About Bodi-wan
Welcome to Bodi-wan
Why this website?
The Bodi-wan site exists to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ through by answering biblical authority questions surrounding origins through rock/metal music. The Bible says:
Colossians 3:17-18
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another
with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude
in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through
him.
This ministry is to help uphold the authority of Scripture presuppositionally. God doesn’t try to prove that He exists, nor prove that His Word is the Truth. Using God’s example, this ministry will also not try to prove God’s existence and or His Word. We accept that God exists and that His Word is the truth. This is our axiom and will use the Bible to build our thinking when looking at the world.
When ministering, we want to lay the foundation of the Gospel first, so people will understand the bad news in Genesis (sin and death) and why they need Jesus Christ, the good news (to save us from sin and death).
Our hope and prayer is that Bodi-wan music will be an encouragement to Christians to stand firm on the authority of God’s Word and a stepping stone to help non-Christians understand the Bible can be trusted in this scientific age – and as a result accept Christ as their savior.
In Christ,
Bodi-wan
Biography of Bodi-wan
Bodi-wan is a vibrant vocalist stemming from the past ten years. His career began with a Christian rock band called Zeo [not Zao whom is popular now], which was Greek for ‘on fire’. The band had influence from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden on the secular side and Stryper and Petra on the Christian side. He began singing while in high school and the band lasted about year doing original tunes.
The band split off when guitarist Shawn Doggett left to pursue a different job and drummer Bill Duvendack and Bodi-wan went off to college. Other members were Eric McClelland, Shane Beddingfield, Chris Babb, and Brenda Job. Bodi-wan went to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, which was a hot spot for music in 1992 but died quickly by the 1994. His studies kept him busy considering engineering. But this was not going to stop the music that was brewing inside him.
In 1994, his career led him to drive over 2 hours every weekend and some weeknights to St. Louis, MO to play with a band called AFTRSHOK. It was a band with former drummer Bill Duvendack who called him on the job. It had a duel guitar attack with female lead, Vicki Vroman and rhythm, Rich White. They recruited Todd Keesal to fire up the bass. The band focused on originals but played a few covers including Fight, White Zombie, and few short lived others.
AFTRSHOK did record a demo on a 4-track that included Black Death – Vroman, Metal Silenze – White and Hodge, Musician’s Creed – Hodge and White, and Pain – Hodge and Duvendack. The demo was never released but the band kept playing the scene in St. Louis. Due to differences, disarray among the band members started to build. The band started to go through a decline. Mixed emotions were leading Bodi-wan to consider leaving the band. He was also still studying in engineering and driving several hours just to make gigs and practices. Finally, the decision was made to break up or reform. At this, Bodi-wan decided to step out.
The band did record a demo with some of the same songs but was never professionally released. Later problems caused the drummer to leave and the band changed their name to Culture in Crisis.
This lead to the 1995 forming of Ancient Silenze. The band was weird formation that included Bodi-wan, rookie Rudy Hodge on guitar, Bill Duvendack on drums (all of whom were related) and various bassists, including Alex Beddingfield, Kerry Baptist, Mick DeWitt, and Guitarist/Bassist Kevin Royalty. The band played some of the old AFTRSHOK songs, some more originals, and quite a few covers Priest, Maiden, Fight, Saxon, etc.
Guitarist, Rudy Hodge with his high-flying antics and incredible technical expertise and Bodi-wan's massive range and stage emotion launched the band to an ever-higher fan base. Centered out of the middle of nowhere in Western Illinois, they were playing crowds well over a hundred people in the middle of nowhere.
The band continued to play around Carbondale, IL while recording a short demo via a new method of CD recording by Bodi-wan and Paul Krush. They did a 1-try 1 take direct kind of deal that was kind of a novel concept.
By this time, Bodi-wan had graduated with his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and had begun studying for his Master’s degree. The band recorded 5 songs on an album entitled ‘Aware to Wonder’. The songs included a couple of the AFTRSHOK songs as well as ‘No One Hears My Screams’ – Rudy Hodge and ‘Aware to Wonder’ – Bodi-wan. They sold quite a few albums just from their fan base and did the entire thing themselves. The album included a live version of ‘Hell Bent for Leather’ by Judas Priest. With this cover, it was easy to tell that the talent was there and flourishing. Few could even cover the song, let alone do it with such elegance. The band finally ended when Duvendack called it quits on the drums.
