Glen Lester

Description:

Screen Name:

Glen Lester

Sex:

M

Age:

25

Studio Musician:

Yes

Level Of Commitment:

Very Committed

Years Playing Music:

12

Gigs Played:

50 to 100

Tend to Practice:

More than 3 times per week

Most available:

Mornings

My name is Glen Lester, and i am a Musician and Audio Engineer based in Leigh-on-sea, Essex.

My musical aspirations started very early on with my interest in the electric guitar. I first got an electric guitar for my 8th Birthday, and I have been playing ever since. I taught myself guitar till I was 15, then I decided to have formal guitar lessons, which I did for 2 years. My influences for the guitar became very wide over this time, with me discovering guitarist's such as; Steve Morse, John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheney and Allan Holdsworth. Listening to these great guitar players and more inspired me to keep practicing the guitar so one day I hopefully could play like them.

I decided when I was 20 to make music more than just a hobby, and took up enrollment with Access to Music to do an Advanced Diploma in Contemporary Music. This course gave me a further two years of guitar training, amongst other experience such as performing, composing, music notation skills, ear training skills, composing music for film, and learning about music technology. I also formed many bands with different musicians while I was there, and one of the most interesting collaborations for me was to work with my friend James who I had met at Access to Music. We both created some of the most unusual experimental sounding music ever heard to our ears, and when we used to perform it, people didn't know what to say!

My musical influences got deeper around this time, and I had discovered Progressive Rock/Metal. Bands such as Dream Theater, Opeth, The Flowerkings, Spock's Beard, Yes, Rush, Camel, ELP, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant & Frank Zappa. Those and so many more had such a profound impact on me as a musician. This music also helped me get into other Instruments other than the guitar, so I started to learn bass and keys and got myself a Yamaha bass guitar and a Nord Lead 2 synthesizer.

It was also during this time that I started to form an Indie Rock band outside of Access to Music with a few friends, and that band became Eden.

Eden came together from 4 very different individuals, that were all into different styles of music. It was an unlikely combination, but when we jammed together things just worked, and being like this we had a different sound from other bands in the 'Indie' genre. We managed to tour all over Essex and London over a year and a half. During the time in the band we got invited to do a music video for one of our songs for the Horror Channel on Sky TV, amongst also making a demo in a professional studio. We had many other oppertunites coming up before the band unfortunately split, like a radio interview in New York, and to play a gig for a special unsigned bands DVD that was going to go out in record stores. We were also getting the best compilation of songs together yet to record a second demo, but it unfortunately never got to happen. Being in the band helped also further my musical tastes in different ways, and I had experienced how to work and write in a band environment.

After the band split and I completed my Advanced Diploma at Access to Music, I then enrolled to do a BA (Hons) Degree in Music Production. I chose to do the Degree, as it was another area within music that had interested me for a while, and that I had already bought an £800 Boss 8 track digital recorder, and this opened up a new world of which I wanted to learn.

During my Degree it opened me up to other musical styles such as; Minimalism, Electro-Acoustic Music, Music Concrete, Aleatoric Music, Serialism etc, and I have also done some compositions in these styles. I have also got to do various other practical projects, such as the odd art sound piece, a pop song, a classical notated score composition, music for film with foley design, and my first album.

In the past year I have also been working as a Live Sound Engineer at Bar Lambs in Wescliff-On-Sea, Essex, of which I have worked with many different bands and artists of different genres.

Line of Work

Audio Engineer, Musician & Guitar Teacher.

Abilities

Advanced skills in composing with the Electric Guitar, Bass, and Keyboard (Including Programming).

Competent in the use of computer based audio editing and sequencing programs such as: Pro Tools 7, Cubase SX, Ableton Live, and Sibelius.

An extensive knowledge and experience of traditional and modern recording technologies and techniques.

Knowledge of Acoustics in live and studio production.

Extensive practical background in creative composition and production.

Experience

I have had experience in my own time with recording artists in live and studio environments which included Engineering, Mixing and Mastering those projects.

I have had experience in my own time with Acoustics with regards to setting up a Live PA.

I have gained skills from Sound and Foley design for Film, Scoring, Location Recordings & Composition for Image.

I have expanded my social skills with working with musicians as a Live Sound Engineer.

I have had experience creating Websites as part of my degree, and in my spare time.

I have gained experience in being a Guitar Teacher for 2 years.

Employment History

Live Sound Engineer at Bar Lambs, Wescliff (2007- Current)

Backstage Engineer at the Cliffs Pavilion Theater, Wescliff (2006 - 2007)

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Music Production Degree, University of Essex (2005 - 2008)

Advanced Diploma in Contemporary Music, Access to Music (2003 - 2005)

If anyone wishes to collaborate with me and/or hire me for composition and audio mixing projects, or if you want Pro tools LE 7 lessons, please contact me here or at my e-mail address: glester_@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks,

Glen

Influences:

There's so many but a few are: Opeth, Brian Eno, Porcupine tree, Pain of salvation, To-mera, Flowerkings, Dream theater, Planet x, Spock's Beard, Aryeon, Jelly Jam, Platypus, Jadis, Marillion, Kaipa, Kings x, Frost*, Tool, A perfect circle, Meshuggah, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Guthrie Govan, Zappa, Todd Rundgren, Brian Wilson, John Lennon, Miles Davis, Pink floyd, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish, Epica, Symphony x, Autumns grey solace, The Sundays, Akercoke, Dimmu Borgir, Pearl Jam, Type o negative, Rush, Yes, Steve Roach, Amon Amarth, Gentle Giant, Devin Townsend, Rage against the Machine, Metallica, Rufus Wainright, Nine inch nails, Chroma key, Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Varese, Boards of canada, Squarepusher, Autechre, Harold Budd, Godspeed you black emperor, Counting crows, Leonard Cohen, Sikth, Brotherly....and anything else interesting that catches my ears on the internet.

Equipment List:

HP PC with AMD dual core processor. Pro Tools 7.4. Cubase SX2. Motu 8pre. Sansamp Bass driver DI. Line 6 Variax Guitar. Yamaha Bass. Nord lead 2 Synthesiser and MIDI controller. Other equipment includes several professional microphones and Audio plug ins.

Audio/Video Downloads

1. The Pulse of Humanity.mp3
2. World in Ruins.mp3