Sanctus
Real strives to keep it real
By Paul Bowers
Special to The Post and
Courier
Everything is not all right for Sanctus
Real.
While the four members of the alternative
rock band do their best to approach life with a positive perspective, they have
seen enough tragedy and felt enough pain in the past year to realize that life
rarely takes the course it is expected to take.
"The realities of life are setting in
more," says Matt Hammitt, lead vocalist of the Ohio-based quartet.
"We're learning to deal with that as opposed to being happy-go-lucky all
the time. We're learning how to tackle these real issues in our lives."
The issues to which he refers began in
early 2005 during a tour to promote the band's sophomore release "Fight
the Tide," when drummer Mark Graalman took a sabbatical from performance
to be with his wife and his newborn son, Benjamin.
Within hours after his baby boy entered
the world, the newly elated Graalman was confronted with the harsh reality of
human life at the opposite end: In the same hospital, one floor down, his
father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Around the same time, Hammitt's
grandmother became ill and moved into a hospice care facility next door to
Graalman's dying father.
To make matters worse, the band's longtime
bass player chose at that time to leave and pursue other ambitions, forcing the
other members of the group to find someone to fill his position.
"We were emotionally and physically
burned out," says Hammitt. As luck, or fate, or providence, would have it,
it was at this low point that the group was scheduled to enter the studio and
finish recording tracks for the band's 2006 album "The Face of Love."
"God's strength was made bigger in
our weakness," says Hammitt, a devout Christian. "We feel so weak,
man, but He really gave us the energy and the creative flow, and it panned out
to be a really spectacular thing that happened."
The result of these heavy-hearted
recording sessions is a collection of songs that deal with love, mortality and
inner brokenness in the context of genuine sorrow.
The opening track, "I'm Not
Alright," presents one of the lessons the band has learned. The song
acknowledges the frailty and pain inherent to human life, while at the same
time pointing to a meaning behind it all. "I'm not all right," the
chorus goes, "I'm broken inside,/And all I go through,/It leads me to
You."
All of this is backed up by the band's
honest pop rock sound, somewhere between U2, Switchfoot and Weezer. From the
searing guitar intro that begins the album to the softer moments of clarity
interspersed in many of the songs, Sanctus Real appears to have grown tighter
as a group through the band's years playing and touring together. The group's
sound is decidedly youthful, and yet it's anything but edgy.
"It's far more life-driven,"
says Hammitt of the latest CD. "The others have been a little bit more
topical. ? We're branching off from emotions that we've felt and what we're
actually experiencing. That's why people are relating to this CD on a deeper
level." The band members find themselves encouraged every time they
receive e-mail messages from fans who have been affected by the messages of
their songs.
"We'll always be the kind of guys who
need to connect with our fans," Hammitt explains. The band has had plenty
of chances to connect, booking up to 200 shows per year since the release of
the group's first album.
"I've been learning to be content
with the little bit I have," says Hammitt in regard to life on the road.
"Financially, it's not like we're making millions of dollars. We're just
paying our bills. I have to be content that I'm doing my purpose, which is to
be out there doing what God's telling me to do."
This attitude is evident in the band's
name, which comes from the Latin words sanctus, meaning "holy," and
real, meaning ? well, "real." The members of the band hold each other
accountable when it comes to being real in their faith and genuine in their
intentions.
"It's about our denial of the rock
star status or image. A lot of bands get kind of wrapped up in the whole rock
star thing, and they're kind of needy sometimes.
We should be willing to be flexible and
serve other people," explains Hammitt.
"Life's a vapor," the modest
singer says.
"It can come and go at any
time." The band's message goes against the postmodern grain of
hopelessness in a dysfunctional world.
"You work so hard under the sun, but
you've got to love the Lord with all your heart."
Sanctus Real brings to the table something
that is in constant demand: hope.
The closing track on "The Face of
Love," which is titled "Benjamin" in honor of Graalman's son, is
an appropriate summation of the band's outlook. It begins with, "Rain
falls outside/I think the sky must know what's happening tonight/Children born
while fathers die/It's that circle of life that we all live in time," and
the ending line gives meaning to it all: "He gives and He takes, and it
makes us stronger."
The four artists in Sanctus Real have
experienced a sort of coming of age, and they have come out of it with a
greater strength, a higher wisdom, and a renewed sense of purpose.
Who: Sanctus Real w/ local artist Nate
Davis.
When: Tonight, doors open at 8.
Where: The Windjammer, Isle of Palms.
Price: $10.
Tickets: At the door, online at www.etix.com.
Ages: 18 and older show. Minors will be
admitted if accompanied by a parent.
Info: 224-1802.