John Cooper says Skillet’s vulnerable new EP offers hope amid life’s ‘silent screams’
Nearly 30 years into Skillet's career, frontman John Cooper is watching a new generation discover the Christian rock band, and according to the rocker, the resurgence is part of a larger cultural appetite for music willing to acknowledge that life can be painful.
The multi-Platinum band releases its six-song independent EP, After the Storm, on Oct. 9, a project Cooper told The Christian Post features Skillet’s most vulnerable music to date.
Produced by David Cowell and Skillet guitarist Korey Cooper, the EP returns to the heavier sound reminiscent of early Skillet years while wrestling with themes of grief, anger, perseverance and hope.
“I can't believe we're still playing music. I can't believe that people still want to come,” the 51-year-old “Comatose” singer told CP. “Young people are discovering it for the first time, and our demographics are skewing really young. Now you've got all these young people coming to shows who just discovered Skillet. Some of them don't know we've been around for this long.”
The Memphis-formed band averages more than 12 million monthly Spotify listeners, while its six-times-Platinum hit “Monster” has surpassed 5 billion global streams. The band is also preparing for its nationwide “Comatose: 20 Years, Still Screaming Tour,” marking two decades since the release of its 2006 album.
According to Cooper, rock's renewed popularity reflects a broader cultural shift, where people are tired of superficiality. Before the upheaval of 2020, he said, popular culture often leaned into “positive” messaging, reflected in songs such as Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” and Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are.”
But Cooper said the uncertainty and suffering that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, in particular, created a hunger for music that acknowledges life's hard realities.
“You're not perfect the way you are,” Cooper said. “Life can be really good, but life can be really challenging, and life can be an absolute trial.”
“Rock music speaks to that fact that life is hard,” he added. “Sometimes you feel alienated. You know that you're a broken person. You are angry. You don't like who you are, and the world can just stink. And that is a perfect breeding ground for rock music to come back in style.”
After the Storm includes “Scream,” which has amassed more than 7 million global streams, and the single “Lift Me Up,” an arena-rock track.
“After the Storm is special to me because it reignites what Skillet was always meant to be, which is music that helps lift people out of dark times,” Cooper said in announcing the project. “I wrote these songs because I needed to be lifted out of my own darkness.”
“‘Lift Me Up’ reminds me of early Skillet, but it still feels fresh,” he added. “When I wrote it, so many things were dragging me down. I was asking God to lift me up. It's a reminder that even when life feels overwhelming, there is still hope.”
The EP emerged from some of the most difficult years for Cooper and his family. The artist shared how he and his family experienced a painful falling-out with a church they had served for decades, an ordeal he said brought depression, anger and questions about who he could trust.
Rather than make an album specifically about that experience, however, Cooper said he wanted to channel those emotions into songs that listeners going through their own struggles could relate to.
“What I hope to communicate is that yes, life can be really, really hard, and there can be a real temptation for nihilism, to just get to a place where you just think nothing matters, no one sees me, no one sees my pain,” he said.
“It's not that I want people to hear the EP and think about my personal story. I don't want you to think about my personal story,” he added. “But that is the amount of heartache and raw authenticity that went into these songs.”
“Scream,” in particular, channels feelings of anxiety, anger and isolation into a plea to be heard. Cooper said those emotions are hardly unique to his own circumstances.
“Most people that go through these kinds of trials, they end up having a silent scream,” he said. “Those are those silent screams of feeling that you don't matter and that you're not going to make it. I hope to communicate to people that God is with you during those times.”
Hope and redemption are the goal of the album, Cooper said. Skillet has always sought to acknowledge anger, alienation and brokenness without leaving listeners there.
The band's staying power suggests that message continues to resonate. Skillet has sold more than 23 million albums, earned two Grammy Award nominations and three Top 5 debuts on the Billboard 200, while its music has appeared across the NFL, WWE, ESPN, Marvel productions, and film and television.
And despite After the Storm being born from an unusually painful chapter, Cooper said its central message is, at its core, one of perseverance rooted in Christ.
“Maybe people listening — your own addiction, or your own anxiety or depression or just life, can't pay the bills, fighting with your wife, or your kids are acting crazy, and you don't know what to do with your kids — whatever your situation is, Christ will meet you. I can promise you that. But you might have to slug it out. It might take a while, but do not give up because He will meet you.”
“There is life after the storm,” he said. “Jesus will meet you, but you're going to have to be willing to just fight.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
