Mark Tremonti on the key to Creed's success on Human Clay and their remarkable comeback 25 years on

We're catching up with Mark Tremonti five stops into one of the biggest rock tours of the year – the level of demand for which seems to have caught many by surprise. On paper it shouldn't; Creed were huge even at a time when rock albums could sell millions of copies. Their second record Human Clay saw them playing stadiums and as of June 2024 has sold more than 20 million copies. But even so, something feels different this time.

"It's as big as it's ever been," Mark tells us. "You know, my agent, he said that this is probably as big or bigger than it's ever been right now. Tonight, we play for 18,000 people. It's night after night. Humongous crowds. I love it."

The songs are still resonating, and the social media buzz has been undeniable but the mood around Creed seems to have shifted this time around; a band that felt like an easy target to some and a guilty pleasure for others are getting their dues again – and from new listeners.

"When we play these songs, you've gotta to see how people react to them," says Mark. "These songs that have been so familiar with people for 25, 30 years now – they go nuts. And the biggest fanbase for this tour is under 34 years old."

The Florida four-piece – completed by vocalist Scott Stapp and Mark's Alter Bridge cohorts drummer Scott Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall – made their 2024 comeback in April and May on two Creed Cruises, alongside a host of bands they toured with back in the late '90s. The reaction was unison; the band sounded strong… perhaps better than ever?

"I would say so," responds Mark. "You know, we've been touring for so long dialing things in and technology's gotten better. You pair that with just all the experience of being able to perform on stage all this time, hopefully… if you're not getting better, you're getting worse!"

Creed's return – delayed due to the pandemic – is especially well-timed alongside the 25th anniversary of their biggest album. Human Clay's songs make up a key percentage of their current setlist, with its singles Higher and With Arms Wide Open hugely popular with fans old and new. In our interview with Mark we'll be digging into what made that album special.

Songs like Beautiful from Human Clay have this added weight live now when you play them. I guess the addition of your Tremonti bandmate Eric Friedman on guitar and backing vocals helps there?

"Once we started Alter Bridge, and Myles [Kennedy] picked up a guitar and played with us, it was hard to go back to one guitar. A lot of bands can pull it off, like Pantera and Van Halen , but I like having another guitar to help fill a space that I'm not already filling. It's really rounds everything out."

When you recorded the first three albums with Creed, were you conscious of the fact that you didn't want to do too many overdubs, because you would be limited in what you could recreate as one guitarist live?

"That was pretty much it for the first three records – I was the only guy so I had to do it all. So that's why a lot of my guitar parts have a chord with a riff or a fill or a lick. I tried to make it as interesting for one guitar as possible. But like I said, having that second guitar support really helps out for dynamics. It really helps a lot."

Faceless Man sounds like a song that really benefits from that.

"Yes and Eric's very good at going back to the records and picking out all the little nuances that I might have even forgotten. I use tube amps on stage and then he uses the Kemper so he can program pretty much exactly what you'd hear on the record into his settings live. So you hear all the little overdubs that we did have, which we didn't have tons of, but any little spots that I can't do all by myself he's got them  pegged out exactly how they would sound back on around the records."

Your signature PRS MT-100 head is coming into its own, especially with the clean parts.

"I designed that specifically to sound like my old school clean tone so it's got a lot of headroom. It sounds like a chimey Fender Twin with just more headroom."

It was great to see your manager Tim Tournier tracked down your old stolen red Les Paul from the Creed days for your 50th birthday.

"That blew me away. I spent a lot of time on that thing. That's how I learned to play – on that guitar."

The Human Clay period in terms of songwriting began early on – there's even a video online [above] of the band playing Say I live for the first time at a hometown Tallahassee show around the time My Own Prison was released on Wind Up Records in 1997.

"We began writing immediately because when were touring My Own Prison, we only had the one record to perform. And I don't know how many – there might have been 10 songs on that record but it wasn't enough to do a whole show. So we'd have to do cover songs or write new music.

"We were actively writing new music and if you watch the [1999] Woodstock performance, we play Faceless Man I know for sure. There were a few of them that we played during Woodstock [Say I was also previewed] that were going to be on the upcoming record and during Woodstock that was when we only had one record."

And that was before YouTube so you didn't need to worry too much about shows where you previewed songs being filmed and shared online.

"Exactly, I mean cell phones and the Internet kind of ruined part of the mystique of rock 'n' roll."

Do you think the Human Clay material benefited from being worked up in soundchecks with you and the band?

"Yeah, you get a sense of how it's going to sound live. And I say this all the time but I think a lot of times when you put together records early on, you're not really thinking of the live thing you're just thinking of listening back to a song.

"I think when you have to tour off of a record for a long time you realise, this song's not quite as fun to play as that one. When you write new records you try to make the songs more of a challenge or more of a fun experience for you live. That's why writing at soundcheck helps a lot because you know exactly how it's gonna feel with the whole band in an arena or theatre or wherever you're playing."

You started to go back to that writing approach on your 2012 tour but that material never went further at the time. Do you think working on ideas during soundchecks is something you might return to again with Creed?

