Current Project: Record And Release 30+ Years Of Unreleased Music
Øystein is currently recording his first solo album; Release The Unreleased vol. I, II & III - comprising of unreleased music composed over the past 30+ years. The music is mostly instrumental and leans heavily towards bluesy hard rock. It is highly original, but contains clear references to his main influences; Eddie Van Halen, Malcolm & Angus Young, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, David Gilmour, Tony Iommi, Glenn Tipton, Trevor Rabin, Ronni Le Tekrø, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson and Joe Satriani. No official release date for the album has been set yet.
Future Projects: Wika Music Academy - Teaching Music Online
Through his digital media company Wika Media AS, Øystein is currently in the process of setting up a free and open music education program. The program will be published under the name Wika Music Academy, and is set to go live in 2020.
In addition, he is also developing a separate interactive solution for learning to play guitar, called Guitar Universe. This will be released in 2019.
Current Live Band
Øystein Wika - Guitar
Steinar Eikum - Bass
Jonatan Eikum - Drums
Other
Wika Media AS - Booking & Management
IMAGEVOICE - Digital Media Services
Bio
Øystein Wika is a Norwegian guitarist, composer and music producer. He is also the founder/owner of a small digital media company called Wika Media AS, that specialize in building interactive learning applications. Øystein currently lives in Oslo, Norway
Growing up in a musical family, Øystein started taking classical piano lessons at age six. He began playing acoustic guitar at age 9, but didn't get serious with the instrument before he heard AC/DC a couple years later. At age 13 - he bought his first electric guitar. Up through the 80's, Øystein formed several high school bands, playing popular rock music from the late 70's and early 80's.
In 1987, he moved to Trondheim to study music at the University. During the time in Trondheim, he started writing his own instrumental guitar music, much inspired by guitarists like Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. His plan was to try and self-release the music, but recording studios and recording gear were simply too expensive in the early 90's, so the music never got professionally recorded.
During his years in Trondheim, Øystein began teaching guitar for a living. In the time period between 1990 and 1994, he gave lessons to some 20-30 students a week. In addition to private students, he also took a teaching position at his old Music High School in Mosjøen, teaching electric guitar to the guitar students at the school.
Moving From Music Into Tech
Unable to get his music recorded, released and distributed, Øystein started looking for other ventures to make a living. He moved to Oslo, and from the mid 90's and forward, he spent most of his time in the tech field.
After freelancing as a web designer/developer for a couple of years, he started his first digital media company, WMP (Wika Media Productions), which later became Wika Media AS.
Through Wika Media, Øystein has participated in several high profile interactive development projects in the educational sector. In 2004-2006, he lead the digital application development for the National Tests in Mathematics in Norway.
(Re)Starting A Music Career
In 2011, after a 20 year hiatus from the music business, Øystein turned his attention towards music again. He set up a personal recording studio in his home, where he compose and produce music for TV/film, games and motion graphics - as well as his own music.