Fargo / North Dakota / United States
Colin C. Blaine is one of those naturally gifted extremely dedicated guitarists who possesses awesome chops, a deep understanding of music theory, and can really bend your ear. Colin has been playing the guitar for close to 40 years and playing professionally in various bands for 33 years now. He started out teaching himself how to play songs by Led Zeppelin, Rush, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Van Halen and many many others. He also got deep into other styles such as blues, fusion, classical and full-on shredding while taking private lessons as well. Around high school age and particularly in college Colin would practice sometimes up to 13 hours a day and he was still playing in rock bands and going to class. He became so involved in his music he changed to a Music Industry major and has since earned two degrees: from both Minnesota State University Moorhead (Music Industry) and The McNally Smith College of Music, formally Music Tech of Minneapolis (Advanced Professional Musicians Course). Colin has also been professionally teaching guitar lessons for 30 years and has had over 3,000 students in that time, and still goes five days a week to an average of 40 students a week. Among his playing influences he sites Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, (among many others, see below), 70s, 80s & 90s rock, heavy metal and intense, guitar driven instrumental fusion. Colin loves playing live, composing and recording and has been doing so for over three decades in bands from Fargo to Minneapolis to Seattle. Colin is still gigging consistently, always writing new music, learning and working on his technique. He describes his playing style as "Aggressive Rock; hoodling blues-tinged funky thrash subtle shredding
