Q&A: With Christian Music Duo, The Sangary Brothers

Simon and Samuel Sangary, 19, are the twins behind the namesake alternative Christian alternative rock band, the Sangary Brothers. The duo hail from Miami and are of Cuban, Colombian and Nicaraguan descent. They’re currently in their third semester at Miami Dade College, studying music production at North Campus.

The group’s first album, Sangary Brothers, is a collection of 10 acoustic songs deeply rooted in their Christian faith. From letting go of toxic relationships in “Real/Momentary,” to dealing with dark times in “I Need Your Help” or simply celebrating God’s love in “Love You So,” their songs are honest narratives of real-life experiences intended to inspire and elevate the spirit, regardless of religion.

The brothers currently putting the finishing touches on their first independently produced EP, expected to be released in late fall. I sat down with them to talk about their life, music and faith.

—Riane Roldan

RR: When did you guys start singing?

Samuel: We’ve been singing since we were about five years old. We started in church…

Simon:…singing Spanish songs.

Samuel: Yeah, and we didn’t know what we were saying actually, because we didn’t understand Spanish, but our mom taught us every word. Ever since then we’ve been singing, but we started professionally about two years ago. We felt that it was, like, our calling, our purpose in life to create music.

RR: What are some your musical influences?

Simon: We love Switchfoot. There’s a band called Needtobreathe that’s amazing…Relient K. There’s also this new band called Colony House; they’re [all] fantastic.  

Samuel: These are all bands that we hope to one day tour with or open up for. That’s a goal that we have.

Simon: Yeah, we also love classics. A lot of Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke and Al Greene. We love that stuff, Motown.

RR: What kind of role does your faith play in the music making process?

Samuel: Our inspiration has always been our faith in God, and that’s something that we like to bring out in our music and in our lyrics. Just to bring positivity and hope and faith and love. That’s what it’s all about. We want you guys to check out our music and be…

Simon:…be inspired.

RR: How else has your faith been a part of your life?  

Samuel: Growing up, our mom was the one that was really into her faith and an actual devoted Christian, but our dad wasn’t. But he went through a lot of things that kind of made him seek after [God] and to find his faith. You know, he went through cancer and he went to prison all while we were alive. We saw all this happening, and all we would do with our mom was just pray. So we’ve seen what prayer does and we’ve seen how it works. It’s crazy.  

Simon: Yeah, when we were younger, even up to high school…we wouldn’t really talk about it or share it. But we just saw what it’s done in our lives, what it’s done in our dad’s life and in our family that we realized it would be messed up if we didn’t share this with people. What if someone could see what it could do in their lives?

RR: What are some of your ultimate/future goals with your music?

Simon: We want to be able to reach out to as many people as possible. Where hopefully it can help people. That’s the ultimate goal. It’s all about being able to help others that are struggling and facing trials…We have huge plans. We wanna be able to raise money for different organizations, open up an orphanage or something. With our music, we just want to do good with it.

RR: Your songs talk a lot about getting through dark times. Were there any in particular that were impactful for the two of you?

Simon: A lot of the songs were inspired by us getting involved in the wrong things…getting distracted and not fulfilling what we were really called to do. I was in a relationship that was taking away from myself. It was something that I knew I shouldn’t have been involved in. I was, like, drained all the time. I remember my friends being like, what happened to you man?

Samuel: I could see that it was taking him away from his writing and music, and that’s something that can speak to a lot of people because there’s a lot of people that are in relationships they shouldn’t be in.

Simon: It doesn’t always have to apply to a relationship either. With our songs, we may be talking about a certain thing, but people can apply it to their own lives and their own situations. Maybe they’re holding on to an addiction, or something that they can’t let go of. It’s a matter of trying to break free, and I feel like the songs are there to help people do that.

RR: How do you deal with people with misconceptions of the Christian music genre?

Samuel: The way that our music is written is not preachy or in your face at all.

Simon: We don’t want to be those people, that’s not even the right way to approach something like this. Our songs are just honest expressions about how we feel about [God]. We don’t write songs that are like do this or do that, that’s annoying.

Samuel: We’re not trying to force anybody into anything. We just want to share what it is that we’re passionate about and how God has done great things in our lives. There’s people out there looking for something…You know, a hope, because they don’t have anything to hold on to. We just want to let people know that they can always find hope in Jesus.

RR: Can you tell me a little bit about your upcoming EP?

Simon: We’re finalizing everything now, and we’re doing it all on our own. It’ll be five songs total. We’re excited about this, because it’ll be our first independent project and we’ve had complete creative control. We had our friends help us too. Our good friend Tyler played drums and bass on the tracks, and he’s really good. We’ve just gotten really creative with our writing and how we play our songs.

RR: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Simon: We really just believe that God is really working through us to write these songs because we believe there are people out there that need to hear these messages. That’s how powerful music is, and we want to use it for good.