Discography
The Yellow and Black Attack (mini-album 1984) Soldiers Under Command (1985) The Yellow And Black Attack (re-release 1986) To Hell With The Devil (1986) In God We Trust (1988) Against The Law (1990) Can’t Stop The Rock (1991) Unstryped (1992)	Michael Sweet (1994) Real (1995) Truth (1998) O Holy Night (cd single 2000) Truth (re-release 2000) Miles Away/Strong (single cd 2003) Hims (2003) Seven (2003) 7 Weeks: Live In America (2003)

 Back in October 2003, Rhythm, Art & Groove sat down and talked with Michael Sweet, the lead singer of the Christian rock group Stryper during their reunion tour (see November 2003 issue) and this time around we did a follow up telephone interview to talk about the Stryper tour, new Stryper cd/dvd and his solo career.

 

Rhythm, Art & Groove- Hi Michael, how have you been?

Michael Sweet- I’ve been well…been busy.

RAG- What have you been into?

MS- For the last month, I’ve been working on a new record and I’m right into the vocals. I just started vocals and I’ll be doing vocals for a good couple of weeks and then we’ll be mixing them at the end of the month. Once I take on a record…it’s non-stop. I guess it’s like that for anyone working on a record.

RAG- Is that the “Hims” record?

MS- No, it’s a new solo record. It’s an edgy, heavy record. There’s gonna be 12 songs on it. There’s no release date set yet or anything as of yet. It’s something that I’ve been itching to do for quite a while.

RAG- Is it the same style as your other records?

MS- Are you familiar with the “Truth” record release?

RAG- Yeah…through Restless Records.

MS- It’s more in that vein. It’s definitely more focused. I felt like the “Truth” record wasn’t as focused as it should’ve been. To go from a song like “Stone” which is symphonic, to “Save Me” which is more the “Metallica thing.” It doesn’t usually work. This record makes more sense musically. It’s edgy…very edgy.

RAG- What about the songs “Miles Away” and “Strong”?

MS- Those two songs have been rerecorded and they’ll be going on the record. They’re two of the twelve. We’re recutting everything. Those were basically demos. Now they sound much better and bigger. The quality’s much better. We went back to a studio called Blue Jay in Mass. and tracked drums and bass there. I’m doing guitars at my house and then mixing them at Mixed Emotions.

RAG- How was the “7” tour?

MS- The “7” tour was great! It went for seven weeks and we did I believe 37 shows in total. It was great! It went far better than expected. We didn’t really expect much. We would’ve been thrilled to see 100 people show up per night. We were averaging 700-800 people, sometimes 1000, sometimes 2000 people. A lot of the shows were sold out! The people that came were very supportive and very into the show and had a great time.

RAG- Do you have any memorable experiences that really stick out?

MS- Not really…just all along the way every night. There was a lot of conversation that took place. Heated conversation…in order for there to be healing in the band. We’d been apart since 1991. There were some things that kinda took place that caused us to go our separate ways. You know, some bitterness to some degree, which really didn’t need to be there, because of the lack of communication. But to see each other night after night and talk and hang out was really, really helpful. Walking out on stage and seeing all the people showing up…it just blew our minds! We were in awe every single night. We couldn’t believe it.

RAG- Now…the question I’m sure you’re asked a lot. Is there any chance for a new studio album from Stryper?

MS- Right now…no. What I mean by that is there aren’t any plans. There’s no time. Everyone’s busy. My new solo record…I plan to really, really go after this as far as hooking up with the right companies and taking it to the next 10 levels ahead of what I’ve done in the last ten years. Then a tour to follow. So, I’m gonna be wrapped up with that for awhile. We’re just gonna give it our all. When I mean “we” I mean myself and my management, Deep South. We’re really gonna try to make this thing really fly and take off. As far as the  Stryper thing goes, it’s something that may happen down the road. Tim, Oz and Rob are all busy doing things. We just have all types of projects going on.

RAG- It’s still open though?

MS- Oh yeah…definitely. It’s just nothing confirmed right now.

