Amplify Worship: A New Era of Christian Unity

Will’s journey from a life of chaos to becoming a Christian music producer is nothing short of miraculous. After a series of arrests and a lifestyle steeped in drugs and partying, his father gave him an ultimatum that would change his life forever. Discover how attending "U-Turn for Christ" paved the way for Will's profound spiritual awakening, restored his family connections, and ignited his passion for creating music that glorifies Jesus Christ. You'll hear firsthand accounts of his transformation and how he channels his past into a powerful testament of faith and redemption.

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Eternal Culture Clothing: https://eternalculture.net/
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To Book Will for a Gig: aesaphofficial@gmail.com

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Chapters

• 0:00 Transformation Through Music
• 13:07 Navigating Christian Ministry and Culture
• 22:48 Amplify

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Will, aka Asaph Spielman, is a Christian music producer. He was headed for destruction in a life of partying at festivals and had a few stints in jail because of alcohol and drugs. Jesus broke through his hardened heart and transformed him into the man he is today. Through his music, he weaves the gospel and his love for Jesus. It is a powerful example of true worship. You are going to love his story and maybe even find a new love for a different style of worship music. Be sure to share this episode with family and friends so they too can be blessed by the contents of this episode.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Hey, will, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm very excited to talk to you because you are one of my friend's husband. You have one of my favorite genre music jobs having techno music. I love that. My daughter told me this morning that she's your biggest fan is what she says. So we love you. We love Kat. I'm very excited to talk to you and spread the word of your awesome music. You do as ASEP. So before we get into that, why don't you give us a brief overview of your journey to Christ? How did you find Jesus?

Speaker 2: 1:21

Sure, yeah, I basically I grew up in a Christian family. My parents became born again when I was in about middle school, so it was an interesting kind of process to see them. So when I was little they didn't know Jesus and so to kind of get assimilated into the church, as they were growing in Christ they sort of took to it and I didn't. And then around high school, you know, I just completely left the church. My parents couldn't, they tried, they couldn't force me to do it. It was a hard thing and you know, I just wanted to hang out with my friends at high school and do what they were doing, which was smoking a lot of weed and partying, and so I wound up doing that for a while and then I got really involved in the festival scene and that's how I got into making music. I was really into just the music festival scene and it was when I started going. The ones I was going to was a big mix of kind of like psychedelic rock bands and EVM music. It was like a weird combo but it worked. So that's I like simultaneously got into just. It was many different genres of music but I always wanted to be in a band and I was never a good musician so I couldn't. So then I just was like, all right, well, then I'm just going to make my own music. And then I started to really get into just music on there.

Speaker 2: 2:49

But you know, it was just, you know, really destructive lifestyle. You know I traveled a lot but I hurt a lot of people. I hurt myself, I hurt my family. I got arrested a couple times and you know it was just always broke wherever I went. I'm homeless in a lot of places and, and you know, it was just always broke wherever I went, I'm homeless in a lot of places. And, um, you know, really hit rock bottom a few times.

Speaker 2: 3:11

But the kind of the last one was when I got arrested for the second time and I didn't have any money to pay court fees and my family was like my mom and my dad were like fed up with me I was. They kept were kicking me out of the house a bunch of times and they were just like you know, we're not gonna keep helping you if you keep doing what you're doing. And so my dad was like, basically I'll, I'll help pay for your fees if you go to this program. Which was you turn for Christ. It's a discipleship program, it's all.

Speaker 2: 3:40

It also is legally a like a rehab, but it's really focused on our relationship with Jesus and discipleship, and so I didn't really know what I was getting into. I just kind of said, yes to pay my court, for him to pay my court fees, and he handed me his Bible and I started reading it and that was that was it. You know, I was really. Not only was I really into music festival and drugs, but I was also really into the occult, because there's actually a lot of new age and occult mysticism tied in with a lot of the music festivals. It seems kind of weird, but it's part of the culture.

Speaker 1: 4:19

I get it.

