The Undiscovered: Kevin Schafer

Invasion From Planet K is Minnesota guitarist Kevin Schafer's instrumental guitar CD, a ten track extravaganza that owes it's inspiration to the guitar rock of the 1970s. No burying riffs and solos in the mix here; the guitar is up-front and in-your-face - fortunately, Schafer has the chops (and the production muscle) to pull it off. Drummer Rikki Davenport is featured on all the songs, and they tracked the CD with no real rehearsals and no clicks - they just hit the groove a couple times, tap their toes, and track it. The end result is an organic, heavy, hard rock experience that pretty much delivers everything that Schafer promises, "Your gonna hear booty quakin' grooves, coupled with cop show beats. Mix that with a Marshall cranked to twelve and you got yourself just a bit of sonic love..."

Kevin has been playing guitar for over 20 years, and says the azz smackin' '70s are without a doubt one of his biggest influences. You had Evel Knievel jumping canyons, you had Muhammad Ali whoopin' ass and you had the best rock, funk and fusion going on. It was the style of this time that made music so colorful and explosive. Artists such as Jeff Beck, Robin Trower, Alan Holdsworth and Eddie Van Halen inspired Kevin to get playing in the first place. The '70s flavor has inspired him to get loud again. His other influences include James Brown, P Funk, Miles Davis and early Prince. The fusion of hard funk and hard rock has long been a source of inspiration to Kevin.

Schafer's live band is extremely dynamic, very improvisational and constantly jumping over the cliff. You won't hear them doing cookie cutter rehashes of the material. The band tries to push themselves, which makes for a very exciting live show, with a constant and relentless groove.

Kevin Schafer
United States

Web site: www.soundclick.com/kevinschafer