Bodi-wan had received his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering and soon accepted a position as faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale’s Mechanical Engineering Department. He was one of the youngest to ever hold a position of this status in the entire state of Illinois. He was teaching courses for every level in of bachelor’s engineering at the age of 24. He was easily becoming a standout among those he was studying especially boasting a Master’s GPA of 3.94/4.0.
But this didn’t stop his musical career. Rudy and Bodi-wan continued with a band entitled Insanity and Genius. It had quite a powerful feel as the music was in the vein of power metal – Gamma Ray, Helloween, Judas Priest, Primal Fear, Dream Theater, Joshua, Old Bride, Crystavox, Recon, Iron Maiden, Fight, etc. The band has had trouble finding a suitable drummer to put down the tracks but continued to prep for recording. Casey Wellman joined in on bass for the recording of 'The Saint'.
In the mean time, Bodi-wan had been learning to play the guitar and bass after playing with his brother Rudy. He had already picked up quite a bit of drumming talent in his career but decided to expand his horizons. He made an audition with a Christian Band named 'Fire and Brimstone' to play guitar. It features Mark Muir on bass from Herrin, IL. They began writing and putting together an all-out Christian Metal album that few could boast. In the process, Bodi-wan took a test engineering position with Caterpillar, Inc. in Peoria, IL. This caused a disillusion to the band in Southern Illinois.
Mark took up the slack by forming a band known as Metal Messiah, which recorded and has taken off very well in the underground Christian arena. Bodi-wan had recently purchased a portable studio to go with all his accumulated musical equipment and decided to put all the songs he had written down on CD. Due to the move, he was without access to a drum set – which was one thing he didn’t own himself. So the idea was to lay down the tracks with a cheesy machine to keep time and then go through and change it later. But that never happened due to lack of access to the drums. But oh well. Maybe next album.
The album – ’Evilution’ took about 4 months to record, mix, and master. It was done musically solo with a lot of trust in God. It has 8 original songs that each rock! It is classic heavy melodic metal. The second you hear it you’ll notice the influence of technical power metal mixed with passion. The songs were written by Bodi-wan, mixed, mastered, engineered, arranged, and played by Bodi-wan! This is an awesome accomplishment.
The album has received awesome reviews. It seems to be so aggressive in song and word and talent that people are just left in awe. The album is truly inspired and is a phenomenal career booster. The songs include ‘Open Your Mind’, ‘Allegiance’, ‘Angels Roaming’, ‘Revelation Call’, ‘Knights of the Holy Council’, ‘Filled with the Holy Spirit’, ‘Dialogue’, and ‘Evilution’. Some of the songs will instantly get stuck in your head and makes you want to listen to it over and over again.
At this point Insanity and Genius remained stagnant as work scheduled continued to wreak havoc. The preliminary album takes are awesome but need time to record the final songs. This album and recording has been placed on hold until further notice but that hasn’t stopped Bodi-wan.
He has stepped up to a hard rock praise and worship band called Sustain Glory to play bass. They were in need and since his move to Peoria has slowed Insanity and Genius, he filled in the slot. They have been playing a mix of originals, and covers. The style has been recognized and the stage performance has had a large influence on the area as well. The site is www.sustainglory.com. The band intends to record soon.
Bodi-wan has finished solo album #2! It is entitled “A Candle in the Darkness”. It seems to have more of a power metal edge. He has drums now but no drum microphones so it has a mix of real drums and drum programming. The album got some good reviews!
Bodi-wan has moved to Northern Kentucky to pursue a job in the ministry.
‘X-Secular’ is complete in 2006. Rudy Hodge has a guest song on the album called ‘Ranks of God’. He is an excellent guitarist and his vocals aren’t bad either! Bodi-wan is in the process of moving to Indiana! He and his wife are expecting their first child in July, 2006. Keep us in your prayers.
Be prepared…
Correspondence:
Bodi-wan’s Music
Melodic Metal with an Edge...Truth
It is impressive to see a musician do an entire power metal album himself...every single part of it...guitars, keys, vox, bass, drums, recording, mixing, mastering...it has to be inspired!
Music is an expression of emotion, if we continue to let machines imitate music then music is truly dead...