The Pillar Saints

M’chel and Danny met in 2004 at their church in Southern California when the worship leader of the main service put out the call to the congregation for musicians to form an additional service, primarily aimed at the church youth, and anyone drawn toward more contemporary music in their service. The years the band was together produced very accomplished musicians from many who had never even held an instrument before, but were willing to be trained for higher purposes.
During the initial very lengthy rehearsals, M’chel and Danny discovered that they had uncanny similarities in musical tastes which no one else shared. These chance discoveries usually revealed themselves by way of blank stares from the other band members whenever either of them would make reference to various classic rock musicians during rehearsals. This realization quickly led them to sharing music CD’s and DVD’s together, which further increased their musical horizons to include their strongest musical influences, Neil Young, John Mark McMillan and David Eugene Edwards.
After a few years, the band members had started to go their separate ways in pursuit of college, or to bring their talents to new churches after getting married, or in Danny’s case, to the mission fields of Africa. During the year that followed, while staying on through various personnel changes in an effort to keep the second service available, M’chel began singing at a friend’s church on Saturday nights to help get their new service up and running. One Saturday night M’chel and Danny were asked to be the guest worship band. After the experience of getting to lead worship there on several other occasions, and realizing how well their talents worked together as a duo and how much they enjoyed performing together, M’chel had it in her head that they had something too unique to just let go of, so she called Danny up one afternoon and asked if he’d be interested in starting a band. He readily agreed. Shortly after, they had begun trying to become a band, developing their sound, practicing at her house around the dining room table, because her deaf dog really enjoyed their groove.
One night after seeing some friend’s bands play out on Sunset, M’chel mentioned to the promoter (another friend) that she wanted to talk to him about her band, never imagining that he’d book them for two weeks from that night, sound unheard… Danny received a panicked text at 2.30 am stating that they were booked at the Cat Club on Sunset in two weeks. They had never played anywhere but at church events and services previous to this upcoming date, yet that first gig led to a two year stint at the Cat Club where they were privileged to have met nearly every musician whose CD’s they owned, and where they learned so very much about being performers. During those two years M’chel and Danny made it their mission to bring the Good News to the people in dark places by way of their music. What they sang and played Sunday mornings would find its way into their sets Sunday nights, raising eyebrows and the occasional light-hearted jokes about the non- drinking, non-swearing, non-smoking, drug free, Undercover Christians in the house (who also happened to be vegetarian…) but they also gained respect and made connections with people who trust and confide in them to this day.
With their first EP now available, “Leave It Behind,” M’chel & Danny give a taste of what happens when world views collide...
So it's been two years hence and lots of new things have transpired on our musical journey. With the addition of two new members (both deeply devoted Christians, who serve faithfully at their churches on their Worship Teams), Brent Young on drums, and shortly thereafter, Darren Davis on five string bass, the magic formula was complete!