Sanctus Real

The past few years have seen Toledo-based Sanctus Real enjoying solid success, riding the wave of hits like “I’m Not Alright” and “Don’t Give Up.” Yet, after the addition of a few new members which led to the release of their latest album, We Need Each Other, the band has hit a new stride, bringing their artistry to the next level and pushing forward with renewed vigor.

Soul-Audio’s Matt Conner recently had the chance to sit and chat with the band and discuss their lives as of late, the pressures of the studio, and their passion for mission in the future.

SA: So what’s going on for the band right now?

Chris: It’s an exciting time for us because we have a brand-new album that just came out in February and we just finished a tour with Third Day. Great crowds; getting out there and playing our music is always fun. But right now we’re actually planning ahead for our fall tour. We’re going to do a headlining tour event, more than just a show where we’re going to bring out a friend of ours from back home in Toledo who’s actually from Nigeria. And he’s gonna come out, along with Mocha Club…

SA: Is he a pastor or..?

Chris: He’s not a pastor, well, he almost is, I guess you could say. He does a lot of youth ministry, stuff like that. He has an incredible testimony and I can’t even sum it up right now because it’s pretty wild. But he’s on fire for God (and) is really passionate about raising support and raising money to build wells in Africa actually, which is something that Mocha Club is doing anyway. So we’re going to bring all this stuff together, plan this fall tour event, for the first time and really get behind the cause of that where it’s a visual thing where people can chip in and see what exactly it’s going to go towards.

And that’s going to be the fall. We’re taking Tenth Avenue North on the road with us. And then, Casting Pearls, they’re changing their name but they’re going to open up the tour. And so, three bands.

SA: What are they changing their name too?

Chris: Vota. V-O-T-A. I don’t know if it’s an acronym and I don’t know if it’s concrete either but that’s what we’ve heard. So anyways, it’s going to be cool. That’s the big stuff.

SA: Are you guys still touring before the summer season or are you taking some time off?

Dan: Well, we just finished that tour with Third Day and Decemberadio which was awesome; now we’re playing at Acquire the Fire’s and are just taking it easy. We’re actually going to be playing a show in England with Delirious? and it’s going to be like the coolest thing we’ve ever done. We’re real excited about that. And we’re starting in on the summer festivals after that.

SA: Now, that Third Day tour; do you feel like it exposed you to a whole new audience of listeners?

Dan: Yeah! It was great! Well, because, we were on tour with Steven Curtis Chapman right before that which was really cool and then we were on the Winter Jam tour which was really big. So that was good for exposure and stuff. Third Day though, they’re just a good, old fashioned rock band. We try to be a good, old fashioned rock band. So, it was definitely…Christians who love good rock music come to see Third Day so it was definitely the kind of audience we try our best to reach. They’re just awesome people and Decemberadio and Revive are the one’s who opened and they’re awesome also so it was just a great, fun tour for us.

SA: Is that the kind of band whose footsteps you’d like to follow in, in terms of career trajectory?

Pete: Yeah, that’s part of the reason we were so excited about touring with them, is because they have been like a long-term legacy Christian band. And they’ve been, not just successful, but they’ve stayed true to who they are and, they’re just great guys. And I feel like they just live out their story; they don’t pretend to be someone they’re not. They’re seriously just great Christian guys and we’d just love to model our career after someone like that. I mean, I don’t know how long they’ve been around total, but I know that in this industry they’ve been in it over ten years now so…

SA: When you think of musical progression, do you feel a change in chemistry as time has gone on? Do you feel more together as a unit now as you progress as artists?

Chris: Yeah, this time around being our fourth record, looking back, I feel like we’re never quite prepared enough. But from record to record I feel like we slowly get there to a point where we have more of the songs together, we’re not having to write as much in the studio but each time is a unique experience. And I feel like, now that Pete is in the band and Dan, this is his second record with us, we definitely felt like a tighter knit unit going in there. I can’t wait till next time. We just finished this one and I’m hoping that the next one is even a little less stressful and even more fun.

SA: Is it a more stressful time in the studio for you guys than on the road?

Dan: I’d say it’s probably one of the more stressful parts. Well, it depends on which part of the process you catch us at, I guess. Like, writing the songs starts out fun but we want to make them the best we possibly can so it’s just a really, really hardworking thing, troubling over getting it just right so the five of us all agree that it’s the best that it can be. And that can definitely be a long and difficult process. I mean, there’s frustration, like you’re in this dark room in the studio and you don’t see a lot of sunlight, so you feel all cranky but it’s cool. It’s a fine line but when it comes together it’s all worth it. And then it’s like the best feeling.

SA: Pete, was it hard for you to step into that, with it being your first record with the band?

Pete: Yeah, you know, it was. I played in a band for six years or so but we never did any real records, it was all independent stuff. So, for me, it was just actually a great experience, being with a real producer where you can get great sounds. It was a lot of fun for me. But definitely it was very tedious. Like making sure the song isn’t just a song, that it’s above and beyond. And Matt especially, with lyrics, rewrote every song like five times because he really wanted to make sure the message in the songs got across exactly with the vision that we wanted.

