Its my name, so why not?

When I can. Mostly I've been doing studio work and teaching guitar over the past few years. I'll be doing acoustic sets of my solo project at a few local venues.

The internet is great. It helps independent artists like myself who don't have many venues for their music to reach more people.

Maybe, I would have to weigh whether I would benefit more from a label deal or doing it myself.

Jack Aikens on iSOUND.COM



http://www.myspace.com/jackaikens

http://www.myspace.com/jackaikensmusic


"I was born on Feb. 12, 1979. Since very early childhood I had wanted to become a musician. Some of my first memories are of old guitars that no one in my home played, old guitars that eventually I fixed and became my first real musical instruments.

Early on I was surrounded by old time country music and have many memories of watching black and white re-runs of "The Grand Ole Opry" on my mother and father's T.V. By the time I was eight or so my older brother was letting me listen to Heart, Peter Frampton, Kiss, Bon Jovi, and ZZ Top. This had a tremendous impact on my life and they kind of music I enjoyed in general. When I was ten the same brother gave me my first rock albums, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet and ZZ Top's Eliminator on audio cassette. I played them both till they wore thin and broke.

By the time I was 12 I had moved on from listening to "the Eighties Greatest Rock Hits" type tunes to AC/DC, Metallica, and Ozzy Osbourne. At about the same time the "Grunge Era" was beginning and bands like Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Soundgarden began to have an influence as well. When I was 13 I was turned onto King Diamond and Mercyful Fate by a Church video called "Hells Bells the Dangers of Rock N' Roll!" What a hoot that was, it contained a lot of rare footage of bands that I thought rocked.

I pulled my first guitar out of the loft at my parents house when I was 14, no one was supportive of my decision to learn to play guitar. As a matter of fact I heard many times that I would never learn to play. By the time I was 15 I had the cash saved back to have the instrument fixed and buy a small amplifier. It was an early sixties Danelectro Sears Silvertone Model. The first songs I ever learned were "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC and "Heart Shaped Box" by Nirvana. Bought my first fuzzbox not long after and was very excited about being able to make the songs sound more like the originals.

Within the next year my brother and his wife had opened their home to a friend recently discharged from the US Navy who happened to play guitar. He showed me how to play Iron Man by Sabbath, Cat Scratch Fever by Nugent, and Seek and Destroy by Metallica. He also had a thrash metal CD collection that would make the Library of Congress sick as hell. The three songs he showed me plus having access to such a large library of kick ass bands I had never heard of really changed my life. I was 15 hooked on guitar, thrash metal, and practicing from the time I woke till I passed back out. Slayer, Venom, Tygers of Pan Tang, Destruction, and Overkill were all bands that I did not have easy access to considering I was born and raised in the heart of Appalachian East Tennessee.

The heavy metal eventually led me to wanting to persue a study in classical guitar, learning to read music, and wanting to understand music theory. The first guitar teachers I had found would usually let me take a lesson or two and after finding out I already knew the pentatonic scale send me on my way. The next guys either told me I would have to sell my electric and buy a nylon string acoustic or told me I already knew what they could teach me.

When I turned 18 everything took a massive halt and was turned upside down. I was involved in a pretty major car accident and sustained injuries, including a torn aorta, that I should not have lived through. The fact that I lived was further evidence that I was here to play music, at least in my mind. I can't think of anything else I would have been kept around to do. I'm a fairly useless person for anything other than playing the guitar or writing music.

About six months after the accident I was referred by an old friend to a guitar instructor who was exactly what I was looking for. His name was Charlie Hicks, a Berklee College of Music grad who was teaching at a local two year college while working on his masters at the University of Tenn. Knoxville. He is by far one of the best musicians I have had the oportunity of knowing. I owe my entire way of thinking about music to the seeds he would sew as my teacher. He made me forget everything I had learned before studying under him, he told me not to waste his time, and he taught me how to really play the guitar with an open mind and an open soul. He gave me the tools to never stop learning and never stop improving.


Currently a guitar and bass instructor as well as a guitarist looking for musicians to play and record with with. If you live in the East TN area and are looking for or know someone who is looking for guitar lessons, I teach at Tooter's Music in Athens and Cleveland, TN as well as at Energy Performing Arts Studio in Madisonville, Tn. Here is the number to reach me at for scheduling and questions 4237150210 or 4233145857.




To Hear Some of the Instrumental Stuff I've Been Doing Lately Check Out:

Randy Rhoads (RIP), Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Coltrane(RIP), Alex Skolnick, Scott Kirkland of Downslave (http://www.myspace.com/downslave), Lonnie Mack, Greg Koch, Chet Atkins (RIP), Segovia (RIP), Ludwig Van Beethoven(RIP), J.S. Bach(RIP), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (RIP), Old Metallica, Sabbath, Bruce Dickinson and Maiden, Slayer, Dave Mustaine, Eric Johnson, Dimebag Darrell (RIP), and the list goes on and on.

Chattanooga, TN

Right now I'm using a Yamaha L-5a for my acoustic stuff. For my electric stuff I'm using an Ibanez 320 DXQM with Dimarzio pickups and Edge Lo-Pro for standard tuning, a 1986 Fender Japanese Strat with a Dimarzio Evo at the bridge and a floyd rose for the stuff in D. Effects I use are a Boss GT-3, a Digitech RP-3, Crybaby Wah, and the built in gain on my Randall Classic 100 watt combo.

Please Vist http://www.myspace.com/jackaikensmusic and http://www.myspace.com/jackaikens