Sanctus Real

Here’s #3 by Chris.  It’s a good one!

LISTEN TO “THE WAY THE WORLD TURNS” HERE

PURCHASE PIECES OF A REAL HEART – DELUXE VERSION – HERE

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Sometimes I wonder what people who listen to our records would think if they could hear our demos. Basically, a demo is a song idea in its most raw form. Usually it’s just us in a bad sounding room playing into a couple microphones and Matt doing his best to sing into a guitar amp and be heard over everything else. In this case I can definitely remember recording the demo for “The Way The World Turns.” It would have been sometime last summer, probably in June. Pete brought his lap steel with him and we were trying to figure a way to incorporate it into a song. I think I had just seen some band on the late show rocking some sweet Stratocaster guitars and so I had pulled mine out and was digging on the tone that day.

Now where the song really came from, I can’t remember, but that part usually involves Matt having a basic idea with some lyric and/or melody and then the rest of the band writing in some musicality. So that’s where my memory best serves me, on the musical part. I remember having the intro guitar part almost immediately and then trying to figure out a way with Mark to make it more interesting by changing the meter every couple bars. When I go back and hear the demo now, not too much has changed on the music side of things. I feel like the same Fender Strat that was on the demo is there and Pete’s slide on the lap steel is still rocking. On the lyric side though, it’s pretty obvious that Matt really honed in on what he was trying to convey. Writing a clear, yet artistic concept all packaged within a few verses and a chorus is by far the hardest part of writing a song.

“That’s the way the world turns” was an interesting phrase to me when we started writing this song. Mainly I feel people use this term when describing a feeling of hopelessness or despair. I.e. ‘Bad things happen, that’s just the way the world turns…’ Maybe everyone has a reason for blaming his/her misfortune on the simple precept that the world turns. I would be quick to admit that I’ve felt this way, I feel this way a lot actually. I throw my hands up in a moment of helplessness and say, well that’s just the way it goes – in fact, why wouldn’t that happen?

“Doubt and sadness have kept me in fragments, longing for a better life…”

And this is where the song turns hopeful…

“Cause you’re the hope of a new sunrise, breaking over a desperate life, and I keep turning to you”

The heart behind this song, in my mind, has always been to illustrate the contrast between the brokenness we often feel and the hope that God offers us if we’re willing to turn to him. It’s in this idea of ‘turning’ where the song really gets my heart. Yes this life has its difficult moments, but I’m going to keep turning to Christ.

“And I feel the current pulling me down, can’t keep the world from turning around. So I keep on turning to you”

I hear this song now and I’m grateful that, in my mind at least, it has accomplished a few things well… an honest lyric and a pretty good Strat tone, if I do say so myself! I hope you enjoy it.

(oh and huge thanks to our producer Chris Stevens for hanging in there with us on this song – in case you’re reading this)