Trent Romens: Real Life Guitar Hero

While millions of kids were playing Guitar Hero on plastic guitar-shaped controllers in front of their television sets in 2005, 13-year-old Edina resident Trent Romens was jamming out with the real thing in his bedroom and trying his licks out on stages throughout the metro.

Now 18, the 2010 graduate is venturing out of his room and taking to area stages again, this time as a headliner. With a debut original CD in his pocket and a formidable backup band at his side, the young musician is beginning to harvest the fruits of a passion that was planted within him even before he became a teenager.

After his father discovered him unknowingly playing a blues progression in their living room at the age of 11, Romens was introduced to recordings of guitar legends via his father’s extensive musical taste. The music his father played him at home drove his inspiration for playing the guitar and Romens confesses to long sessions sitting in his room dissecting what he heard and learning how to put his own twist on the classics.

“There was always music around my house when I was growing up,” he says. “None of my blood relatives can play a lick of music or sing, really, but my whole family loves music and they’re extremely passionate about it, so I was exposed to it constantly.”

The exposure to music continued with live performances and Romens can distincly remember the moment his guitar-playing future was cemented.

“After hearing the Allman Brothers live, it was all over" he recalled. "It inspired me so much and after I saw that, I knew what I wanted to do.”

When he was 13, he had progressed to a point where his father began bringing him to weekly open jam sessions around the Twin Cities to give his son a taste of the real thing. It didn’t take long for the young teenager to get noticed by some of the regulars.

"He plays from the heart," said Elijah Blue, a veteran host of some of those weekly jam sessions and one of Romens' earliest supporters. "Every time he plays he plays something fresh and new. There’s an excitement there that’s very entertaining."

Blue began inviting him to sit in at some of his regular gigs and Romens credits those experiences as helping him push his limits.

"It taught me a lot," he said. "At such a young age, it was a good opportunity to bring what I was doing in front of people and it forced me to hold my own."

Blue is quick to deflect any credit, though, saying all of the hard work "belongs to (Romens)."

"I haven’t ever seen anyone take that kind of initiative to develop," Blue said. "He was always wanting to learn something new. He picks stuff up so fast. He’s just full of surprises."

While his peers were busy trying to earn a top score playing a Slash guitar solo on a video game, Romens was impressing his jam session stage-mates with improvised open tuning riffs that belied his age and experience.

Despite his talents, Romens eschewed the traditional high school garage band route. Turns out he had some trouble finding people who were as passionate about the blues as he was.

"It was kind of a bummer," he said. "It made me want to play at the bar more every week."

His weekly appearances at the jam sessions and gigs with Elijah Blue also helped expose Romens to other players on the scene that took notice. Soon, Romens was jamming with Twin Cities music legends such as Jimi “Prime Time” Smith, Willy Murphy and Wain McFarlane, among others.

"He’s (McFarlane) been a very big mentor," Romens said of the veteran Twin City musical icon. "Just putting me on stage and making me play. It’s taught me so much."

Romens recently celebrated his CD release party at Famous Dave’s in Uptown Minneapolis with a debut performance. He now has his sights set on a Thursday, Jan. 27 performance at Bunker’s Music Bar and Grille, one of the Twin Cities’ most renowned musical venues.

The performance will feature a backing band that includes Dan Neale (Martin Zellar) on rhythm guitar, Jon Wright (Rhythm Doctors/Benderheads) on bass, Jordan Carlson on drums and Cate Fierro and Shalo Lee (The Irresistables) on backup vocals.

After more than five years as a guest artist, Romens is thrilled to be performing the original material he’s been writing and recording over the last year. Inspired by everything from Bob Marley to Bob Dylan, Romens has taken in everything he’s absorbed on stage and at home in developing his own sound.

"It’s generally pretty much rock," he said of his debut CD, Aware. "But it all has its roots in the blues. It's really hard for me to describe because it's such an original sound. And it’s a personal sound. I just try to put my own twist on melodies and chord progressions I hear and are inspired by."

Blue describes Romens' sound as the "point in music where it becomes unpretentious and not garbled."

"You hear it as undiluted and as something pure," he said. "Trent’s music reaches that point. It’s magnetic."

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If You Go:

What: Trent Romens Live at Bunker's Music Bar and Grille

When: 9:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 27

Where: Bunker's Music Bar and Grille, 761 N. Washington Ave., Minneapolis

Cost: $5