Guitar Superstar Musings

Hercules Castro — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:41:19 +0000

Hola music fans,

So everyone keeps asking me how the Guitar Contest went. In a nutshell, it was mixed. I did everything exactly the way I wanted to. I made some contacts, met some stars, I turned in a performance that the crowd got into, and I distributed over 600 copies of my CD to guitar fans. The one bad part was that while the judges all agreed that I had the chops (“I’d have to practice for 100 years to get those kind of chops” – Earl Slick) , they weren’t quite ready for the intensity. Their critiques sounded like something my parents would have said (which I’m actually OK with, rock and roll ain’t for the parents).

So needless to say I didn’t win the contest. But I accomplished what I set out to do and made a splash. To quote the editor of Guitar Player Magazine – “Yours will be the most watched video from the contest once we post them on Youtube.”

Here’s a video my wife shot of my performance.

For the record –

Judges:

Earl Slick (David Bowie guitarist)

Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson guitarist)

Elliot Easton (The Cars guitarist)

Steve Lukather (Toto guitarist)

Greg Hampton (producer, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford)

Host:

Brendon Small (Creator of Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse and Home Movies)

Prizes:

A bunch of gear and a magazine profile, no contracts or studio time

LInks

Hercules Guitar Superstar Vid
Unedited version of the performance (contains offensive language)

The post Guitar Superstar Musings first appeared on Guitar Musings.

Hercules – Singularity

Larry — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:41:34 +0000

OK, so I’ve started this blog and here is one of the reasons why. My best friend, Hercules (yes that is his real name) Castro, has recently released a CD called “Singularity.” The thing you need to know about this is that he recorded all of this himself in his home studio. I’m talking all the drum tracks, bass, guitar, keyboards, etc… Corey Brown provides his vocals for 2 tracks on the release but other than that, Hercules does it all and does it well. The music on this CD covers many genres, from blues, electronica and progressive and all are at a high technical level. One of my favorite tunes is called “Pulse Detonation.” This song is fast, I mean really fast and the funny thing about this is that I didn’t really care for speed when we were younger. I would always say that feel is better than speed but I didn’t realize that you can have both and this song exemplifies this.

So after watching him going throught the creation process, it really inspired me to work harder at my playing and just being creative (hence this blog). I also did the photography and artwork for the CD which helped spark my passion for creation. It is also a great example of what independent musicians are accomplishing by themselves. So if you like progressive rock, blues, electronica, etc… I would recommend giving “Singularity” a listen. I know you won’t be disapointed.

http://www.herculescastro.com (Links to CDbaby, digstation and itunes available there)

The post Hercules – Singularity first appeared on Guitar Musings.

Hercules | Guitar Musings

Guitar Superstar Musings

LInks

Hercules – Singularity