The Undiscovered: Kins Xu

Influenced by the artists on the Shrapnel Records and Favored Nations labels, London based guitarist Kins Xu submitted his five song instrumental rock demo CD-R. The words 'rough and ready' are sometimes used to describe demos such as these, with a bare bones production, moments of brilliant playing, and other moments that just didn't quite make it. Xu has picked up a lot of contemporary techniques in the short time he has been playing guitar, and you can hear a lot of them on the demo. But there are a lot of times where the playing either doesn't fit rhythmically, or there are simply mistakes left in the song. Once these are recognized, they could be edited, or Xu could just do more takes until the performance is stronger. Because focusing on the good portions, a hard rock or metal fan could be quite impressed with the playing. This is just a matter of getting more experience playing, engineering and producing - something that time tends to fix for all conscientious players and students of the instrument.

Kins has been playing for five years, starting at age 19 while he was a student at Cambridge University. Initially he was attracted to the beauty and expressiveness of the instrument. In April 2002, he enrolled at the Guitar Institute in West London to take a Diploma Course in Guitar. In the summer of the same year, he was enrolled in a Guitar Degree Course in the widely acclaimed ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music), which boasts world class players like: Eric Roche, Gotherine Goven, Dave Kilminster, Phil Hobourn, Peter Frieson and others. During this time I have worked with a fellow guitarist by the name of Johnny B on many songs and the pair managed to produce a small demo tape called "Kins and John B". The demo was made in the summer of 2002 just within a weeks' time. At the moment, Kins divides his time between studying at ACM and producing a solo electric guitar album, as well as trying to promote his music worldwide via the Internet.

Xu has a two-pronged future plan: one is to keep developing his instrumental guitar works, and the other is to help songwriters and bands with his guitar work.

Kins Xu
United Kingdom

Web site: www.kinsxu.com