(just) The Bass Player

July 23^rd. Dallas, Texas. Six Flags Amusement Park.

According to the thermometer, it’s 100 degrees in the shade. It’s so hot, two kids throw up in the front row while we attempt to play. Actually, I’m not convinced it was from the heat. Maybe we’re so terrible, we make kids puke. Hmm…you can choose your own adventure here.

Anywho, before we went on, I met a guy back stage. He was a happy, handsome fellow in his mid-twenties. A few years ago, he lived in Ohio, working for an environmental group that cleaned up a huge crude oil spill running from Findlay all the way to Lake Erie. I’d never heard about this spill. Now he worked at Six Flags, doing security and such.

I’d only known my new friend for a minute when he started telling me about a girl that was coming to the show. He’d never actually met her but was really digging her. She was a mid-twenties, single, Christian mom who worked hard 7 days a week. Since he was a young, ambitious, single, Christian guy who liked kids, I liked the potential of these two.

This guy had a heart of gold. He’d really only seen a picture of her (shared by their mutual friend), but he pulled strings and called in favors for her to come to the show for free. Free parking, free tickets to both the park and concert…everything needed to make a nice day for a mom who might not have the time or money otherwise. He didn’t want to meet her at the park. “Why on earth not?” I asked. He said he just wanted to let her have a good day at a theme park and a concert with no strings attached. He’d meet her some other time.

Personally, I don’t know how he could stand it.

As we talked, he kept glancing around the corner to look into the crowd and see if he could spot a girl that looked like her. Sure enough, he did. She was sitting with a friend, about 30 yards away. And from my surmising, she seemed to be looking for a guy somewhere around the stage that looked like him. It was cute. I hoped she was as anxious about him as he was about her.

Anyway, that’s all the scoop I got. We played our show and then flew home. I don’t know if they met or not, but I’m rooting for them, and I’d like to think they did. I’d like to think it was charming and nervous, but who knows. I guess we can all choose our own adventure on this one too.

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

After our minds were sufficiently blown from a night of watching U2, we left Chicago to begin a four-day, cross-country run of shows. We knew it was going to be a lot of work to make it happen. Chris and Kurt did a great job of preparing for the craziness, and it went as smooth as it possibly could. Arrangements involved planes, trains, buses, and automobiles. At times the schedule was extremely tight. Other times it was relaxed and calm. Here’s how it all went down:

Day One

1. 9:00am cst (10:00 est) – Drive from Chicago to Toledo. Hang in T-town for a couple hours. Drive up to Detroit and fly to Oakland, California. Several delays due to weather. Arrive at 1:30 am pst. Eat In n Out Burger (delicious, but bad decision). Go to sleep at 2:30am pst (5:30am est).

Total time awake: 19.5 hours

Day Two

2. Wake up whenever we can. For me it’s 10:00 am pst. Take the train into San Fransisco. Drink Coffee.

Mocha from Blue Bottle

Look at the bay.

A view of the Bay Bridge from San Fran

Pete takes a picture next to the Full House house.

"Everywhere you look..."

Runner picks us up in a van at 1:30pm. An hour before, in broad daylight, his window is smashed while inside the same In n Out Burger we ate the night before, and his belongings are stolen. We post on Facebook and Twitter for people to pray for him. Someone finds his bag in downtown Oakland and calls him. Electronics are stolen, including a nice camera, but personal effects are still intact, including his paycheck. Say another prayer for him if you think about it. He was a good guy having a terrible day. His name is Chris. After all this, we play at Alameda County Fair in the evening. Go to sleep at 12:00am pst (3:00am est).

Total Time Awake: 14 hours

Day Three

3. Wake up at 3:30am (6:30 est). Arrive at Oakland airport by 4:30am. Fly to Denver to Great Bend, Kansas.

Smallest plane we've ever been on. Pretty awesome

Landing in Great Bend

Play in the evening at the fairground where the first NHRA Drag Race was held. Get picked up by a bus that belongs to the band, Vota. Go to sleep on the bus 12:00am cst (1:00am est).

Total time awake: 19.5 hours

(At this point, I think I stopped taking pictures because I was too worn out by the crazy sleep schedule…)

Day 4

4. Drive 11 hours to Olathe, Colorado. Wake up around 10:00am mountain time. Hang out with Mercy Me (They’re fun guys). Play at Night Vision Festival before a big storm hits. Sleep on the bus at 12:00am mountain time (2:00am est).

