Sanctus Real's 'The Dream' Encourages People to Surrender to God with Single 'Lay It Down'; Guitarist Shares Backstory

Sanctus Real

Today marks the release day of Sanctus Real's new album The Dream, and guitarist Chris Rohman shared his thoughts on the powerful song "Lay It Down."

The longtime member interviewed with NewReleaseTuesday and spoke on the theme of their newest single and learning to surrender to Jesus.

Rohman said he wrote the song based on a musical idea he had and sent it to lead singer Matt Hammit to finish.

"This song was one of the first demos I wrote that instantly Matt felt he had a vision for. I had the verse and chorus musically, and I went over to Matt's and we worked on the lyrics and melody together. It came pretty easily. He had already written the first two lines of the song, and we finished it," said Rohman.

He spoke of the song being a perfect first single because the song is kind of like a "starting point" for the band as they were writing this seventh album.

"For us, the only way to get through life has been learning more and more how important it is to have that real connection and that need for a personal relationship with God. We've learned how much we need to rest on that," he admitted to NRT, "The older I get, the more I realize that I can't accomplish anything in my own strength. For me it is about a daily walk with God. Have the faith to believe that God has called you to be in each moment."

Rohman said the song is about being true to their calling. He explained they are older, and have kids so having this same vision since they were 16 is very "symbolic" for them. "We have always tried to write songs that draw people to the lyrics and our heart behind the songs."

"A verse that has always spoken to us is Philippians 4:6-7, to not be anxious about anything. For us, that's the season we are in," he shared, "It's easy to be anxious and get caught up in what's going on in the music business, but when we first started it was about writing songs from our hearts. We don't want to try to conform to expectations or what everybody else is doing, and this song helped us focus on getting back to that place of surrendering the worries we have as musicians, fathers and husbands, and not worrying about what comes next."

Read the complete interview here.

The Dream is the band's seventh studio album and the followup to 2013's Run ("Pray").

"The process of recording this album was a total hands-on approach from all of the band members and felt as exciting as making our first record over ten years ago," Rohman in a press release, "There are tracks we made on our laptops while writing for the record that actually ended up on the finished product. From synth sounds to guitar parts to crazy background vocals - we all pitched in and Kipley was able to include a lot of this creativity into the heart of The Dream."

The band will be part of Francesca Battisteli's "If We're Honest" Tour this Fall, which will precede their headlining tour before hitting the road with Josh Wilson and Jon Bauer in November for "Sanctus Real Live."

The Dream track listing:
1. The Dream*
2. I Need You*
3. Head In The Fight*
4. Lay It Down*
5. Easier On My Heart*
6. Ride It Out*
7. Bend Not Break*
8. Same God**
9. One Word*
10. 33*
11. On Fire**
12. The Beginning* (instrumental)