"Well we haven't had time yet, it's only on our fifth show tonight so we're still getting our sea legs and every day is so jam-packed. Tonight I'm actually planning on making the move to get back to writing because I'm going back to the studio, I think in March of next year with Alter Bridge, so I've got to make I've got to get way ahead of that one."

What about the more reflective, slower songs that feature on Human Clay – Wash Away Those Years and Inside Us All, were they being worked on in soundchecks at the time too?

"I remember playing Wash Away Those Years at soundcheck a lot when we're putting that one together. I can't remember Inside Us All, if we played that a lot at soundcheck. That's one of those songs that's a very slow, easy song to play so it's not one like, 'Alright, we're gonna play that one tonight because it's fun to play on our instruments'. It's more of a more of a sound bed for a great vocal, you know?"

Human Clay still stands up so well sonically – there's great separation between the instruments and Brian's basslines really get the space to shine. John Kurzweg produced and mixed the album, and he produced the first three Creed records. There must have been a real mutual respect there?

"John was a gentleman, he was great. He was hungry like we were at the time. And that was back when records were more raw and real. If you listen to the songs the tempos changed dramatically, so we weren't set to a permanent click. I think we were playing live when we recorded it, at least when the drums were recorded. We  would play live, and then we would have to follow the tempo of those drums.

"So it's not like today where it's like, you're going to do this bar and you're gonna just do this lick, we'd have to play through massive portions of the songs and get them recorded back in the day. And I think it just felt, the more openness, the more the feel was more of a real live band playing.

"And you know, I think some people did some things with Van Halen where they put everything on a grid, and you saw how much it made it stale. That record, Human Clay, and My Own Prison, and I believe Weathered were all just kind of loose and freeform. I think that's what made them sound the way they did and what made them special."

So I assume the tempo would usually speed up for choruses and maybe down for breakdowns, how did that process start?

"I think we would start it – we would play the song and we'd get an average tempo. We'd figured out how we wanted to start to song and then we would just play through as a band, I believe. This was so long ago, I can't remember but I think we would play along and John would always be telling us to be cognisent of our tempos and that we don't want to be 20 beats per minute faster by the end of the song because we got excited.

"Those songs do shift tempos quite a bit, which I like because certain parts push and pull.  It gave them life – let them breathe. Nowadays when we're working with Elvis [Alter Bridge and Tremonti producer Michael 'Elvis' Baskette'], we do our best to make sure that the records still have this organic life. Not too scientifically put together to be perfect – it'll ruin the heart of a song.

"I think with a lot of music these days, a lot of people go way too far with making everything too 'perfect'. It's super compressed. Everything's tuned, everything's put right on the grid. And I'd rather see a band play those same songs live and hear them be a little looser, and feel a little freer. But even live bands now are playing on these grids."

How do you deal with those tempo changes live now?

"We refer to click tracks live because we will speed up [otherwise]. When you're in the studio it's one thing but when you're live, you'll get your adrenaline going and someone will play too fast.

"We've listened back to versions of songs we had done live that just didn't sound good, because they were just way too fast. So we definitely put handcuffs on but we still let it breathe."

Scott is sounding great in the live clips that have been posted online so far – do you think it helps that the old Creed material stayed in his range and is still comfortable?

"Yes, and he tours a lot with his solo band and he says that the old-school Creed songs are way easier for him because he's been singing them his whole life. So it's good because he's out there – he's out there training, singing these [solo] songs that are harder for him to sing. And then he comes back and these songs are more his wheelhouse. So I think it's more of something that he can tackle a little easier."

Human Clay was recorded in a house – was that just because of your schedules at the time?

"No, we just did it that way. I think all the first three records were done in houses. I can't remember where Weathered was recorded, but I just specifically remember being in three different locations.

"On the first one [My Own Prison], we did it at John Kurzweg's house in Tallahassee. And he was so particular – if it was raining outside, we couldn't record because he could swear he could hear the raindrops on the roof. So I'd be all excited – I worked at Chili's in college, and I would be excited to finish my shift so I could go and track and I'd get there and he'd say, 'No, we can't track today'. And I'd be like, 'Come on! You can't hear the rain!'

"He would make me change guitar strings every hour – he was very particular. But hey, it turned out to be successful so he knew what he was doing."

Was My Own Prison your first experience recording with a real producer?

"Well, yes, with a real producer. I had done some recordings back in Detroit at a studio where we had engineers help us record songs. This was a different band. I had a band called Wit's End that went to the studio in Detroit when I was maybe in eighth grade. So more of an engineer than a producer, so that was the only other time I was in a professional studio. I think it was called Sidestick Studios in Detroit."

John Kurzweg is a musician himself, did you sense the benefit of that insight when he was working with you?

"Let us do our thing. He was more about just wanting to grab the best performance out of us. We've never, ever had a producer that's come in and said, 'Hey, let's do this part that sounds like this or that'. I don't think any of us would have that. The songs, were our songs but we're completely open to a producer saying, 'Oh, maybe this song isn't as good as that song'. Or, 'I like this song but the bridge isn't so good, come back tomorrow with a better one.

