{"id":38542,"date":"2019-10-04T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=38542"},"modified":"2019-10-04T08:02:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T22:02:40","slug":"michael-sweet-of-stryper-interview-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2019\/10\/michael-sweet-of-stryper-interview-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Sweet of Stryper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026I\u2019m gonna really try to make it unique and one of a kind for Australia because I\u2019ve been out doing these solo acoustic shows but I want to make this very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: With a successful 2018 tour with STRYPER under his belt, MICHAEL SWEET is heading back to Australia, thanks to Silverback Touring for his first ever solo shows down under this November. Expect to hear the STRYPER hits, his solo material, plus a few surprises, and a story or two, in a series of intimate acoustic shows along the East Coast.<\/p>\n

At home in Plymouth outside of Boston we gave Michael Sweet a call to talk about his upcoming Australia solo acoustic tour, his new solo album \u2018Ten\u2019, new Stryper music, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been about fifteen months since we last chatted, so let\u2019s catch up, how have the last fifteen months been for you?<\/strong>
\nOh man it\u2019s been a blur we\u2019ve been so busy travelling we did a six week ground run on a bus and did some other fly dates solo, I just took a vacation with my wife which was long overdue so there\u2019s a lot going on. I\u2019ve got a new solo album coming out in October which I\u2019m really excited about called \u2018Ten\u2019, Stryper is going to start working on a new album at the end of the year and beginning of next year and that\u2019ll be coming out next year. It\u2019s just a lot, there\u2019s a lot on the calendar, man, it\u2019s hard to keep up with but at the same time I\u2019m very grateful for everything that\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

You are heading back to Australia solo this time around, can you give us an idea on how these shows are going to shape up?<\/strong>
\nWell they\u2019re gonna be very different obviously than last time around, we brought the amps and cranked them up and drums, full band and whatnot, this time around it\u2019s just myself and an acoustic guitar and I\u2019m going to have a looper on a few tracks, a drum machine on a few tracks, and I\u2019m gonna play a lot of songs that people might not expect to hear and present a different translation of these songs for people. When you think of \u2018Soldiers Under Command\u2019 or \u2018To Hell With The Devil\u2019 you don\u2019t think of an acoustic guitar, but when I play them on an acoustic guitar they work somehow. That\u2019s the way these songs were written, these songs were written on an acoustic, I always start on an acoustic and then I pick up an electric and move on to that and that\u2019s when they start to take on their form and full production, but they originate and start on an acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Performing these songs acoustically do you find that some songs take on a different vibe or feeling when performed this way?<\/strong>
\nOh for sure, yeah, and \u2018Soldiers\u2019 is a very good representation of that it\u2019s got a little bit of a different feeling and honestly a completely different spin to it and I\u2019m gonna be digging deep. I put the word out on facebook asking people what they want to hear me play, and people are responding and there are some songs that are expected like the typical \u2018Calling On You\u2019, \u2018Always There For You\u2019, \u2018Honestly\u2019 and these types of songs, the big hits, but then there are a lot of songs that people are asking for like \u2018First Love\u2019 and \u2018The World of You and I\u2019 so I\u2019m gonna pull some of these songs out and learn them and really give the Australian fans something unique and special.<\/p>\n

With a catalogue as vast as yours, how are you even going to attempt to put a set list together that isn\u2019t 4 hrs long?<\/strong>
\n*laughs* That\u2019s hard, it\u2019s really hard to do, you\u2019re typically looking at a seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty song set list at most, you\u2019re getting into the two hour mark at that point and it\u2019s hard to get Stryper tracks in there, solo tracks, Sweet and Lynch tracks, and anything else that people may want to hear or expect to hear it\u2019s very difficult, but I\u2019m gonna do my best and as I said a few moments ago I\u2019m gonna really try to make it unique and one of a kind for Australia because I\u2019ve been out doing these solo acoustic shows but I want to make this very special.<\/p>\n

We never got to see you with Boston here so are we going to get some Boston maybe?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah of course I\u2019ve gotta throw some Boston songs in there for sure.<\/p>\n

Of course we have \u2018Ten\u2019 coming up, can you give us an idea of what we can expect to hear?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s an absolutely perfect follow up to \u2018One Sided War\u2019 so if you liked \u2018One Sided War\u2019 you\u2019re going to love \u2018Ten\u2019, it\u2019s in the same vein, it\u2019s on the same road, the only thing that\u2019s different about it is instead of just a few guitar players like I had on \u2018One Sided War\u2019 on this album \u2018Ten\u2019 I\u2019ve got a different player on every song, so I\u2019ve got guys like Gus G, Jeff Loomis of Arch Enemy, I\u2019ve got Andy James, I\u2019ve got Tracii Guns, Marzi Montazeri, Howie Simon, Ethan Brosh, Joel Hoekstra, Rich Ward, myself of course, Mike Kerr, I\u2019ve got quite a list of players, and when you hear this album you hear these guys man, they just killed it, it\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

What do your solo albums allow you to do that you feel you can\u2019t do as part of Stryper?<\/strong>
\nWell you know here\u2019s the thing, it\u2019s not that it\u2019s so much different or it really stands out that it\u2019s very unlike Stryper, there are similarities and some people might hear this album and think gosh it sounds very similar to Stryper. The thing that it allows me to do is I\u2019ve got a song in my head every day so much so that it almost drives me crazy, in other words I\u2019m always humming a song and I can\u2019t get out what I need to get out with Stryper alone if that makes any sense. That\u2019s why I do this solo stuff, that\u2019s why I do these side projects, Sweet and Lynch, that\u2019s why I do other things because it\u2019s an opportunity and a way to release what I\u2019ve got inside and stay creative.<\/p>\n

