Links...
Sanctus Real's debut album
"Say It Loud"
MQ: What are your thoughts on the Modern Worship Music movement? You know the controversy, should the church stick with traditional worship or move toward the modern worship. Do you have any strong feelings either way?
Steve: I think it's a matter of the heart. There's so many people at different levels of their walk and so many people are touched in different ways. I think it's a matter of who's presenting or leading worship - where the heart is or motives are. As far as if it's a rock band doing a worship song or if it's a choir or a pastor or a kid at a campfire, it's the motive of the heart and how they are being led by God to lead that worship. If it's for money, it gets frustrating when you see such an explosion of people starting to lead worship because it sells. But I know there are a lot of people out there who truly want people to experience a deeper walk - a deeper experience - with Christ. It's something that's very important to us because it allows us to, like Mark said, take the focus off us and really let people know what's important.
Matt: And I think anything that takes the focus off us and allows us to stand in awe of our Creator is worship. I think every one of us in the Christian industry is guilty of boxing worship into a certain format and what it should really look like. And I think that anything that causes you to turn attention where it belongs is really worship. I hope that's where all our hearts are.
MQ: You guys got to play on the 'Festival Con Dios' tour a while back. Is there any particular concert or tour that stands out in your memory as special for any reason at all? And for what reasons?
Chris: There's been a few. We've been really fortunate as a new national act to be on some pretty cool tours. So, I'll just pick one. We did 'See Spot Rock' last spring with Pillar, Supertones, Reliant K, John Reuben and I think there's some great relationships that stemmed out of that tour. You know, at the beginning of it our drummer came down with mono the week before we were supposed to leave for the tour so we didn't have a drummer. It was going to be a pretty big deal for us to be on this tour and we didn't know what we were going to do, but John - the drummer for the Supertones - stepped right in and said, "Hey, I'm willing to play for you guys." Literally came in and did one rehearsal with us - not even half an hour - and ran through it. He had listened to the cd that morning I think in the van ride to rehearsal and he did a great job. So, it was just neat to see that people were willing to help us out - being the new guys on the block - especially guys from the Supertones, like that. And we got to share a bus with Pillar - they were on the tour too - and we became really good friends with them. So, there was a lot of camaraderie between the bands on that tour.
Matt: I think See Spot Rock was really refreshing because Festival Con Dios was a really wearing tour. Yeah, it's exhausting because you're there all day every day, plus we drive ourselves in a van. We'd drive all night then we'd have to be available all day. You know. And its like we got hardly any sleep. We were battling the elements constantly - always rainy and windy. We were literally at the point of, like, physical exhaustion on those tours. See Spot Rock was like, you just had to show up in the evening - you know - it was like at a certain time and it was always indoors and the sound was always great and you weren't always battling the elements. I think it was refreshing to be a part of that.
MQ: How do you guys stay fresh on the road ... and focused, dealing with all the temptations, all the free time, and all the stuff that's going to come your way? Do you guys have a devotional or study or something just to keep going? People think, "Oh, it's a Rock Tour, it's fun, it's glamourous" but....
Mark: The truth is is that it wears you out. It's a lot more work than anyone realizes it is and also in some ways it's feeding everything that from a spiritual standpoint you might not necessarily want fed. You know, like "You're on stage", "You're awesome", "You're cool", "You're so great", you know, and you hear this every day. And then Jesus says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So, you're expected to be humble after that. But I think really ... I know the biggest thing I've learned is to have some sort of a routine everyday - just things that I have to do everyday before we have to get up there and play that show. It consists of just sitting down and spending some time in prayer, reading my Bible on the van ride on the way to the show. You know, even just from a musical standpoint - sitting there with my practice pad and warming up my hands, getting ready to play drums. Or, some thing like calling my wife and just talking to her for a while and praying with her over the phone. Or maybe trying to talk to my parents if I can that day. Just little things like that that help us keep our focus straight and keep us grounded in our roots, the things that actually got us here to begin with.
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