The Real Sanctus Real.

This Holy Toledo originated band has gone through a lot to get where they are today, from marriage problems to fighting AIDS in Africa, Matt Hammitt and Chris Rohman in 1996 were still tenth graders at the Toledo Christian School when they first started their band. With drummer Mark Graalman and bassist Steve Goodrum, they were ready to show the world who they stood for. The band released three power pop albums from 1998 to 2001. Sanctus Real gives their fans “Honest music with a clear message.” Says Matt Hammitt. The band wants to let the young generation know that they are not alone in their struggles and times of trial. Sanctus Real came out with 2002's Say It Loud, which produced the most sales in the first week Sparrow Records has ever seen. Although the band loves traveling around the country they never forgot where they came from, just look at their band name, Sanctus is a Latin name for “Holy” and their aim is just that, they believe that holiness comes from faith in God and that is their goal with their songs is to be real with their listeners. They started without a record deal and kept traveling to different places and passing out Indie recorded CDs at GMA week just to get by. Eventually that CD fell into the hands of Sparrow Records and they signed a year later. Chris started playing guitar in Junior High and grew up with his father's music which was a lot of classic rock that inspired him to play guitar in the first place. Mark grew up with 80s hair bands and the year he got saved changed his musical point of view, he started to listen to U2, DC Talk and Switchfoot. Their record label decided to have a song on their album to help fight AIDS in Africa,”It was their idea to do this project of just a bunch of U2 cover songs and I think the original intention was to join with Bono and get behind fighting AIDS in Africa and eventually it evolved into a situation where we actually teamed up with World Vision and we're sponsoring a village in Africa that has been completely ravaged by AIDS at this point now [the record company] has just donated a ton of money to this village and of every CD that is sold, I believe it's 50 cents off each one goes to this village to support and sponsor them.” Matt Hammitt decided to write a song about his struggle in his marriage called “Lead Me” which pretty much told the story of what he went through,he felt like he was more of a singer than a father and husband and that he needed to lead them more than just writing songs. Sanctus Real has grown since their first release and continue to grow even now, going through life and writing about it and singing it to the world for those who need to hear God's voice.

Continue reading on Examiner.com The Real Sanctus Real. - Toledo Christian Music | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/christian-music-in-toledo/the-real-sanctus-real#ixzz1b6pTFSh7