{"id":274,"date":"2008-10-09T07:49:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T07:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html"},"modified":"2008-10-09T07:49:36","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T07:49:36","slug":"pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html","title":{"rendered":"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/118\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"224\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/span>Longtime bassist for Grammy nominated and Dove Award winning hard rock band Pillar, Michael &#8220;Kalel&#8221; Wittig recently announced that he will leave the group to pursue other opportunities.<br \/>\nIn addition to spending more time with family, Wittig plans to focus his energies on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jmamusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">JMA Music,<\/a> a management\/marketing\/consulting company he developed with partner Joey Avalos in 2007. JMA Music&#8217;s current clients include emerging bands <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/oneminutehalo\" target=\"_blank\">One Minute Halo <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/aroadlesstraveled\" target=\"_blank\">A Road Less Traveled<\/a>.<br \/>\nHe&#8217;ll also continue performing, with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/starsgodim\" target=\"_blank\">Stars Go Dim<\/a>, the band he created with former Pillar drummer Lester Estelle. The band also includes Joey Avalos (Justifide, Sky Harbor) and Chris Cleveland, and with a pop\/rock sound is a significant departure from the Pillar sound. The group will release its debut EP October 21, 2008 in advance of a full-length project, <em>Love Gone Mad<\/em>, produced by Estelle, scheduled for next year.<br \/>\nWittig told his Facebook and MySpace fans, &#8220;It&#8217;s been an amazing 10 years of my life that I will never forget &#8230;There are many reasons why, but it is just the right time &#8230;I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of something that has changed so many lives.&#8221;<br \/>\n<strong>RELATED POST<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/no-changes-for-pillar-despite.html\" target=\"_blank\">No changes for Pillar, despite line up changes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Longtime bassist for Grammy nominated and Dove Award winning hard rock band Pillar, Michael &#8220;Kalel&#8221; Wittig recently announced that he will leave the group to pursue other opportunities. In addition to spending more time with family, Wittig plans to focus his energies on JMA Music, a management\/marketing\/consulting company he developed with partner Joey Avalos in&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music-news","category-christian-pop-music","category-christian-rock-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band - Gospel Soundcheck<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band - Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Longtime bassist for Grammy nominated and Dove Award winning hard rock band Pillar, Michael &#8220;Kalel&#8221; Wittig recently announced that he will leave the group to pursue other opportunities. In addition to spending more time with family, Wittig plans to focus his energies on JMA Music, a management\/marketing\/consulting company he developed with partner Joey Avalos in&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gospel Soundcheck\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-09T07:49:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joanne Brokaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band - Gospel Soundcheck","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band - Gospel Soundcheck","og_description":"Longtime bassist for Grammy nominated and Dove Award winning hard rock band Pillar, Michael &#8220;Kalel&#8221; Wittig recently announced that he will leave the group to pursue other opportunities. In addition to spending more time with family, Wittig plans to focus his energies on JMA Music, a management\/marketing\/consulting company he developed with partner Joey Avalos in&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html","og_site_name":"Gospel Soundcheck","article_published_time":"2008-10-09T07:49:36+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg"}],"author":"Joanne Brokaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html","name":"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band - Gospel Soundcheck","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg","datePublished":"2008-10-09T07:49:36+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-09T07:49:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#\/schema\/person\/80efa9662d1538af82f15e223a742cad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/files\/import\/MichaelKalelWittigsmall.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2008\/10\/pillar-bassist-michael-kalel-w.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pillar bassist Michael Kalel Wittig leaves the band"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/","name":"Gospel Soundcheck","description":"Beliefnet Voices - 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