MP3 Will Landrum - Shredded Christmas Card

Trust us. You've never rocked to the Christmas classics like this before. Will Landrum's guitar absolutely rivets you to your speakers for five speed filled minutes of Jingle Bells and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

2 MP3 Songs
METAL: Thrash/Speed Metal, ROCK: 80's Rock



Details:
Will Landrum was born just outside of Los Angeles California, and started playing guitar at age 10. There was a local guitar teacher selling lessons door-to-door at the time and thatâs when the young Landrum got his start with the six-string. At that early age, his attention span was short like most children, and he played for about a year and then quit because he didnât want to practice anymore. At age 12, he moved to Northern Virginia, (Washington DC suburbs) and remains there today in Herndon Virginia.

At 13, Will started playing guitar again inspired by rock greats such as Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore. Throughout his teenage years, he joined a few bands sporadically but was never happy playing cover tunes and changing his guitar sound to suit other people's taste. The foundation was already set; he was a free spirit with a burning desire to create original music.

As he continued developing his chops, he had the opportunity to join a recording project known as The Sailors Of Fortune where he was given creative license. It was his first time in a recording studio and he remembers it being quite daunting but an extremely educational experience. Will recalls-âOnce all the parts were recorded, we went in to do the final mix. When the engineer pushed up the faders and I heard all the individual parts come together as one piece of music, the hair on my arms stood on end and I was forever hooked on recording.â

Shortly after that, he began writing and recording his own tunes. After a few years being moderately satisfied with the compositions, Will realized the need to swallow his pride and seek top-notch education. Thatâs when Will hooked up with guitar master Michael Fath for private instruction. This was the turning point in Willâs career. Over the course of 18 months, Michael solidified Willâs understanding of music theory, composition skills, and various guitar techniques, which ultimately led to the recording of many rock instrumentals including those on his most recent release Living Digits.

Will considers Deep Purple, Rush, Van Halen and Michael Fath as major influences that have always driven him to strive toward a standard of excellence. He has a style and musical approach in the vein of those artists with the novelty of being all-instrumental. His fans have said that his sound is reminiscent of UFO, Motley Crue, Dokken, and AC/DC.

Willâs work is a reflection of his lifelong dedication to creating original and memorable music. âIâve always been a fan of music that has great hooks and great guitar riffs. In my mind, probably the best band for writing memorable melodies was the Beatles. Thatâs what itâs all about with me...memorable melodies with exciting guitar work. I want listeners to be able to recall the tune long after it's over. I try to keep this in mind for every tune I compose which is evident on my latest release Living Digits."

Living Digits has three basic ingredients: Guitar riffs, hooks and melodies, and raw in-your-face guitar solos, not to mention a big sound that makes you want to turn your speakers to maximum volume. Living Digits was produced with thick guitars, a bold bottom, and drums that thump your chest. Will describes it as âinstrumental arena rockâ.

As much as Will loves playing fast like so many shred guitarists do, he feels that his music is different from a lot of those players in that he writes basic tunes that you would hear in 4-piece rock band with vocals, only the guitar also plays the vocalist's role. To help compensate for the lack of different lyrics in verses, Will sprinkles in dual guitar harmonies here and there always maintaining the theme of the tune. Sometimes two different parts are raging on each side of the stereo. Another aspect, which separates him from other speed guitarists, is that heâs more interested in the feel of the moment rather than executing something with flawless precision. Will calls it the "raw" factor and doesnât like over polishing things. The feeling that rock and roll is all about energy and excitement, not simply flawless execution of notes is part of his makeup and approach when he records and performs.

In addition to his recording projects, Will also runs the successful guitar instruction website GuitarConsultant.com. Will explains, âI create niche guitar lessons and package them up into software titles available on CD or for download. These titles include comprehensive studies on techniques and knowledge that I struggled with for years. I take my experience as a player, recording artist and private instructor and wrap it all up into these software lessons known as The Interactive Guitar Clinics Seriesâ. These software guitar clinics help other guitarists save valuable time with their playing by using video, text, graphics, tablature and standard music notation. Will also publishes guitar lesson articles that are circulated around the Internet at numerous music sites and newsgroups.