Embedded Files
Victor Claye's Debut Album
Aaron Duff:
Australian Christian Music News
Australian Christian Music News
November 2026
November 2026
Recommended New Releases:
Recommended New Releases:
Jemima N - Temple (NSW) #Pop
Danny Alcorn - Heart's on Fire (WA) #Acoustic Pop
Andy Luke - Bubble Wrap (SA) #Acoustic Pop
J. Rumz - Vacuous.Human.Sequence (NSW) #HipHop
Mariah Hlatywayo feat. Drea - Under The Sun (WA) #Jazz Hop
More local Christian releases on our Australian Christian Pop Spotify Playlists
UPCOMING SHOWS:
UPCOMING SHOWS:
Renaissance Nights Perth, Nov 3 (WA)
Krosswerdz KW Summit, Nov 6-8 (SA)
Revelare! Vol. 2, Nov 7 (QLD)
Freedom Music Festival (Eumundi), Nov 13-15 (QLD)
P.O.D. Australia Tour, Nov 29 - Dec 6 (SA, VIC, NSW, QLD)
The Gospel Project: A Christmas Special, 29 Nov - 18 Dec (All States)
OZ 5 CHART
1. WHAT IF I TOLD YOU? - FOR KING + COUNTRY
2. Miracle - For King + Country
3. The Only One That Matters - Ethan Beer
4. Feels Like Coming Home - Daniel Hagen
5. Singing Over Me - Roma Waterman
*Compiled by TCM based on Australian Christian radio airplay from the preceding month.
Backup Singers Needed: Aaron Duff & the Future of Australian Christian Music
DJ Paine, November, 2026Backup Singers Needed: Aaron Duff & the Future of Australian Christian Music
Aaron Duff is moving on. DJ Paine sits down with the founder of Australian Christian Records to ask the reasons behind the decision, record the history and heart behind ACR, and discuss what could be next for Australia's Christian music scene.
Aaron Duff has heard plenty of people say God has called them to make music. Usually, the calling comes with a fairly specific stage position.
"I've never had somebody come up to me and say, 'Hey, Aaron. I really think God's calling me to be a backup singer.'"
Sorry if that has a few of you working in worship teams shifting uncomfortably…
"And yet we generally need more backup singers than we need lead singers."
It's a wonderfully awkward point, delivered by someone who has spent the past four years helping other people get heard. Through Australian Christian Records, Aaron has produced music, connected artists with radio and introduced people who might otherwise have spent years working away in separate rooms. He's done it around a full-time job with the Australian government.
Now that job is taking him to China. In January 2027, Aaron and his family will relocate for three years, leaving a substantial question hanging over the organisation he's built.
Before we get to that, though, there's a teenage boy with a Walkman worth meeting.
Aaron was about fifteen when electronic music got hold of him. Dance records were finding their way into the mainstream, and he was listening closely. After high school, a mate invited him along to DJ. Soon he was spending his money on CDs and finding himself behind the decks at youth groups, school formals and parties.
Churches and YWAM gatherings would invite him to play. There were non-Christian events too. He remembers packed dance floors and the satisfaction of watching a room respond to music.
A trip to Victoria's Sonfest widened the picture. He went for the bands, including Audio Adrenaline and Newsboys, and came away connected to a youth group. Some of those friendships have lasted ever since.
As we talked, we discovered I'd been running stage crew at the same festival. There's every chance we'd passed each other without knowing it. I jokingly suggested I might have been telling security to remove those EDM guys from the areas…
Aaron's Testimony
Beneath the music was a faith journey he struggled to describe as interesting enough.
"Growing up, I always thought I've got such a boring testimony," he told me.
He'd been a Christian since childhood. There wasn't a prison sentence or a spectacular public collapse to make the opening paragraph exciting. Over time, though, he'd come to recognise God's patient faithfulness across ordinary years.
"God's always been there for me," he said.
The psalmist understood the value of a story stretching back to childhood: "O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do" (Psalm 71:17, NLT).
A testimony doesn't need a police report to demonstrate grace.
Aaron's story carries that quiet gratitude. It also helps explain why he's interested in what happens after the exciting moment, when someone has to keep showing up.
Aaron DJ'ing at Heartsong Christian Music Festival
Why Start Australian Christian Records?
By the time ACR began, he'd lived and worked in China, married and become a father. His production work had reached labels overseas. Music was still there, along with a growing desire to put those skills to use for God.
Then he started looking for something his own children could belong to.
Where were the festivals? Where could young Australians encounter Christian artists and build the sort of friendships he'd found? He could see good things happening, but he couldn't find the range of opportunities he'd hoped for.
He initially thought he'd produce for an Australian Christian label. When he couldn't find what he was looking for, he and a mate decided to start one.
That's a wonderfully dangerous sentence. Plenty of voluntary work begins with somebody saying, "How hard could it be?"
Four years later, Aaron understands the assignment differently.
"God didn't want me to set up the best ever Christian record label," he said.
“He wanted me to help re-establish a scene in Australia, supporting Christian artists here to grow, connect with each other and impact our nation’s youth culture.”
Australia already knew how to make worship music. Aaron wanted more room for artists whose Christian faith informed songs about everyday life, including relationships, and whose music could connect with younger listeners outside a congregational setting.
"Not every song made has to be explicitly about God. I encourage Christian artists to still write music about that boy, or girl," he explained. "It’s another chance for listeners to relate and interact with real-life issues they care about, but from a Christian perspective."
That meant thinking carefully about the people behind the songs. What would a teenager discover by following them beyond a single release?
