Sanctus Real

The time has come! We’re writing for our next album. It will be our sixth, and this puts us in a new ballgame. We’ve been around for awhile. We’ve already recorded 50+ songs over the last 10 years…in a genre that only writes on one general topic. Add to that, people seem to like our last album best, so now we have a new standard to meet. In other words, we don’t to make an album we don’t believe is our best. We’re excited about the endeavor, but we’re also nervous. What do we have to say this time that we haven’t said already? Then, how do we say it in a way that is compelling and melodic? Do we still have all this in us, or is our best music behind us?

To get the creativity going, we started with a change in writing environment. In the past, songwriting took place either in Toledo or on the road in dressing rooms, which can be anything from bathrooms to elementary school classrooms to church nurseries, where the faint smell of diapers and ointment never fades, to middle school locker rooms, where the overwhelming smell of stinky teenagers will haunt you forever. In fact, I have two distinct memories. One is of the band sitting semi-circle in an echo-y locker room shower writing “Don’t Give Up” from The Face Of Love. The second is when several guys from various bands went to use showers assigned to us in a middle school locker room. As we’re going about our business, gym class ends and 15 teenage boys come barreling through the doors after an hour of playing dodgeball. I don’t know which group was more freaked out, them or us. Even as I write now, we’re in a hybrid of these…an elementary classroom that smells like D & O inside a church.

Sometimes this battle against space is helpful. It forces you to dig internally to find inspiration. This is good, and we’ll always write this way as it’s always available, but it’s time consuming, mentally taxing, and we’ve done it for five albums already. We needed a new method. We needed inspiration from something external. This might sound like a silly detail, but it truly has a drastic affect. To get 5 guys to feel the same emotion in making music, the writing environment is key. Think of it this way, if you’re sad, you’re not likely to write a happy song. Or, if you’re writing an energetic rock song, you won’t be lounging on a couch in a vibey, dim-lit room. Conversely, if you’re looking to write something melancholy and introspective, that’s exactly where you’ll be.

Our problem was, we didn’t know what we wanted this time. We wanted a space that could act as a catalyst. We wanted to be surprised. So we asked around and connected with a family who owns a lake house in Michigan. They were extremely gracious and let us borrow it for a weekend.

This was perfect. Almost everyone in Sanctus grew up traveling to different parts of Michigan. Whether it was to visit family, take vacations, or to go on dates with a future spouse, there’s something about the Mitten we all have a deep love for. Sure, everyone knows about Detroit because Eminem and the auto industry have told us all about it, but that’s just a dusty little corner in the basement room of an old beautiful house. Michigan is surrounded by the the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. There are vineyards and orchards and maple trees tapped for syrup. There are small lakes and sand dunes and the Mackinac Bridge, which leads to the Upper Peninsula where you can eat delicious pasties and come Autumn, watch the country’s most vibrant and invigorating change of seasons.

When we arrived at the cabin, we instantly felt a connection with the space. Inspiration was there, and we wrote three songs in three days that we all love. I believe they’re going to be some of our best. In the evenings, after the music had come, we put down our instruments and went outside to watch the sun set over the lake. It took with it our fears and insecurities about the next album. We were having fun making music as a band, and it had been awhile since we felt so relaxed.

Anyway, I have to go now and listen to our demos again. Catch you next time.

dan