Techno Church - About us

Origins

In early 2022, Jewelle Kennedy, Dorian Bourlgholtzer, Alex Heinrich, and Colin Fontaine, met and fostered a friendship from love of music and played weekly on Sundays, among other days, improving their skills as DJs, and becoming more comfortable with the hardware available.

Through this process along with their varied yet complementary interests, all significantly improved over the course of that year, an outcome that solitary and individualistic practice sessions would not render. Due to this multiplier effect of what colloquially became known as Techno Church, there was a drive to expand this effect and incorporate more individuals from the scene.

It was evident the niche of a Sunday meet time provided an environment for conversation surrounding attended events, music sharing, skill improvement, the Philadelphia music scene and how to support its growth.

Intent And Goals

The core intents and interests and goals of Techno Church (TC) are:

Intent to engage in a process of becoming one’s best musical self, whether as a DJ, a producer, a songwriter, musician, and more.

Consistent action towards improvement of one’s musical self over time. Daily or weekly small actions build to great gains over time.

Fostering an environment to push those of all skill levels to be the best they can be and always be pushing their limits.

Building a network of increasingly skilled and technical DJs, producers, and musicians in Philadelphia that are ready for primetime performance at a high level.

What it is

A Process - Consistently listening, preparing, playing, and sharing music with others as we move along on our own musical journeys.

A Mindset - We enter a flow by carving out time and space where we can put our minds towards learning, growing, and becoming better.

A Becoming - Who we are as musical individuals is evolving and the only constant with that is change.

An Activity - Physical action and showing up consistently to reap the benefits of action.

What it is not

A Specific Place - TC has spaces that it takes place in, but the core is that the place is the backdrop for the process. It is the physical space in which the process amongst one's peers is played out. TC will live and exist in many spaces over time, and it will change and adapt based on the spaces it finds itself in.

A People - While there are core people who host in their spaces and facilitate the logistics of the experience, Techno Church is not centered around specific people or personalities as representative of it. TC is always different and always changing based on who shows up on the particular day it is held and what emerges from that.

An Event - TC is held at a specific time and place, but it is not a planned and curated event like a party or show. It is not a conceptual type of night or experience as a primary goal or focus. People do not come to TC simply to be consumers of an idea but to be part of a happening. That happening can incorporate elements of parties, shows, or concepts, but those are secondary augmentations to the main goals.

A Thing - TC is not a physical thing or object. In fact, it is a lot more akin to non-physical things like ideas, dreams, and intentions.

Genre-Specific - There is no limitation on what kinds of genres should be played or produced at TC. Exposing oneself and experimenting with multiple genres will change how one views music and even how they approach their preferred genres.

That being said, a goal of TC is to prepare DJs at all skill levels for prime time, and it should be emphasized that certain genres are more applicable to clubs, bars, events, and social situations than others.

A time to focus on partying - Not a place to continue partying and do substances in as a primary focus. While we like to casually do our ‘sacrament’ at TC, the main focus of TC is becoming a better DJ and musician. Going beyond a casual consumption gets in the way of that focus, and negates any positive growth intent one has at TC.