Sanctus Real: Something Heavenly

Here we go

I've been eating oatmeal in the mornings lately. Dominique makes it on the stove. We throw in some almonds, dried cherries, brown sugar. It's been a good routine. It helps me to get a better start on my days - at least the days that I'm home. I'm a routine kind of guy. I like to change my guitar strings every 3 shows. I like to cut the grass in alternating patterns from week to week. And this week I think I'll have a whole new set of routines to learn. We made a ridiculously big and overdue step as a band. We finally bought a bus! This ain't no van. I mean I need to learn how to dump the toilet and service the generator. This is serious stuff my friend. So I'll be busy learning some new routines - if you have any advice let me know.

So we rolled into our first show with the bus up in Minnesota. Sonshine Festival is always a good time. I actually found a picture of us playing it back in '03. Crazy to think it's been that long since we started playing festivals in such distant lands as Minnesota. When we pulled up this year though we heard some cool fresh music on mainstage. I'm probably a bit behind, but check out Tal and Acacia if you get a chance. Way cool melodies.

Anyways. See you on the road (hopefully with my oatmeal in hand from now on)

June, be nice and don't go so fast

I'm getting old. Older that is. My birthday was a few days ago. I'm feeling pretty good though and I'm finally done coughing. So here we are almost done with June and I'm just getting back to normal. The year is halfway over and that means we're just getting closer to 2012. Let's make some predictions. In 2012 will anyone have topped the iPhone? Will anyone buy CD's anymore? Will rock and roll come back to life, because whatever it is I'm hearing on mainstream radio stations today is not the stuff dreams are made of ;) Seriously though... when I wanted to learn how to play guitar it was all about my name is jonas and not about 3 kids playing air guitar. But again I guess I'm just getting old.

Ok - one thing is for sure in 2012 I'll be rockin' the same laptop but with moon leopard osx. And I'll have a sweet stache like this.

Also this week I got a wicked flat tire, but discovered the spare kit in my car included some creepy white gloves. proof shown here. I had to snap a pic. The tire went flat and my alternator decided to go all at once. I think I unknowingly traveled through some weird electromagnetic field. I was near a hospital when it all happened. *note to self* always be ready for a flat tire and don't be afraid to wear gloves if you find some hiding with the jack.

How often do you eat chicken? Dan and i were talking about chicken the other day. We eat a lot of it. Not on purpose though, it just happens. Wendy's, Ralphies chicken chunks, Chic-fil-A, Zaxby's, chicken wings... but it made us think that we really don't ever see chickens - real live chickens that is. Then we thought what if we were the only people left on Earth and we were stuck on a chicken farm. Would we even know what to do in order to survive?


*note to self* learn how to raise chickens by 2012.

It seems that Sunday has been the day that I'm allowed to relax a little the past few weeks! So here I am again. Got home way too late last night from our show in Michigan. But what a great night it was. We got to play with our good friends from The Afters. It was freezing cold out and the stage was setup in a wave pool at theme park. Pretty random. They had drained most of the water out though - all except for an algae filled puddle in the deep end. By the time we played it had to be barely 40 degrees out, very brisk and very good for my old buddy pertussis. Got through the show though and had a great time with our friends in Michigan. Again, sorry I have no pics ;(

Matt and I spent some time writing songs in Nashville last week with some other writers. It was a good experience, but a crazy schedule. Four sessions in two days. We got around with a sweet Kia we rented though. Funny note - when we flew up to Michigan to meet the guys our flight was late so we had to get another rental to get to the show instead of getting picked up. Had to go with the Kia again. Pretty stinkin awesome. Again, wish I had pics.

Ok - so here is a pic. It is Sunday - I am relaxing and surfing the web a bit. Check this out. I've never heard of these pre-fab houses before. But they look pretty rad.

www.flatpakhouse.com

Whoop there it is

Here we are in May already. What in the world is going on? I'll tell you what's going on. Or more like, what's been going on for a very ridiculous amount of time with me... meet my friend, his name is Pertussis. It's a horrible name really, so I call him the whooping cough. Yeah - he's been hanging around since that time way back in February. I found out I had it a few weeks back after visiting the doctor for the 4th time and finally having some blood taken and sent to the lab. It's no longer contagious, and when it was contagious I more than likely didn't even have the cough. He's a nasty little friend and I haven't been able to ditch him quite yet. Anyways - I really haven't been myself most of the year because of it, just kinda scrapping by on fumes since he likes to keep me up at night. I'm really hoping he leaves me alone soon though.

