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Did You Know?
Sanctus Real was named in a CCM magazine poll as the Best New Artist of 2004.
"Fight The Tide is about maintaining spiritual and musical integrity. There are a lot of people imposing their ideas on musicians about what they think is the best way to communicate or to make music. Many years from now we want to look back, having survived the trends, and know we made honest music with a clear message." - Matt Hammitt
Sanctus Real is:
(l to r) Chris Rohman (lead guitar), Matt Hammitt (lead vocals, guitar), Mark Graalman (drums), Steve Goodrum (bass)
Not too long ago we got to meet up with the guys from Sanctus Real ...
MQ: Do you guys have a mission statement? Why did you start the band? How did it come together? Just kind of introduce us...
Mark: Well, our mission statement's just to rock HARD.
all: laughing
Mark: Just kidding. No, I think a good way to sum it up is to talk about the band name. Sanctus is Latin for "holy". Obviously we believe holiness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ and what he's done for us on the cross and when he rose. Real, we tagged it at the end. We say it just kind of sums up in a word what we want our ministry to be and what our intentions are and that is just to be real with people, be real about our faith, but also kind of throw off the rock star image and just show people that we're normal every day guys who just need God's grace just as badly as every single face in our audience.
MQ: How did you get started in the music business, getting signed, etc...?
Chris:We've been a band now for 7 and a half years... and we toured quite extensively on our own before we had a record deal, so we traveled throughout Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, wherever... doing what we could and we just kind of steadily grew. We didn't know when we started it that we would eventually get signed or anything. It wasn't really our intention, I don't think at the beginning. We just felt we were having fun doing it. But then eventually we recorded a full length "indie" record and Mark and I came down 3 years ago here to Nashville during GMA week and just passed them out to people wearing these (points to GMA badge). We were like, "Hey you want a cd?" We put our phone number in it and the phone started ringing a couple weeks later and eventually it wound up in the hands of somebody at Sparrow which is where we're at now. That began like a year relationship with them and we signed about after a year.
MQ: How would you describe your music to someone who's not familiar with it?
Matt: I would say that the approach is pop-rock. We try to keep really edgy guitars. That's one of our things - really solid guitars… good riffs. We try to stray away from being, like 3 chord rock or whatever. We try to put some "goodies" in there as well to try to fill it in. (laughter at "goodies")
Steve:What was that again? "Goodies?"(laughing)
Matt: I don't know what to call it.... We really try to keep it strong on the melodies and hooks. We want people to remember the song when they hear it. I'd say just driving pop-rock.
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