Jeremy Koering of Music Faith: “I’m Not Alright” is one of the most honest songs, I’d say ever recorded, what does that song mean to you personally?
Mark Graalman: For me personally the song is the cry of the heart as for the need to be honest. When we had written the song, we were going through just a really hard time, my father just passed away, our singers grandmother just passed away, and our bass player decided to leave the band, and after going through all those things and then having to write a record immediately afterwards. We found a certain pressure to try to make a record that would fit the niche of the market we’re in, and at the same time we were really tempted to be sugarcoated and put on our happy faces. So we finally broke down and said let’s just be honest about how we feel and what we’ve been through and in the midst of that we wrote this chorus shouting I’m not alright. So for me, I think for all us actually, it kind of just a release and opened up the door for healing for all of us.
Jeremy Koering: Another one that I’d like to know about is “The Face of Love” itself. Every time I hear it I’m reminded of the cross, what runs through your head when you play or hear it?
Mark Graalman: I think for that song, very much of a desire to show people, kind of remind people, the fact that Christ is the face of God’s love towards us. The Bible obviously literally says “For God so loves the world that he gave his only Son.” That’s the whole reason Jesus came into this world, to be the ultimate sign of God’s love towards us. And at the same time those who’ve accepted Christ, there’s a call to all of us to follow in His footsteps is to love the way He did. And so I think the cool thing about that song, from my viewpoint, is that it is hopefully an encouragement to rise up to the occasion and be apart of God’s face of love to the world around us.
Jeremy Koering: Is there a song on The Face of Love that means more to you than any others?
Mark Graalman: Yes actually for me personally the last song on the record, it’s called “Benjamin,” that’s a real personal song for me, because Matt our singer had kind of written it as a gift to me. I found out that my dad was diagnosed with cancer and it was terminal, the same day as my first son was born. So it was definitely a hard for me, obviously. To go from the joy and excitement of having your first child to learning that your father is going to die. That song is actually written as if I was talking to my dad, then the second verse is me talking to my son. The verse talks about “If you can’t talk, just cry, we’ll talk on the other side” and it’s cool because my dad knew the Lord and I know I’ll see him again in heaven one day, we have that hope, because of what Jesus has done. The second verse is about me talking to my son and it talks about how if you can’t talk just cry and how we’ll be friends the rest of our life. It’s a tribute to my dad the life he lead and a tribute to my son and the life he will lead. So that song is a special one that means a lot to me.
Jeremy Koering: Did you have a scripture that you looked to that has helped you through that time?
Mark Graalman: Ah man, there are a lot of them (laughs). I think one verse that I look back on now is one in Romans when it talks about God will work all things together according to His purpose. Looking back on that time for all of us, it really is amazing that God has worked it all for the good. Like the songs on the CD couldn’t have been written the way they were written, had we not gone through what we went through. This CD had had the greatest impact an effect on people than any of our other records before. To kind of see how God is able to miraculously out of bad every time it just blows me away. So it’s pretty neat!
Jeremy Koering: Because of the situations you were going through and the honesty that came out of those. Do you think your next record be different? Or do you think it’ll still have the same seriousness and honesty?
Mark Graalman: That’s a really good question, actually! We’re beginning the writing process right now for the next record. I think they will be different, hopefully, in some way or another, because with each album we want to stretch and grow as a band. I don’t know, we’ve written roughly three songs for the new record, and they’re still in a kind of teetering place. I think they’re still serious, as far as dealing with serious issues, but are written out of a heart of thankfulness this time around. We’re in a better place than we’ve ever been as a band, because our last record was a huge hit and we got a few new guys in the band that are huge assets to the band to get to a better place with a live show, and the writing process is going a lot smoother with them. So we’re just super thankful right now, and I think that is being reflected in the record already. It’s not so much a of a cry of desperation this time it’s a cry to the Lord that we’ve made it through. (Laughs) We’ll deal with some different issues now but I think we’ll always right with that honesty from now on.
Jeremy Koering: Here are a few more from our friends on MySpace… Tony asks, how did you all get started, and how did you get discovered?
Mark Graalman: Basically myself and our lead singer Matt Hammitt and our guitar Chris Rohman, the three of us started the band back in December of ’96. It’s kind of crazy we just did a ten year anniversary concert in our hometown of Toledo, Ohio. The fact that we’ve been doing this for 10 years now is kind of weird to us! (laughs) It’s definitely been a journey! We played all over our region (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana) for roughly 5 – 5 and a half years before we signed a record deal. We’d just play anywhere we could, we’d play youth groups, summer camps, clubs, and churches, anywhere and everywhere we could. We’d always save up the little money we made from these small shows and go record songs we had written. Then we would take that recording, CDs or whatever and sell those at the next show. At one point we saved up enough money to hire a real producer and go down to Memphis and Nashville and work with a producer named Skidd Mills. And we basically tried to make a really good CD. And working with Skidd really helped us jump to another level with our song writing and our abilities as musicians and I think that really showed with our last indie CD Nothing to Loose and when that record came out we took it to GMA Week and passed out to anyone with a GMA badge and a couple weeks later the phone started ringing. (Laughs)
Jeremy Koering: What outside of Jesus most inspires you?
Mark Graalman: Probably a big thing at this point of our lives is probably our families. Everyone besides Pete is married; me and Matt have one kid each. So I’d say our families.
Jeremy Koering: Do you have any last comments?
Mark Graalman: Well your web site is called MusicFaith.com right?
Jeremy Koering: Mmhmm!
Mark Graalman: Well I’d say keep listening to Sanctus Real and keep checking out MusicFaith.com! (Laughs)
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