Biography
Shane French is a Florida based hard rock and metal guitarist. He was born in central Florida in 1974 and has been playing guitar since the mid 1980's.
Shane's early musical education came from a combination of listening to classic hard rock albums, jamming with experienced local musicians, and lessons with Berklee graduate Ted Monroe.
Shane began performing locally in the Tampa Bay area in the early 1990's. Among his first bands was the popular Teer, named after drummer John Teer. Teer recorded several demos and played countless live shows through the 90's including an annual festival held in Zephyrhills, Florida called "Livestock" held by FM radio station 98 Rock. Teer performed alongside artists such as Slash, Buckcherry and Sammy Hagar at this festival. By 1999 they had caught the attention of Frontiers Records in Italy and subsequently signed a deal with them. 1999 was the year Shane and Teer first performed in Europe, playing at the Gods of AOR festival in Wigan, England. In 2000 their debut self-titled CD was released worldwide.
Also in the early 2000's Shane performed with Frontiers band Millenium. The band featured virtuoso guitarist Ralph Santolla (Death, Deicide, Obituary) and vocalist extraordinaire Jorn Lande (Masterplan, Vagabond). Millenium toured the UK and Spain in 2000. Shane also played a guest track on Jorn's solo CD Starfire the same year.
In 2003 Shane joined the newly formed band Circle II Circle which had Savatage vocalist Zak Stevens at the helm. Shane toured throughout Europe with CIIC until leaving late in the year after performing at the Criss Oliva 10 year Anniversary concert. Highlighting Shane's time in CIIC was perorming at Wacken Open Air and Rock Hard Festival.
Shane reunited with Teer in 2004, putting together new material and landing an opening spot on Tyketto's reunion tour of the UK. Teer was well received and plans for a new album were made.
2006 found Shane being asked to tour with former Savatage / Trans Siberian Orchestra mastermind Jon Oliva's band, Pain. Shane performed many shows with JOP, among them a lot of major European metal festivals such as Bang Your Head, Earthshaker, Graspop, Metal Way and Metal Camp. Dean Guitars endorsed Shane during this time as well.
After several years away from the music scene Shane formed Voz (www.vozmetal.com) with vocalist / guitarist Morrie "Voz" Vozdecky and Teer drummer John Teer. Their debut CD "Shadows of Death" was released internationally March 16th 2012. Shane also has made a guest appearance on the two latest Empires of Eden CD's "Channeling the Infinite" and "Architect of Hope", both power / prog metal masterpieces that feature Australian guitar wizard Stu Marshall and an all-star cast of vocalists such as Udo Dirkschneider (Accept, U.D.O), Ronny Munroe (Metal Church, T.S.O) and Sean Peck (Cage).
Shane continues to live in central Florida with his wife Kim and is looking for the next great adventure.
