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October 8th, 1997
RISING BAND ADJUSTS TO LIFE ON ROAD The Flint Journal
By Shawn Humphrey
Contributing Writer
Mark Tremonti, guitarist for the Tallahassee, Fla., rock band Creed,
isn't complaining. It's just that he's overwhelmed.
"It's really, really hard, much harder than we thought," Tremonti
says of his band's growing popularity. "It's something I've wanted to do all my life.
"I just had my mom and dad come out to a show and he said,
'I thought this rock 'n' roll lifestyle was easy, but on the contrary.'
He saw everything that went into it; your eating habits are off, your
sleeping habits are off. You come up with all new habits like Advil
every day, coffee, cigarettes, Ginseng."
Despite the temptations of the road, Tremonti and his bandmates -
singer Scott Stapp, bassist Brian Marsall and drummer Scott Phillips -
are drug free. A disciplined approach may be a contributing factor to their overnight success story.
Creed formed in 1995 and worked the northern Florida club
circuit an area that bred such acts as Seven Mary Three,
Sister Hazel, and Matchbox 20. Shortly after the original
recording of its debut release, "My Own Prison", was released,
3,000 copies sold in the Tallahassee area, and the title track became
the No. 1 most requested song at stations in Tampa, Daytona and Tallahassee,
and the band signed to BMG-distributed Wind-up Records.
Now in the midst of a tour, Tremonti is making the most of an unusual position.
"The lifestyle is crazy, different than anyone would ever think,"
he says. "You start appreciating the little things in life, like renting
a movie, taking your dog for a walk, going on a date with your girlfriend,
things you can't really do anymore. But it all pays off when you go on stage
and 1,000 fans are screaming your name."
As the songwriter for the band, Tremonti's influences are darker, scary rock sounds.
"When I first started guitar, it was Black Flag and Metallica.
Then I started getting into Soundgarden, Faith No More back in the
'80's'. I was really into a lot of heavy metal then. I was a death-metalhead."
"I went through a period of playing guitar that was only solos.
Then I quit that. There's only one solo on the album.
"Our album is all about growing up. The next is going to be much harder."
Much of the album is heavy rock, but Tremonti assures that the
live act is even heavier. "The singles (the label is) picking out
are pretty much a bad representation of what you'll see live," he says.
"'My Own Prison' is our single, but people come up to me and say they
are afraid to come to our show because they aren't sure if we're going to rock or what."
Well, after re-reading that, aside from a stupid run-on sentence, I think
this was very good interview, well written. I asked the right questions, and got a
look into the artist, not the songs. Artists tire of explaining themselves, over and over and over...
I'd never heard of the band before this, and I think it was
less than a month before the album hit the shelves at Best Buy.
Tremonti was a really nice guy, the best. Generally, I enjoyed the
Florida bands I interviewed, (Seven Mary Three, Matchbox 20), but
musically I find them to be... well... pretty much all the same. It's
heavy, depressing, standard rock formula, and it all seems to be the
mainstay in music right now. I was getting tired of these types of interviews,
but they turned out to be some of the most famous bands I'd meet. Go figure.
I still regret missing out on Jane's Addiction. That wasn't my fault though!
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