Kevin: Can you introduce yourself to the readers?

Andy Fisher: Can we start with a little band history? 
Chris: Sure. Matt and I met in a chapel band at our high school. It was a Christian high school. Matt and I became friends and started Sanctus Real to play on the weekends. We decided we should start a “real band” (laughter). That’s kinda how we got together. Then we met Mark in 1996 and he actually had the name Sanctus Real. Sanctus is Latin for “Holy” and real is just being down to earth real people. We all struggle and we wanted to be relatable. We met Steve a couple of years later when our old bass player quit and Steve moved to town. He’s a relative of one of my buddies and over time he just became part of the band. And here we are in 2004! 

AF: Your sophomore label album, “Fight the Tide” was just released last week. Was there anything you were particularly concerned with doing the same or differently with this album? 
Chris: I think that going into this record we knew we had to right some good songs. Everyone gets nervous about their sophomore record and everyone kind of anticipates it. Will it be like the first one? Will it be totally different? Will it be as good or not as good? I don’t think that we really worried to much about it though because we were really rushed to get the songs written and done. It was cool though to get done and sit back and listen to the whole thing. We were surprised at how cool it all came together. We only had a handful of songs we really liked going into it but we finished it in 4 weeks. God’s hand was really on it. It’s something that we are really proud of because it’s where we are right now. Our last record was a compilation of some older songs that we had previously recorded so this one felt fresh for us. If we are nervous about anything it is just that we hope that the people that bought our first record will buy this one too because it’s a little bit different. I think though that anyone who is really into the first record will find those same elements in this one and will hopefully see that we have progressed on this one. So, we’re excited about it.

AF: How’s early response been to the new record?
Matt H: Everyone’s really excited! The label’s really happy; the reviews are good, just on all ends everyone seems to think we are on the right track. That’s encouraging to us because we don’t know what the right track is either!

AF: A lot of the songs on the new album seem to deal with personal strength and calling out to God for personal strength in your life. Is there something in particular that was going on in all or any of your lives when you were writing that would bring out that theme?
Matt H: I think a lot of things in the past couple of years have happened that have been pretty monumental to us as a band and personally. 3 of us have gotten married in the last few years and Chris has gone through a lot of changes in his life as well. There is a song on the record about Chris’ great grandma who died called “Say Goodbye” as well as songs that the rest of us have worked on together about relationships with friends and our spouses. There are just a bunch of different elements that went into this record. Something we have drawn together out of that is the idea of “Fight the Tide”. The whole reason behind the name of this record is that we want to show that we are ALL constantly fighting the tides of life and when things happen to us we tend to remember the bad things that have happened. Whether its temptations or struggles we go through, the tides keep rising and rising and if we don’t call on God and use his word as a tool in our lives spiritually then we’ll drown in our struggles. The idea is that the only way we can get out from underneath the tide, the struggles of life, is to call on Jesus and take his hand. We need to literally fight to maintain the victory that he’s called us to.

AF: The song “Message” stood out to me as kind of like a call to arms for Christians. Is that song more of a general statement to you or does it have a more specific aim at something going on right now? 
Matt H: I just think that there is so much going on lately…recently. Things like trying to take “In God We Trust” off the currency or the “Under God” out of the pledge of allegiance or the Ten Commandments being taken out of all the courthouses and federal buildings, there is just so much attack right now. We see it just like you said as a call to arms. It’s saying “Hey! We’ve got to stand, we’ve got to fight”. We are just trying to encourage people to not back down when important things like this come up. Just recently we’ve been talking about voting and how so many people push for people to vote a certain way and how we need to do our duty and encourage others to vote for whom they believe God has called to be in office. You know it’s not just a political thing either. It’s all areas of your walk, whether you’re at school or at work or in different relationships. We just want to encourage people to stand for what God has called them to stand for, which is purity and integrity. 

AF: You guys recently had a song on the U2 tribute album. The album was pretty successful but I’m curious if you feel that song mislabeled you or if you feel it helped you gain new fans?
Chris: I think it’s been positive overall. People have been able to really attach themselves to that song. It’s a great song and we were privileged to be able to record it and it was for a good cause. I think if it would have been just a cover song that we were doing just to do it then we probably wouldn’t have done it. It’s just cool to see that Sparrow Records, our label home, was able to put something like that together to help people over in Africa. It’s been great and I think that if kids hear that song and like it and then check us out because of it then that’s cool. I’m not sure how that translates to record sales but I think it’s helped get the word out about us for sure. 

AF: You guys have been on some really big tours. Is there anyone though that you’d really love to tour with? 
Matt G: I’ll answer a question, why not! I think that we all have kind of this unspoken dream…well we’ve said it before…we’d like to tour with Switchfoot! I think in the Christian market Switchfoot would be great. 
Chris: It’s kinda hard to pick someone! I feel dumb because I can’t think of anyone! (laughter) We’ve toured with a lot of cool people already. If you’re reading this and you’re really good then work really hard and blow the industry away and then we’ll say we want to tour with you! (laughter)
Matt H: I would love to tour with Mute Math their album comes out in august and it would be really cool to tour with them. It’s Paul Meany, who used to be in Earthsuit, it’s his new band and they are amazing. 

AF: That’s about all I have. Are there any parting thoughts from anyone? 
Matt H: I just want to let everyone know that the new album is out and it’s called “Fight the Tide”. Also www.sanctusreal.com has the answers to pretty much everything! Also we will be on tour with Jeremy Camp in the fall and for those on the West Coast we will have our own tour with Seven Places and Hawk Nelson. Thanks!


Aaron: Hello everybody. Thanks you for reading and listening. ~1340mag