RD

RD is the artist name of René Diekstra who, next to being a guitarplayer and composer, works as a computer programmer. RD became a musician after seeing shows from Cuby & The Blizzards & Jan Akkerman. After 15 years of mainly working in IT it became clear that he needed to create his own musical project; Sum Of Its Parts. The project is the sum of all his musical influences. On this debut album you’ll hear influences of Wayne Johnson, Lee Ritenour, Jan Akkerman, Andy Timmons, John Norum, Steve Lukather, Ritchie Blackmore and many others. His style of playing is often compared by others to the style of Joe Satriani. Playing and writing music has always been a big part of his life. He started taking classical guitar lessons at the age of 9 and switched to electric guitar lessons by Dutch guitarist Erwin Java when he was twelve years old. During these early years his interest in computer programming grew and he divided his time between programming and playing guitar. Whenever René was playing he always had a need to create and record his own compositions. As he was growing older he got his first job as a computer programmer. In his spare time he was always busy doing session work, accompanying others and writing and recording his own songs. This is how he met his wife Vita. Together they started their own creative studio called Roadbear Studios. René lives and works in Oudeschip, a small town in the northern part of Netherlands.