In a new interview with The Front Row Report With Reggie Edwards, STRYPER frontman Michael Sweet spoke about how his songwriting process has evolved over the four decades of the band’s existence. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I personally think that that’s my greatest gift in terms of the abilities God’s given me. I’m a guitar player, I’m a singer, but I feel like I shine more at songwriting, and I get more excited about it.“When I sit down to write, it’s always a few weeks before we start recording,” he continued. “I don’t have any songs, and I sit down in my studio and I write a song a day. Once I have one song finished, I go down the next day, I write another song until there’s 11 songs or 12 songs. And then we go in a studio, I teach the songs to the guys and we record them. And it’s been that way really from the beginning, starting with [the 1984 EP] ‘The Yellow And Black Attack’, but the difference between now and then is we spent more time working out songs [back then]. Now it’s a lot faster process, and it’s not because it’s rushed [or] because we have to; it’s just because that’s the way it is. That’s the way it works.
“But I love writing,” Sweet added. “Everyone has this perception that we’ve always written songs as a band. That’s just not true. It’s never been that way. I’ve always been open and honest about that. And sometimes people think I’m a dictator and I hold a gun to the guys’ heads and I don’t let ’em write and whatnot, and it’s just not true. I give music to my brother all the time and say, ‘Hey, why don’t you write the lyrics?’ Because Robert‘s [Sweet, STRYPER drummer] a good lyricist. I say, ‘Why don’t you write the lyrics for the song?’ And three months later, when it’s time for me to sing the song, the lyrics aren’t done. So I wind up doing it myself. And it’s perceived often as I don’t let the guys do anything, and it couldn’t be further from the truth. And I’m letting you know that, I’m going off on that a bit of tangent, because I see this online every day. I just saw something at breakfast an hour ago, someone saying that very same thing.”
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