The simple way former Creed members created Alter Bridge

O Creed became a true popularity phenomenon between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. To give you an idea, the band sold more than 50 million records basically just with the three works they produced in this short period: My Own Prison (1997), Human Clay (1999) and Weathered (2001).

However, just as the band broke out “out of nowhere”, its activities were also ended abruptly in 2004. There were serious relationship problems between the singer Scott Stapp and the other members — the guitarist Mark Tremontithe drummer Scott Phillips and, at the time, the bassist Brian Hestlawho filled the vacancy left by Brian Marshall in the year 2000. Even if there were reasons for the end, it cannot be denied: ending a group at the height of its success is something that leaves trauma.

Interestingly, though, Tremonti and Phillips didn’t even seem to act like they had broken away from one of the most successful bands of the turn of the century. In the same year of 2004, they resurfaced with the Alter Bridgea band that not only “rescued” Marshall on bass, but also brought in a new vocalist: Myles Kennedythen known in the alternative scene for his work with The Mayfield Fourin addition to having made a “cameo” as an actor in the film rock star (2001).

2004, in fact, seemed endless for Mark and Scott. They broke with Creed, formed the heavy Alter Bridge and, together with their colleagues, made and released the project’s debut album, One Day Remains. It all happened very quickly for former members of a multiplatinum band, didn’t it?

In interview to the website Igor Miranda, Tremonti acknowledged that, yes, the whole situation developed quickly. The guitarist explains that licking the wounds and moving on was a way of survival.

“We were just trying to survive at that time. You know, Creed was a hugely successful band at the time, but who knew what would happen when we started out on our own? So we just wanted to make sure we could continue our career, whether it was in a small band or a big band, it didn’t matter. We just want to keep doing it.”

Alter Bridge’s unglamorous creation

During the interview, Mark Tremonti explained in a simple way how Alter Bridge was formed. The foundations of the band — which never repeated Creed’s success, but became much more praised by specialized critics than the previous project — were established in such a natural way that, once again, it didn’t even seem to involve former members of a multiplatinum group. . The story begins with the beginning of recording the first album:

“I remember setting up a studio in my house and buying everything. There was this woman called Shilpa Patel, who was one of the instructors on the Pro Tools recording program. She wrote a few books on how to run Pro Tools and I hired her to teach me how to do it. So I learned to be a sound engineer and composed and created demos for the first album.”

The guitarist admitted that he was already thinking about forming a new band before the end of Creed was announced. And the big problem lay precisely in the choice of vocalist, since Alter Bridge was, basically, the initial formation of the other group but with another singer. Coming up with Myles Kennedy’s name was also a simple, albeit time-consuming, process.

“I spent, I don’t know, about a year and a half trying to figure out who could sing in this new band and seeing some local singers. Anyway, one of my best friends said, ‘do you remember Myles Kennedy from the Mayfield Four?’. And he picked up and put on one of their CDs while we were driving. It reminded me how amazing he was. So we got in touch with Myles, I sent him some of the demos I worked on and he loved them. That’s how it all started.”

20 years since debut

In August 2024, the album One Day Remains will celebrate its 20th anniversary of release. Although Alter Bridge has no plans for the year in question — it will be “hibernating” precisely for the new Creed reunion — Mark Tremonti celebrates the milestone by saying he is happy to have done so much different work.

“I love this album. I’m glad I tried out all these different possibilities. Being able to play in Creed, Alter Bridge and my solo band Tremonti, where I can sing… being able to make the album Tremonti Sings Sinatra (with Frank Sinatra covers) was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done. I also have a Christmas album (Christmas Classics New & Old) coming out, with choir, symphony… the biggest production I’ve ever done.”