It’s been 36 years since Stryper released its debut album, The Yellow and Black Attack. Since then, the group, fronted by lead singer Michael Sweet, released 13 studio albums, including their recent Even the Devil Believes, a surprisingly timely record that happened to come out when the world needed it the most.
“What’s really interesting about this album is everybody thinks it was written and recorded during the pandemic,” Michael told Everything Nash. “It’s partially true. I wrote this in December of 2019. So when I started writing it, I hadn’t heard anything about a pandemic. I wasn’t really up on anything going on in China. At least at that point, I don’t even know if anything was going on in December, but come January when we started rehearsing, the guys flew out to the house, and that’s when we started hearing more and more about it.”
Part of the reason many assumed that Even the Devil Believes was written in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is because all of the songs seem applicable to what is happening all over the globe today.
“I wrote the album ahead of the pandemic, and the lyrics are so relevant to what’s going on right now, worldwide. God Damn Evil was a little bit more angst, lyrically speaking,” Michael said, speaking of Stryper’s 2018 record. “This album’s lyrics are a little bit more grace, lyrically speaking. It just, oddly enough, worked out that way, which is pretty cool.”
As the songwriter on the majority of Stryper’s songs over the years, the 57-year-old still found he had plenty to say in the tracks on Even the Devil Believes.
“Everything we write about always circles back to God’s grace and God’s love,” Michael maintained. “You’re never gonna run out of things to write about if you’re writing about love. The Bible has all the answers in it. So whenever I need inspiration, lyrically, that’s usually where I turn, or I might go to a personal experience or something I went through and write deep from the heart. But it always comes back to the word of God and what we believe in and who we stand for.”
Michael, who also spent four years as part of the rock group Boston (from 2007 to 2011), has made an entire career from singing about God, but he doesn’t want Stryper to ever be known as a Christian band.
“I don’t like being called a Christian rock band,’ Michael noted. “I’ve always considered us as mainstream. Some people might raise an eye to that. But, we’re a rock band. When you see Stryper, it’s like going to see Van Halen. It’s a high energy, fun rock show. We definitely take you to church lyrically, but in terms of musically and the production itself, it’s a rock show.
“I never liked the term Christian rock,” he continued. “I never really got it. What is Christian rock? I think if you’re going to apply that term to music, you have to apply to everything. So, let’s put Christian plumbers in the yellow pages and Christian doctors.”
Stryper might have just released their 13th album, but there is still much, much more Michael hopes the band accomplishes, even if touring and making music looks a lot different than it did in the beginning.
“I still love it,” Michael said. “I will admit I don’t love traveling as much; that’s become a little more complicated. Obviously now with the pandemic and everything, once we do get out there and start touring again, it’s tough. It’s tough when you’re with a group of eight, 10, 12 people, and you all have three suitcases and two guitars and a 4:00 AM lobby call. You’re doing three or four in a row, and it gets pretty brutal, so that side of it, I don’t enjoy as much.”
Although the songs on Even the Devil Believes sound every bit as strong as Stryper’s early years, Michael says he knows his vocals have also changed, even if others are unaware. But his goal for the band remains every bit the same as it was in the beginning.
“I definitely have a different voice now,” Michael shared. “It’s gotten a little deeper, a little grittier. I don’t have any damage. I get my voice checked; every few years I get it scoped and they check my vocal folds to see if there’s any damage. I’ve never had surgery, never needed surgery. I just still want to sing. I love to write music and I love to sing. When I’m singing a lyric, I sing it from deep within my heart and my soul. So hopefully that passion comes through the music itself to the listener, and it touches people.
“That’s really the goal here is to try to inspire people, make their day a little bit better, make life a little bit easier,” he remarked. “I love meeting people. I love one on one time with people, but I love music. I still love making it, producing it. I’s deep within my soul, and I think always will be.”
Order Even the Devil Believes at Stryper.com.