Erik Mongrain
Encyclopedia
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
.
Biography
Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar from the age of 14. As a boy, he was mostly interested in sports but picked up an interest in the guitar and began to teach himself to play by ear. Erik started out playing the electric guitarElectric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, but developed an interest in classical
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
. He taught himself to read music and began composing.
Erik Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, and Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
. When he was 18, he heard the work of guitarist Don Ross
Don Ross (guitarist)
Donald James Ross , commonly known as Don Ross, is a Canadian fingerstyle guitarist noted for the emotion and intensity of his playing as well as his use of extended technique....
and he thought: "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche." After that, Erik was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Hedges
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...
. Erik also began to experiment with a technique known as lap tapping, in which the player lays the guitar across their lap, and taps the strings on the fret board with both hands.
Erik Mongrain plays live shows in the United States, Japan, Germany,Canada, and England. He started out busking in the streets, before he was discovered in Spain; Erik's music is featured in a documentary produced by Lance Trumbull for the Everest Peace Project
Everest Peace Project
The Everest Peace Project is an organization based in the United States that promotes peace, teamwork and cultural understanding by climbing some of the highest peaks in the world by a team of individuals from various faiths and cultures.- Climbs:...
. He was featured on the cover of Guild Guitar Company
Guild Guitar Company
The Guild Guitar Company is a USA-based guitar manufacturer founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a guitarist and music-store owner, and George Mann, a former executive with the Epiphone Guitar Company...
Magazine. Erik was featured in Le Journal de Montréal
Le Journal de Montréal
Le Journal de Montréal is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is the largest-circulation French-language newspaper in North America. Established by Pierre Péladeau in 1964, it is owned by the Sun Media division of Quebecor Media. It is also Canada's largest tabloid...
and many other acoustic guitar magazines.
Erik released his first full-length album, Fates
Fates (Erik Mongrain album)
Fates is the first album of the young Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain. Released in December 2006, Fates contains 10 songs like AirTap!, PercussienFa, I Am Not, Fusions or La Dernière Pluie. This first album, produced by Serge Fiori ....
, in December 2006 on his website as a series of individually buyable/downloadable songs. The physical CD was released in June 2007 (May for Japan).
In 2007, Mongrain went on a tour around the world, particularly in Europe, Asia and America. He performed also at the famous Montreal International Jazz Festival and at the "Studio-théâtre" of the Place des Arts
Place des Arts
right|frame|View of the Place des Arts esplanade. The Musée d'art contemporain is on the left; behind it is the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, with the Théâtre Maisonneuve on the rightPlace des Arts is a major performing arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
where the live performance was recorded.
Mongrain was invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage », a drive by Gontiti
Gontiti
Gontiti is a Japanese world music guitar duo formed in 1978 by Masahiko "Gonzalez" Mikami and Masahide "Titi" Matsumura...
on the national Japanese network (NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
). The broadcast started last May 2007 and the footage used for the broadcast is filmed in Montreal's streets and in Saint Joseph's Oratory
Saint Joseph's Oratory
Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, , is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine on the west slope of Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:...
, reputed for its acoustics.
The iVideoSongs company have filmed four clips including Equilibrium, a recent composition. The clips are tutorials of Mongrain's lap tapping style, downloadable on the company's Web site.
His "AirTap!" video has been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
On Friday 6 November 2009, Erik appeared on Later... with Jools Holland in the UK on BBC2.
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Recent work
On October 21, 2008, Erik Mongrain launched his second album "EquilibriumEquilibrium (Erik Mongrain album)
Equilibrium is the second album of the Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain.- Description :Equilibrium is an acoustic guitar album by Erik Mongrain recorded at Paul Reed Smith's Dragon Crossing Studios during August 2008...
" which has 9 new compositions. The title track from the album is an ode to the balance between humans and the planet. The album was recorded on July 2008 in "The Dragon Crossing studios", the personal recording place of Paul Reed Smith
Paul Reed Smith
Paul Reed Smith , is a luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars.Smith is originally from Bowie, Maryland. He made his first guitar while at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and continued to build guitars after he finished college, making them one at a time, one a month...
(PRS Guitars
PRS Guitars
PRS Guitars is an American guitar manufacturer headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland. PRS Guitars was founded by guitarist and luthier Paul Reed Smith in 1985. The company is one of the leading manufacturers of high-end electric guitars.-Materials:...
), located in Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, United States. On this new album, Mongrain plays with musicians such as Michael Manring
Michael Manring
Michael Manring is an American electric bassist from the San Francisco Bay Area, .-Biography:...
on fretless bass and Bill Plummer
Bill Plummer
William Francis Plummer was a catcher for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and the Seattle Mariners. While never a regular player , he did play solid defense...
on synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s.
The album was launched live on Mongrain's official website (streamed
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
broadcast) on 21 October 2008. The event called "Equilibrium Experience" will broadcast an exclusive live concert from Montreal and interviews with the artist directly from his living room.
Discography
- EquilibriumEquilibrium (Erik Mongrain album)Equilibrium is the second album of the Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain.- Description :Equilibrium is an acoustic guitar album by Erik Mongrain recorded at Paul Reed Smith's Dragon Crossing Studios during August 2008...
(2008) - FatesFates (Erik Mongrain album)Fates is the first album of the young Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain. Released in December 2006, Fates contains 10 songs like AirTap!, PercussienFa, I Am Not, Fusions or La Dernière Pluie. This first album, produced by Serge Fiori ....
(2007)