Scene · 1995–2010
Flyleaf
Flyleaf's Flyleaf (2005, Octone) is the platinum Texas hard-rock debut that sent All Around Me to Hot 100 No. 40.
Flyleaf is a rock band that formed in Belton, Texas, in 2002. Lacey Sturm started out playing with drummer James Culpepper. Guitarists Jared Hartmann and Sameer Bhattacharya and bassist Pat Seals filled out the lineup. Under the name Passerby they put out three EPs around Texas. Octone Records signed them in January 2004, and that June they changed their name to Flyleaf for legal reasons.
A platinum debut
Their self-titled first album came out on 4 October 2005. Howard Benson produced it, and Jane's Addiction's Dave Navarro plays on it. The singles were "I'm So Sick," "Fully Alive," "All Around Me" and "Sorrow." The record went platinum after selling more than a million copies. It's since been listed as the ninth best-selling Christian album of the 2000s.
They spent 2006 and 2007 on big rock tours. They played the main stage of the Family Values Tour, joined Disturbed and Stone Sour on Music as a Weapon III, and went to Australia for the Soundwave festival. The "I'm So Sick" video also pops up briefly in the film Live Free or Die Hard.
Memento Mori and a new voice
Memento Mori, made with Benson again, came out on 10 November 2009 and opened at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. "Again" and "Beautiful Bride" were among its singles. The band also played a small acoustic tour for US troops in Afghanistan. Shortly before New Horizons came out in 2012, Sturm said she was stepping down. She pointed to the birth of her son and the death of the band's audio engineer Rich Caldwell.
Kristen May sang on the Who We Are EP (2013) and Between the Stars (2014). She left in August 2016, and the band went quiet. In November 2022 Flyleaf announced Sturm was back. They played a reunion show in Belton in April 2023 and toured for the debut's 20th anniversary in July 2026.
The Christian plumber
Sturm is a Christian, and the band's songs are full of religious references. But she's pushed back on the label. "If a plumber's a Christian, does that make him a 'Christian plumber?'" she said in 2010. "We're not playing for Christians. We're just playing honestly and that's going to come out." The band describes itself as Christians who play in a rock band.
Rock radio and church charts
Flyleaf has been filed under alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge and nu metal. They've charted on mainstream rock and Christian charts alike, and they toured with Skillet early on. Later, P.O.D.'s Sonny Sandoval sang on "Something Better," and Bhattacharya toured with P.O.D. on keyboards.
