Ethan Henning: Oh boy, that's complicated. To start, pretty much all of my musical skill is self-taught or was learned through YouTube. I can't read sheet music to save my life, but I can play nearly anything by ear on the piano. During my early teens, I primarily created instrumental music, mostly just for fun. It wasn't until my late teens that I wanted to pursue a career in music. At first, I wanted to do music for me and fit a tiny bit of Jesus in there somewhere. However, that was not God's plan for me. He allowed me to get completely burnt out from music for a little while and had to break me in various ways so He could use me to make music that would bring glory to Him.

Ethan: Ah, good question! I would definitely agree that "Way Out" is heavily retro-pop/synthpop infused. Going forward, however, future releases will still have plenty of synth, but I'm going to branch out by adding live instruments such as piano and guitar (both acoustic and electric, depending on what the song calls for). The sound I'll pursue with future releases would be best described as a classic British pop-rock-inspired sound while still keeping it "within bounds" for Christian radio.

Ethan: Michael W. Smith is definitely a big musical influence of mine, and his single "Arms Around the Sun" was fire! I like a lot of his old-school albums such as "The Big Picture," "I 2 (EYE)," and "Go West Young Man." Honestly, I don't know of many others in the Christian music world right now who have released songs in this style/subgenre recently. I'm not saying there aren't any; I'm just not aware of any myself.

Ethan: Oh wow. Where do I start? I have so many different influences across so many different genres, both Christian and mainstream. Growing up, when my mom was driving, she would have our local Christian radio station on. When both my parents were in the car and my dad was driving, he'd play his Beatles CDs. So, in my childhood, it was primarily Christian music (Jeremy Camp, Matthew West, etc.) and The Beatles with some other things mixed in. My grandma bought me a TobyMac CD (I believe it was either "Portable Sounds" or "Eye on It") when I was around 10, which is when I started really getting into Christian music. In my teens, I discovered what would become one of my all-time favorite artists, Phil Collins, who is probably my biggest influence musically. I also discovered NF around that time. In my late teens, I had a short stint where I got into Christian hard rock (Skillet, Red, Fireflight, Decyfer Down, Thousand Foot Krutch, etc.). Despite being only 24, most of my musical influences are old-school (not including NF or any of the other Christian artists I mentioned, of course).

Ethan: I produced the majority of "Way Out" myself at home. The vocals and final mix were done at my mentor/producer's studio; however, I had the final say in almost every engineering decision. I haven't produced for anyone else yet, but I would love to do that someday. As for projects with other people, I haven't done any of those either. Much like producing for others, working on a project with other Christian artists would be totally awesome and a huge honor!

Ethan: When I started working on the lyrics, it was right at the end of the period when God was course-correcting me. At first, I was just writing what was on my heart at the time. It wasn't until I finished the lyrics that I was like, "Oh wow, this song is kind of a prayer." Much like the final lyrics, the dichotomy between the music and the words was unintentional; it just sort of happened. Not always, but a lot of the time, the music comes first, then the words. I do think that there is a lot of untapped potential and power in mixing a heavy pop sound with lyrics that are explicitly Christian. One thing I've been doing is asking God to give me the words He wants me to say.

Ethan: Here's a fun fact about "Way Out": this song was my first time ever truly singing! No joke! I was petrified to sing (especially in front of others) when I was a teen and even into becoming an adult. I've had no formal training or coaching up to this point. But I realized that my nervousness about singing was the biggest barrier keeping me from the career I dreamed of. I gathered my courage and sang for the first time when we recorded the vocals for the song in the studio, making my mentor/producer the first person to hear me truly sing. Truth be told, we did have to use some light manual tuning to achieve the mostly polished sound on the final mix. My mentor/producer layered under me in the chorus to make it sound larger.

Ethan: Oh man, there are so many Christian songs that could fit that description for me over the years. If I had to pick a song that most recently fit that description, it would be the old song "Walk by Faith" by Jeremy Camp. Something I've always struggled with is trusting God with situations that seem huge and out of my control (something I will fully admit I still struggle with). "Walk by Faith" is a great reminder of how we should trust in God even when we don't see how in a situation.

Ethan: I'm hoping to release the next song, which will be titled "Calm," in early-to-mid January 2027. For the rest of this year, my plan is to continue writing and composing more songs and, of course, to go into the studio to track the vocals and any instruments I can't currently record at home myself. Another goal is to grow my social media following and see what content does and does not stick.

Ethan: For anyone wanting to keep up with me and see what I'm up to, I recommend following my Instagram. I'm also on TikTok, but I don't post there as often. Since I don't have a social media team and it's just me doing everything right now, I post when I can. However, I always try to put quality over quantity.