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STRYPER's MICHAEL SWEET Recalls Working For Family Business After Being Discouraged By Record Industry

October 27, 2015

In a brand new interview with the Myglobalmind webzine, STRYPER guitarist/vocalist Michael Sweet was asked if there has ever been a time in his life where he has been discouraged by the music business to the point where he had to ask himself if he should be pursing a different profession. He responded: "Oh, yeah! When I moved back from California to Massachusetts with my family, I went through a period — this was in 1995 — a period where my record label at the time was closing its doors. I was very discouraged, because I had an album coming out during that time that kinda got shelved and didn't do anything. And then, after six, seven, eight months of not doing anything and not being able to get anything going for a long period of time, I took all my equipment and I packed it all up and put it in its cases and boxed it up and put it in a basement closet. It was quite a big closet, mind you. And I went to work for the family business."

Sweet told Beyond The Turntable in a 2006 chat that his family business was a campground in a cranberry bog. He said: "I worked in the bogs for about five years. Put on hip waders get out there corralling berries. It was cool! I had a great time doing it. It was a change I desperately needed. I'm not a farmer to save my life. But I just enjoyed getting out there and working."

STRYPER's new album, "Fallen", entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 43 with first-week sales of just over 10,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales. The set follows the No. 35-peaking "No More Hell To Pay", which was released in 2013.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

"Fallen" was released on October 16 via Frontiers. The CD was tracked at SpiritHouse Recording Studios in Northampton, Massachusetts and includes a cover version of the BLACK SABBATH classic "After Forever".

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