Flyleaf — Flyleaf

Flyleaf came out of Belton, Texas, in 2002, fronted by singer Lacey Sturm. Their first album sold more than a million copies. Their second debuted at No. 8. Then their singer stepped away, a new one came and went, and the band went quiet for six years. In 2022, Sturm came back, and twenty years after that first record, Flyleaf are touring again.

Passerby

The band started with Sturm singing alongside drummer James Culpepper. Guitarists Jared Hartmann and Sameer Bhattacharya joined, and bassist Pat Seals came over from a band called The Grove. "Sameer and Jared are really experimental with melodies and pedals," Sturm said, and the band's different influences blended "with the same passionate and hopeful heart."

They first called themselves Passerby. Over two years they released three EPs and played more than 100 shows in Texas alone. In 2004 they played a showcase for RCA Records in New York. RCA passed, but the president of Octone Records was interested. The band waited two days in their van at a truck stop for the call about an Octone showcase, and were signed after it. Octone announced them on January 7, 2004.

That March they recorded an EP in Seattle with producer Rick Parashar, and toured with Skillet, Breaking Benjamin, Staind and 3 Doors Down. In June 2004, for legal reasons, they became Flyleaf. The EP came out that October, with a single and video for "Breathe Today."

Flyleaf

The band made their first full album with producer Howard Benson. Flyleaf came out on October 4, 2005, with guest appearances from Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction and Ryan White of Resident Hero. "I'm So Sick," "Fully Alive," "All Around Me" and "Sorrow" were the singles. The album went platinum. We reviewed it here.

They spent the next two years on the road. They played the main stage of the 2006 Family Values Tour, then the Music as a Weapon III tour with Disturbed, Stone Sour and Nonpoint. Part of the money from an EP sold on that tour went to World Vision. In 2007 they toured with Three Days Grace, played Europe with Stone Sour, headlined their own Justice & Mercy Tour with Skillet, and went back to Family Values.

In 2007 they also came to Australia for the Soundwave festival.

Their songs turned up everywhere. The "I'm So Sick" video appeared in Live Free or Die Hard, a remix landed on the Resident Evil: Extinction soundtrack, and the song was in Rock Band. "Cassie" was recorded in Simlish for The Sims 2. "Perfect" went to Christian radio in late 2007.

Memento Mori

The band wrote about 30 songs for their second album and kept 14. They went back to Howard Benson, with Chris Lord-Alge mixing. Memento Mori came out on November 10, 2009, and debuted at No. 8. "Set Apart This Dream" was inspired by the Christian book Wild at Heart. Before the release, the band played a small acoustic tour in Afghanistan for US troops.

The singles included "Again," "Beautiful Bride," "Chasm" and "Arise." In 2010 they toured with Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace, headlined the Unite & Fight Tour, played Download Festival in the UK, and performed at the Muz-TV awards in Russia. They used the tour to encourage fans to help stop human trafficking. In November 2010 they played Rock the Hood at Fort Hood, in memory of soldiers who had died, especially the 13 killed in the 2009 shooting there.

New Horizons and a goodbye

The band began their third album in early 2011, with pre-production at Treelady Studios in Pittsburgh. The title track, "New Horizons," came out in August 2012, and its video premiered on September 4, Sturm's birthday. It included a tribute to Rich Caldwell, one of the band's audio engineers, who had died.

New Horizons came out on October 30, 2012. A week before, on October 22, the band announced that Sturm was stepping down. She said that the birth of her son and Caldwell's death had shown her "the true meaning of Memento Mori."

The Kristen May years

Kristen May, formerly of Vedera, took over. Her first single with the band, "Something Better," featured P.O.D.'s Sonny Sandoval, and the Who We Are EP came out in July 2013. Fans funded the next album through PledgeMusic, Don Gilmore produced it, and Between the Stars came out on Loud & Proud Records on September 16, 2014.

May said later that some fans thought she was "not Christian enough" compared with Sturm, even though she is a Christian. In August 2016 she left, saying she wanted to stay home with her family and had never really felt part of the band.

Quiet years

Flyleaf went on hiatus. Hartmann formed a duo with his wife, Kat&Jared. Bhattacharya played keyboards for P.O.D. from 2016 to 2018, and then he and Seals formed Belle and the Dragon with P.O.D. drummer Wuv Bernardo. Seals joined Crobot in 2023.

With Lacey Sturm

In November 2022, the band started teasing a return, with new photos of the original lineup. On November 7, their social media changed to read "Flyleaf with Lacey Sturm." On April 27, 2023, they played a reunion show in Belton, their first in seven years and their first with Sturm in nearly eleven. A vinyl pressing of the debut followed for its twentieth anniversary, and they played festivals through 2025. In 2026 they played Welcome to Rockville in May and the Flyleaf with Lacey Sturm 20th Anniversary Tour across 14 cities in July.

Faith in the band

Sturm is a Christian, and faith runs through Flyleaf's music, but she has pushed back on the label. "If a plumber's a Christian, does that make him a 'Christian plumber'?" she asked in 2010. "We're not playing for Christians. We're just playing honestly and that's going to come out." The band describe themselves as Christians who play in a rock band.

That approach took them onto rock radio, onto Family Values stages and into video games, without ever hiding what they believed. Twenty years on, they're back on those stages with the singer they started with.