Michael Richard Wittig (born August 21, 1976) is an American

Christian music Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely aroun ...

ian who is best known as " Kalel", the current bass player for the

Dove Awards A Dove Award is an accolade by the Gospel Music Association (GMA) of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry. The awards are presented annually. Formerly held in Nashville, Tennessee, the Dove Award ...

winning and Grammy nominated Christian hard rock band

Pillar A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

. After ten years of playing with Pillar, Wittig left the band in September 2008. He then later returned to the band in 2012. He was also a member of

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...

band Stars Go Dim, with Joey Avalos, Lester Estelle Jr. (former drummer for Pillar) and Chris Cleveland till 2012.

Biography

Musical career

In 1992 he formed a Christian band in his garage. The band was originally called ''Q: The Source'' (named after the

Q document The Q source (also called Q document(s), Q Gospel, or Q; from german: Quelle, meaning "source") is a hypothetical written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings (λόγια : ). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew ...

), but they eventually renamed it as ''Godspeed'' for the release of their self-titled EP. Wittig's fellow Godspeed members were Mahlon Tobias and Robert Brouhard. He graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School in 1994, and soon left to go to college in Hays, Kansas at Fort Hays State University. While living there he played bass for a Christian Metal band, ''Tetelestai'', which at some point broke up. Wittig sold his vehicle to some locals and made mention of wanting to start a band. This information was passed along to Robert Debes who became Wittig's roommate. During this time, Wittig became involved in another band, named ''Mishap''. Wittig was introduced to Rob Beckley, a vocalist and Travis Jenkins, a guitar player. They formed

. After playing with Pillar for ten years, Michael Wittig left the band in September 2008 for multiple reasons. While in Pillar, in 2007 Wittig with his friends Lester Estelle, Jr. and Joey Avalos formed pop rock band Stars Go Dim in which he played till 2012 but left due to personal reasons. Wittig reunited with

in 2012 and began to lay tracks for a new album. In August 2015 their latest album One Love Revolution was released.

Personal life

Michael Wittig has two sons and, as of summer 2010, twin daughters and lives with his wife in Oklahoma.

References

External links

*
''Pillar'' websiteStars Go Dim
on Myspace
Stars Go Dim website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wittig, Michael Living people American rock bass guitarists American performers of Christian music Guitarists from Oklahoma People from Hays, Kansas Musicians from Riverside, California 1976 births American heavy metal bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Pillar (band) members Guitarists from California 21st-century American bass guitarists