We Need Each Other Tour Sanctus Real Christian Music

We Need Each Other Tour Sanctus Real

November 8, 2008 – 1:01 pm

Popular band brings its ” We Need Each Other Tour ” to Port Huron today. Proceeds from the concert will benefit Blue Water Habitat for Humanity. ” They have great music, great words, and it’s a great concert you can bring your family to.”
Sanctus Real is getting older.

That’s one reason the Dove Award-winning Christian band’s newest album, “We Need Each Other,” doesn’t sound as “hard” as its previous work, drummer Mark Graalman said.

“As we’ve gone forward as a band, and quite honestly as we’ve gotten older as a band, your style and your sound kind of changes with the various musical influences that you have,” he said.

Graalman, who was 18 when the band formed in Toledo, celebrated his 30th birthday this year.
He said the band would like to get exposure on adult contemporary radio, a market their previous albums haven’t targeted.

“The more you grow up, just the heavy, distorted guitar riff isn’t as cool as it used to be,” he said.

“The 15-year-old kid out there probably hates that, but for us it’s just a stretch, experimenting with the music and the sounds.”

The new sound must appeal to someone.

Main-floor seats for the band’s concert today at McMorran Theater were nearly sold out by Oct. 28.

Sarah Beebe, 21, of Fort Gratiot said she enjoys the band’s sound, which is as solid as any secular rock band.

She appreciates Sanctus Real’s encouraging themes entwined in the music.

“I can get the message, and I can still enjoy the genre that (often) has a bad message,” she said.

Jim Reardon, president of the men’s club of Marysville United Methodist Church, is a fan. The club contacted the tour’s organizers to have the band make a stop in Port Huron.

“I just like the rock music,” Reardon said. “I mean, I’m older, but I grew up listening to rock and roll in the ’70s, and I just love the beat and the message they have in their songs.”

Reardon said proceeds from the concert will benefit Blue Water Habitat for Humanity. He expects the show to be popular.

The “We Need Each Other Tour” got off to a good start in the band’s hometown of Toledo, Ohio, Graalman said.

“The first night of any tour is usually a mess,” he said.

“The Lord really blessed us that first night. Everything just flowed really smoothly.”

The tour doubles as a membership drive for African Leadership, an organization that trains church leaders and funds relief and development projects in Africa.

“We had 199 people sign up (as volunteers) that first night,” Graalman said.

“The most we’ve ever had in a single night was 36 people. … The people in
African Leadership are just freaking out right now because it’s probably going to double their membership in one tour. It’s something we can’t even take credit for; it’s just something God showed us we could do.”

Sanctus Real has been involved with African Leadership since 2004, when the band did a cover of U2’s “Beautiful Day” for the benefit album “In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa.”

Sammy Adebiyi, a pastor at Vineyard Church of Toledo, is touring with the band, encouraging people to contribute and volunteer to help African Leadership’s efforts.

“(Adebiyi says) why would God let us be born in this country and give us all this when there’s people over there starving and dying and going through all this hardship?,” Graalman said.

“We’ve been given this not to hoard it all to ourselves, but to extend it to our brothers in need.”

Graalman praised the two other bands on the tour, VOTA of Lincoln, Neb. — formerly Casting Pearls — and Tenth Avenue North of West Palm Beach, Fla.

“Both are very ministry-minded and have a heart for sharing what God has shown them over the years,” he said.

“The last thing we wanted to do was just go out and put on another rock show. We had a pretty strong conviction at this point to make sure there was going to be something lasting and impactful.”

The message of the band’s music strikes a chord with Reardon.

“It’s a lot about how we all need to be together to get through this crazy world, about how we have to love each other,” he said.

“It’s a really strong message. … So many times people associate a Christian artist with being a second-rate artist, and these guys really aren’t. They have great music, great words, and it’s a great concert you can bring your family to.”

Andrea Jehl, 16, of Marysville agrees.

“I think it’s awesome,” she said of the music.

“It relates to my everyday stuff, and I just listen to it to calm down. It just relates to everything I do, and it’s so true … the whole ‘we need each other’ (message), because as Christians we need each other to grow in our faith.”

Graalman said the band understands the value of community and family. The tour is scheduled so the musicians can spend time at home and stay “plugged in” to their home churches.

“We all have wives and kids who go to our churches back home,” he said.

“Our kids are getting older, and we don’t want them to grow up thinking, ‘Wow, Mom takes us to church, but Dad never goes.’”

He said young people growing up serves as a reminder of how long the band has been making music.

“I guess sometimes you don’t realize how long you’ve been doing this until you think that a kid who was probably a high school freshman who bought your first record is probably halfway through college now,”
he said.

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