"That kind of thing is good feedback but we could never work with a producer who's like, 'Hey, let's let's play this chord progression here instead.' Give us your opinion, let us work at making it better.

"That's what  John, Elvis did, and then Ben Grosse for the first Alter Bridge record. But  I think we just made it clear – this is our band, these are our songs. Help us see them through."

When you started writing With Arms Wide Open with Scott, was it immediately apparent that you had something really special?

"Yeah, We were at soundcheck and we were at a venue somewhere on Penn State and I just started fingerpicking that first pattern. Scott immediately said, 'Ooh what's that?' I think it just coincided with him learning that he was going to be a father and I think the the words just kind of started spilling out.

"A lot of our best songs happened that way. Higher was another one that happened at a show I think – not even at soundcheck, but live at a show. Scott liked to put us on the spot and be like, 'Hey, crowd, we're going to write a song with you. Mark start a riff or Scott start a drum beat 'and we would just write a song in the moment. That's where the chorus of Higher came from."

Just a jam?

"Yeah I think I just played the progression and Scott started singing the chorus over that chord progression and our biggest song was born that way."

What was your rig for Human Clay – was the Triple Rectifier around at that point?

"I can't remember specifically but I think it might have been the Hughes & Kettner Attax 100. That was before they did the big fancy one with all the lights on the front. It was the the older one and I actually preferred the Attax 100. I don't think I had graduated to Rectifiers yet. I'm not sure."

I'd always just assumed it was a Mesa/Boogie.

It could have been. I could have maybe used the Attax 100 on the first record and then from that point on, I was definitely a Rectifier with Fender Twins for cleans guy."

And you were still playing a Les Paul then – PRS wasn't on the scene?

"PRS was probably probably '99, maybe 2000. We were in the arenas already. I remember when I opened up my first signature guitar it was in an arena. So the first two records were recorded with a Les Paul."

The same models for both albums?

"I probably might have gotten that Gold Top that I used for so many years for the Human Clay record on top of the red one as well.

"It's funny, I sold that Gold Top Les Les Paul to a friend of mine who lives out in Colorado and he's on this tour. He's like, 'Hey, you think you might bring that gold Les Paul back out with you on stage?' I can't!  He's like, 'Come on it's your old guitar'. Nope. that's your guitar now. That was 1960 reissue Gold Top."

So the red one that was returned to you for your birthday was used on the album?

"That was a Studio Lite and it was used on the first record for sure. That was a time when I was just a poor college kid, I had one guitar."

I read that John Kerzweg mentioned on a forum that the cleans on Human Clay went through a TC Electronic processor, do you remember that?

"That's right, I had a TC single-space rack. At the time it was the coolest thing I had but I can't remember the same. It had reverbs, flangers, choruses everything on it."

What do you think is the key element of why the guitars sound so huge on Human Clay?

"Dynamics – I think it's the secret. When I went back after all the Alter Bridge touring to relearn the Creed stuff. The Creed stuff has a lot more clean guitar parts than I remembered. There's a lot of dynamics in between those fingerstyle parts, and then the big hammer wall of power chords that come after.

"I think Creed dealt with a lot with that, just the dynamics. And when I play clean guitar, I'm using my fingers most of the time. So it's not in your face – dynamically it's a much smaller sound. So when you click on the distortion and hit a big chugging chord, I think it makes a big musical statement."

How does it feel to be playing these songs again?

"I love this. I love to see grown men and women cry when you play these old songs that they've grown up with, and maybe they're seeing it live for the first time. And they've listened to it for 20 years.

"We see all kinds of things, we see parents with their kids who have both loved the band and are seeing it for the first time, and we hear all kinds of stories – 'Oh, we fell in love at a Creed show and here's our child who gets to see it for the first time'.

"I think music is the most magical thing in the world. It's an intangible thing that means so much to people. The closest thing we have to magic is music."

Full Circle is quite an underrated record, would you like to play more songs from that in the set?

"We will too. I was telling the guys the other day I listened to it as I was packing for this tour and I was kind of making notes. I think there's A Thousand Faces, On My Sleeve, Time and Bread Of Shame – there are maybe five or six songs I really want to pull off for this tour.

"There were some songs on the record – maybe two or three that I could see that we are just not are not gonna play on this tour but the rest of the record I think I'd really enjoy playing live. It's just a matter of if we do a Full Circle song we're going to have to cut something else. We have these horrible time restrictions – we have like an hour and 40 minutes and if you go a minute over it's an end-of-the-world thing, which is just terrible.  We have 16/17 songs in our setlist and every time you add one or move one you've got to throw something else out."

You're a busy man with three bands and there's a huge demand for Creed in the US, but is there any chance we'll see the band come to Europe?

"I hope so, we've only planned to the end of this year – well next year we have a Creed Cruise in April again. We're still getting offers for shows. But Tremonti is going to Europe in January and February of next year to Europe. So it's it's it's a juggling act.

"It'd be very interesting to see what would happen because I think the last time we played in England it was maybe for like 400 people."

• The 25th-anniversary edition of Human Clay is released on 16 August via Craft Recordings as remastered and expanded deluxe editions. More info at Craft Recordings