Church of Trance

Nefarious Things is a masterclass in storytelling through sound from one of Trance's heroes Deon Butler, aka. Kaeno. One of our friends here at the Church of Trance I had the chance to talk to him about his origins in Music back in 2024 [ watch / listen / read ], and now in 2025 he continues to innovate through his globally syndicated platform, The Vanishing Point Records. Kaeno has always been the champion of the unsung voices of Trance and pioneers the future of underground music, and Nefarious Things is the stage where he weaves his own personal history, pioneers genre innovation, and embeds emotional resonance into a cohesive album, making this project stand out across both the trance and techno landscapes. Each track invites you not just to hear but to feel the journey, and the collaborations amplify the album’s emotional depth, genre fusion, and storytelling. Each partner brings a distinct flavor, helping Kaeno realize his vision of an album that’s as personal as it is uni...

  // WATCH // LISTEN // READ Trance Jesus What's up, Trance family? I am here with Deon Butler, aka Kaeno he's here in Minneapolis. We've got Mark Sherry coming in town. We're doing this cool interview. I've always wanted to do these because I've seen them online and just kind of talking and just chatting about the scene, about each other, about music. And so we were talking about where trans is going and, like, tell. Tell us your thoughts on this Deon. Like, where you think you see it going and where it is right now. Let's start with where it is right now. Kaeno Well, I see Trance. I see Trance right now as, um. It's the festival sound. I, you know, it left the clubs, and I really see it going. You know, it left underground as well. A little bit more. A little bit mainstream. But I see moving more of the festival circuits out, big stages and that. That niche market of different parts of the world. I do see the harder edge sound of trance, the hard, you ...

One of the biggest lineups I've ever had the opportunity to experience in what will be my 10th Groove Cruise and 7th time performing as Trance Jesus launched last week and broke the internet! Groove Cruise has adopted several exciting brands to represent popular genres, with Abyss and Embark celebrating over a decade since their inception in 2011, Siren's Echo and Taking Back Emo seeing their brands being created during the pandemic, and Rising Tides being introduced on Miami 2023 It's exciting to compare last year's line to see there are 54 artists retrning from the #GCMIA24 with several of them moving to the main lineup (shoutout to our friend 22 Weeks along with talented ladies like my lovely wife Jen Blackburn , Brookie , and Kyliente ).  For #GCMIA25 we're seeing 48 new names on the lineup - such as the LONG sought and most requested Eric Prydz and the technical genius James Hype - and return artists who haven't graced the roster is several years, suc...