Thursday, April 21, 2011

Doves, Needtobreathe, and The Redeemer

Alright, shoot me. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. Can I use the excuse of having two full-time kids and a job that keeps me up late shaking people’s hands and saying cheese almost every night? Or maybe just the fact that life has just been really busy and free time is just plain hard to come by. Anyways... I was feeling inspired to write tonight so here goes.



Although we didn’t win any awards last night at the Dove’s I still had a great time with my bandmates and my fam. We road-tripped it all the way from cold Toledo to eighty degree Atlanta. Some parents even came along for the first time ever in the bus and that was a pretty awesome thing to see happen. We arrived the morning before so that we could make our 10:30am rehearsal time. The Fox theater is right downtown and is an impressive building to stand in. We’ve played in quite a few old theaters, but this one was pretty special. Complete with a dome shaped, star filled, twinkling ceiling and a rad balcony that looked as though it wasn’t supported by anything underneath. The stage was shiny and the best way I can describe the room sounding is ‘right.‘ Mark wasn’t with us for the trip since Susan is due with their third child in only a few days. Anthony, a friend of ours, filled in for the performance of ‘Lead Me’ and did an absolutely amazing job Wednesday night for having only playing the song with us twice before. There’s a lot to be said of a musician who just comes in unrehearsed and gets the job done. We were up for 3 awards and struck out twice during the pre-show awards and finally again for song of the year that was announced at the end of the actual show. I can’t say we weren’t disappointed. We really thought we had a chance at taking one home, maybe if only parents and siblings were allowed to vote we would have.



So just before the time came for us to perform our two minutes and forty seconds of Lead Me they announced the nominees for the group of the year award. This year the award went to the guys in Needtobreathe. So I felt like all was right in the dove world once that happened. I could be at peace losing 3 out of 3 nominations as long as Needtobreathe won something. I’ve written about those guys on my blog before and I just love their music. I can remember early in the summer of ’09 playing a show with them and knocking on the door to their bus, being invited in, and having the chance to sit and listen with them to the final mix of their latest record ‘The Outsiders’ before it was mastered. I can remember them playing me the title track first and then thinking, shoot I hope they don’t think I’m on a spy mission here because that song starts with a banjo and we had just recorded our song Forgiven with a banjo as well. I started to get self conscious and wanted to say something like ‘that sounds awesome, we just did a banjo on a song too!’ But I decided that would be lame all around and I might not get to hear the rest. So I put the brakes on that comment and continued to listen. Just a couple songs in and I think one of the guys, either Seth or Bo asked Bear if he played me Through The Smoke yet. He kinda got a smirk on his face, found the remote, skipped to that song and said check this one out. At this point all the guys from the Needtobreathe camp had made their way in and were in on the listening party. It wasn’t til later when Tom Petty released a DVD talking about his third record that I realized just how cool this moment was. Tom explains how when him and the Heartbreakers were recording Damn The Torpedoes they’d always put on a certain song when their friends would drop by the studio because they knew it would just lay them down flat. I thought that was pretty awesome, because I’d like to think every band has that one song they’re all geeked on - if it becomes a single or not, it’s just their favorite song - period. For Tom he says it was Here Comes My Girl. I’d like to think for the guys in Needtobreathe it was Through The Smoke and that they had invited me in and played me the song they knew would knock me out. And so there we all were listening and absorbing this brand new piece of music, which it still was to them at the time. But Bear was kind of being low key as we listened, almost as though he was unsure if I’d like it or not, and it seemed he was holding back a big old grin the whole time. He was waiting to see what I thought - yeah me, the guy that’s a sucker for everything this song had. The ingredients were all there and mixed just right... accordion, mandolin, gang vocals, a verby tambourine, harmonica, the soulful lyric ‘I was born in a house in a town just like your own / I was raised to believe in the power of the unknown / cause when the answers and the truth take different sides / will you still find me / will you still see me through the smoke.’ I didn’t like the song. I loved it! I mean come on, it laid me down flat and I walked out of that bus knowing they had something special in that record and that it was only a matter of time before everyone would hear it and know the same thing I did.

Let’s say I was stoked they won 2 Dove’s last night. Yay Needtobreathe. Sanctus Real? There’s always next time. But I will say that we do have a song on our record that we all feel that same way about and it just happens to be our new single - The Redeemer. I really love this song and I’m ecstatic that it’s a radio single. If you get the chance check it out, or call your radio station and ask them to kindly play it. The band loves this song for its message and music. It’s all around one of our favorites, if not our favorite song on the album. I hope you like it.

We’ll be on the road a lot this spring. Check out our dates and come hang out with us. I promise to shake your hand and even say cheese with you if it comes down to it ;)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Chris,
i love the music sanctus real makes and actually i didnt really hear you talk before ;) keep it up beause alot of teens here are looking up to the music you guys make and it includes me.I hope u post more up because i love hearing from you.And i really want you guys to come to phila,bring some excitment to this worn out city!

Unknown said...

you rock!!

Andrega Farias said...

Eu esto aqui moro em Brasil Aracaju Sergipe curto muito o sanctus real e pedi a Deus pra um dia toca com vocês e ele ainda vai mi conseder
Deus continue abrindo portas para todos vocês por que isso e ainda o inicio e o que ele tem na vida de vocês e mais ainda fica com Deus Amem