Speaker 2: 4:20

Yeah, and so I was very as I was zealous for that stuff and I read a lot of books about mysticism and the occult and new age but I always heard about the Bible. My parents were always talking about the Bible and I had never read it. So that's kind of was the turning point in my life when I just said I'm going to give the Bible as much of a chance as I gave any of those other books on the occult, and it just blew me away and it's opened the door for Jesus to enter my heart and I accepted him as my Lord and Savior and I found purpose for my life and that was a wrap. I told my parents that I apologized to them. They forgave me and restored my relationship with them instantly after just hurting them for over a decade, and he's just done so much in my life. So that's kind of how short story how it happened.

Speaker 1: 5:09

That's awesome, that's very powerful and the love of parents is very important.

Speaker 2: 5:15

Yeah, their prayer.

Speaker 1: 5:16

Yeah, prayer I mean when I strayed away. My grandparents prayed for me. All the time my parents prayed for me. I don't know where I would have been if I didn't have family who constantly loved me through everything that I went through. I'm very glad that you had that firm foundation in your parents, that they were able to be there for you and walk through this with you but also give you the tough love that you needed to. That was great that your dad said that.

Speaker 2: 5:43

Absolutely yeah. No, they enabled me for longer than they should have, and you know that wasn't. You know they were growing too, and I was just. You know I was reckless, so you know they did a great job, but you know it was there. As they were growing in Christ, too, I was drifting away. So it was great that they got to the point where my dad was just like I'm not doing this anymore, and that was what I needed.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Yeah, yeah. Some of us need a swift kick in the pants. I was going to ask you have you always had a love for music? Or was that just something that happened once you hit high school, because I know you said you got really into festival life? Happened once you hit high school, because I know you said you got really into festival life, but did you always have a love for any music, or was that just something that happened through time?

Speaker 2: 6:37

Sure, yeah, it was weird. I always grew up as an artist so I always loved to draw. That was always a thing. I was never good at music. I never had piano lessons.

Speaker 2: 6:43

I started making music at 20, in school, and I didn't really go to college so I didn't work on any music really. But I got really into music in high school. I started to a little bit and I met some friends in middle school that introduced me to it was all of my my friends in in middle school and high school that really introduced me to most of the music that I liked and, um, I, I loved music, yeah, just like listening to different kinds of music, and it was all the quintessential emo stuff back then, like Deo Sin and you know, the Use was one of my first concerts that I ever went to and Under Oath and stuff like that. And then more obscure kind of I always kind of liked metal music and a lot of different stuff. And then big thing for me and my friends right after high school was we all got into records. So and I would just dump money on records. We would there's a in Princeton, there's a record store and we would just go buy records. My dad had his. My dad gave me his entire record collection which was filled with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, which became my favorite bands, which was filled with Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, which became my favorite bands, and so I really got.

Speaker 2: 7:56

And then the music festival scene loves that stuff as well, that old psychedelic rock and so that. And then I got into the Grateful Dead a little bit too. My dad didn't really like them as much, so that was. It was getting the records and then finding all of this music that had already that's been out for a long time, that was kind of like legendary. It still kind of is. And so yeah, I'd say records was like one of the big things that really expanded. And then obviously then by the time I started going to music festivals, I was always I I'm not, you know, I always kind of look at myself as not maybe not good, but I think I have a good taste in music and that's not, that's probably not a good thing. I feel like more like a music snob sometimes a little bit that's okay.

Speaker 1: 8:43

Some of us have that talent of knowing what's good and what's not good.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, and it's. It's really just. I have I'm really just opinionated with my taste and I like, I like certain things a lot and I really don't like certain things yeah, I'm kind of the same way.

Speaker 1: 8:57

If I don't like something, I'm more than willing to let you know, and may or may not offend you the way it comes out. So how would you classify the type of music that you make? Like? What genre would you call it for those who don't?

