About Me
This is already the third edition of my MySpace profile. Tom has deleted me twice already, both times I just received an e-mail stating that my site supposedly infringed on someone's copyright. Needless to say that that's complete BS, when all the songs I ever posted on my profiles were taken from my original solo CD published way back in 1995. Each time I got deleted I lost hundreds of friends, all the fun comments, as well as my track-record of hundreds of thousands of songplays ;) Anyway, to make me feel better about my final attempt to be a MySpace member, if you haven't already I would love for you to add me to your friends and leave me a comment! THANKS!
You are listening to tracks from my 1995 instrumental solo album. My tone, technique and compositional approach have obviously changed quite a bit in the last decade. This MySpace is dedicated to my instrumental recordings. I will include links to later vocal-oriented projects featuring my "new and improved" guitar stylings soon.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Marcel, I live in Los Angeles because I like sunshine and I work in music because I couldn't think of anything better to do. That's basically it.
Read on or go to my "official" website if you are into the self-important details. Alright then, here we go...
My full name Marcel Wittfeld, I am a guitarist, music producer and instructor living in Eagle Rock, California, just Northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Born and raised in Germany, I picked up the guitar at age 10 and began taking lessons from local teachers. In my teens, I studied with Thomas Müller-Pering and Professor Tadashi Sasaki at the Conservatory of Cologne and attended numerous master classes. I also co-founded and operated the Six&Four music school in my German hometown before moving to the United States in 1995.
On the merits of a demo tape recorded at age 16, I received a small write-up in Guitar For the Practicing Musician, Americas best-selling guitar magazine in the 1980's. John Stix, the magazines editor-in-chief offered me a recording and publishing deal with his record label, Guitar Recordings. Unfortunately, the small label which helped start the careers of guitarists like Blues Saraceno went out of business before I was able to complete my first album. Rather than taking on the daunting task of finding another record deal for a contemporary instrumental rock album during the rise of Seattle Grunge, I decided to put out my recordings independently. My self-produced 1995 debut was critically acclaimed and featured many talented guest musicians, like British Steve Vai protege Thomas McRocklin and legendary drummer Jim Keltner, who had just finished recording Eric Clapton's "From the Cradle." I then went on to co-produce Thomas McRocklin's first solo instrumental album, McRocklin 1991-1994.
In 1995, while briefly attending Musicians Institute in Hollywood, I met guitar great Steve Vai's manager, Ruta Sepetys. Ruta liked my album kindly introduced Steve to my music. A few years later, Steve offered me a recording deal with his fledgling label, Favored Nations. I was extremely flattered, but having exhausted my passion for recording guitar-oriented instrumentals I ultimately abandoned the Favored Nations offer and focused on vocal-oriented music and polishing my production skills. In the following years I worked as a freelance producer for various recording studios and countless artists of almost all genres.
After 9 years of planning and construction I completed my own music production facility in 2006. Eagle Rock Studios is a state-of the-art recording studio complex complete with a live performance and screening room for small showcases. I'm happy to report that since its inception ERS has been booked solid by many talented musicians, both major and independent. I have had the opportunity to make guitar, production and writing contributions to quite a few of the projects at ERS, which among others included Stereochmix (featuring John Otto of Limp Bizkit), Warner Bros.' J*DaVeY and Erykah Badu.
As a teenager I discovered a passion for teaching and to this day I continue to enjoy mentoring a small group of students. In 2004 I founded the Music Learning Center, a private music school in historic Pasadena, which ran succesfully until its lease expired in early 2007, when I decided to move my teaching operation closer to Eagle Rock. I am proud to say that my dedication as a teacher seems to reflect in the success of my students. The astonishing child prodigy and international competition winner Tim Callobre , 'School of Rock' star Miranda Cosgrove and actress Alicia Silverstone are among my students.
The support of my friends and a few die-hard fans finally convinced me to begin work on another instrumental album, which is due to be released later this year or possibly early next year. Besides joining friends' bands for occasional live gigs at local venues, I am currently assembling a new band project. 'Dead Leaf Echo' is expected to hit the L.A. club circuit sometime in the near future.
I dedicate my spare time to my wife Nancy, our baby daughter Alaia Sadie Lena and our three dogs, Labrador mixes Skeye and Jack and Dachshund DeNiro.
Please check out my other MySpace:
Eagle Rock Studios
Added on 3/2007