RAG- Let’s talk about the new live Stryper cd that came out.

MS- It’s really, really a great record. Typically, I’m not a fan of live records. Why…I don’t know…but it is a record that we’ve talked about doing for years. Stryper is definitely a band that has a completely different energy level live than we do in the studio. I think we are more of a “live band” and that was never documented or recorded. To be able to actually finally do that is a great thing. People have been asking for a live record for years, so now we can actually say we have a live record. There were some corners that had to be cut. We couldn’t include the two new songs from “7”, “For You” and “Something” because of legalities. We could not record those songs for three years, so they couldn’t be included. Things like that. Other than that it’s a really, really good record and I think people are gonna be surprised and people are gonna enjoy it.

RAG- Was it recorded at each venue or just “the highlights?”

MS- The majority of it was recorded in Atlanta, Ga. Some of it was recorded in Raleigh, N.C. and then we had excerpts from other shows throughout the tour. We recorded every night…just not with a large recording mobile set up. We had other machines out there like stereo mics and stage mics. In Atlanta and Raleigh, we brought in companies to actually pick it off of the (sound) board and record all individual tracks.

RAG- What about a live DVD from the tour?

MS- We’re doin’ that too. We’re workin’ on that right now. We’ve already completed the mixing of the audio. Now, we just have to sync up the audio with the video. That’s gonna take a little time. It’s gonna be released this year. There’s a lot of footage from the tour throughout but most of it, the actual live footage will be from the Puerto Rico show that we did. The company that did it put together two songs and sent it to me to review and man it was awesome!

RAG- How did the “Fan Excursion” in Puerto Rico go?

MS- The “Fan Excursion” was great! It went very, very well. We had the turnout that we’d expected. The people were very nice. We ate and hung out and talked to them for a couple of hours. We shared stories and they shared stories. We took a lot of photos! It was really incredible to see people take time out of their lives and schedule to fly to Puerto Rico to hang out with us.

RAG- Was it a big turnout?

MS- It was a really good turnout. I forget the numbers exactly but it wasn’t a large number. That’s not what we had planned. We planned that there were a certain number of packages available. I want to say 150-200 people.

RAG- Was the weather good?

MS- The weather was perfect. It was in the 70s and blue skies everyday. It was unbelievably perfect. Just incredible.

RAG- Tell us about the “Hims” record you did.

MS- It comes out fully packaged very soon. I released it basically…just a cd itself as a pre-release and has been available a good 6-8 months. It comes out again repackaged with artwork and lyrics, liner notes, pictures and all that stuff. There isn’t a release date set. So far the feedback has been tremendous! Far better that expected. It was a record that had no budget what so ever. I think it was a total of $7,000 spent on the thing. I did a lot of it here at my house. I have a studio here. That’s how I was able to cut corners financially. I did a lot of it at Mixed Emotions. It’s a neat record and so far people are really being touched by it.

RAG- Is it a collection of hymns that you’ve recorded?

MS- No…what it is is old hymns that I rewrote the music and melodies to. You wouldn’t recognize them. There’s one song called “Take My Life” an old traditional hymn and nobody knows what it is. It’s an old popular traditional hymn and nobody knows that it’s the old hymn because the music is completely different. It’s really mixed up. There’s “Beatlesque” style songs…very modern day Beatles. One song has kind of a “Latin” feel to it. There’s a couple of songs that have a very straight ahead piano ballad feel to them. The variety is very cool. Every song has its’ unique sound.

RAG- What was your reason for changing the spelling from “Hymns” to “Hims?”

MS-It’s just referring to it’s for”HIM” (God). These songs are for “HIM.” Just to kinda give it alittle flare.

RAG- Is there anything that you want to say to your friends or fans?

MS- I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their undying and continual support, not only with Stryper, but individually. We covet everybodys’ prayers and really are grateful and thankful for everyone continuing to stick by our sides…push us along and make this happen.

 

TROY- I want to thank Sara Waters at Deep South Entertainment for her support with the interview.