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Some Quick Updates… new bands, productions, …

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Time for some quick updates here:

  • My book “Guitar Essentials” is doing well. Buy the book here “Buy “Guitar Essentials” on Amazon
    Famous Guitar virtuoso and Supertramp guitarist Carl Verheyen LOVES the book. He wrote a kick-ass testimonial for it.

  • I became a best-selling author in the past month for both my books Guitar Essentials and my new book Beginner Guitar Bootcamp. Buy Beginner Guitar Bootcamp here “Buy “Beginner Guitar Bootcamp” on Amazon
  • 2022 has been the busiest year ever in my life. I wrote a ton of new music, finished writing 6 books, and finally got my business and publishing websites launched. Check out ZOTZinMusic here ZOTZinMusic.com

  • I bought a house in Santa Clarita last year. Am absolutely LOVING it here. And still pretty close to LA: only about a 25min drive.

    My new studio here at the new house, is the best studio I ever had. A lot of great music and learning is going to happen here at this new dojo for many years to come.

  • I’m a published author now. My book “Guitar Essentials” is doing pretty well. You can buy the book here “Buy “Guitar Essentials” on Amazon

    Famous Guitar virtuoso and Supetramp guitarist Carl Verheyen LOVES the book. He wrote a kick-ass testimonial for it.

  • After years of being asked for this by so many of my students, I am finally getting a subscription-based guitar lesson videos in the works.

    My instruction video site is going to be GuitarVoyage.com. I’m hoping to get the site up and running with great content by end of this summer already.

    Keep an eye out.

  • Tiannah, little Aiden and I moved to a new house, right outside of Hollywood. It’s an amazing 3-story house, ideal for a musician. I have my teaching and rehearsal studio on the 1st floor, above that are the living areas, and above that all the bedrooms. It’s refreshing to have my professional and my personal life nicely separated again.

  • Joined the band Automatik Eden in August 2016. I’m in a band again with my besties Dave and Cela. Rehearsal is conveniently located right next door from my house, because I’m neigbor with my band members. It’s a blast.

  • We released our album “Madland” beginning Semptember 2016. I play guitar and bass on the album. A couple of weeks later our single (Also titled “Madland”) climbed up to 12th place in the Billboard charts. This is the best chart placement of any album I ever played on.

  • We did a serious redesign of my teaching website www.ZOTZinGuitarLessons.com. I’ve got tons of positive comments about it. Check it out and let me know what you think.

  • My music students have been releasing a lot of really awesome music in 2016. Check out my alumni Rena, Miranda and Casey in Hey Violet who just released their song “Brand New Moves

  • I finally did it: I designed my all-time favorite, Vreny custom Dream Guitar. It took me 2 years and hundreds of hours of guitar research before having it built. This guitar has everything I ever wanted in a guitar.

    Check out My Dream Guitar Here!

    A whole lot has happened since past update.

    I got married, became a dad of a lovely son Aiden Pascal Van Elslande, hired and trained other teachers, built the business, designed my ultimate dream guitar, read hundreds of books, etc… etc…

  • I’ve also been spending a lot of work and time on my new teaching website Click here for ZOTZinMusic

    The new site is geared towards my guitar teaching only. There’s blogs, a guitar store, book store, tons of guitar info, money making opportunities when you refer students, and so much more, all offered on the new site. Go check it out.

  • I finally designed and ordered my all time best custom Suhr guitar. I should get it in the next couple of months. It is currently being built. This guitar is going to have everything I always wanted but could never get on a custom lefty guitar. I’m anxious like a 6-year old.

    My last update here was in April: today is the 1st of October 2011. I have kept to my promise earlier this year that 2011 was going to be the year of laser focus. Some news…

  • ZOT Zin Music, LLC. Yes, I have been busy building my business and am glad to inform that my company is an LLC now.

  • Icky’s Ego now has a publicist. We also signed a production/recording deal with the the engineer who did the last NIN and Perfect Circle records, and a producer he likes working with. Very exciting.

  • Programmers and designers are currently working on my new teaching website, which I can’t wait to be done. www.vreny.com will primarily be used as my artist website, and no longer advertise my music teaching. The new website, currently still under construction, is: Click here for ZOTZinMusic.

    The new website should be up and running in about 2 weeks.

