Well, it’s been two months now since the launch of the new Tastyfresh.com site. With that system we are FINALLY able to allow people other than, well me, to directly enter and edit content on this site. For this, we have to thank the Joomla! Content Management System that the site is now built on. I cannot begin to stress what a blessing this CMS is concerning my restraints on time. Now, what I really need are some people who are willing to help write new material for the site.

In case I haven’t been clear enough in the past, I need the help. There is so much potential in this site as many of you have expressed to me. I want to help the site reach both the potential I see and the one you see as well. I was actually somewhat shocked at Cornerstone this year to hear from both Jeremy Kadinger and Luke Bodley that people simply didn’t know that I was both open and actively looking for people to help. Currently, I have DJ Saryn, Brian Babinec, DJ Du Nord, John Baker helping me out on just about every issue of the zine. There are also a small host of article writers who are submitting articles on a semi-regular basis like Oneel and Shana Gray.  I also have DJ Rish and soon Carey Jarvis and Stryke helping out on at least the charts sections. John Baker and DJ Dunamis are helping out with the artist bios section. Despite all of this help, more is needed. Keep in mind that I’m not looking for people who always got A’s in English class. If I were then I wouldn’t be writing for this zine. I just want people who are willing to write and have a passion for what they write about. Here’s a quick list of areas that I still need writers for.

Interviews:

I need at least one person who can do interviews on a regular basis. Since Ms. Cocolove stepped down last year to finish up her educational goals, the zine has sorely been lacking in this area. I would really like to do two types of interviews: personal ones like Cocolove did about people’s love for EDM and then more “hard-hitting” ones about the industry and what it takes to break into it, where it is going and so on. Ideally, there would be one or two interviews per issue. Since a new issue will only come out every other month, this shouldn’t be a huge strain on anyone’s time. If you want to do this, but don’t know how, talk to me about it and I’ll give you some guidelines. Here are just a few interviews that people said they wanted to see in the zine, but haven’t yet:

• Jeremey Dawson
• Scott Blackwell
• Cameron dante
• Moby
• AJ Mora
• Carey Jarvis
• DBA
• DJ Lorraine
• DJ Tiësto
• Eddie Amador
• John Digweed
• Roy Davis JR
• Aphex Twin
• Daft Punk
• Daniel Bedingfield
• Danny B
• Faith Massive
• Michael Farrington
• Prodigal Sons
• Ronnie Martin
• Sasha
• Terence Parker
  

Articles:

This zine would be boring if it only contained my opinions. I personally think that my opinions already dominate it too much. I’m really looking for people who want to contribute articles on any subject related to the EDM scene. There are a TON of topics that people have expressed time and time again that they would love to read about, yet I simply do not have the people to write the articles. Again, I’m not looking for people with all of the answers and experience, but rather people who would simply be willing to write. Here’s just a quick list of generic topics that people said they wanted to read about from back in 2002:

• Coverage of EDM events and general news
• Christian success stories
• Improving the quality of our music
• A beginner’s guide to the Christian Electronic scene or the scene in general
• How to break into the music business/ How to get your foot in the door
• The roll of Christians in the EDM music industry
• The problems that come with crossing over to the secular industry
• Christian EDM clubs: where are they
• Starting an effective dance ministry from scratch (DJ led worship or otherwise)
• Technical articles dealing with selecting and maintaining sound equipment
• Evangelism in the club scene

I could go on and on. In fact, I’ll send you the entire list if you simple email me and ask. It really is quite long. All I need are people who are willing to write at least one article at some point in the future.

Testimonials and Stories of Faith

This has proven to be the hardest area for me to keep up with. I need someone dedicated to seeking out Christians involved in the EDM scene who would be willing to share some experience they have had with God. This doesn’t have to be a “how I got saved” story, but it should be about something God has done, is currently doing, or is starting to do in their lives. This site is meaningless if we don’t have this type of article. It does us all good to read these stories. Just look at Brian Scroggins’ on-going testimony in the Prayer and Praise section of the forums regarding his cancer treatments. What a great testimony to the love and ability of God. Speaking of Brian, we will soon start a fund to help him cover some of his medical expenses, more on this in the “near” future. Again, here’s a list of people that readers wanted to hear from back in 2002:

• AJ Mora
• Jeremy Dawson
• Cameron D
• Carey Jarvis
• Bill Sikes
• Davo
• Q of uberzone
• Robbie Bronniman
• Blake Potter
• Daniel Bedingfield.
• DJDyvne
• Dr Siminz
• Michael Farrington
• DJ Mint
• Nate Maners

Reviews:

Unlike the articles and interviews, this is the area that will need more frequent work. With the launch of the new site, I am trying my best to pull the reviews out separate from the zine. The main reason for this is so that we can get reviews out to the readers more frequently and keep the labels happy. Over the past few months, our reviews have become some of the most read parts of Tastyfresh.com. This actually shocked me a bit. I guess we are doing a better job with them than I thought. In fact, we are doing so well now that some secular labels have actually requested that we review their music. That’s the main reason why Defected is now one of our regularly reviewed labels. Next Dimension Music is another as we have direct access to all of their releases. We have even just signed up with IODA’s new PromoNet service which gives us access to even more music.

With this huge influx of music though, we need more reviewers. I’ve also put John Baker in charge of editing and assigning the reviews that we do. Babinec and Nord can only do so much and we really do need more reviewers. We can provide some music for you to review. We can also go directly to the labels you would like to review music for and get on their lists. You still would be free to review the music that you would like to review. Just as an example of how far behind we are now on reviews, I should have reviews for the Shiloh Bleed and the new Sheltershed CDs in this issue as well as the new singles from Giant Slayers and NDM, but there just aren’t enough reviewers to get the music reviewed.

As I mentioned earlier, we are moving away from the zine with the reviews. I would be very happy if we could get to the point where we publish a few reviews a week. If you would be willing to help us out with this, please let me know and I will get you in touch with John. We do have a standard format for the reviews that we use here. It’s fairly simple and the whole review shouldn’t take up more than a page, unless you simply have a lot to say.

Artist Bios

This is an on going project right now. We are building a small database of artists and bands that have at least one member who is a Christian. All we are looking for on each entry is a short bio (either written directly for the site or taken with permission from the artist site) and a list of links to more information on the group and where to buy their music. John Baker has done the bulk of this work so far with some backing from DJ Dunamis. After this project is completed, we’ll move on to create the same type of thing for Christian DJs who are gigging around the world in various clubs and on the radio. No bedroom DJs though (sorry). Anyway, I need some more people to help out here as well.

Charts

The last areas we need help in right now are charts. If you have a radio show, a residency at a club, or simply tour the globe as a Christian DJ, we want to post your charts on this site. This is the easiest gig you could land here on Tastyfresh.com. All you would need to do is enter your charts here whenever you normally would send them out to any other charting organization you use.

Well… that’s it. Those are the main areas that I need help with. If you feel that you can help in any or multiple area that I’ve listed above, let me know. I’ll do my best to get you set up ASAP to start work. I’m a wee behind because of Cornerstone and a few other things, but I promise if you offer to help, I’ll get you started on something pretty quick. Thank you so much for your support over the years though, even if it has just been your reading of the site.

In Chirst,
Dave R