Speaker 2: 9:13

know, for asap it would be wave music, and then for seven stars it would be hyper pop okay, and how did you come? Up. Really no, go ahead no, you go ahead finish I was gonna say I can get more very kind of detailed on like the description for both of those, but as that's the best I can with keeping it simple, Okay, how did you come up with your stage names for both of those?

Speaker 2: 9:35

ASAPH, I prayed for both of those names. Asaph, I was going under the stage name that I went with for a very long time. When I was in the festival scene and I felt the Lord was telling me that I needed a new name and I wanted a new name. I just I was done. I didn't. That wasn't who I was anymore. So I was you wanted to be fresh.

Speaker 2: 10:00

Yeah, exactly. So if I'm going to keep making music, because I already had been making music for six years before I gave my life back to the Lord so the first one I was it was during COVID and our church was doing church outside and Wednesday nights they had psalms and songs. So they would play some songs and then they would read psalms and my pastor at the time, pastor Chris, read Psalm. I forget what psalm it is, but it was a psalm by Asaph, and as soon as I heard him say that, I was like that's it, that's my name song by asap. And as soon as I heard him say that, I was like that's it, that's my name, yeah, and so that was the first time that was like that was when I was strictly doing edm and um, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:43

And then I wanted to start making hyper pop as well. I was really encouraged by hyper pop, by bride boy is one of my. He's a. He's a close musical friend of mine and influence in my musical journey. I don't know, the Lord put seven stars on my heart and then I was like I don't think it's good enough and I said it to a few people. And then I was Lord, I need a name. And he was like I already gave you one. I heard him say that it was seven stars. So then, yeah, I started using that alias as well. And that one was through prayer. Asaph was more of a. Just I heard it and I knew. So, yeah, but I sought both of them through prayer, yeah very good.

Speaker 1: 11:23

How do you give God the glory in your music?

Speaker 2: 11:25

Yeah, I just, you know, a lot of times it's just I talk about Jesus and what he's done for me. It's a little bit easier with Seven Stars because it's very lyric driven, so there's a lot in this topic. But I believe that most of what makes music Christian are the lyrics. So I mean it's a debated topic Can you have a Christian song without any lyrics? I can't say I really don't. I want to be clear. So I put lyrics on my music that point people to Jesus and that's the best way I can do it and be confident in knowing that I gave Jesus the glory. So it's through the lyrics and what they're talking about the message and that could vary, but it's always in one way pointing to God and giving glory to God.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Yeah, when I listen to it I can definitely hear your heart in it. I can hear the lyrics. You can tell that God has done some great things in your life through the passion you have and what you've seen and, like I said, my family's a big fan. So how do you make sure you keep God the focus of your music and your home life? How do you make sure you don't stray away back to anything you may have done in the past?

Speaker 2: 12:45

Yeah, it's a constant reevaluating where I am. Prayer is a huge part of it. I am prayer is a huge part of it. This has been something where I've been trying to even just navigate myself in prayer about working with secular artists, because that that's something that it's you are who you surround yourself with.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Yeah, so, and it's, it's not. There's a bunch of people that I love, that I've, that I've worked with in the music industry since coming to Christ, that don't really follow Jesus or would call themselves Christians, and it's hard to navigate because I want to love everybody and treat everybody equally, but I know that I can't compromise and I don't want to put myself in a position where I might be tempted to go back into using drugs or anything like that. And it's a fine line because we have to be in the world but not of the world. So I don't know if Kathleen told you, we went to Bonnaroo the other month and, yeah, it presented a lot of challenges, but the only reason we went is because we felt like God was calling us to go and even though it was a secular scene, we weren't going by ourselves. We were going with a big group of Christians with the mission of spreading the gospel and sharing the love of Jesus with people, and so to be able to go there and go together and be strong together was huge.

Speaker 2: 14:13

And that's kind of the biggest thing is I can't. If I am going to go. I'm not going to go there and go together and be strong together was huge, and so that and that's kind of the biggest thing is, I can't. If I am going to go, I'm never. I'm not going to go by myself at this point anymore, unless it's like sometimes there were those times where that I felt like the Lord did tell me to go on my own, but at this point it can never be something that is habitual, because that's how you start to drift.

