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

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...

ian best known as the

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

player for the

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. This music is typically performed by Christians, Christian individuals. The extent to whi ...

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 and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

band Stars Go Dim, with Joey Avalos, Lester Estelle Jr. (former drummer for Pillar) and Chris Cleveland until 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 The Sayings Gospel, Q Gospel, Q document(s), or Q; from , meaning "source") is a hypothesized written collection of primarily Jesus' sayings (, ). Q is part of the common material found in the Gospels of Matthew and ...

), 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 Riverside Polytechnic High School is a four-year public high school in Riverside, California, United States, and part of the Riverside Unified School District. The current facility, located on Victoria Avenue, was opened in September 1965; the ...

in 1994, and soon left to go to college in

Hays, Kansas Hays is a city in and the county seat of Ellis County, Kansas, United States. The largest city in northwestern Kansas, it is the economic and cultural center of the region. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 21,116. Hays ...

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 for 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 Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

References

External links

*
''Pillar'' websiteStars Go Dim
on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

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