Guitar grad Jesse Krieger is the lead guitarist for his Nashville, TN-based band, Harsh Krieger. The songs he and band-mate, Jake Harsh, generate together are landing increasing exposure as their band gains momentum. Harsh Krieger has managed to create a mainstream, commercially promising sound, without sacrificing sincerity or innovation. They combine influences like Led Zeppelin, Coldplay, and U2 into an appealing mix of familiarity and originality. That is no small feat, and mere intention is not enough. Tasteful songwriting carries a balance of innate creativity and fluency in musical language. Harsh Krieger has found that balance.

Jesse's musicianship increased immeasurably right after high school, when he moved from his native San Francisco to Pasadena and began the yearlong guitar program at the LA Music Academy. After graduating in 2001, he played in clubs around Europe and settled for a time in Vienna, performing as a street musician. Upon his return to the states, Jesse attended Nashville's School of Audio Engineering, where he met and started jamming with Jake Harsh.

Since Harsh Krieger's inception in 2002, they've licensed six songs to MTV — four on the Real World, and two on Road Rules — and will be heard on an upcoming Extreme Motorcross event. They are getting airplay on college radio stations across the country, as well as XM Radio. This spring will see the national release of their self-titled debut album, which, despite major label interest, will be coming out on their own record label, Tabula Rasa Records. Jesse is excited to announce Harsh Krieger's west coast tour stops, coming in April and May. "After going through the school, graduating, moving away from LA and finding my own musical voice, now I'm coming back with my band, with real stuff going on, and we're going to be playing in the same places where I sharpened my teeth."

Probably the main deciding factor in me choosing the LA Music Academy was that there were no academic requirements, and that the course was 12 months with intensive focus on guitar. This as opposed to, say, Berklee's four-year commitment, which intersperses academic courses with the music programs. I just wanted to get in and learn everything there is to know about music theory, with an emphasis on guitar, and then get out into the real world and start using that knowledge.

I graduated four years ago, and I'm still in touch with at least 2 or 3 people from the school on a regular basis, and we hang out whenever I'm in LA. So yeah, it was a great place as far as making long-term friends. Also, the visiting professionals who sit in on the classes and play in the ensemble workshops are great to network with. Class sizes at the LA Music Academy are relatively small, and the amount of personal attention you get makes it a good learning environment. Ultimately, it's not the programs, size of the rooms, or the equipment that make the experience worthwhile. It's the people, both teachers and students.

I liked specific things about all of them. I liked Jeff Richman's kind of quirky musical style and his personality. I think Frank Gambale is brilliant. He doesn't really play the style of music that I'm into, but he's just a storehouse of knowledge. It's inspiring to be around him day in and day out.

I'd say he really emphasized the importance of ear training and hand technique. Here's a story about Frank. Before I moved to LA, I had bad wrist and elbow problems and was constantly wondering if I'd even be able to make music a career. In my first few days at the LA Music Academy, the first time I went up and played in front of the class, Frank stopped me and showed me just a couple of improvements to make in my hand positions, and bam — it completely changed how I've played from then on, and now it's second nature. The man knows so much about the guitar and about music theory in general that he can watch what you're playing and just intuitively pick out the things you need to change to be better, irrespective of the style of music that you're playing. Frank can rock just as much as the next guy, in my book, even if his main style of music is jazz.

When I first started the guitar at 11 years old, I was playing Nirvana songs and other punk stuff. By 16 or 17, my main interests were Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. I pushed the envelope with Hendrix as far as it could be pushed — he was virtually the only thing I had been playing. I even had a Hendrix cover band in high school. But naturally, I reached a point of needing to hear other artists. Probably the coolest people I found out about at the LA Music Academy were John McLaughlin and his various projects, like Shakti. Paco de Lucia and Bill Frisell were also musicians outside of the rock world that I found out about.

Before the LA Music Academy, I'd never really studied theory or actively tried to learn different styles of music, so going to the school was a pivotal point as far as music for me as a career because you're learning pretty much all there is to know about music theory, scales, modes, ear training styles, and performance techniques. There's basically music going on 12-14 hours a day, so the progress that a student makes in the course of twelve months is hard to compare with not being in school at all, and having other things on your plate. The main focus of everyday is doing lots of different stuff related to music.

We created it primarily to market and release our album. We have all the rights to our music, we own the master recordings, we have all of our publishing, and we keep our songwriting. Also, licensing is just so much easier when the music supervisors don't have to go through publishers and four or five different people just to be able to use a clip of a song. We can deal directly, and it's made things a lot easier. It's also more fun. As far as signing other acts, our album's release date is about a month away, so we really have our hands full with that right now. We definitely intend to sign some bands in the future, probably starting sometime next year. We're already looking actively at three or four bands.

Well, a lot of what I learned at the LA Music Academy was not necessarily in a classroom but from talking to different people. All these stories I heard from teachers, finding out things they've done and situations they're in. And then when I'm going through some of the situations myself, it's kind of like talking to this guy or that guy.

I encourage all musicians to stick through it because the hardest part of becoming professional is usually in the beginning, when you're just trying to figure out how to play your instrument and make it sound the way you hear it in your head. Once you get that stuff down, it becomes second nature and things begin happening, and it all becomes much more fun and part of a bigger picture...
Of course the process can also be quite frustrating, so I guess I encourage all the musicians who are going to school, or just starting out, or having their parents tell them to get a real job. I want to tell everybody that it's possible to make music your job, and stick to it!

Tour dates and much more info can be found at www.harshkrieger.com.