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Artist/Speaker Bios
Who is speaking at SEC?
Afshin Ziafat was born in Houston, Texas. When he was two years old, his family moved back to their native country of Iran. At the age of 6, his family moved back to Houston because of the Islamic Revolution which occurred in that country. In the second grade, he was given a Bible by a tutor who taught him the English language. As a senior in High School, he read that Bible and came to faith in Christ as his only Lord and Savior. Because of his newfound faith, his family would disown him. His story is one of heartbreak leading to great joy in following Christ even in the midst of persecution. His story illustrates the call of Christ- “If anyone loses his life for My sake, he will find it.” Afshin says, “My life is not about a man’s faithfulness to God. Instead it’s about God’s faithfulness to a man.”
Afshin received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. He served on the staff of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas before God called him into a nationwide speaking ministry.
Currently, Afshin resides in Dallas, Texas and travels around the United States and the world proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ in churches, retreats, camps, conferences, and missions. He is also the regular speaker at Truth Bible Study at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. His passion is to teach the Word of God as the authority and guide for life, to preach Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and to proclaim the love of Christ as the greatest treasure and hope in life.
Ed Newton was raised in a deaf world. The only child of two deaf parents, Ed was the voice in the silence for his parents Ron and Libby Newton. Through difficult circumstances and major hardships Ed was radically saved in high school. It was through the spoken word of others and the written Word of God that clarified a call to ministry as a senior in high school. God began to show forth His sovereign will in leading Ed to Clearwater Christian College to gain a Bible education, while affording the opportunity to play college basketball for four years. Ed continued his education journey by receiving a Master’s degree in Religious Education from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis, TN and a Doctorate of Ministry in Pulpit Communication and Expository Preaching from Trinity Theological Seminary in Newburg, IN.
Prior to surrendering to a call to a faith based itinerant evangelism ministry, Ed has served the local church in multiple positions such as Youth Minister, Recreation Pastor, as well as Minister of Outreach and Single Adults. Currently, Ed serves in a support role as Staff Evangelist at Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN.
God has uniquely gifted Ed with an ability to connect with various age groups, personally and corporately. His communication style can be summarized as "passion with content" while seeking to inspire people to be passionate, dedicated followers of Christ. He and his wife, (College Sweetheart) Stephanie, and their three daughters, London, Lola, and Liv reside in Lakeland, TN. Their desire? It is to leave a "fat dent" on the planet for the glory of God.
Who is leading worship at SEC?
There are those Christian bands which facilitate worship that’s accessible to generations of worshipers at once. And there are those which venture to the cutting edge of popular music in the areas of style and creativity. But few bands combine sincerity, sing-ability and musical chops like Dutton.
The worship band known as Dutton has been playing together since early 2004 when front man Logan Walter pieced together a group to play with him at University Baptist Church (located on Dutton Avenue in Waco, TX). UBC, founded in the mid-1990s by David Crowder and a collection of forward-thinking 20-somethings, needed a steady back-up band when the ascending David Crowder Band hit the road on national tours. But UBC got more than a “B-team” when Walter, guitarists Brian Patterson and Shane Wilson and drummer Nathan Jennings gelled together as Dutton.
By the summer of 2005, Dutton’s reputation as a band that delivered a true worship experience with rock n’ roll punch had spread, and the boys’ calendar began to full up with camps, retreats and discipleship weekends. In March 2007, The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas scooped up UBC’s “back-up band” to lead worship on select Sundays. That led to a permanent partnership as Dutton has now become the regular worship band at The Heights. That is, when Dutton’s touring schedule “dutton” interfere (pun intended). The boys’ are currently playing conferences, church events and concerts across the nation.
What started as a collection of collegians with a shared love for God and music has developed into a full-time band of passionate worshipers who pour themselves into original songs designed specifically for the corporate worship setting. Walter, Jennings, Patterson and Wilson, along with a new bassist Josh Hicks, bring a worship experience that is spiritually uplifting and sonically pleasing. Off stage, they’re as easy-going and fun-loving as any band in any genre. On stage, there’s no mistaking their commitment to the overall worship experience.
Simply put: This band “dutton” disappoint.
Who are the concert bands at SEC?
Brandon Heath likes the little moments. Those opportunities to observe, process and act upon what he witnesses in the world surrounding him are the primary traits of a great songwriter, something Heath continues to showcase on his second Reunion Records release, What If We.
Even the album’s title grew up out of one of those little moments, a conversation Heath was having with a mentor that sent the Nashville native, now Houston resident, spinning off into thought.
“Every part of that phrase, ‘what if we,’ is important,” Heath says. “I don’t even look at it as incomplete – dot, dot, dot – because the ‘what if’ part is about possibilities, obviously. But the ‘we’ part is saying, ‘let’s do this together, let’s not do this alone.’”
“One of the things that bothers me about this world is that we’re all in this for ourselves. We’re looking out for number one. I don’t want to be alone, I want to live life with other people. God even says it’s better to join together in service to Him.”
