Allen Van Wert ~ The Person:

Allen is a down to earth, humble guy who strives for perfection in every facet of his being. His fans and students are most often heard mentioning his real life, down to earth style of teaching and sharing of information. He spends time helping countless others with their questions about music and guitar. In his spare time he programs video games as a hobby.

 

Allen Van Wert ~ The Musician:

Since the early age of three, Allen was playing around with keyboard and acoustic guitar. His father played steel guitar. One grandfather played organ while the other played acoustic guitar, harmonica and sang. Allen grew up surounded by all sorts of music including country, classic rock, blues, and rap. At the age of about ten he began remixing rap songs using two dual tape decks that could dub. He then took a summers worth of beginner guitar lessons after his mother noticed he would come in from car rides and play whatever songs were just playing on the radio in the car on their casio keyboard by ear. The guitar lessons were cut short because he wanted to do more than play twinkle twinkle little star.

After some time being a normal kid and causing trouble in the neighborhood with friends, a close friend let him listen to a new album that came with his new comic book. "Surfing With The Alien." Allen was amazed by the sounds and music contained within and began studying guitar on his own using his ear and some books. He then began composing music on his Amiga computer using scoring software and also tracker based software. The music was always highly creative and experimental to say the least.

There were then the many years spent studying music theory and practicing guitar literally all day. Allen was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Berklee College Of Music in Boston Mass. He then decided to persue music on his own as he had been all this time and declined the invitation to Berklee.

He then went on to compose and record music every day and released a debut album in 2005. The album has international radio airplay and some great reviews.

Allen has been inspired by many musicians including all guitar players he has heard. He is also a fan of The Beatles, Lionel Richie, Seal, Chris Cornell and a wide variety of artists spanning many genres.

Recent musical work includes movie soundtracks, TV commercials and video game soundtrack work.