raylaveau

biography



Me*-Guitars
Myself*-Bass
and I*-creative noises
And moi*- Drum Programming & Looping

*Ray La Veau

In a nutshell...

Ahh The Guitar...I always loved it. And always will... I recall starting a "Band" with my cousins that went as far as my bedroom. We would play air guitar and sing to beatles records and Elvis of course. "Hey".... Dad said to me," your uncle plays guitar, we'll go check him out." I was nervous as hell my first experience with a real live guitar player, so...I go into his house and he has this huge amp and a les paul (sunburst) beauty, anyway he starts rippin out whole lotta love, by Led Zeppelin and I am hooked. He asks me if I would like to play it and of course I'm like yea!....I remember holdin that baby in my hands still to this day. So I guess you can say my Uncle David is my first guitar hero.

Somewhere in my early years around ten or Eleven, my cousin Ellis moved in and played me this record called Van Halen, What is this? Thats a guitar? holy shit, so when he would leave I played his 8 tracks ( yea 8 tracks!) of this incredible guitar player playin my air guitar (my plastic hockey stick ...haha) and moving my fingers around Like I was Eddie.

The Sunday flea market trip that changed my life...
My Mom and Dad bought me my first Six String. A Sears Silvertone (Just like Eddie's first guitar I thought, man I was cool!) for $20 alot of money for them to shell out at the time for my pipe dream but one that would become my life, and my parents always supported anything I wanted to do as long as it was for a good cause. So I played until my fingers bled as the saying goes and wound up becoming ok for my age ( at least I thought I was).
High school Jazz band: where my friend John that played drums and I really started hittin it off, man I thought a drummer, ya thats cool, so I took up learning the drums as well, but just couldn't get my parents to buy me some and it was better that way cuz I was a musician and had a different sense of musicality that I just couldn't let go of. But as far as becoming a better guitarist, it helped my more rhythmic side come out and my dexterity as well...... Time goes on
I always wanted a band but could never find anyone that actually played the way I felt was even worthy of my ever growing ego. ( with the exception of my friend Mr. Lilly the drummer) I gained a lot of experience playing in several bands from time to time. After getting through all the hours of driving my parents crazy with bad rendentions of stairway to heaven, and actually learning how to tune, I started to realize that I had musical sense in me and a natural ability. (who'd a thunk it?)

Somewhere around 1980 something I heard this guy "Joe Satriani" he was a guitar teacher to Steve Vai who I already knew of, but this guy wrote some of the most beautiful melodies I'd ever heard. That is when I finally realized that was what I wanted to do was to be able to play "Guitar" music ...instrumental, the thing that drew me to him was that he did it all...Wow! I can do that. So I Studied everything I could about him and others that were coming into play at that time...Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Mr. Vai of course and way too many others to name. I found they all had one thing in common, they knew music theory and I had to know it too of course. I started to "Learn" the Guitar and music a little better.
Well in 1988 I meet this guy, (Stared another band) He had a hairbrained (at the time) idea to go to Hollywood and study at Musicians Institute. So....Why not? Paul Gilbert went there (another of my idols at the time) all right lets go. One small problem though, I had to leave it all behind, but with the death of my Father, I felt obligated to do something with my life, So I went for it. My life changed forever. Man I never felt so much pain and agony in my life. The blues became my friend, (along with beer) but along with the pain came a lot of discipline, that I lacked until then. 9 to 10 hour sessions of playing..we were all there to learn the same thing. music. Things Happened that went out of control and I had to leave. But I do not regret the experience, I became stronger as a musician and as a human. I lost a lot but I gained more than anyone could of imagined. When I arrived home all my friends and family were proud of my achievement and my new found abilities, that were now second nature to me.
My ego grew again, I played all over the place and started teaching and having the time of my life. But seriously that is a book in itself.
And on that note I leave you with this because I have learned to let go of the ego and realize that "Music is my life, it always has been and always will be". I just hope that you the listener can find it in your soul to feel what I have to say through my music, however bad or good you may think it is. (Or I for that matter)
It is the best I have ever played and I am finally at a place in my life to be able to be able to pull it off, no more egos, girls, drugs, etc... to slow it all down. And an actual way to record it!...Just my love for music, my family, my children and my one inspiration My Wife I want to thank you for putting up with all those long hours in my "Studio" . But of course I can not ever thank the people enough, to whom this is all possible and that is my Mom and Dad ( whom I wish were here so I could ask his opinion of and present him with the one thing I always promised I would do) and to my children I give you this... so one day after the music has left me and I can no longer play you can always remember me for what I was.
Enjoy From your father, friend, son, nephew, cousin(Basically to whom I give this to) Ray La Veau
3

Metallurgy

September 17th, 2010 + 12:09 PM  ·  raylaveau

a song.. heh, this one I wrote for the fun of it playin around with Logic Pro.  Just me. Thanks for listening.
7

A Love Thing

September 16th, 2010 + 7:09 PM  ·  raylaveau

Since this is my first posting here, i wasn't  too sure which song I should use first so I went with this one. I have a ton of stuff to share so hopefully this is a good one to start with.
A little song I wrote for that special person in my life.. a bit "satch" ish I know but hey... he's one of my main influences, anyway hope you like it and all comments are welcome.
Thanks
R
Alias: raylaveau
Status: Offline
Threads: 2
Posts: 7
Songs: 2
Joined: September 16th, 2010
Last login: October 05th, 2010



Server Time: March 19th, 2024 · 12:02 AM
© 2002-2012 BandAMP. All Rights Reserved.