  • I am still writing on my 2 books now, and yes I am still planning to finish all the writing this year indeed. I have a graphic designer friend in India who is currently designing all the chord diagrams and scale fingering graphics for my music/guitar theory book. I emailed him 150 pages of hand written guitar diagrams. That should keep him busy for a while. 🙂

  • I started the whole process to get my ZOTZinMusic business name and logo trademarked a couple of months ago. Received fantastic news yesterday from the attorney who is working on my case. My trademark is approved. Now it is just waiting another 5-6 months for all the publications and administration to be finalized. Another step forward.

  • I toyed with the idea of getting my Masters in Spiritual Psychology next year. Being that I never do anything half assed, I immediately went on to order EVERY book the University of Santa Monica recommends on the topic… and ended up with an order of over 120 books. My teaching studio now also looks like a library… and my mail man loves me.

    New Year’s vacation in Belgium was unbelievable. It is so important to balance work with family and friends. Hard to believe it is already April again by now. An update:

  • Icky’s Ego is doing well. We spend 2 months building our recording studio, (it looks kick ass awesome) and now we are fine tuning songs and recording our album. Have been practicing a lot of bass, and am having fun with my new Hartke bass head and cabs. It feels great to feel the floor shake under your feet when you hit a bass note. The band will push a lot more air in your direction from now on. We also won an award/ honorable mention for the song Citadel from one of the leading song-writing contests. Great things are happening. We appeared in a number of movie magazines that are reviewing one of our music videos, through interviews with our music video director Pascal Payant.

  • After having read 36 books in past 2 months on neuroscience, pedagogy, psychology and guitar education, I have greatly improved my teaching expertise. The goal is: be an expert guitar teacher. I wrote 250 pages already this year for the private music teaching business book that I am writing. I will be done with the first draft to the book in 2 weeks. THEN, I’ll get back to and finish the music theory and guitar bible that I started writing a couple of years ago.

    By the end of this year, I’ll be the author of 2 published books.

  • 2011 is the year of laser focus on accomplishing many goals. The 2 books are part of the 16 goals I want to achieve this year. Some of the other goals include, designing my ultimate dream guitar, running the marathon of Honolulu, professionally recording 10 of my songs, and so on. 3 of the 16 goals have been accomplished already: 13 more to achieve and 9 more months left. I’m on schedule. Yaaay. Keep in touch. Email me to let me know what your goals are and how I can help you achieve them.

  • 2 more weeks and I am FINALLY coming back to Belgium for vacation. Am getting ready for the trip. Have been offered a TV interview on Ment TV with John “Bobo” Bollenberg. Still trying to make up my mind if I’ll do the TV thing, as I am in need of a vacation with long walks in the snow and peace and quiet after 3 years of non-stop working in LA, away from any more commitments.

  • Past 3 years have been unbelievably crazy , including further developing my teaching business, significant investments in my recording studio, becoming member of Icky’s Ego, writing my guitar book, shooting music videos and already winning awards with the band, having a new guitar built, etc.

  • Icky’s Ego recorded 2 music videos, and won an award for best cinematography for the “Chimera” video.

    We also received airplay and did interviews on a couple of radio stations. The band also garnered label interest, but we’re not desperate to get signed and we take our time to evaluate all the opportunities offered to us.

  • The band worked very hard and our shows are at an entirely different level now. Come see our last show of the year at the Cabana Club Dec 10th at 10:30pm, 2 days before I leave to Europe.

  • Been contemplating getting myself the ULTIMATE John Suhr guitar built. Am still working on developing the specs.

  • The book I am writing will be finalized by Summer 2011.

    I was about to start a music school, but laid off those plans when I refocused my energy on becoming a full time performer and writer again. More about this soon.

  • As for now:

    Happy Holidays. I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Best Wishes for 2011. 2011 is going to be a fantastic, break-through year.

    I made many new friends in past weekend (5.22.10) while shooting the music video to “Citadel” with Icky’s Ego.

    I wanted to thank Producer Brandon Don Heath, assistant art director Jerid Bartow, Art and Visual Director Ryan Patterson and Director of Photography Jordan Snider from Red Cloud Studios and their art and video crew for their unbelievable professionalism, hard work, and friendship. These guys are THE TOP… AND I LOVE THEM!!!

