It was a beautiful Saturday evening in Finland Turku when I had the change to make an interview with the main performer of the Maata Näkyvissä festival – Skillet. The band leader John Cooper was kind enough to answer some of my questions about the band and his personal life.
Skillet is a world known alternative-rock band from USA Memphes Tennesse. Band vocal John Cooper started the band in 1996 and since then they have had hundreds of sold-out concerts. In addition to John there are three more members in the band – Johns's wife Cory Cooper, who plays the quitar and the keyboards, Jen Ledger, who plays the drums and Seth Morrison, who plays the quitar.
Where did the name Skillet came from?
The name Skillet means actually a fring pan, like the one you make eggs in. The reason we called our band Skillet is that when we first got together we were all from diffenent bands and someone said that it was like cooking- taking all the different incritiens, throughing them all to a skillet and making something – that is why we called it a Skillet. When I think about it now then it is not too smart name.
Who is writing all of your songs and what is the story behing the song “A day too late”?
Most of the songs are written by me. Sometimes we write songs also together with my wife Corey who is playing the quitar and the keyboards in the band, we wrote the song “Heroe” together.
“A day too late” was written because when I was working on our latest record “Awake”, I was writing the record for a very long time and I was really stressed out and I was working so hard that I wasn't really spending much time with my wife and our two kids. When I realized that I was sacrofizing my family to try to write this record I was really sad about it and I wanted to write a song that basically said that I don't want to waste my life doing all these things that don't matter and instade do the things that do matter – your relationship with God, with your family and all those really important thing. So that what “A day too late” is about.
You have one famous famous song called “Monster” and there is a part with this really scary voice – who is doing the scary voice in this song?
When we did the record I just sing it and our producer turned it into this crazy monster voice. When I heard it I just loved it – I thought it was very clever and funny.
How do you pick your clothes for the concerts – do you have a stylist or do you shoose yourself what are you going to wear in the concert?
I pick them myself. I love fashion, I used to have a clothing line as well and I used to made some of my clothes myself. Sometimes on stage you got to pick what is comfortabe because you get a little swetty and a little crazy out there.
You are a Christian band. Are all the band members christians?
Yes, absolutely. Every one of us is very passionate about being a Christian, about knowing Christ and very passionate about our mission which is to play rock music with a message.
Do you like reading the Bible?
I love reading the Bible. Funny enough – I have loved God since I was a kid, I became a Christian when I was five years old and I have had a relationship with Him since then but I have not always liked reading. To be honest then reading the Bible ,when I was younger, was very confuseing. I understood some of it but some of it I found very confuseing. As I have got older I have learned to love the Bible. I love understanding the way that God loves us and how wonderful God really is -that have became clear to me as I have gotten older.
You have two children- what is the main thing you want to teach your children about God?
The main thing I want to teach them is that they can experience God on their own. They don't
have to believe God just because I do but that God is real and wants my kids to know Him. America is very christianized nation – a lot of people go to church and they are being rised in churches but they are not really christians even though they go to church and try to act like christians even thouh they really don't know God. I believe that it is very important that people would understand that they don't have to “fake it”. I want my kids to have a relationship with God, to know that He is real on their own- not just because I tell them what to do.
Skillet is a world known alternative-rock band from USA Memphes Tennesse. Band vocal John Cooper started the band in 1996 and since then they have had hundreds of sold-out concerts. In addition to John there are three more members in the band – Johns's wife Cory Cooper, who plays the quitar and the keyboards, Jen Ledger, who plays the drums and Seth Morrison, who plays the quitar.
Where did the name Skillet came from?
The name Skillet means actually a fring pan, like the one you make eggs in. The reason we called our band Skillet is that when we first got together we were all from diffenent bands and someone said that it was like cooking- taking all the different incritiens, throughing them all to a skillet and making something – that is why we called it a Skillet. When I think about it now then it is not too smart name.
Who is writing all of your songs and what is the story behing the song “A day too late”?
Most of the songs are written by me. Sometimes we write songs also together with my wife Corey who is playing the quitar and the keyboards in the band, we wrote the song “Heroe” together.
“A day too late” was written because when I was working on our latest record “Awake”, I was writing the record for a very long time and I was really stressed out and I was working so hard that I wasn't really spending much time with my wife and our two kids. When I realized that I was sacrofizing my family to try to write this record I was really sad about it and I wanted to write a song that basically said that I don't want to waste my life doing all these things that don't matter and instade do the things that do matter – your relationship with God, with your family and all those really important thing. So that what “A day too late” is about.
You have one famous famous song called “Monster” and there is a part with this really scary voice – who is doing the scary voice in this song?
When we did the record I just sing it and our producer turned it into this crazy monster voice. When I heard it I just loved it – I thought it was very clever and funny.
How do you pick your clothes for the concerts – do you have a stylist or do you shoose yourself what are you going to wear in the concert?
I pick them myself. I love fashion, I used to have a clothing line as well and I used to made some of my clothes myself. Sometimes on stage you got to pick what is comfortabe because you get a little swetty and a little crazy out there.
You are a Christian band. Are all the band members christians?
Yes, absolutely. Every one of us is very passionate about being a Christian, about knowing Christ and very passionate about our mission which is to play rock music with a message.
Do you like reading the Bible?
I love reading the Bible. Funny enough – I have loved God since I was a kid, I became a Christian when I was five years old and I have had a relationship with Him since then but I have not always liked reading. To be honest then reading the Bible ,when I was younger, was very confuseing. I understood some of it but some of it I found very confuseing. As I have got older I have learned to love the Bible. I love understanding the way that God loves us and how wonderful God really is -that have became clear to me as I have gotten older.
You have two children- what is the main thing you want to teach your children about God?
The main thing I want to teach them is that they can experience God on their own. They don't
have to believe God just because I do but that God is real and wants my kids to know Him. America is very christianized nation – a lot of people go to church and they are being rised in churches but they are not really christians even though they go to church and try to act like christians even thouh they really don't know God. I believe that it is very important that people would understand that they don't have to “fake it”. I want my kids to have a relationship with God, to know that He is real on their own- not just because I tell them what to do.
