Sanctus Real

Here’s Mark “da drumma” on song #5 – “The Redeemer.”

You may be wondering what happened to song #4 – “Lead Me.”  Matt’s supposed to write that one, but I’m not sure if we’ll ever get it out of him.  He’s a busy guy.  I know he’ll do it though if enough people pester him on twitter.

Pester here :) @matthammitt

LISTEN TO “THE REDEEMER” HERE

PURCHASE PIECES OF A REAL HEART – DELUXE VERSION – HERE

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“The Redeemer” has got to be one of my favorite Sanctus Real songs…not just on the new record…but ever. This is one of those tunes that Matt brought to the table last minute. It wasn’t quite finished lyrically, but I think we all knew there was something special in the song just waiting to come out.

It was the usual scenario that played out in the studio; our producer, Chris Stevens, challenged Matt to re-think some of the lyrics he had written and to try and find a way to clarify the message he was trying to convey. As usual Matt was able to step up to the challenge and knock it out of the park. I can’t remember what the exact original lyrics were, but I remember thinking that in about an hour’s time, the song went from feeling good with some thought provoking lyrics to a genuinely worshipful and passionate cry of the heart.

Listening back now, at least for the drum parts, I think the style of the song came from a place of trying to find the balance of a Tom Petty-style simplicity and U2-esque atmosphere with a wall of big toms and big guitars. This was definitely my train of thought when we tracked this song. It was all about that straight ahead, so simple it’s almost dumb yet brilliant, Steve Ferrone-type drum groove on the verses. Then that almost tribal warfare sounding thing between the toms and snare with the kick drum pounding out the quarter notes dance-club-style on the chorus, cool enough to make Larry Mullen Jr want to stick around to hear the next tune.

As a whole, this song feels like a worship experience waiting to happen every time I hear it. For me personally, the idea of Christ making everything new is just so breath taking, healing, powerful, and glorious… It’s honestly hard to put describe the feeling it gives me inside to think about how one day, everything that is wrong in life and in this world will be completely done away with.  Everything will be new, innocent, pure, and holy.

Having lost my Dad to cancer five years ago, the thought of Christ as the redeemer has taken on a much deeper significance to me. Everything that I’ve missed out on with my Dad dying unexpectedly at 47 years old (him not seeing my kids grow up, not seeing my sisters get married and have babies, him not getting to see how far the band has come…); all of this will somehow be redeemed. One day I will be re-united with my Dad again but this time it will be in a place that Jesus described as Paradise. Jesus will wipe away every tear, and we will hurt no more. We already see him doing these things in our lives every day in all sorts of ways.

It’s truly amazing…His ability to make anything new. It makes me fall in love with Christ all over again every time I think about it.