Sanctus Real: Interview with Sanctus Real

MQ: What musical interests (past or present) have shaped your sound?

Chris: I started playing guitar when I was in Junior High and I grew up listening to a lot of the music my Dad was listening to, so some of the first records I heard were… Tom Petty, Don Henley - solo stuff, a lot of classic rock and then I got into Hendrix and eventually when I heard Lenny Kravitz play "Are You Gonna' Go My Way" on the radio I was like, "Oh, I've got to learn to play guitar!" That's what did it for me.

Mark: These guys like to tease me because I'm like a couple years older but I just made that niche where I grew up on the 80's hair bands… so, like, Stryper was a big influence (laughter). But beyond that I kind of came from the same background as Chris actually - classic rock, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, stuff like that. Actually the year I got saved was pretty much the same year that the whole "grunge rock", Nirvana, SoundGarden, Pearl Jam, scene broke out, changed and revolutionized music. Then I started to get into Christian music right after that and then DC Talk puts out "Jesus Freak" which was pretty much their answer to "Smells Like Teen Spirit". So lately my biggest influences are probably Foo Fighters, U2, Switchfoot is actually a big influence - and they're doing amazing things right now.

MQ: Speaking of U2, you've got a song on the cover album In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa. How did that come about? Give us a little insight.

Mark: It was something that our record label put together. It was their idea to do this project of just a bunch of U2 cover songs and I think the original intention was to join with Bono, DATA and get behind fighting AIDS in Africa and eventually it evolved into a situation where we actually teamed up with World Vision and we're sponsoring a village in Africa that has been completely ravaged by AIDS at this point now [the record company] has just donated a ton of money to this village and of every cd that is sold, I believe it's 50 cents off each one goes to this village to support and sponsor them.

MQ: Is there any kind of them or message you want to convey, say to a kid in a youth group who is a Christian or even somebody that has no idea about the Gospel. Is there something you would like them to take away from it?

Mark: I think we're one of those bands that really tries to meet everyone's needs in a lot of ways. Three out of the four of us grew up in the church. I'm actually the only one who didn't. I actually became a Christian when I was about 16. So we just relate to all ends of the spectrum. People who grew up in the church, grew up going to youth group, grew up listening to only Christian music and secular music was bad - that whole mentality - to me coming straight out of "as worldy as you can get" in public school systems and all that. So, I think in every show the first intention is just to have fun and just let those kids have the time of their lives, and enjoy a good rock and roll show. From a musical standpoint it's pretty high energy, it's pretty straight driving rock concert straight through, but there's always that point where Matt will usually share and we'll go into a worship song and just really try to take the focus off us and put it exactly where it needs to be - try to give these kids hope whether they know about Jesus or have never heard of him before at all.

Matt: The biggest thing is just to encourage people who are there. I want them to walk away not feeling like, "I'm terrible, I'm so far behind in my faith." We want them to feel lifted up, if they're there and they don't know Christ - we want them to know, "Hey, you might not find it tonight - but go home and know that there's a plan for your life and when you leave here to seek after God and find that plan." And if they're Christians, just try to encourage them in their faith, to say, "Man, you don't have to live the way society tells you to. There's something better for you. There's more for you."

Continue to page 3...

Sanctus Real interview continued...