"Music's actually a priority, but not THE priority."
For Aaron, the artists themselves matter enormously. A song might open the door; a life gives listeners something to keep watching.
Some of the Australian Christian Records crew at the beginning of the journey.
(L-R) Aaron Duff, Luke Ridley, Lilli Fulwood, Ellie Stephenson, Liv Christie, Nathan Stanley
One particular moment sharpened his concern. He recalls looking at TCM’s Australian Christian radio top thirty in May 2025 and finding no Australian acts represented. For someone trying to help local artists find an audience, it was a miserable read.
Together with TCM, Aaron decided to do something about it with the OZ 5 national chart born out of that frustration, giving Australian Christian artists a dedicated place to be heard.
"I don't want to just be importing our Christian culture from America," he said. "I want Australians standing up for Christ here."
He isn't pretending he's doing all this alone. During our conversation, he kept bringing up other people's work.
He spoke warmly about River Movement, particularly their willingness to keep touring and making personal connections through churches and schools. Playing the songs matters, but so does staying afterwards to talk with the young people who came.
His conversations with Kate Westwood involve swapping discoveries and helping artists reach further. A musician doesn't have to sign an ACR label agreement to receive a recommendation or an introduction.
"We don't care about making an empire," Aaron said. "It's about moving forward with the Kingdom of God."
There's something refreshingly biblical about that approach. Writing to a church squabbling over its favourite leaders, Paul reminded the Corinthians, "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow" (1 Corinthians 3:6, NLT).
That leaves very little room for arguing over whose logo belongs on the watering can.
Having a separate income has given Aaron freedom to work that way. Initially, he wondered whether doing this voluntarily somehow made him less professional. Now he sees the advantage: he can choose work for its potential to grow the Kingdom rather than tied to its earning capacity.
That freedom also makes him suspicious of the usual scoreboard.
Aaron considering the future of Australian Christian music...
What Success Means for Christian Artists
A million streams looks terrific. It doesn't tell you much about whether someone has formed a meaningful connection with a listener. Aaron describes putting on a playlist and doing the dishes. The song plays; the person who made it might barely register.
Compare that with fifty people turning up to a show, perhaps paying ten dollars each to be there. They've made an effort. There's a conversation available afterwards.
"That means a whole lot more to me than a song that's got 10,000 listens on Spotify."
He's asking artists to consider what they're working towards, and whether the numbers they've learned to chase can measure it.
"He cares about you being faithful," Aaron said of God.
Paul's description of Christian stewardship is similarly direct: "Now, a person who is put in charge as a manager must be faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2, NLT).
Paul was speaking about those entrusted with God's revealed truth. His measure of service ought to give Christian creatives pause, too. Reach can be useful, but it can't tell us whether we've faithfully served the people God has put in front of us.
Which brings us back to China.
Aaron has spoken Mandarin fluently for more than twenty years. His wife is Chinese, their three children speak English and Chinese at home, and he's lived and worked there twice before. With the family heading back, he's now getting stuck into Cantonese as well.
What's Next For ACR
What happens to ACR is still not finalised, but Aaron, the artists and myself (DJ) are actively talking through the possibilities, prayerfully and practically. I'll be involved, but there isn't a finished structure to announce.
We are praying 2027 will be a step-change up for ACR with planning underway for more shows and touring across Australia to support churches, youth groups, Christian schools with their ministries to young people.
If you the reader, feel you could contribute to grow Australia's Christian music scene, perhaps with introductions to youth ministries, website and socials management, giving artist interviews or writing articles like this one, or skills in community building then get in touch with Aaron or myself.
Listeners have a part too. Send an artist an encouraging message. Ask about their next show. Let them know a song meant something, rather than assuming a corporate streaming report will pass that on.
After four years of ACR, Aaron is preparing to move countries while the work carries on and continues taking shape. There are people to bring together before January, and decisions that deserve time and prayer.
Somewhere among them, there's probably a job for a backup singer.
2027 will see Aaron move to China for work, but ACR is in safe hands.
About ACR
With a mission to support outstanding, young Christian artists, and create a thriving independent Christian music scene in Australia, Australian Christian Records is the home of Australian Christian music for Generation Z.
The ministry has platformed over 100 Australian Christian artists since 2023 and runs:
Australian Christian Music News with Australia's largest Christian news website - The Daily Declaration.
The national OZ 5 Top Tunes Chart with Today's Christian Music.
Supporting Christian music shows and festivals including Heart Song Music Festival & Seek Jesus Festival.
Australian Christian Musos Network (over 1,400 members)
The ACR record label, with chart-topping artists including LILLI, Victor Claye and River Movement.
Follow:
Follow:
Australian Christian Records
Australian Christian Records
Website: www.ozchristianrecords.com.au
Instagram: @ozchristianrecords
Youtube: @ozchristianrecords
Aaron Duff
Aaron Duff
Instagram: @aaronduffmusic
Youtube: @AaronDuff
Also published on: https://dailydeclaration.org.au
About the Author
DJ Paine is the Artist Champion for Australian Christian Records and has been a fixture of Aussie Christian radio for more than 25 years. Bouncing between his hometown of the Gold Coast and his adopted turf of Geelong, he's an award-winning broadcaster, podcaster and photographer.
A self-described "Professional Christian music geek and amateur Bible nerd" DJ is known for his warmth, dry wit, and theological depth.
A passionate champion of Christian creatives everywhere, he is currently the host of "The Home Stretch" and "Open Bible" for 96three Geelong. Devoted husband to Benita and proud dad of the three Brothers Paine.
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