The Guitar Player's Resource
Derek Schils is a guitarist out of Georgia who submitted his debut, Halfway Home, on CD-R. which features ten instrumental tracks in an intense shred rock style. Having mastered a sizable number of the advanced techniques favored by today's shredders, Schils puts those techniques to work on his nine original compositions, and one cover, "Go Speed Racer", from the cartoon of the same name. Occasionally delving into the seriously intense and dissonant ("Asweep At The Wheel"), Schils proves he can also rein it in a little on a ballad tempo number, such as can be heard on "Within Reach". This is a one-man project from top to bottom (almost, as Cliff Benoit contributes to "EM Blues"), as the six-stringer handles all the instrumentation for his own label, Wheezin' and Wailin' Records. Fans of intense rock and shred can check out Schils' work for near-maximum NPM and heaviness.
Derek was born in Wisconsin but raised in the south. He began playing the guitar around the age of 8 because both his father and uncle are accomplished musicians (guitar and bass). In the late '70's, he took to players like Ted Nugent, the boys in Skynyrd and Jimi Hendrix, but it was really players from the early '80s that motivated him to improve his technique, like Randy Rhoads, Edward Van Halen and Neal Schon. The late '80s was also a big period of focus, with players like Jason Becker, Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore being big influences. In more recent years, the positive feedback from friends, students and other players finally inspired Derek to record a CD of instrumental guitar music and get on the web with it. As he states, "Even though most of us write and play music purely for the personal joy of it, part of that pleasure is sharing it with others."
Schils always dreamed of someday having his own little studio to write and record original music in, and that has now become a reality.
Derek Schils
United States
Web site: www.sounds-of-schils.com