Band Members:
Vocals/keyboard: Marq Andrew Speck
Guitar: Bill Blatter
Drums: Steve Wieser
Bass: Martin Kuchar
24-time Detroit Music Award winning band SWEET CRYSTAL are a 24-time Detroit Music Award winning rock band. They are powerful passionate and progressive in their delivery and have been at the forefront of the Christian rock scene in Michigan before the genre had its own radio and broadcast outlets. Lead vocalist Marq Andrew Speck answered some questions for us about their upcoming album and musical process check it out.
What got you into making music?
Unlike most bands who have a lifecycle of about three to five years, this band of high school buddies (myself, Bill and Steve) has been playing together for over 40 years. We got together right out of high school (and actually Bill and Steve played together during high school!). To this day we get together every week to rehearse, record and just enjoy each other’s company. Does it get old after 4 decades together? Absolutely not! We just get better with age
Who inspired you to make music?
We started out totally influenced by the progressive rock English music scene of the 60’s and 70’s: bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis, Atomic Rooster, Uriah Heep all left their musical marks on our writing and playing. We also listened to a lot of American bands like Kansas, Journey, Rush and Spock’s Beard to keep our creative juices flowing. In the beginning, we opened up for such classic rock acts as Bob Seger, Foghat, Nazareth, Steppenwolf and many more before finding our true path into the Christian music field.
What is your creative process?
I am the main source of starting songs. I have musical and melodic ideas that I present to the guys at every rehearsal (and we still rehearse after all these decades pretty much every week at our private studio) and then they all add their input and expertise to make every song a real band production. We constantly record every rehearsal and jam session because you never know when a new riff will open up the creative juices.
The final song arrangements are usually dictated by the lyrics (verses, choruses, etc.), which I pretty much exclusively write. We also play a lot of freeform jams at our rehearsals and out of those jams, we pick melodies, chord patterns and themes that just seem to be…sweeter to our ears. It really is a full band thing on each song.
Is there anyone you would like to collaborate with?
We think our music would be a great fit for producer/super star Alan Parsons to work with. His signature sounds and musical styling (think “Dark Side Of The Moon”) would make any and every Sweet Crystal song that much…you know, sweeter!
What does Your Band Name Mean?
The name of the band reflects the message of our music and mission referring to passages in the Book Of Revelation that describe a river of sweet water flowing out from the throne of God, clear as crystal. Sounded like an amazing sight to see and place to be…so we adopted it and never looked back!
What is your favourite song to perform?
That’s a tough one as we have so many songs released over the years. Probably “Foot Of The Cross” (from our ‘Quad’ CD) because it’s a full throttle rock song that features Bill on some great slide guitar and allows me to play from underneath the keyboard rig for my solos (a signature Q move with videos to prove it), adding just another layer of sweet to the show.
What are you working on right now?
Getting ready for latest album ‘7th Heaven’ to officially drop next week (2/14/22 everywhere you download or stream). ‘7th Heaven’ starts bold out of the gate and continues where our last release ‘Got Your Six’ left off: songs of hope and inspiration featuring our signature guitar sounds, synth melodies, straight ahead drumming with just a few chanting monks thrown in for good measure. Not only 5 songs written by the band but we also cover a ‘70s song by Christian alt rockers The Call and even reach back even farther to the glory days of the 60’s Detroit music scene by ‘Crystalizing’ a classic SRC rock tune.
After this? New songs already being recorded for our next release “8” this time around featuring more lead vocals from (guitarist) Bill. New promotion company Rogue PR taking the reins for a while to get the Sweet Crystal brand into more markets. Booking shows and benefit concerts to play again as we all get back to normal. Basically we plan to remain exactly who we are for as long as can. As our trademarked slogan puts it, we will continue to keep “Reaching The World, One Song At A Time”.
Website: http://www.sweetcrystal.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SweetCrystalBand
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sweet_crystal
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/SweetCrystal
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