So, onto better news. We tracked some new songs this past week! What a crazy week it's been. Started with a hometown show one day, flew to Texas to play the next (on stage performing when just a few miles away the cowboys training facility blew down) ended up in Nashville most the week recording (and sleeping in Jeremy Camp's basement) Wound up back in Ohio for a show in Columbus - couldn't stop there so we flew to Florida to play with some of my favorite bands at Busch Gardens, then finally made it home for Mother's day. One box of tissues later and many cups of coffee and we managed to record 3 songs of which we are all crazy excited about. I can't even wait to see how the rest of the record shapes up! We were pretty busy on a limited time schedule so I wasn't really in picture mode, but I think DAN might have some pics. His blog is way better anyways. Oh and for the record Dan bought the microkorg. Which is a pretty cool little machine.

I also forgot to mention we have a sweet management team. One of the guys that manage us had us over for dinner while we were recording and his wife made us feel like we were home with some great pasta and dessert. Delish. Did I mention we have a sweet management team?

Well I hope you all had a great Mother's Day. Was pretty rad over here. I just got done doing the dishes. It's my nightly duty. "Maybe it's time for a new duty"

See, I was kidding...

I waited til it was April, not March. Oh man. So really no joke though, that cold I talked about waaaay back when... well I still have it. Or a version of it. I don't know what has been up with me lately. I've been trying to enjoy some time off here at home but have had some serious issues! I now have a cough that I'm sure has disturbed our neighbors, been to the doctor twice, had one x-ray, polished off a bottle of robitussin and a bottle of antibiotics, blown through 3 boxes of kleenex, and sustained a weird neck injury requiring muscle relaxers and lots of ice. But on the bright-side my wife and son are healthy and still love me! And I've somehow managed to set up a pretty cool recording rig (slash) studio in order to stay productive by recording band demos for the next record. (cough cough, gag gag...) That kind of sums up the last month - at least the past 2 weeks ;) My Dad thinks I'm allergic to a new mattress I bought right around the time I started to get sick.

I'm currently investigating this theory.

Let's just say I'm excited to get feeling better and for spring to hit, although we're expecting snow tonight.

I'm in a good mood tonight though. I watched some of the Academy of Country Music Awards. I then talked to Pete and told him to bring his slide this week to the studio. He said it's already been packed and is ready to go. Also this weekend Dominique and I had a great date night. Check this out - dropped off the little guy at his grandparents, went to Cracker Barrel, then went to a cheap movie at the Maumee Theater. And that's how a guy from sanctus real spends Friday night at home if you ever needed to know.

still my two favorite people...



the rig before completion... (looks much cooler now)



king of the castle...



current favorite record...



my next tax write off?



And I must mention my favorite thing I found on the web tonight!

http://makechangecampaign.blogspot.com

goodnight everybody -

Squirrels and the Bachelor

It's been a while. Wait, maybe I should re-phrase. It's been a looong while ;) So my home internet connection has been down all month. Turns out squirrels get bored up in Ohio during the winter and like to chew on cable lines. The cable guy comes over today to 'fix' it and of course it was working today right before he arrived. He said I have a miracle modem because his little computer showed that I shouldn't be getting anything coming down the line. Weird, but that's cool. It's working at the moment and my wife is sucked into watching the bachelor this season for some reason so now is a good time to write.

The band just got off an incredible tour this weekend. We had the privilege of going out with some great guys and working with WayFM. If any of you were able to come out I really hope you enjoyed it! We couldn't believe how many people showed up every night. I feel like the whole thing was a dream since it was such a short run. But I really felt blessed to be part of something that reached so many people every night. I'm hoping to get some video from the last show at some point. I unfortunately lost my camera battery charger a while back, so that explains the lack of road pictures. It's time to get one though I think because already so much has happened this year. We've been super busy writing songs for the next record and I'm happy to say that things are rolling right along.

We have a few days to recover before we head back out. I think I have a bit of a cold coming on. I'm hoping the zicam comes through for me this time.

til next month ;) just kidding...