In a new regular feature, we profile some of the names and faces in the Christian dance music scene.

ARTIST PROFILE: MEEKER

Mike Rimmer spoke to the London dance aggregation.

Meeker

Okay, before we start we'd better have a brief history of Meeker. The band revolve around husband and wife duo Rachel and Tom E Morrison. Rachel sings and writes and Tom writes, plays guitar, produces and engineers. Both of them have a mainstream background and formed Meeker in 2000 and continue to work in the mainstream. As well as Rachel and Tom, Meeker consist of Marc Layton Bennett (drums, percussion), Dan Warwick (bass) and Simon Willetts (keyboards). Meeker have released three singles "Save Me", "Mountains" and "Let's Come Together" and a fourth single "Soulinthecity" is due out any day now. Meanwhile the band's first album 'Deep Pools Of Light' has been released independently. Successes? They've had a few. But then again, it depends whether being big in Brazil with her previous band Bliss counts for Rachel. As Meeker, the singles did respectably in the UK dance charts and the group has done extensive touring of festivals, clubs and universities with outfits like Moby, Underworld and Primal Scream. Tom was involved in the 'Celtic Chillout' album and worked on TV and film soundtracks. The upshot of this is that the Morrisons are a very musical couple.

Tom is from Germany and Rachel is English. Rachel was brought up in the Catholic church and her journey to faith has been a long one. She confesses that after lots of questioning and searching, "I've always been a believer but I think you can believe and not really do an awful lot about it. It can just be there, inherent in you. But now I just feel an awful lot more of God moving in me and with those people around me. I feel very comfortable now, to say that I'm a Christian." Tom describes his own faith journey, "I became a Christian in Germany. I was very involved in the Baptist church there. I can see that God has given me this gift of music and I always wanted to use that to be a positive influence in all areas of life. I see myself as a Christian in the world, being a light. And so I don't see myself just being in the Christian scene or in the Christian music industry, I want to go out in the world and be with people and be a witness."

Meeker

So what are Meeker all about? Rachel explains, "Fundamentally, we are trying to reach people in a spiritual way and challenge people and just celebrate our humanity, what God has given us. Celebrate all aspects of our life experience and try to acknowledge it so people can say, 'Oh yeah, I feel like that too.' That's the most important thing for me." Tom adds, "And also to entertain people. When they come to gigs we just want to give people a blast, let them feel the beats. If we have a full set evening, we start with acoustic songs, very gentle and then build it up till the end is like dance. We just take people on a journey and to have a good time. If they take something out of it, take it home and talk about it, then that's fantastic!"

To coincide with the Soul In The City event in London, Meeker have released a single of the same name. The track isn't on the album. Tom explains, "The song was inspired by the video from Soul Survivor. We saw it in our church and we wondered how we could get involved and do something. So our song came out of nowhere and now it's part of the live set at the moment. We're looking for someone who wants to put it out, put it on radio and get people interested and hear the "soul in the city" line. It's more PR for the event basically!"

Meeker

During the Soul In The City event the band will be playing lunchtime concerts in Soho Square. Tom comments, "It's where all the cynical people will be! All the media and film industry have their lunch breaks there. It is a wonderful square with trees and everything, the people always hang out there in the summer." Tom is very familiar with Soho since it's still the home of the TV and film industry in Britain and it's on Soho streets that Tom has plied his wares and gained commissions for film and TV music. In dealing with the industry he says, "I always try to connect and to live how God wants me to live. I mean it's exciting. It's really good to meet people and to always have a little opportunity to throw something in, you know? I think that people should be out there! Bring the church to the people, don't expect them to come to the Sunday morning service. Just mix, go out, have friends, have relationships and let God work through how you live." Rachel adds, "Your life is the example, isn't it? It's how you live and people seeing how you live and how you deal with things and how you handle your relationships. That's the way you are an example and an influence." Tom concludes, "In the end it's down to Jesus. It's between Jesus and the person to make the decision. I can't make people Christians, I can just be a tool and people say, 'Okay, I want to live like that.' Then they have to make the decision."

DJ PROFILE: CAREY JARVIS

James Holt interviewed the pioneering Michigan deejay

Carey Jarvis

Carey Jarvis has been broadcasting his show The Dance Chapel on WOCR for an incredible 13 years. A pioneer of Christian dance music and just dance music generally to the residents of Olivet, Michigan (USA), I spoke to Carey about how he got his break, his vision for the show and his opinions on the role of Christians in the secular music industry.

It was his passion for music and Christ that first attracted a WOCR deejay to Carey and landed him an interview on the station to talk about music and faith. Impressed and intrigued by some of the records Carey was introducing, the station's manager offered him his own show. From the outset The Dance Chapel has had an unashamedly Christian focus, there's no "slipping it in the back door" here and the majority of the show is made up of Christian records, or at least records produced by Christians - something that frequently surprises listeners to this day. "A lot of people are shocked and amazed when they find out it's a Christian track [being played] and impressed with the quality. They often come down to look through the vinyls and CDs and find out more about the artist." This provides further opportunities for Carey to share his faith. "I never push anything on anyone, but I find they often have a lot of questions and open up about things going on in their own lives. I try to be a good listener as well as a sharer."

I asked Carey how he thought Christians in the music industry should respond to the current trend in secular music to talk openly about promiscuous sex, drugs, drunkenness and so on. "Well, they are welcome to speak out against it, as long as it's tasteful. I think the better thing to do is show the other side of things and what God has to offer. It's rather nice to have a love song from the likes of Daniel Bedingfield that doesn't equate love with sex, and it's not speaking out against anything so much as offering a different view in a way people are more likely to consider rather than being defensive from feeling attacked."

It's not uncommon to hear Christians grumbling that there is no decent Christian dance music or that Christians seem to be lagging the secular industry by several years. As someone who has had his finger on the pulse of Christian dance music longer than most I asked Carey whether he agreed. "There is some truth to that, but I think a large part of the scene is no longer settling for less like they used to. People want quality and they are demanding it. We have had some incredible success with people like Shiloh, Andy Hunter, Slyder, etc, and more. I do think there's a lot of crap music in the mix, but it's the same in the secular world. Anyone who has two turntables thinks he's a DJ and anyone who's spent an hour on Fruityloops thinks he's a producer. We hear a lot of that stuff and it saddens us, but we forget there are just as many people at the same level of talent trying to make it in the secular music world too. It's just part of the biz."