Speaker 2: 14:36

And then, if I keep going to Philly every weekend and going to shows by myself and they're all what everybody there is doing and it's like, okay, why am I going there, what's the purpose of it? And to just be open and be accountable, I tell Kathleen everything, everything that I'm going through, that I'm feeling, and we obviously went to Bonnaroo together, and so to just remain accountable and kind of give her my vision and what I'm thinking, because if I tell her that I want to do this, I know she's going to question why do you want to do that? What are your motives there? How is that going to bring Jesus glory, those things, yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:15

It's good to have a good support system like that.

Speaker 2: 15:18

It's everything. Yeah, we keep each other strong.

Speaker 1: 15:21

She's amazing. Anyway, I love her. But, yeah, that's very good and it's very wise when you've been in a situation where you know a temptation, it's wise to have a good support system, a good foundation, to know your limits and your boundaries, to constantly check in with yourself and say am I able to do this? What are my motives? Which is very key for anything that we do. We need to know what are our motives for doing that and, as a Christian artist wanting to share the gospel, it's a perfect place to do. It would be at a non-Christian event, but there's also other issues that you got to worry about. So it's very good that you are taking the necessary steps, precautions and doing what's necessary.

Speaker 1: 16:09

It reminds me of John Cooper from Skillet. Him and his wife are in the band together. I don't know if you know who Skillet is, but they go and do a lot of non-Christian related concerts. They're involved in festivals that aren't Christian, but you can tell where their loyalties lie. Even the people that you know are with them respect what they do. They don't ask them to do things that they know they won't go for. They're just very conviction driven and the people they tour with know that, even if they aren't Christian and they respect it. So that's good that you are doing that, because it will give you more options in the future if you feel firm enough to be able to go out into the world and share your music that way, and it will definitely change hearts, because the lyrics are pretty powerful. Okay, so I have another question. Your profile picture is unique. At first I didn't get it and then I thought about it. I was like, oh, I do get it, so do you want to explain what it is and why you're using it?

Speaker 2: 17:18

Because it's very profound. Is it this one?

Speaker 1: 17:20

Yes, yes, it's the one with the hands in front of your face. It's very powerful once you actually know what it means.

Speaker 2: 17:29

I was at Bonnaroo and playing music, sammy Praise invited me out, so he's a Christian DJ. We moved to Philly recently and we met up and have gotten close and he's been a blessing to me. He's a Christian DJ and a promoter. He invited us out to Bonnaroo and I got to link up with him. And then Chase, who is DJ, dawn Patrol, who is a Christian DJ and producer, mississippi I think he's gonna probably watch this, yeah, but he somewhere in the enigma of the center of America. And then Sammy left so it was just me and Chase and of course Kathleen was there that it was basically me and Chase DJjing the whole weekend. So I I probably dj'd for about 12 hours and through like the late hours of the night. We wound up doing the last.

Speaker 2: 18:23

The last three days we dj'd from 12 to 6 um in the morning, all all night, playing a lot of music and a lot of different people were coming through and there was a lot of times where people were coming through and the whole idea was to just draw people in to the campsite so they can get ministered to. I found there was a bunch of people who were in the audience that weren't dressed, didn't have a lot of clothing on, weren't dressed, didn't have a lot of clothing on, and I didn't want to look at that. I obviously have a wife that I love very much, and even if I didn't, I wouldn't have been wanting to just look at women who aren't decently dressed, who are just. God bless them. They're out there and looking for attention, they're looking for love. That's their choice.

Speaker 2: 19:13

But you know, for me, the Lord calls us to honor him in our minds and in our hearts, and so you know to protect my eyes and to not, you know, lust after anybody is just. You know that's on me and that's my responsibility to do that. Even if we were going into a situation where that was going to be there, I could just do whatever I can to protect my eyes, and so the whole idea of putting my hands up was to just protect my eyes, and then I could point to Christ simultaneously, and then I just thought it looked cool. So I did it for the whole first night I just had my hands up, just like the whole time.

