Matt Hammitt

Matt Hammitt, once the frontman for Dove Award-winning Christian pop outfit Sanctus Real, now pursues an independent path as a solo recording artist and inspirational speaker. Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1979, he first picked up an instrument inside his local church, teaming with guitarist Christ Rohman in the chapel band. While still tenth graders at Toledo Christian School, the pair assembled Sanctus Real, bringing drummer Mark Graalman and bassist Steve Goodrum into the fold. Hammitt assumed lead vocals for the group’s early independent output of faith-based power pop: All This Talk of Aliens in 1998, Message for the Masses in 1999, and Nothing to Lose in 2001.

Sparrow Records signed the band in 2002, issuing the Pete Stewart-produced Say It Loud as their major-label debut. Readers of CCM magazine voted the album’s act “Favorite New Artist,” and the follow-up, 2004’s Tedd T.-produced Fight the Tide, climbed higher still. That record yielded the Christian chart-toppers “Everything About You” and “The Fight Song,” then captured the Dove Award for Modern Rock Album of the Year. Subsequent projects—2008’s We Need Each Other and 2010’s Pieces of a Real Heart—earned Grammy nominations and reinforced the band’s standing in Christian pop.

Stepping out on his own, Hammitt issued his first solo collection, Every Falling Tear, in 2011. It reached number twenty-six on the Billboard Christian Albums chart and spawned the number-eleven Christian single “All of Me.” He rejoined Sanctus Real for two further albums, Run in 2013 and The Dream in 2014, before exiting the group in 2015 to concentrate on solo work and family life. Married and the father of four children—including a son born with a severe heart defect—Hammitt established the Whole Hearts Foundation that same year to aid families facing pediatric heart disease. In 2016 he and his wife inaugurated the Lead Me Live men’s spiritual conferences. Hammitt resumed solo activity in 2017 with the single “Tears,” produced by Grammy-winning Seth Mosley.