Community is at the very core of who Brandon Heath is both as a private person and public figure. He shares this idea with friends and followers alike, both of which have grown considerably since the release of his 2006 debut project Don’t Get Comfortable which produced national touring and multiple radio hits, including the No. 1 blockbuster song “I’m Not Who I Was.”
Heath has garnered professional accolades, to be sure, with the success of songs like “I’m Not Who I Was” also generating the steam that earned him multiple Dove Award nominations in 2008, including taking the trophy home for New Artist of the Year. He was also nominated for Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year for “I’m Not Who I Was.”
Heath has also been able to take that public platform and merge it with his heart for community, working with Young Life, Blood:Water Mission, Restore International and unofficially many other human rights agencies on the larger global scale, even turning his attention to trials near his hometown of Nashville. After parts of the city and surrounding areas were ravaged by a string of tornadoes in April 2008, Brandon quickly organized a highly-effective benefit concert for the storm victims, evidence of living big in the little moments.
But even as success as an artist started to come his way, Heath knew that his personal, creative satisfaction was always going to come in the form of his songwriting. And where many new artists get caught up, for good or ill, in the swirl of activity surrounding that first record, Heath buckled down and maintained his focus on the talent and skill that brought him to the table in the first place.
“One of the things I think was good about the season around the last record is that I didn’t stop writing,” Heath says. “Going out and singing songs every night was kinda something I initially dreaded, but I loved it way more than I thought I would, which is why it took me so long to become an artist because I wasn’t sure I wanted to perform for a live audience.”
“But my first love is songwriting,” he continues, “so I wrote and wrote and wrote. I wrote with my favorite songwriters, and I wrote with some people I had always wanted to write with but was too afraid to ask. I put myself out there a little bit more this time.”
Heath, both working solo and together with co-writers, wrote more than 40 songs in preparation for What If We, and of the 11 that finally made the cut, it’s fascinating to take a look at how many deal with those little moments -- moments of loneliness, of triumph, of questioning, and of longing.
Heath admits the process of collaboration with people like Jars of Clay’s Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, and Matt Odmark, plus award-winning writers Jason Ingram and Chad Cates, helped draw out and sharpen those individual moments. “I think the great thing about collaborative songwriting is that you can take some of their life experiences and meld them with your own, and come up with some truly original thoughts.”
And so songs like “Give Me Your Eyes,” about God letting us see the world as He sees it (which was born out of yet another little moment opportunity, people-watching at an airport) and “Sunrise,” about holding out hope through what seems to be one’s darkest period, and “Fight Another Day,” about identifying those situations where seeing trouble through to the other side is the best option, grew up out of those collaborations, taking Heath’s ideas and observations and sharpening them for maximum impact.
“There are things I wanted to say on this record that I wouldn’t have been able to without the help of another writer. In turn, you’re getting to help support them in what they do, but you’re also bettering your own art in allowing other people to help mold what you do,” Heath continues. “The other part of songwriting is relationships, and I think that’s what the human experience is all about. So what better place to draw from than relating to someone in a room? You inevitably get into a conversation about the song that you’re writing, and you get these great moments.”
On the sonic side, Heath and producer Dan Muckala cast the course for What If We with a purposeful groove, letting Heath’s voice convey both story and emotion as primary instrument, but also paving the way for a certain kind of sound. That intentional sound came out of what Heath was feeding himself, from a pop culture perspective, as the songs were coming to life.
“We had some songs that had a real Brit-rock feel to them, but I had been watching all these movies that were set in the West, dark movies like There Will Be Blood and 3:10 to Yuma. These films showed a period in our country where society was still figuring out wealth – oil, gold, land – and what order was going to look like, because we were still civilizing ourselves,” Heath says. “Dan and I both started thinking, let’s put something that sounded a little more American on there, let’s put more growly guitar on it, more Stratocaster than Rickenbacker.”
Tracks like the autobiographical “Wait and See” with it’s updated country shuffle, the power pop of “Sore Eyes” and the crunchy anthem “Trust You” line up right alongside What If We’s quieter material, like the abject love songs “London” and “Listen Up” and the album’s emotional core “No Not One,” co-written with Christy Nockels, formerly of Watermark and current Passion worship-leader.
“I love Christy’s voice,” Heath says. “It has always compelled me and I’ve always wanted to write with her. When it comes to Christian music, I think any conversation about vocalist-of-the-century has to have her in it.”
It's relationship experiences like these that have led up to this moment in Heath’s career. “All great ideas start with the phrase ‘what if we’,” Heath notes. “If anything, I love a title that’s a good conversation starter, but can catch people off guard. It is a little bit left of center.”
