The Guitar Player's Resource
Yet another California guitarist, Jason Gearhart, submitted his four-song demo CD, chock full of metal, hard rock and shredded riffs. A bedroom recorded effort, Gearhart just used a guitar, bass, a Line 6 POD and Cakewalk's Home Studio 2004 software to complete the project, getting impressive results with a bare-bones gear list. He even wrote and recorded his crunchy, balls-out, metal jam "Driven" in one day. Gearhart favors a lot of harmonized lines, speed picking, two hand tapping and sledgehammer riffage, so it appears to break into the metal/hard rock market, he just needs to pair up with a Lars Ulrich-style drummer and write and record until his fingers fall off. Easier said than done perhaps, but Gearhart has a solid technical foundation, and an ear for the brutally melodic, so he's one step ahead of the intense lead guitar competition found on the U.S. west coast.
Jason started playing guitar in his freshman year of high school, and it wasn't long before he got a spot in a local metal band as rhythm guitarist. After that group went nowhere, he started taking lessons from a shred-head that turned him on to Yngwie Malmsteen and Al DiMeola. Jason later took a lot of music classes at a local community college, including theory, electronic music, and classical guitar. He was in a band called Urban Assault Vehicle from 1998-2000, when in 2004 he finally started building his own home project studio in order to compose and record his own material. Jason has recently competed in several Guitarmageddon competitions at his local Guitar Center, placing third in the 2004 event.
Currently, Gearhart is trying to get his cover band, Classic Rage, off the ground, as well as network with other musicians for future projects. His ultimate goal is to have a solo career like his heroes Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.
Jason Gearhart
United States