Biography
After High School graduation Todd began teaching guitar at a music store in West.St Paul, Minnesota. After 2 years of teaching a full schedule of students and gigging with local favorite bands "The Regime" and "Hurricane Alice", Todd decided to further his musical education at the Guitar Institute of Technology, (GIT) in Hollywood California. (One year earlier Todd was a runner up in the Fender Guitar, GIT, Eric Clapton Scholarship Contest. He won a Fender Strat and Twin Reverb.) At GIT, Todd studied with many great guitar players including Paul Gilbert, Frank Gambale, Jeff Berlin (Bass), Scott Henderson and others. There he immersed himself in his studies of guitar, gigged in various bands, did studio session work, and eventually taught lessons at the school. Todd even appeared in a Pepsi commercial! During this time Todd was also recording and sending out home recorded demos that showcased his unique guitar playing and songwriting skills. Some of these demos showed up on internationally released compilation CD's, and gained him international exposure. It eventually lead to his debut solo record on the highly regarded guitar instrumental label Shrapnel Records. After a 6 year stay in California, Todd was asked to become the Head of the Rock Guitar department at The American Institute of Music, located in Vienna, Austria. Todd stayed for 2 years then moved back to Minnesota to teach at Music Tech of Minneapolis. (now called McNally Smith) Todd now teaches a weekly schedule of around 40 private students of all ages, levels and styles. He has since recorded 3 instrumental CD's;"Omnipresent", "Eccentricity", and "Electric Cartoon Music from Hell" with his multi-international side project Electrocution 250. Todd also gigs and records with the local band Touched, and is planning an all new instrumental release.
"Next to Shawn Lane, Todd might just be the most technically endowed player of his generation. Brought up on a diet of Van Halen, MacAlpine, Gambale and Gilbert (with whom he studied a little), Duane has since established himself - through a series of astounding and much-admired demos - as one of the hottest players of the 90s. His tunes take in blues, classical, rock and fusion and are often atonally strange in interpretation. However, his real appeal lies in his complete disregard for musical parameters; Todd has taken the most popular elements of modern guitar playing - string-skipping, speed-picking, legato - and fashioned for himself an utterly isolated niche. The result is unparalleled technique in combination with a clear-cut talent for writing high energy music. I can recommend few players as highly as Todd."
Matt Williams, Liquid Note Records
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