    Marilyn Manson is just one of the artists who hired these dudes to design and shoot his music videos. We feel so honored these great folks did our Citadel video.

    Check out Red Cloud Studios here

    Words simply cannot express our love and gratitude for this video and art team who brought our song “Citadel” into living breathing action at the Brewery this weekend.

    Thanks also do DeAnn Dallas and Robyn Newmark of Newmark Beauty who did a masterful job making us look good and who worked their butts off.

    Last but not least, our super talented director and close friend Chris Lyman, who put it all in motion and made it all happen or us. This would never have happened without Chris.

    THANK YOU!!! You all took us on a ride we will never forget! I love you all tremendously.

  • May 21st-23rd I’ll be in the studio with Icky’s Ego, shooting the music video to “Citadel” with the video crew and set designers of Marilyn Manson.

  • DJ Tito Benevides LOVES Icky’s Ego and talks about us in his Radio Show “My Pet Dogma” on Cerritos College Radio, April 14 2010

    Tito Radio Introduction

  • Icky’s Ego video “Chimera” released TODAY.

  • Special thanks to our friends Pascal Payant from Montreal who directed and shot the video, Kimmy W who produced the video, and DeAnn Dallas and Robyn Newmark who helped us with image consulting and make up.

    Click here to watch the “Chimera” video.

  • World, meet the lovely, talented Lisa Steele, our “Ego Maniac Of The Week”, by clicking HERE.

  • Check out the AH-MA-ZING Dick Aven, the latest “Ego Maniac Of The Week” HERE.

  • Icky’s Ego recording the music video for Chimera in Death Valley

  • Check out the song Faceless Face of Big Business. Brian Hardin produced and wrote the song. Teri Hitt sings, I play all the guitars on it. Recording this song was unbelievable fun. Check it out here: Faceless Face of Big Business. You basically first click on the song title showing up in the 3-song player, then click on the play (arrow) button.

  • Check out Icky’s video introduction and the latest “Icky’s Ego Maniac Of The Week” by clicking… HERE.

  • Icky’s Ego as Yawn and Joke-O

  • I think I broke a string… my hamstring… while playing GUITARBALL.

  • I just posted the videos on youtube of the last Icky’s Ego show at the Aqualounge in Beverly Hills. We want to thank all our fans who came out. Enjoy the performance of Mr. Obsequious.

  • Check out the latest Icky’s Ego Blog about the fabulous show of our friends The Swagger Sticks here: Icky’s Ego Blog.

  • I joined my best friends David Crocco and Cela Scott on bass in the band Icky’s Ego a while ago. David and Cela are both guitar alumni of mine. Phil kicks ass on drums. We already played tons of shows in our new line up. Crowds really dig us and our music. This feels REALLY good. Joining my good buddies in their band has been one of THE best decisions I made in past years.

    Check out the band here: Icky’s Ego

  • Angela Leo’s album “Cognitive Dissonance” just was released last month. I co-wrote all the songs on the album with Angela and play guitar on a couple of songs. Check out the song “Waves of The Tide” to hear my playing here: Angela Leo

  • Aron Gibson’s band The Swagger Sticks just released their debut album. I am playing a guest solo on the album on the song “Plymouth Rock”. Check it out on iTunes. There’s plans of performing shows back to back with Icky’s Ego and The Swagger Sticks. We will keep you posted. The Swagger Sticks

  • Check out Rebecca Blanks: I just produced and recorded her 6 song EP. You can hear some of the songs I recorded and produced here: Rebecca Blanks

  • This month I will be in the studio recording guitar for Leah Hanna King’s debut album. I am incredibly excited about this. The song “Dreaming (For So Long)” that Leah and I co-wrote will be on her album. I love that girl. Here’s a preview of some of her music. Leah King

  • I am still writing my book. The book’s been a bit on the back burner, as there’s only 24 hours a day, but I am still working on it.

  • I am also the guitarist now in the band Grace Gravity with my friend Teri Hitt on vocals, Brian Hardin on drums, and Dave and Cela doing bass, extra vox, wurlitzer and a multitude of other instruments. Check out Teri’s site here: Teri Hitt

    Grace Gravity LIVE Show at the LA Roller Derby

    If you want to see more photos of one of our performances, check here:

    Grace Gravity photos

    That’s it for now. More news coming up soon.

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