AORTA was formed in the summer of 2001 after Dj’s Simon Dayman and Ben Jack had finished a year out together with British Youth For Christ. The pair had become close friends during the year through the busy schedule of touring the country and their common interest of DJ’ing and dance music. In 2004 they joined with sound engineer Andy Searle-Barnes and together they started to develop the idea of fusing dance music and worship together in a way that gave worshippers a fresh approach to engaging with God without alienating non-believers. The result is a mix of funky and gospel house music being spun, as people are led in worship through a mixture of visuals and vocals.

“We really wanted to, and still want to blur the lines between clubbing and church and break down the divides between the Christian and secular music scenes. Aorta is all about encouraging people to respond to God in diverse ways and to discover him in the most unexpected of places”

The boys have spent a lot of time developing their craft, playing at events big and small across the UK over the last few years and exploring different musical styles and approaches to live performance. Since joining with Andy they have also started developing an album of original material that seeks to capture some of the passion and energy of an Aorta live performance. They are also writing a book that asks some difficult questions about what we understand as “worship” and features a variety of well known learned people offering their answers.

“People are always asking us when the album will be ready, and we have to keep disappointing them. It takes a lot time to achieve the difficult targets we’ve set ourselves but when the timing is right we hope that it’s going to get a lot of people very excited and will be worth the wait”

Aorta have been playing at many events within the UK, Soul Survivor, Living Water, Spring Harvest, Easter People and Greenbelt to name a few, as well as playing a variety of clubs and bars near their home towns. The boys still feel that they are developing, but that the time is beginning to feel right.

“We’ve had a lot of great opportunities over the last few years to play all over the place, both on our own terms and with other artists which has been a great experience, we’re just itching to play when ever possible and just keep developing this amazing thing we’ve got going.”

Three years on from setting aorta up, the boys remain focused on what they set out for.

“We’ve only just begun really, so we’ll see how it develops, but we just want the music, the philosophy and hopefully the quality, to speak for itself. Music is music, it doesn’t belong to anyone in particular, it should be there for everyone, and that’s where we want to take it.”