My name is Craig Willers and I currently spin under the moniker DJ Himmel. I’ve been into electronic music since ’97 and started out as a primarily Gothic/Industrial DJ but have since discovered many other forms of electronics that excite me. This is my testimony:

Eric Dunne has preformed both live and in studio as Prophetica for about ten years. Last month he put down his keyboard and monk outfit and walked away from writing music and touring. This after two full length albums, a piece of vinyl, appearances on several compilation CDs, a tribute/remix album and a still much anticipated unreleased ambient/down-tempo album. He could be considered one of the most best known Christian trance producers in our small scene. He has graciously given us one last interview.

When I'm mixing it's a lot of fun to layer tracks and keep them together in the mix for an extended period of time. This is usually pretty easy to do with techier tracks where chord changes aren't a strong component, but it's much more rewarding when I stumble on a combination of more melody/chord-oriented tracks that complement each other perfectly in the mix (because they're in the same key).

Jamey Wright and Andy Payne founded Tastyfresh.com in 1996 to serve the Christian dance community.  One of the primary purposes of the website’s creation was “A one stop resource for artists, deejays, producers and fans to obtain music and build the scene on a global basis.”  It has evolved over the years now to the point that Tastyfresh.com is the undeniable number one resource for Christian EDM information in the world.  It is certainly the result of our heavily used message boards and our passionate music fans, producers, DJ’s, record labels, and club owners that this has happened.

It’s probably fair to say that new wave, synthpop, and industrial bands were actually the first to produce Christian electronic music. Deitiphobia, who were then known as Donderfliegen, had already been making music for a few years in the late eighties/early nineties, and various members of that band had side projects under many different names. One of the most notable was Wigtop, a group comprised of Brent & Heather Stackhouse, who took the Deitiphobia rhythms away from the industrial sound and more towards a much dancier, synthpop sound, mainly fronted by Heather’s vocals.

Music costs a lot of money. There’s nothing worse than buying a record, bringing it home and realizing you bought something you’ll never be able to use. As to my motivation behind what I can or can't use, I try to think about a combination of what my listeners and I would both like (since listeners are, after all what radio is all about). I like to keep track of what people tell me they like, and of course what makes people groan. I try my best to be open to feedback on my sets. Even on nights when I don’t have many listeners, I make a conscious attempt to cater to what they enjoy.

The LORD saved me on July 21st, 2002. Leading up to this date, I had become a successful, world renowned DJ, producer, and remixer. I had produced several hit records for myself and other artists; and I had DJed in more than 100 cities throughout the world (see complete biographical info at my website: www.TPMusic.net).

Back in July, we asked basically two questions. The first was “What should we as Christians do to have an even greater impact on the electronic dance community?” The second question was “Give an example of a person who is currently having a substantial impact and what that impact is.” We received a larger number of responses this time and I hope that this trend continues. Let’s see what our readers said.

We had a chance to catch up with Nettwerk America & Sparrow Records recording artist Andy Hunter. Prior to his debut solo album in 2003, Andy worked with Robbie Bronnimann of DBA and Ray Goudie of NGM and others on the critically acclaimed Hydro project. Andy is also responsible for one of the first Christian drum and bass albums out there by the group Trip. He is also a critically acclaimed DJ who has toured with DJ Tiësto, Noel Sanger and others.

My drop of the month happened at a student ball I was DJing at last weekend.  I was coming to the end of my 4.5 hour set (which was only supposed to 2 hrs but that's another story) and decided to wind up by cheesing things up a bit.