Todd Duane is - quite simply put – an absolute legend. He is easily one of the fastest alternate pickers to ever touch an electric guitar, and on top of that he’s one of the cleanest players alive, even while shredding at the speed of sound. His self-titled Shrapnel Records debut is still considered by many to be one of the scariest instrumental guitar albums ever released. Todd has also appeared on classic shred compilations such as “Ominous Guitarists from the Unknown”, “The Alchemists”, and “Guitar on the Edge”. He was an award winning trumpet player in high school, and later attended the prestigious Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, where he studied with guitar greats such as Paul Gilbert, Frank Gambale, and Scott Henderson. After that Duane was the head of the Rock Guitar department at the American Institute of Music. In 2002 he released an instructional on the Chops From Hell label, and in '04 he and keyboardist Lalle Larsson finally recorded a full-length album under the name “Electrocution 250”. That album, entitled "Electric Cartoon Music from Hell", received rave reviews from guitar sites across the net, as well as being praised by the popular UK magazine “Guitar Techniques”. Todd is endorsed by Ernie Ball Music Man guitars and strings, as well as DiMarzio pick-ups... he even appeared in a Pepsi commercial once! Lucky for Todd he’s about to get his big break by doing this interview with InstruMental Case!

 

 

 

 

IC: Your Chops From Hell instructional video “ShredOMania” is fantastic! How did that release come about?

Todd: If I remember correctly Chris from chopsfromhell.com emailed me about a possible instructional release on his site. I filmed it myself prior to any of my kids being born. It was a lot of work organizing it all.

IC: Are you planning to do any new instructional material?

Todd: I would really like to, but I have to wait until I feel like I have something unique to offer... that I haven't already done. The market is over saturated too.  I also teach private lessons and have been teaching for 20 years.

IC: I recently purchased your E-250 album, “Electric Cartoon Music from Hell” (which is great by the way)... Might we see a follow-up from Electrocution 250?

Todd: We talk about it occasionally, but there is no money involved in the project, so it would have to be financed by ourselves. That's too bad!

IC: How did you first meet virtuoso pianist Lalle Larsson?

Todd: He was a student at AIM - a school I taught at in the late 90's. We immediately hit it off!

IC: What’s an average day like for you? How do you balance playing, teaching, writing, recording, and your family life?

 

Todd: Right now it's Daddies Daycare! I have 3 kids; 9 months, 2 years and 4 years old. I also teach 30 students a week, play in a Cover Rock band on the weekends. I'm recording tracks for Junkyard Prophet now in any remaining spare time.

IC: Wow, sounds like a pretty packed week! Congratulations on your success as a teacher.

 

Okay, since this is a strictly instrumental website, I have to ask what your favorite guitar albums are. Any overlooked players that you’d recommend?

Todd: I don't listen to guitar albums much these days... I'm out of the loop. Tell me what's cool!

IC: Oh... Conrad Simon, Kiko Loureiro, Mike Orlando, Dave Martone, etc... Scott Stine just recorded a new one!

 

What kind of music do you listen to these days?

Todd: A lot of times it depends on what project I'm doing. For example, I'm recording for Junkyard Prophet right now so I'm listening to their style of music to inspire me. It's all about being inspired.

IC: Do you know Darren Housholder or Derek Taylor? I know they appeared alongside you on the classic “Ominous Guitarists from the Unknown” Shrapnel Records album.

Todd: I've talked with Darren and Derek back in the day. I haven't kept in touch with them lately.

IC: I just looked into it... seems Derek runs his own mixing and mastering studio in Dallas called "Milo Studio", and Housholder gave up on his rockstar pursuits and started his own supplement/weight loss/body building business which made 4 million dollars in sales in ’05! 

 

What are your feelings when looking back on your music career in the 80’s and 90’s? Which accomplishments, songs, and albums are you most proud of?

Todd: I'm most proud of my debut Shrapnel Record, because that's what I had set out to do - record an instrumental guitar record on Shrapnel. I worked really hard on that. It took many years of writing and talking with Mike Varney. When I finally felt I learned how to write a song, that's when Shrapnel signed me. I pretty much knew I was ready, and I just started to record it. The basis of the record was to keep it simple. In previous recordings I was always trying to do something based on a technique or something. I became famous for that type of thing though, and the E-250 album was a sort of back to that type of writing.

IC: I was amused to see that you contributed to the soundtrack on an old PC game called “Extreme PaintBrawl”, because while it was one of the lowest-rated videogames I’ve ever seen, Tal – the games reviewer at IGN.com – only seemed to like the game’s music!

“There is one nice thing I can say about Extreme PaintBrawl: the soundtrack was clean, crisp, and heavy ... just how I like it in a high-action game, which means that it would have fit in really with a game with some excitement. No such luck with Extreme PaintBrawl. The tunes range from double bass pedal heavy metal fingertapping guitar riffs to wacky barnyard animal noise mixed with power chords to a hard rock rendition of Vivaldi's Spring. It was by far the best thing about this game and certainly the only thing EXTREME about it.”

Looks like a bad review for the developers but a good review for you! I’ve never played the game myself… did you do the entire music soundtrack yourself? Has any of the material been released on your albums?

Todd: I met those guys that developed the game through a student of mine. Basically I had the CD done (it was a compilation of early demos) and they wanted to pay me to license the music. Nice to see some cash for all that hard work!

 

IC: Finally, what have you been up to recently? I’ve seen some of your videos on YouTube. Very fun stuff!

Todd: I'm semi-retired on the instrumental thing right now. In the future I would like to get a recording finished of my band Touched.

IC: Sounds great, let me know when it’s available.

I can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer my guitar-geek questions. I hope to talk to you again in the future!

Todd: Thanks for the chance to do this interview!

 

 

 

 

 

www.youtube.com/user/Treetopper

www.myspace.com/touchedrocks  

 

... and don't forget to buy "Electric Cartoon Music From Hell" and Todd's "Shred-O-Mania" instructional!