John Schroeder

John Schroeder has been playing guitar and singing ever since the picture beneath this bio was taken. He comes from a very musical family - his father is a drummer, his mother is a singer and his uncle is Russ Freeman, the leader and guitarist of the popular contemporary jazz group The Rippingtons. John was born in London but was untimely whisked away to Minnesota before developing a charming English accent. He grew up outside of Minneapolis in the town of Long Lake and graduated from playing Raffi tunes (his version of Baby Beluga was known to bring a grown man to tears) to Tom Petty and Eric Clapton after receiving an acoustic guitar from his uncle Dan Freeman at age nine.

For several years John struggled to play this guitar with little success. Big strings > small fingers. But then several things happened. 1) John saw his uncle (Russ) jam with the fantastic blues guitarist and singer Mike Schermer at a family gathering. 2) John saw the movie Back to the Future and the scene where Michael J. Fox plays Johnny B. Goode. And 3) John started taking lessons with local guitarist Doug Dressel and was introduced to the music of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. He became interested in rock and blues, bought an electric guitar and amp and formed a band with friends from school and his cousin Eric Benedict on drums. They (eventually) called themselves Invasive Species, played their first gig at their seventh grade dance and soon began gigging all over the Twin Cities and Minnesota. The band continued to play until its members graduated from high school and fanned out across the country. In the spirit of being proud of one's past, there are a few Invasive Species recordings on the music page of this site.

In high school John began taking lessons at the MacPhail School of Music in Minneapolis. He studied guitar with Chris Olson and Craig Anderson and voice with Carole Hofstad-Lee and Thaxter Cunio. At MacPhail he was the first graduate of the Certificate Program for Performance and also a member of the Prelude Singer/Actor performance lab for two years. He was chosen as the guitarist for the 2004-2005 Minnesota All-State Jazz band and also spent the summer before his senior year touring the US and Cuba as a guitar tech and stage manager for The Rippingtons.

In 2006 John moved to Los Angeles to study at the Thornton School of Music at USC on a full scholarship. There he began gigging around LA and studied many styles of music from some of the finest guitarists and musicians alive such as Adam Del Monte, Bruce Forman, Morten Lauridsen, Aaron Serfaty, Steve Trovato, Pat Kelley and Carl Verheyen. He graduated in 2010 with a B.M. in Studio/Jazz Guitar. He also began playing with the band Pinot, a funk and soul band made up of USC jazz students. They started out playing at house parties (John's first gig with the band was at a block party that was broken up by a SWAT team) and have gone on to release three albums of original material, tour the country multiple times and play alongside acts such as Juno What??, The Doobie Brothers, Dumpstaphunk, Lettuce, The Original Wailers Band and The Motet.

During John's last year at USC he auditioned for the lead guitar chair in rock-and-roll hall of famer Frankie Valli's band. He was given the gig and has been on the road ever since. Some highlights include playing at Royal Albert Hall in London (and meeting Jimmy Page after the show), playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, playing on Broadway for two weeks and touring Australia and New Zealand. John has also had the honor of performing with artists such as Al Jarreau, No More Kings, Patrice Rushen and the Steve Miller Band and appearing on the TV shows Glee, The Glee Project and MissGuided. These days, in addition to touring with Frankie Valli, John keeps busy gigging and recording around LA, writing his own music, producing music for other artists and working on his newest project: a duo with virtuoso harmonica player Ross Garren called The Sheriffs of Schroedingham. A lot of new music is on the horizon for John and he plans to release a solo record in the near future.