Ronni Le Tekrø
Ronni Le Tekrø | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Rolf Ågrim Tekrø |
Born |
Oslo | 5 October 1963
Origin | Norway |
Genres | Hard rock,[1] Heavy metal,[1] Glam metal,[1] Pop rock[1] |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instruments | Guitar, Vocals, Sitar, Keyboards, Synthesizer, Guitar Synthesizer |
Years active | 1982–present |
Associated acts | TNT, Vagabond, Terje Rypdal |
Website | www.ronniletekro.com/ |
Notable instruments | |
Hamburgerguitar Quarterstepper guitar, Fender Stratocaster(H-S), ESP Holocaster custom guitar |
Ronni Le Tekrø (born Rolf Ågrim Tekrø, 5 October 1963, Oslo, Norway)[2] is a Norwegian guitarist best known for playing with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT and as a solo guitarist cooperating with guitarists Terje Rypdal and Mads Eriksen as "N3".[3] Tekrø moved to Raufoss at a young age, and he has lived there all his life except between 1982 and 1985 when he lived in Trondheim.
Le Tekrø sound
Le Tekrø plays with an extremely accomplished technique, and he is considered by many of his peers to be among the "best of the best" players alive. One of the big differences in his playing, (compared to others like Yngwie Malmsteen) however, is that his guitar solos are usually a separate melody which can actually be hummed, similar to Neil Schon's solos in Journey songs. He has the technical ability to play far faster than many other guitarists, but he does so sparingly. This is a large part of what designates him as one of the best players in terms of "phrasing," which puts him in an entirely separate league from other "shredder" guitar players.
He covered Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" in his solo album Extra Strong String. Le Tekrø has collaborated with the Norwegian guitarist and composer Terje Rypdal and has released three albums featuring the fruits of that collaboration. Le Tekrø's vocals tend to be deep, with emphasis on vibrato and falsetto. His inspirations as a guitarist include Steve Hillage, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Brian Robertson, Jimi Hendrix, and Ted Nugent.. He also claims to have invented the "Machine Gun Style." *George Lynch of Dokken states Le Tekrø's solo for "Caught between the Tigers" is "a real face-melter. It's spine-tingling."
Equipment
Le Tekrø's main guitar live is the so-called "Holocaster". Originally a light pink ESP guitar from the early eighties. The head is signed by close friend Brian Robertson formerly from Thin Lizzy and Motörhead. Le Tekrø uses his black early seventies Fender Stratocaster as a back-up for live performances. On the "Atlantis" tour Tekrø uses an Epiphone 1959 or a Morgan strat on the opening song "Hello, Hello".
He is also known for pioneering the use of the Quarterstepper Guitar. This guitar has twice as many frets as normal guitar, spread throughout the neck with quarter-tone intervals. This guitar was invented by Bernie Hamburger of Hamburgerguitar and Le Tekrø himself. He used the guitar for the solo in Wisdom from the Intuition album, and several others recordings. Hamburger also built a 12 string hollow body that Le Tekrø has used on various tours and recordings.
In the studio Le Tekrø uses a wide range of effects and amps.
His trademark Fender Stratocaster is notably unusually set up, with a Rockinger tremolo bridge and a Seymour Duncan pickup at the bridge position, no middle pickup, and an active custom made Magnetics™ pickup in the tail position.
Ronni is currently endorsed by ESP guitars.
For live performances Le Tekrø uses:
- OD-1 Overdrive
- BF-2 Flanger
- CE-2 Chorus
- Roland RE-150 Space Echo Tape Delay,
- Dunlop CryBaby
- Digitech Whammy II
- Marshall 2204 heads
- Marshall 1960 A cabinets
Wiccan witch
Le Tekrø has been practicing the nature religion Wicca since the 1980s, and he labels himself a witch.[5] He even has a master's degree in Wicca witchcraft.. He claims to know how to store energies in stones out in the forest and go out and charge up his batteries from them when he needs to. He says in a Norwegian newspaper interview in 2007 that Wicca helps him deal with such matters as death and guilt and that he prefers this to "fairytales from the Middle East which have thrown an entire world into war".[5][6]
Incomplete discography
TNT
Solo and collaborated records
- Wonderland (Embee Normann) (1993)
- Dedicated to Thin Lizzy (Bad Habitz) (1993)
- Vagabond (Vagabond) (1994)
- A Huge Fan Of Life (Vagabond) (1995)
- Rypdal & Tekrø (Terje Rypdal) (RCA 74321 242962) (1997)
- Rypdal/Tekrø II (Terje Rypdal) (1997)
- Starfire (Jorn Lande) 2000- Guest on "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"
- Extra Strong String (2000)
- Magica Lanterna (2002)
- Under the Misteltoe (Evil Elf Band) (2002)
- The Radiosong (Terje Rypdal) (2002)
- Camouflage (Wild Willy's Gang) (2005)
- Gods Of Thunder – A Norwegian Tribute To KISS ( Covered Detroit Rock City by Kiss along with former band-colleague Tony Harnell. )
- Unlocking the Past(Jorn Lande)(2007)(guest on "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" rerecording)
- Kingdom of Norway (2007)
- Demonoir' (1349 (band)) (2010)
- Mein Ampf (2014)
- Mein Ampf II (2015)
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Allmusic". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ↑ "Ronni Le Tekrø Official Website". Ronniletekro.com. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
- ↑ "Norwegian 3- Supergitaristar til Øvre Årdal". Porten.no. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
- ↑ "Studio Studio". Studiostudio.no. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
- 1 2 Lund, Joacim (September 25, 2007). "Spiller på mange strenger" (in Norwegian). Oslo: Aftenposten. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
- ↑ Gravem, Dag F. (September 21, 2007). "Metall-avhengighet" (in Norwegian). Oslo: Ny Tid. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ronni Le Tekrø. |
Literature
- Østbø, Stein Hekta : Ronni Le Tekrø : et liv i rock, N.W. Damm & Søn AS, Oslo (September 2007), 211 pages, ISBN 978-82-04-13130-0 (includes CD)