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Two years ago, the multi-platinum Christian glam-metal band Stryper reunited and toured for the first time in over thirteen years. But while many of Stryper’s diehard fans were excited that the band was back, Stryper band leader/singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Sweet wasn’t so sure that it was in his heart to continue with Stryper after the tour. At the time of the 2003 Stryper reunion, Michael was in the middle of his career as a successful solo artist. But as the Stryper tour went on and a key lineup change in the band was made, Sweet’s interest in the band was rekindled. Then in late 2004, Michael officially decided to keep Stryper together.
In 2005, Stryper released the most solid and powerful CD of their career ‘REBORN.’ This CD mixes the classic Stryper sound with a modern heavy edge coupled with Michael’s bold, profound, insightful and spiritual lyrics. The band recently kicked off a major US tour in support of ‘REBORN’ and have received many accolades from their faithful followers and music critics on their hard hitting live performances.
Recently, Michael contacted GlamMetal.com to discuss the recent happenings in the Stryper camp. Michael is one determined, focused, intense and passionate musician. He pulls no punches, with his music or discussing it. During this exclusive interview, Michael talks about to resurrection of Stryper and much more. So sit back and get ready for the story of the amazing comeback of one of the greatest and most successful Christian rock bands of all time, Stryper.
 During our last interview in 2003, you stated that it was very likely that the tour you were on at the time with Stryper was the last one. What happened since than that made you change your mind and keep Stryper together?
Well, basically Tim Gaines departure. It’s nothing personal, it has nothing to do with Tim. It’s just that once we got a new bass player, Tracy Ferrie, and did a few shows with him; it felt like a new band again. There was a new energy level and fresh air. I t was like the old days were we would get all excited. It felt new again, so it seemed like the perfect time to do a new record. It’s as simple as that. We did a show in September of last year and I went to the guys and suggested that we take a record that I already done and make it a Stryper record. They were really excited about it, they listened to the material and loved it. So that’s exactly what we did. So all of a sudden we went from never doing another tour or record to doing another record and more tours and more records to follow. There is a lot of stuff planed for the future. There is a future for Stryper now.
So ‘Reborn’ was actually going to be a Michael Sweet solo CD?
Yes, absolutely 100% a Michael Sweet solo record. I had it already recorded. I was shopping it to labels. And labels really dug the material. And not a lot of changes were made to it. We just added a song,” In God We Trust” and we re-recorded drums and bass and we added more guitars with Oz obviously and then some vocals as well. We took those same arrangements and added the Stryper flair. It always amazes me when people seem so caught off guard by that. We had a few negative comments to what I just shared with you. It’s funny to hear that, because in the old days that’s how Stryper records were done. I’ve always wrote most of the material. If you look at it that way, it’s really no different. If we would have made a new Stryper record from the ground up, it would have turned out the same way. I would have had all those songs in the works and we would have recorded them and it wouldn’t have been any different.
I said this to you before, but I really feel that ‘Reborn’ is the best Stryper CD yet. The lyrics are well thought out and very profound, more so than your previous material. 
When I was writing the lyrics for the record, I went out of my way to make sure that the lyrics weren’t typical cliché, repetitive, cookie cutter lyrics that Stryper had done in the past. I’m not saying that our old lyrics were cookie cutter, I’m just saying that I didn’t want to repeat what we did in the past and do the same old same old. So I really wanted to reach down and reach within and dig a little deeper, find something a little more interesting and make people think a little more in a different way. That’s how all the lyrics were approached on every song. And so far, from what I’ve heard, people dig the music, but are really, really into the lyrics. They say that they are getting a lot out of the lyrics. I wanted the lyrics to be very bold and up front and not be sweeping the message under the carpet in any way, shape or form. So that’s what we accomplished, I think.
You definitely did accomplish that. When I saw your show in Buffalo NY last Monday, I was very impressed with the set list. You played a good mix of hits, new material and deep catalog tracks. How did you come up with the set list, was it a band decision?
The way it works in the band nowadays, is that I throw out an idea, be it a song, idea, or set list and the guys will voice their opinion whether they want to do it or like the idea. And so far, we have been able to see eye to eye on everything. They liked the idea of doing a record, they liked the songs on the record. I put the set list together for the tour and sent it to them and they all liked the set list. Someone might comment and say that they would really like to do one song and so we will add that song. Robert really wanted to do “Rock that Makes Me Roll” and that song also received a lot of votes online of songs that people wanted to hear. So that’s how we come up with it. For the most part, I’ll just start the ball rolling and take the initiative and take the bull by the horns and go for it and the guys will pretty much be in agreement. And if they are not in agreement, I’ll beat them up. (laughs) No, when they are not in agreement, we find a way to work it out. It’s not one of those things were it’s my way or the highway. It’s not like that. It may come across like that, but it’s really not. I just kind of run with it and most of the time everyone runs with it as well.
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Do you stick to the same set list every night or do you change it up a bit every now and then?
It has been the same set list the whole tour so far. We haven’t added anything, but we are thinking of adding a song or two. It just dawned on us that we aren’t doing anything from ‘In God We Trust.’
Yeah, a few people that I spoke with after the show in Buffalo commented on that.
Yeah, people keep bringing that to our attention. But the one thing about that record is, we like a lot of the material on that record as well, but it is the most difficult record to pull off live. No question about it. That record had the most over dubs and effects and a crazy number of vocal tracks. We would do 48 tracks of vocals, it was crazy, and we just got out of control with that. It was just ridiculous. So it’s difficult trying to play those songs live. When we start playing those songs live, it’s like “My God, this sounds nothing like the record.” So, it’s a fine line, but we are thinking of adding “Always There For You.” We of course also have the new version of “In God We Trust” from the new record. That would be easy to pull off, because that’s a totally different production. So we could put that one in tonight, we already have it worked out.
Is that one of the reason why your follow up to “IGWT,” which was “Against the Law” had more of a raw, stripped down sound?
Yeah, we wanted to go in a whole different direction. We wanted to tame down the production and have a more, raw in your face record. That’s exactly why. ‘In God We Trust’ was basically a follow up to ‘To Hell With The Devil.’ They followed the same pattern-heavy, heavy, ballad like that. It was almost an exact duplicate, but twice the production. It was ridiculous, we spend twice the time and twice the money.
Wow... All right, I know that you have to run, but I have one last question. Being the devout Christian that you are, how do you feel about the state of the world today? With all the natural disasters, terrorism, war, the bird flu pandemic that’s going to kill all of us by next year, and everything else, we are really living in some dark and dangerous times.
I think that the world is certainly in a position in which we need to call on God and rely on God. We are seeing a lot of darkness and a lot of negativity happened. This is a wake up call. I think that people need to be thinking more about God and more about prayer. We need to pray for our leaders and for our armed forces and our world. Seeing the world the way it is today, gives us the encouragement to go out and do what we were called on to do, to give people hope and light in dark times. It’s a time for bands like Stryper to help others through these not so good times.
For more on Stryper Check out our review of the Buffalo Stryper show here
And our Michael Sweet 2003 interview here
Please e-mail your comments on this feature here.
www.stryper.com
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