A Langdon-area pianist and music teacher has received rock star recognition for his artistry with the instrument after entering an online cover competition that ran during the month of October.
The contest, hosted by Ultimate-Guitar.com, called for musicians to submit their best covers in four distinct categories – acoustic guitar, lead guitar, vocals, and miscellaneous.
The competition followed a Halloween theme in partnership with the “godfather of shock rock,” Alice Cooper.
“As soon as I saw miscellaneous category, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that one’s mine. I got this,’” said Langdon piano teacher, David DeWolfe. “I uploaded a couple of covers – Hey Stoopid, Feed My Frankenstein, Hot For Teacher, and then Poison – Poison was the one they picked [as the winner].”
Prior to his big win, DeWolfe – who took home the top prize in the miscellaneous category – received a shout out from the rock star legend and contest namesake, Alice Cooper, on both his Instagram and Facebook pages.
“I looked at my phone and there were tons of notifications, I was like, ‘OK, what’s going on?,’ so I open Instagram and sure enough Alice Cooper had seen my piano video and shared it on his Instagram,” Dewolfe said. “That was pretty sick because I think he’s got 1.4 million followers on Instagram or something like that.”
About half an hour later, Dewolfe said he started receiving new followers on his Instagram page, and people began commenting and viewing his other videos. Soon after that, Facebook started “blowing up” too after Cooper had posted the video on his Facebook page.
According to DeWolfe, the winners, hand-picked by Cooper himself, were announced in mid-December.
“I won the miscellaneous category, which was pretty sweet, and [Cooper] posted about it again on his Instagram,” he said. “They’re sending me some sort of package. I don’t know what I’m getting.
“But you know what? It’s pretty cool just to have enough clout – Alice Cooper giving me the shout out by itself is a pretty big deal.”
DeWolfe said the first thing he did when he found out he had won the competition was call his childhood best friend Jeff, who lived across the road from him in a hamlet outside of Drumheller.
“My parents were very Christian in my house, [they] were pastors and we listened to Christian worship, and that’s it,” he said. “But I’d go over to Jeff’s house and his mom would have Black Sabbath blaring and Alice Cooper and Bon Jovi – Poison by Alice Cooper was our favourite song.
“So from the age of six until 15, any time that song would come on, we were jumping on the tables and swinging from the chandelier.”
He added since the big win, he’s been getting all kinds of collaboration requests, which have been “exciting” for the Langdon-based musician.
“Alice Cooper hasn’t asked to do any songs with me yet, but he’s probably just busy right now,” Dewolfe said with a laugh.
The 32-year-old musician has been playing piano for approximately 29 years, and teaching for 12. He said no matter how much fame or fortune comes his way, he will continue to teach others the craft.
“I’ll probably always teach piano to some extent because I love it,” he said. “Even if I did become a rich and famous piano player, I don’t think I’d ever stop teaching, because I really do enjoy it.”
He added, prior to the win, he had been working with Ultimate-Guitar.com, which serves as a community for musicians and includes guitar tablature, chord sheets, reviews of music and equipment, interviews, lessons, and forums.
“[Ultimate-Guitar has] become a social media platform for musicians, so you can upload videos playing different songs, and people can follow you, interact, comment, and message, no different than Instagram,” he said, adding he has been uploading videos to the platform for a while now.
“If COVID ever goes away, they’d be possibly financing a big chunk of an international tour,” he said. “I can’t say too much about that, but that’s been in the works since last year.
“We’re just kind of sitting and waiting – COVID has made it extremely difficult for musicians not being able to travel. It's definitely hard.”
DeWolfe has three albums available to stream on Spotify. Fans who would like to keep up to date with his performances and music can do so on Facebook, Instagram (@daviddewolfemusic), and TikTok (daviddewolfepianoman).
Follow me on Twitter @carmenrcundy
