BOB WIJNSCHENK/WINESHANK:

EARLY DAYS

At age 15 Bob started playing his dad’s 1959 Hofner acoustic guitar – "Dad used to play jazz standards". His love of playing stayed with him through high school where the sound of the Fender Stratocaster guitar and the emerging Jimi Hendrix and Cream (Eric Clapton) heavily influenced his playing and early song writing.

BANDS

Bob’s first “serious” bands - ‘Shagrat’ and ‘Outburst’ - played an Indie mix of originals- “I played bass then”. Their vocalist had a killer voice and the band did a few stints on Channel 9’s New Faces.
Bob eventually left ‘Outburst’ wanting to focus on playing lead guitar. During this period he wrote a many songs and started to develop his own distinct style.

INFLUENCES

During his 30’s Bob studied with renowned Melbourne jazz guitarist Bruce Clarke. “I started to take music theory more seriously”. His jazz phase was a tremendous growth period for him in terms of understanding music theory, harmony and later, most importantly, melody.

It was during this period he was introduced to Pat Metheny, the great American jazz guitarist and composer. Pat’s ‘Bright Sized Life’ album had a huge impact on Bob and had great bearing on his song writing style. His compositions became more layered and often featured complex harmonic progressions reminiscent of jazz. His instrumental "Beyond this Life" is a case in point.

Other influences that made Wineshank the music alchemist he is today were Brian May (Queen) and Sting. Much of Bob’s legato style of playing was inspired by Brian May’s smooth toned lead lines on early Queen albums-Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack.

The intro and outro solos of 'Roo Girl penned by Bob on his newest album, features this style of playing. “I’ve always thought that melody is king” YouTube legend Rick Beato influenced his lead lines also.

AND NOW

With the recent drop of his 2nd album ‘The Wine Pourer's Tales’ Wineshank is keen to get it out there. “I dug deep into the creative process with this one and tapped into some hidden emotions.” The album has seen collabs with many incredible overseas artists such as topline singer Drew Tyler (over 50 Million Spotify streams) as well as here in Australia having worked with drummer extraordinaire Gerry Pantazis (Larry Carlton, Richard Marx) renowned bassist, the late Roger McLachlan (LRB, Stars, Geoff Achison and the Souldiggers). and keyboard wizard Phil Turcio.