Total time awake: 14 hours.

Day 5

5. Ride the bus to Denver airport. Arrive at 4:30am mst (6:30am est). Fly to Chicago. Get picked up by our bus. Drive to Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Have good times playing at Three Rivers Festival with The Afters, Mandisa, and Aaron Gillespie. Nashville guys rent car and drive 8 hours home through the night. Arrive at 7:00am cst. Ohio guys head back to Toledo. Arrive at 2:00am est.

Total Time awake, Nashville: 26 hours. Total time awake, Toledo: 19.5 hours

Day 6

7. Sleep till Labor Day?

So anyway, it was a whirlwind few days that could’ve been a nightmare but went surprisingly well. Thank you, Lord, for making them so. Amen.

That’s all I got for now.

Catch you later.

"The Claw" is so big! Look how small the band is

I grew up a Chicago Bears fan. I know…I’m from Ohio. Why? Well, my dad is from St. Joesph Michigan, directly across the lake from Chicago, and he grew up a Bears fan. I guess I just inherited the tradition. So being a Bears fan, I always thought Soldier Field was the coolest place in the world. I’ve always hoped to one day watch a game there.

Well, I didn’t see the football team, but I did make it to the stadium. And U2 did quite a job of making the night memorable. And by memorable, I mean phenomenal. I don’t want to try and review the concert here. To capture the magnitude you really just have to see it, but it was truly the most incredible music event I’ve ever seen.

I want to give a shout of gratitude to Mark at The ONE Campaign for inviting us to the concert. What made it even more fun was the surprise of getting to watch it with our friends in Skillet, Mercy Me, and David Crowder, Band who were also in town for the show.

Anyway, a picture’s worth a thousand words, so I’ll be quiet and show some of those…

Oh, and they did play “Beautiful Day.” I’m very proud of our band’s rendition, but I’ve got to say, nothing beats the original. It was incredible.

Matt, Mark, their families, and I spent a couple days hanging in Chicago. It was a great little vacation. I arrived via Amtrak train after visiting my family in Michigan. First off, riding the train is sweet. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. It’s fun, and it only cost me $18…so much cheaper than driving.

Once in the city, we stayed at a Hyatt hotel downtown, which was amazing. Anywhere we wanted to go, we could either walk or take a train.  A huge thank you to Susi Keating at Hyatt Place, Denver Airport for getting us the rooms. If you ever need a place to stay near the Denver airport, look up Hyatt Place. They’re wonderful folks.

Monday, we all roamed around the city on our own. I went to Intelligentsia, a great coffee shop in Chicago, and while I was sitting outside, enjoying my cup of delicious coffee, a familiar looking fellow walked by. He was wearing a plaid shirt, glasses, an awesome long beard, and his name was David Crowder. Turns out his whole band was inside. They were in town doing the same thing we were; hanging out and biding our time for Tuesday night…

Anyway, after leaving the coffee shop, I went and watched Fireworks at Navy Pier. It was fun.

The end.

I went to the Columbus zoo the other day. It was awesome. Animals are awesome.

TobyMac

So, we had a 14 hour hike from Martinsville, IL to Williamsburg, VA. We arrived in time to do a sound check at 4pm…the same time doors opened. As we’re on stage, chunking half-hearted chords and partial drumbeats to set our monitor and front-of-house mixes, hundreds of people are filing into the park. We felt a little awkward; like someone we want to impress just walked into our house, and we just woke up. We’re still eating breakfast in our boxers, our hair’s out of whack, and we obviously haven’t showered or brushed our teeth yet. It’s not that we mind the company, it’s just we aren’t quite ready for anyone to see us yet. Sorry to everyone who had to see us like that ;)

The show itself was terrific though. A lot of people showed up, and despite the heat, it was an awesome night. Here’s a couple photos of the crowd. If you are in the shot, click here to tag yourself.

Chris's side

Click here to tag yourself in the second one.

Pete & My Side

And if you ever wondered what we do in our downtime, this is pretty much it. Phones and computers…

Angry Birds or Cut The Rope?

Also, this ladder was in our dressing room. Someone please tell me where it goes?

Maybe dinner is up there?

Thank you Busch Gardens for a great day! Catch you next time.

Happy 4th of July Weekend!

-dan