Over the years and with countless albums and projects under the belt how if in any way has your approach to song writing changed?<\/strong>
\nOh gosh, well back in the day, back in the 80\u2019s I used to sit and work on a song or an album for much longer so in other words to write an album I might spend two or three months or six months, and some people say that\u2019s a better way to do it, not necessarily. These days the way I like to do it and the way basically both Sweet and Lynch albums were done, the last three Stryper albums were done, and the last three solo albums were done was I started writing two to three weeks before I started recording. It was a song a day, so basically for twelve days or thirteen days I\u2019d write, I\u2019d take a day or two off and then went in and started recording.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t find that as any pressure doing it that way?<\/strong>
\nThere is but the pressure is good, I work well under pressure or at least I think so *laughs* people might tell me otherwise but I feel that I work well under pressure. If I get a dog or if I get a song that I\u2019m not feeling within an hour I\u2019ll shelf it and I\u2019ll move on to something else and then by the end of the day I\u2019ve got a song. It\u2019s usually a song a day every day and I\u2019ll lock myself with my two computers and my drum program and my guitar and I just sit there and I work, and every day I work out of the studio with a song.<\/p>\n

Do you ever sit there and write and think, wait I\u2019ll keep that one for Stryper?<\/strong>
\nOn rare occasion, rare occasion but every now and then that\u2019ll happen but for the most part you know I write for each album I don\u2019t sit and say OK I\u2019m writing Stryper album so this has to be Stryper, or I\u2019m writing a solo album so this has to be solo, I start writing and whatever I\u2019m feeling or whatever I feel good about I go with. So in other words on this solo albums there are some songs that you might say that would be great on a Stryper album or there are some Stryper songs that you might say that might be great on a solo album, but I don\u2019t let that determine what makes it on a Stryper album or solo album.<\/p>\n

You did mention before that there will be new Stryper on the way, what\u2019s the follow up to \u2018God Damn Evil\u2019 looking like?<\/strong>
\nWell that\u2019s a good question, I think we\u2019re gonna stay on the same path that we\u2019re on, so in other words in that heavy kind of direction, we did talk about branching out a little bit doing a couple of songs that make people go \u201cwow, I did not expect that\u201d but we don\u2019t want to venture too far away from what we\u2019re doing right now because that saying if it ain\u2019t broke don\u2019t fix it, you know? We don\u2019t feel the need to fix anything right now, we feel like we\u2019re in a good place.<\/p>\n

Speaking of good place, how\u2019s Oz?<\/strong>
\nYou know what? Oz is doing good he\u2019s on a diet and lost some weight and he seems in real good spirits, we\u2019ve been out touring and he\u2019s in a good place, I mean they\u2019re keeping an eye on him and will continue to keep an eye on him to make sure everything is good, there\u2019s still a lot of the unknown we\u2019re faced with, he\u2019s got\u00a0 couple of spots on his brain and no surgery it\u2019s too risky to perform surgery and there\u2019s still those question marks, those questions that aren\u2019t answered. Overall he\u2019s doing really well and we\u2019re gonna keep taking it day by day.<\/p>\n

You guys of course came down here without Oz as a trio and I enjoyed calling you Triper but you did a great job covering and doing that and thanks for coming down and still playing for us.<\/strong>
\n*laughs* You know what, it\u2019s not easy covering his stuff as a trio because Stryper is all about three part vocal harmonies and two part guitar harmonies everybody knows that, so when you\u2019re missing a guitar part and a vocal part you\u2019re missing a lot, and it makes it very difficult to pull off and to do it justice but we gave our all, we tried, and we were faced with a situation where we really didn\u2019t have a choice, if we did have a choice we probably would\u2019ve waited and come down with Oz but we weren\u2019t able to do that, but that being said, everybody came out to support and everyone was so generous, so kind and it blew my mind how many people turned out and how many smiles were on peoples faces, it really surprised me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m good friends with Danny at Silverback Touring and it was just a great show and well done all round\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh yeah Danny is a terrible guy, terrible guy *laughs* I love Danny, man, obviously he brought Stryper and he\u2019s bringing me as a solo artist and we look forward to the future with Danny because he\u2019s a great guy, great promoter and there\u2019s a lot more in store for sure.<\/p>\n

Lastly as always let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2020 Michael Sweet will\u2026<\/strong>
\nBe 57 years old instead of 56 years old *laughs*.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michael Sweet November 2019 Australian Tour Dates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sydney: Thursday 14th November,<\/strong> Factory Theatre<\/p>\n

Brisbane: Friday 15th November,<\/strong> Woolly Mammoth<\/p>\n

Melbourne: Saturday 16th November,<\/strong> Stay Gold<\/p>\n

Tickets From: https:\/\/silverbacktouring.com.au\/michael-sweet-2019\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential information<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:\u00a0<\/strong>Plymouth, MA, USA<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.michaelsweet.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forthcoming Release:<\/strong> Ten \u2013 (October 11 – Frontiers Music)<\/p>\n