Fight The Tide - Background

Background

I think the short schedule pushed us to do the best we could. Despite the short amount of time, there wasn't one word or musical element that was overlooked. Every piece of each song was intentionally combed over, and we're proud of that.

In July 2003, before the band had prepared songs for Fight the Tide, lead vocalist Matt Hammitt said of the album: " we wrote about every day life or about God but didn't open ourselves up completely and weren't vulnerable to listeners. I hope on the next album we really open up and pour it out."

In February 2004, Sanctus Real returned to the studio to record their second album, and nearly all of the tracks were written in the previous month. They only had four weeks to track and record the album in studio, and according to band members, recording sessions were very intensive and tiring. Hammitt said, "If we weren't in the studio laying down tracks, we were at home working on lyrics, melodies, and rewrites. It really felt like a 24 hour-a-day job for about four weeks." He estimated that two months would have been an ideal amount of time to record the album, but that the experience "was cool and it stretched us". Due to the constant guitar playing, especially during the second half of their recording time, guitarist Chris Rohman tried putting nail polish on his fingertips because they felt so raw.

Tedd T served as producer for Fight the Tide; it was recorded and mixed at Antenna Studios in Brentwood, Tennessee.