Authentically Christian Music with a Devout Heart at the Core: Jay Tholen

Jay Tholen is one of the featured creators in our Creator Spotlight Rotating Bundle, one of many perks available now to Christ and Pop Culture Members. 

The Creator Spotlight Rotating Bundle is updated each month with at least one or two new offerings from new creators. We’ll feature ebooks, journals, albums, digital magazines, comics, and anything else we can cram onto the internet for your enjoyment. 

“Tholen isn’t simply making weird music for it’s own sake: there’s a devout heart beating at the core of these songs, as well as a sense of joy and worship that is pretty infectious and moving.” So wrote our own Jason Morehead about one of the artists we come back to time and again when people ask if it’s even possible to create fully-fledged “Christian” music. Tholen’s music is best described as actively genuine. Tholen doesn’t hold back when it comes to his spiritual beliefs, and his artistic ingenuity results in music that is equal parts engrossing and confounding. The more time you spend with this album, the more you’ll grow to appreciate the man behind it.

Visit Jay Tholen’s Bandcamp

Tholen’s also offered up You Will Be, a small game “about inherent worth,” according to Tholen. “Move the hand with your mouse, and click to cup the baby and keep it from harm.” It’s a short, small, game, but taken in the right frame of mind it’s not an experience you’ll easily forget. This game is unavailable anywhere else and is a CAPC exclusive.

Click here to find out more about Dropsy and pre-order your copy!

Tholen is currently working on Dropsy, a point-and-click adventure game, coming out in November for PC, Mac, and Linux which you can pre-order here. In an interview with our editor-in-chief Richard Clark for Gamechurch, Tholen had this to say about Dropsy:

There’s a big theme of Dropsy facing all kinds of rejection or feeling like he doesn’t belong, and I think that’s a universal human thing. Yeah, there’s definitely some of that in there. He’s misunderstood often. I would say “yes” to that one.

There’s some things about his character that are revealed in his backstory that would help me explain why I would relate to him more. It has to do with faith, because there’s a lot of metaphor.

It’s not a direct allegory or anything, because I try to avoid that. I think it can be hammy if people realize it and they’re like “Oh okay. I get it, Dropsy’s Jesus.” But he’s not. He’s not a metaphor for Jesus. If anything he’s a metaphor for believers.