Ricardo Sanchez – ‘Taste + See’ the worldbeat of Ricardo Sanchez

CCM: Because Taste + See was a live project, were there any curveballs that caught you by surprise that night?
RS: When we ended a song called “Greater, Greater” we didn’t plan on playing any of the vamps. I think there are four vamps that we ended up putting on the record, because it [ended up being] a jam session. It just happened. So, whenever you hear a vamp on the record, or if a song ends and then comes back none of it was planned. It was like playing with my brothers. It was fun and easy and I like that stuff. It was a total surprise to the label, but it was great. I think we got some really fun stuff.

CCM: Since your music does appeal to many types of ears, what would be your reaction if someone pointed you out as a “voice” or “symbol” that naturally stands up against the racial tensions we are experiencing in our world today?
RS: Not necessarily about just the music, but as you were asking that question I was thinking about being the first believer in my family and suffering persecution just from within my own family! There’s always been this polarization of who I am, and it wasn’t until we got nominated for a GRAMMY and bunch of Dove Awards was when they actually said, “Holy crap, you can actually be successful doing that kind of stuff?” [Laughs]

I’ve heard it said that if you mix all of the colors together, what you get is brown. That’s who I am, I’m a mixture. I can go into the black community and be embraced. I can go into the white community and be embraced. I’m a 6’5” light-skinned Latino, when people see me and I start popping off in Spanish, they’re like, “Snap, we thought you were German or Russian or something?!” [Laughs] I can catch them off guard. The bottom line is, Jesus is love. When you get up on a stage and you have the opportunity to share hope, love, peace, joy…it just happens. It comes out.

My whole mission is to write songs and put them in the hands of worship leaders. The way I liken it is to the story in the Bible with the boy who had some loaves and some fish and he gave them to God. God multiplied it. I never wanted to be famous, looking back, but now I’m living the dream by just giving my loaves and my fishes and watching God multiply them.

CCM: What’s coming up next for you?
RS: We’ll finish out the year strong. My family is helping a church get started called City Hills Church in Boerne, Texas. We’ll be working with a church in Austin to be an artist-in-residence there. Then we’ll be working on a South American tour—a Latin tour—since we’re working on translating this album into Spanish. I’m even in the studio tonight working on the next three songs for that. So, we’re looking to get that out at the beginning of the year and launching South American tour with it.

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