Musicadium Blog

Glenn Proudfoot is one talented man. A self-taught guitarist, he has conquered Australia and Europe as a solo artist, touring in popular covers band Dr Elephant and as the lead guitarist for one of Europe’s most respected rock bands, Prazsky Vyber.

Now he is set to release a solo album that is 20 years in the making. Covering every range of musical genres from heavy rock to blues to acoustic to country, the album was recorded and produced in Prague in 2009/2010 by Glenn and his team.

Recently Glenn kindly took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for the Musicadium team.

You began playing the guitar at age 11 and are self-taught which is an amazing feat,
what made you want to play the guitar to begin with?

It was Angus Young from AC/DC that got me hooked on guitar, just hearing that sound and the solo’s and watching the way he moved sent pure electricity through my body! Nothing had ever made me feel like that before; from that day onwards all I ever wanted to do was play!! At the time I was 10 or 11 and we never had much money growing up but my oldest brother had just started working and he spent his entire pay cheque to get me a guitar as a surprise. From that day I never put it down!!

You have toured extensively around Australia and worked with some of the best in the business, what
is your favourite memory from these tours?

There’s no specific moment, but being on stage alone playing a guitar solo in front of 40′000 people is something that I can’t describe. The energy and feeling you get is out of this world! Also having the privilege of meeting and spending time with some of my heroes like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Slash has been simply incredible.  Something I will never forget!

So how did you manage to find yourself on the other side of the world as the lead guitarist in a Czech rock band?

I was playing guitar for Brian Mannix from the Uncanny X-Men at the time, Brian was and still is a massive support in my life and music. Brian had told me about this drummer, Klaudius Kryspin, who
he had met. Klaudius was a big rock star in Europe. In turn Brian was talking me up to Klaudius. We eventually met in Melbourne and I had prepared a video of myself playing a 5 minute guitar solo
(great to watch hard to listen to…. hahaha!) which I gave to Klauda in the hope that he would watch it. Turns out he did watch it many times; so he took it with him to Europe and showed the other
guys in the band. But it wasn’t until 7 years later that they called me and asked if I would like to come and record with them. Before I knew it I was in the band and on stage in front of 40′000 people!
It was truly unbelievable.  The solo I wrote for that video took 3 months and had over 5′000 notes in it, people thought I was crazy but it worked!

You have said that you used to practice for 8 – 12 hours a day, how often do you practice now?

Yes that is true, I was very serious about guitar right from the start and figured the best way to be the best I could was to work the hardest I could, so everyday I would practice between 8 and 12 hours and sometimes even 14 hours! There were no exceptions for Christmas or Birthdays or anything! Now I spend most of my time playing shows and writing music, very rarely will you catch me without a guitar in my hands!  If I’m not touring or recording I will still practice between 2 and 4 hours everyday. The guitar for me is a release; some people go for a jog or play video games for release but I simply need to play.

What advice can you give for young aspiring musicians out there?

Never lose sight of the joy that music brings to yourself and others. Admire your peers and learn from them but be yourself, they are themselves thats why you love them so much! Practice makes perfect, a lot of people have natural talent but most of the time its the people who work the hardest that are the best!

Click below to buy Glenn Proudfoot’s album Lick ‘Em on iTunes:

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 4:34 pm and is filed under Featured Artist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.