SA: Does the success of something like “I’m Not Alright” open up doors that maybe weren’t previously open to you?

Matt: Yeah, man. It’s kind of weird because when we actually wrote the song, I guess we didn’t really realize the impact it would have on people. And people were just like, ‘Man, I’m so glad somebody said that!’ Like, ‘I’m glad that even in a Christian band, somebody said I’m not okay.’ Because, a lot of times, there is a little pressure to write something that’s a little comfy, in a certain box or within certain parameters for CHR or AC radio markets. Not that there’s really anything wrong with that; it’s just that it was our heart and we didn’t know how it would touch people. So it was cool, man. When we heard that, we were like, ‘Oh, wow! Thanks, God, for birthing that in us!’ (Laughs)

And it opened doors; it opened a lot of doors. People started viewing us as people who were open and becoming more honest with our music. It definitely opened more hearts to what we were doing. It kind of scaled back that wall that is sometimes there, between people on a real level. People felt the ability to just kind of approach us and say, ‘Oh, man, I’ve been through it.’ And it opened doors in that way for people to just feel free to talk to us about their lives.

SA: Did the success of that song free up your artistic approach more, allowing you to contemplate pursuing themes that perhaps would have been considered taboo?

Matt: I don’t know if it really made us think, like ‘we should do more of that.’ I think that just, in general, we just try to approach what’s in front of us artistically, wherever that goes. It’s kind of like, as you walk the road you can’t help but to pick up each idea that’s right in front of you. So if it’s “I’m Not Alright” or ‘I’m alright!’ (Laughs) Whatever it is, it’s just that wherever you’re at on that road you’re just writing it. But I do think that it will make us less hesitant in the future to write about whatever’s on our heart and mind.

SA: So this thing that’s happening in the fall, it seems like it’s something that you’re really passionate about? Is this something that you want to continue to bring forth, this added sense of ministry?

Chris: We’ve been a band now for eleven years and to really get behind something that is more than the music is going to be a big deal for us. And being, for the first time, a really big part of planning it, really taking care of the details for it instead of letting somebody else do that for us, I just really feel like our hand is going to be all over this. And we take it to heart, the cause, and just the theme of this record even, We Need Each Other, is this great idea to go out and promote unity amongst the youth that we play in front of and say, ‘If you guys come together and get behind this cause and do something really simple, you can do something really awesome and big, bigger than you can imagine.’

I mean, to have the ability to go out on the stage every night and promote building wells in Africa, and Mocha Club, it’s something we don’t take lightly and we’re all excited about it. It’s not going to happen until September but, even today, we were just talking about all the details and trying to figure it out.

SA: Is that what the formats going to be, like this guy will speak and you guys will play?

Chris: We’re weighing our options, trying to get the most impact. Because he’s a really talented speaker and we want to make sure he’s showcased as this guy who’s just bringing it to the table and he’s bring it hard, because that’s what he’s about. So he’s definitely going to be a highlight of the night.

SA: So how did you guys first come across this guy?

Dan: Across Sammy? Man, he was born in Nigeria…Sammy Adibyi, its crazy spelling; I couldn’t spell it for you! (Laughs) But basically his mother was at a prayer vigil when she was pregnant with him, like an all night prayer vigil in Nigeria, and some guy was like, ‘The baby in your belly is going to do great things for God,’ literally. And he didn’t really embrace that, even though his mother told that to him his whole life, he totally didn’t embrace it until he had a guy, out of nowhere, he wasn’t really living his life for the Lord, pull him up. He thought the dude was going to spill his beans in front of everybody, y’know? But instead, he told him ‘God’s got a plan for you. You’re going to go to a far-off place and you’re going to preach the gospel.’ And he was like, ‘Okay, whatever.’

And then he had two people that same week come up to him and say, basically, two different people came up to him and say, ‘Hey, I had a dream about you. It was crazy! You were preaching in front of a bunch of people but the crazy thing is that you were in a room full of white people!’ And he had known like two white people his whole life so that was really crazy. And through even more, Godly, heavenly, series’ of events I don’t have time for, he ended up here in America, head of a college ministry. In his spare time, speaking at colleges and places raising money to just build wells. He gives the money to organizations like blood:water:mission.

To tell the impact of how good of a speaker he is, he spoke in front of like, thirty college students, at one point, and he raised $3700 and they sponsored 20 Compassion kids between those thirty, thirty-five college students he had. That’s ridiculous. And the next morning he was so excited he thought to himself, ‘Man, I kind of know the guys from Sanctus Real; I’ve gotta do a show in Toledo’, where we’re from, ‘And I’ve gotta talk about the wells.’ He wrote it in his journal, this is a year ago; he said, ‘I just feel like I’m supposed to contact Sanctus Real about doing a show but God’s speaking to me saying, ‘Not yet, Sammy, dream bigger’.’ And we didn’t know this. We called him to do this tour and he literally pulled out his journal and was like, ‘You’re never going to believe what God told me a year ago.” So the rest is like, alright God, bring it on.

SA: I’m sure that’s got to put something in you guys, like just excited to be along on that ride right?

All: Yes!

• www.sanctusreal.com
• www.myspace.com/sanctusreal

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