Speaker 2: 19:51

And then in the morning. Chase was just like what were you doing with your hands? It was so crazy.

Speaker 2: 19:56

It looked so cool started a trend and you didn't even know it yes, it's funny because a lot of other wave artists they actually they do. They put their hands in front of their face, but in like different weird ways. So it's not like I even invented it, but it was just for me. I was, very specifically, I'm pointing to the Lord and protecting my eyes and I could just look down at the decks and just do what I'm doing and then, if I have to look up, hands up.

Speaker 1: 20:27

That's awesome, Very awesome. Okay, you have a new company that you're starting right. Why don't you tell us about that?

Speaker 2: 20:35

Yeah, so Eternal Culture Apparel is a Christian streetwear brand. It's supposed to sort of accompany the music. It's just a reflection of the culture, the Christian culture and where it's at, and the sort of the underground and sort of fringe aspect of Christian art and Christian music. It's also just a reflection of my taste and things that I prefer Pulled back stuff, sort of minimal and then kind of fringe and not like really popular I guess. So it's great to be able to also rep the word of God to where things that have scripture on them and the words.

Speaker 2: 21:14

The Bible says that his word will never return void. It always goes out with a purpose and it prospers wherever it goes, and so I think it's a cool way to be able to share the word and also be able to express myself artistically and then make some money. That would support that ministry as well would be great. That's what I'm working towards right now, is just something that as a ministry, can generate some income for our family but also be able to share the word simultaneously and also be something that might be attractive to people who just may like the style also. Yeah, so that's kind of that.

Speaker 1: 21:53

So you and Kat have a festival coming up that you put together, correct? Why don't you?

Speaker 2: 22:00

tell us a show, yeah, okay. So yeah, amplify is gonna be a christian edm show. It's a worship bass night. You could say it's a rave, I don't know. It kind of has a bad connotation, but I never. Even when I was going to shows, we never called them raves, because I don't know raves. Not that raves are bad, it's just we never called them that. Yeah, and it might be because raves were more techno and house music and I always liked really obscure bass music and dubstep. Yeah, someone might go to a rave and go to bass night and think they're the exact same thing, and that's probably someone who doesn't listen to the music very much. Yeah, but there'll probably be some house music there. It'll. It'll essentially be that kind of style setting um.

Speaker 2: 22:48

But the whole idea of it is for it to be something that's for Christians, that will build up the body and be a way for Christians to come together and worship him in a way that's non-conventional and break the boundaries for what modern day worship is. And I always like to remind people that worship isn't a genre of music, it's a lifestyle and it's a hard posture and it's giving everything to Christ. That's kind of the heart behind the event Amplify is to amplify the name of Christ and have Christ be amplified in our lives. And just a place for people to come together in the area and hopefully just make some connections and for the body to really strengthen each other, and really just wanted to create like a cool outlet, for Christians may have not know about this style of music or even know that it exists, or maybe all they really know about is the traditional worship style of music. And so to come and to experience worship in a totally new way. We're hoping it's going to be a powerful experience for everyone.

Speaker 1: 23:58

And that's going to be in New York, right.

Speaker 2: 24:00

Yep Manhattan on October 4th.

Speaker 1: 24:05

Very nice, and if people want to sign up for that, how do they do that?

Speaker 2: 24:09

Yeah, there are ticket links in my bio and Instagram and there's a Cyber Gospel Instagram page. There's going to be the ticket links in the bio there, but that's pretty much the easiest way to find the tickets by mouth is to check the Instagram bio.

Speaker 1: 24:26

All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on today, Will, and talking with us. I enjoyed the conversation and I'm pretty sure there's going to be many people signing up ready to experience a new style of worship. Thanks so much with us. I enjoyed the conversation and I'm pretty sure there's going to be many people signing up ready to experience a new style of worship.

Speaker 2: 24:38

Thanks so much. Yeah, thanks for having me on.