star.” Afterwards, the band went their separate ways, and Michael forged ahead with his solo career while the other members flirted with other projects. In 2005 Stryper regrouped and released Reborn followed by 2009’s Murder By Pride. In 2011 they brought us their latest, The Covering, where they tackle a dozen classic rock radio staples (like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, KISS, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Kansas, Scorpions, and more) and a new original cut called “God.”

Oregon Music News recently spoke with Michael Sweet about the new album and Stryper’s upcoming show in Portland on March 3rd at the Aladdin Theater. Photography for this is article courtesy of Stryper.com and Andy Martin.

You’ll be making a stop in Portland on March 3rd, the second date of the tour. How long will you guys be touring behind The Covering?

We kick things off in Seattle then we work our way down the West Coast and then we make our way to the East Coast. In total we have about 18 dates.

You released The Covering on the February 15th, and it’s a collection of covers and a new studio track. How did you guys go about selecting the tracks that made it onto The Covering?

It was simple–they’re songs that we grew up on. There was no difficulty at all and the album came together fairly quickly. I presented a list of songs, a couple of additional suggestions were thrown in there by the rest of the guys in the band. That was it. It was that simple. I felt that it was very important that we include a new song to solidify our faith and our beliefs; to show that we are still very serious about that. That’s how the song “God” wound up on there and musically speaking we also wanted to show people that we could still rock hard.

The cut off point on the covers was 1983, which is the year that you formed the band. Was that intentional?

That was just a coincidence, because those were the bands that helped shape our sound.

Stryper live in 2009

“Set Me Free,” “Lights Out,” “Heaven & Hell,” “Blackout,” there isn’t a clunker on the album. The only song that I can say that I was willing to pass on was “Shout It Out Loud,” simply because I’m a huge KISS fan and I’ve played that to death. I was pleasantly surprised at how well that turned out.

We went in with the best intention of paying respect to the songs. At the same time we wanted to add our spin to them. I have to add the most important part of this album was how much fun we had making it. I think that energy shines throughout the album. We accomplished what we set out to do with the album: pick some great songs and have a blast recording them.

This was cut in the studio, based on the liners.

We went into the studio and banged out the basic tracks: drums, bass and guitars. We followed that up with guitar solo overdubs and then I went to my house and I did all the vocals and them we came back into the studio to mix it. There wasn’t any trickery. What you get is us in the studio jamming out the songs.

The drumming on this is incredible. Robert (Sweet) doesn’t disappoint. I was impressed with the guitar work on “Blackout,” “The Trooper,” “Breaking The Law,” and “Highway Star.” The guitars are just so tight and cohesive.

Thank you. There are a couple of songs [like] “Over The Mountain” and “Highway Star” which Oz [Fox] is soloing on. On “The Trooper” and “Blackout” that is Oz and I doing the solos. I played the first half and then Oz came in for the second and we end doing the harmony on “The Trooper.” Oz and I, we love to play and we really complement one another. We’ve been playing together for years, though our styles are a little bit different.

I have to compliment Tim (Gaines) for his work tackling Steve Harris’ bass line on “The Trooper.” He pulled it off brilliantly.

Right. You don’t realize how great those bands are until you’re playing the songs. Playing them in a live setting you can get away with some mistakes, but in the studio you can’t make any mistakes. That was one of those songs that really beat us up. It goes to show you just how incredibly talented Iron Maiden is, no question about it.

You have an original track, “God,” that closes the album. You mentioned that you wanted to show people that you can still rock. Is this as a result of Stryper sounding more contemporary with the last two albums, Reborn and Murder By Pride?

Not at all. I felt that it was important to have a new song that would be the boldest song that we’ve ever done in our career; both lyrically and musically. I wanted to solidify the fact that we are still completely serious about our faith, but at the same time serious about our fans. I think this is the kind of song that they’d like to hear. I know they like harmony solos and the high screams; that’s what they’ve come to expect from a Stryper metal song. I think that “God” is where Stryper will be going in the future. The next album should be composed of songs in the same vein as “God.” I think when we do that people are going to be very pleased with the outcome.

Robert Sweet hammering away on the drums

It’s interesting that you say that, because a number of your contemporaries don’t feel the same about recording new music. Dee Snider, who I spoke to a while back, insists that fans don’t want to hear new music from bands from your era. He doesn’t discriminate as he included Twisted Sister with the rest of the bunch. But you’ve never been reluctant to record new material?

I agree to a point. When you go into your older material, the audience’s energy rises. No disrespect to Dee and what he’s said, but I think if you write some really good songs people will want to hear it. I think that it could be due in part to some of the bands from that era and genre started releasing incomparable songs to the songs from the past. I’ve heard some of the new material from some of those bands and I think to myself “Wow, you couldn’t do better than that?!” There are bands that come out with gems like Ratt. They came out with a great album, it’s phenomenal, it sounds awesome! Now, if you produce that kind of stuff that is every bit as good as your classic stuff people will want to hear it. So, I don’t know that I agree with the statement that “people don’t want to hear new material.”

Why do you think the artwork for 1986′s To Hell With The Devil was so controversial? It pales in comparison to the artwork on an album from a black metal or death metal band.

I really don’t know. You’ve got to wonder why Stryper over the years has been so controversial. There is a pentagram on Satan’s necklace being torn off by an angel. I tend to believe that even if it hadn’t been a pentagram on the cover people would have freaked out. It was unbelievable because we were being accused of not being a Christian band. People didn’t look at the complete picture, they didn’t read the lyrics, they didn’t get. People are closed-minded and that’s why the world is in the state that it is right now.

On your album Against The Law there was a shift in the band’s image, you lost the yellow and black, the album was slick and more commercial, you brought in producer Tom Werman (Motley Crue, Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick), but the band’s core values remained intact. The album was a curve ball for the fans but still had a hits like “Two Time Woman,” “Lady,” Shinning Star,” and “Against The Law.”

We wanted to get an incredible producer that would help us make an even more incredible album. We threw out a few ideas in a meeting with Tom and it turned out to be a good fit. I think the reason that record didn’t fare as well as the rest of the albums didn’t have anything to do with Against The Law. I truly believe that it had more to do with the timing. The industry was changing and it seems like it was overnight. The big thing was the Seattle sound and Nirvana and Against The Law wasn’t that. It wasn’t just Stryper, it was a number of other bands as well. In retrospect I feel that if Against The Law was released in 1988 it would have been better received.

Back to the present: What songs off The Covering will make it into the set?

I can say that we are currently looking at doing four to five songs off the covering live; we’ll be adding four Stryper songs that we haven’t done in the set for a while. This will be the longest set that we’ve ever done on a tour; it will be twenty-one songs. It’s pretty lengthy, I hope we can get through it night after night. Since most of the songs are in the upper register it can batter your vocal chords. I have to add that we’ll be rotating some of the covers every two to three nights just to keep it fresh.

You’re still involved in the band Boston correct?

I am.

What’s going on with Boston? I know you’ll be busy with Stryper for a few months. Will there be a Boston tour or new music in the near future?

There is a new album in the works. [Guitarist] Tom [Scholz] has been working on one for a long time. He’s talked about releasing an album at some point and then touring afterward. There’s was talk a 2011 tour and then 2011 tour those didn’t materialize. It’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.

Catch Stryper at the Aladdin Theater on Thursday, March 3rd. Tickets are $25 advance and day of show, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm with minors accompanied by a parent.