But it’s those times of being left of center, of being just a bit off kilter, or outside the comfort zone of the everyday, that make us stop, think, and take stock in the little moments all around us. It makes us wonder…what if we…
Sanctus Real’s success has typically been marked with massive radio singles, including six No. 1 songs and 11 Top 5 hits, albums that have marched up the Billboard sales charts, major tours with some of the biggest names in the business, or draped with various awards, including the Modern Rock Album of the Year Dove Award. But with their newest record, We Need Each Other, the band members feel they have created their most successful album to date because for them, it is just that.
After three records, the guys have finally crafted in their fourth effort the ever-elusive album - definitely not the norm in this season of hit singles. Not that the first single and title track wasn’t infectious enough to climb to No. 1 in record time, which it did, but the real surprise for the listener lies in the album as a whole.
We Need Each Other represents a startling leap forward in its songwriting, musicianship and overall production, and for the band, a way to connect to its listeners with a theme worth talking about. Wholeness, family and unity are what Sanctus Real has always been about, but it has never been penned as effectively. Complete with gut-honest lyrics and feel-good melodies from the opening riff to the closing thought, a strong, unyielding sense of unity and community is woven through the very musical fiber of this much-anticipated new album.
“There’s a real sense of direction and momentum surrounding the band and the new album,” reflects Sanctus Real lead vocalist Matt Hammitt. “The past several months have been an exciting time for us. We feel like we’ve made the best record of our career and are looking forward to sharing these new songs with our fans.”
Since the release of 2006’s critically acclaimed The Face of Love, which feature the No. 1 songs “Don’t Give Up” and “I’m Not Alright,” the band members themselves have grown into a unified whole. “When we made Face of Love, we were going through some personal trials,” recalls Hammitt. “Reaching the other side of that, we were feeling much more light-hearted going into this record. This time around, we [Hammitt, drummer Mark Graalman, and guitarist Chris Rohman] also had a new bass player, Dan Gartley, and a fifth member who is a second guitar player, Pete Prevost. We felt like we were a complete band, having toured together for a couple of years as a unit.”
“I couldn't be more thrilled about the way this record turned out,” notes Rohman. “It's a great reflection of the unity God has blessed us with since The Face Of Love. This time around it was the five of us giving everything we could offer, but from a very restored sense of being.”
Since 1996, Sanctus Real has been performing, touring, and recording—all with joint goals of entertaining and encouraging listeners. Known for it’s captivating live performances, the band is now getting ready to launch the biggest tour of its career as they join Third Day in early March ’08 for a 35-city road trip that hits Arenas in major markets across the country. Not slowing down, Sanctus Real jumps directly from the tour into headline positions on the festival circuit this summer.
Furthermore, Sanctus Real has kicked it up a notch on the new album by forging new musical territory while melding together the trademark Sanctus sound fans know and love. We Need Each Other is Sanctus Real’s most diverse and creative album yet. Featuring not only its most hard-hitting rock songs to date but also its most atmospheric, the band members really challenged one another as musicians to play and sing parts that would be unique and interesting. Writing enough material to fill 10 albums, they crafted lyrics and honed individual parts, even learning new instruments to help capture the emotion and underscore the subject matter.
“There are some spots on this record where I just pushed the limits of what I can do vocally, whether it be on a soft, kind of rustic sounding vocal or whether it be this overdriven, rock high-range kind of vocal,” Hammitt confides. “Every one of us experimented from A to Z with our instruments.”
Graalman adds, “I never realized what a lack of background vocals there were on the last record. Then to hear all the BGVs on this record, it’s like, ‘Wow!’ There was this wall of sound that lends a unique dynamic to our music.”
Sanctus Real, for the first time, also invited musicians outside of the band to make special appearances. With The Face of Love producer, Chris Stevens (tobyMac, Shawn McDonald), back at the production helm, Hammitt is joined by vocalist Katie Herzig on the nostalgic “Half Our Lives,” showing the range and reflection of a band that is maturing as songwriters. EMI CMG Label Group President Peter York offers his screaming bluesy lead guitar licks on the album’s opening track, “Turn On The Lights.”
While there is obvious momentum carrying the music and message of Sanctus Real across the nation and beyond, for the band, it’s all about what kind of legacy they want to leave. “It’s about asking yourself what you’re really living for,” notes Graalman, reflecting on the song “Legacy” that closes the new album. “The older you get, the more you think about what truly matters in life. It is our desire to leave behind a legacy that will point people to Jesus. That especially our closet friends and family, those who know us best, would say that we truly followed the Lord and would be inspired to always do the same.”
And audiences are definitely responding to the musical mission of Sanctus Real. Long before radio launched the lead single and title track, “We Need Each Other,” to the top of the charts, the band had concertgoers immediately singing along to the memorable melody of the song, grasping hold of its message.
The guys in Sanctus Real have arrived in a big way, and not just because they finally decided to put their faces on the cover. There’s a saying in the music business that it all starts with a song. And, for Toledo, OH-based Sanctus Real, the song is synonymous with the message and the outworking of the hope those songs inspire.
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