Sanctus Real

It’s 2010 now…time to get serious and start a new blog. I kept one for a while called, Awesome Bloggsom…extra awesome. It’s been a faithful friend and we’ve had some laughs, but I think it’s officially gone the way of the buffalo. Even the title is a 4-year-old reference to The Office (Season 2, Episode 7 if you want to check me). Time to move on.

So what should be included on this new blog with less obscure title? One defining part of my life is that I’m the bass player in the Christian rock band, Sanctus Real. It’s possible this is how you found my blog, in which case you already knew that. Much of this blog will be stories from our travels.

There is, however, a significant and tragic reason that the old blog buffaloed. Over a year ago, my wife and I divorced. Mix that fact in with our audience (the church) and the content of our songs (brokenness, forgiveness, marriage – ie “Don’t Give Up On Love. Love. Love!”) and I didn’t have much to say in a blog. Not until I tended to my own heart, anyway. I just couldn’t share honest thoughts about anything without premising that divorce is a part of my life. These were very hard days and I’m sure I will talk about them more down the road, but for today if you’d like to read my official statement, you skip back to the first blog entry.

So as a result of all that, I rented out my home in Tennessee and moved back to Ohio. That makes me a landlord, which sounds funny, and again a Buckeye, which is awesome (O-H…). It’s nice to be back. It was nice to beat Donald Miller and the Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl, which for the record, I‘ve never Don Mill (yet). I’m just a huge fan. I read his books and follow him on Twitter. I went in search for one of the hidden manuscripts for A Million Miles in a Thousand Years a few months back. I found it. It’s autographed and had a phone number that I could call and talk to him. I tried, but just got a voicemail. I don’t think it’s his real number. Oregon is totally awesome though and I’d live there any day.

A few more things besides my career and divorce to help “define the bass player:” I’m 28 right now. I graduated from a Christian college. I roast my own coffee. I ride a motorcycle. I love music. A soundtrack can really take a story a long way. Sometimes it’s a good band like The Shins in the movie, Garden State. Sometimes though it’s just wind noise or silence like in Cast Away or No Country For Old Men. I listen to music this way often actually…as sort of a living soundtrack.

I like reading books too. Stories have led me to believe that life is a comedy, which is why most things are funny to me and I’m a sucker for a happy ending. Story has made me optimistic; therefore I get confused inherently when things don’t work out. This blog will probably reflect all these things.

Welcome to (just) The Bass Player.