Background

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erik Mongrain (born April 12, 1980 in Montreal, Québec, Canada) is a Canadian composer and guitarist, best known for his unique acoustic style, and his use of a two-handed lap tapping technique on the acoustic guitar.

Erik Mongrain taught himself guitar at 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 guitar, but developed an interest in classical and acoustic guitar after hearing the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. Erik taught himself to read music, and began composing.

Erik Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. When he was 18, Erik heard the work of guitarist Don Ross, and he said "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche."After that, Erik was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Hedges. 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, Canada, and England. He started out with street shows, and continues to play street and metro shows, as well as shows at concert venues and on television. Erik's music is going to be featured in a documentary produced by Lance Trumbull for the Everest Peace Project. He was recently featured on the cover of Guild Magazine. Erik was featured in Le Journal de Montréal and was written about in Journal Espagnol Granada. They wrote :

    "the visitor (to Grenada) ... discovers rather good musicians, sometimes brilliant, who makes a pure delight of the city... Erik Mongrain, 21 years old, is one of them... The young interpreter does not play in a habitual manner but rather lays the guitar on his knees like a keyboard ... before discovering this new method, known under the name of "tapping", he studied classical guitar on his own"

Erik released his first full-length album, Fates, in December of 2006 on his website as a series of individually buyable/downloadable songs. The physical CD will be released in June of 2007 (May for Japan).

Mongrain is invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage, a drive by Gontiti on the national Japanese network (NHK). The broadcast started last May 2007. The footage used for the broadcast is filmed in Montreal's streets and in Saint Joseph's Oratory, reputed for its acoustics.

During the summer of 2007, Mongrain will go on tour around Europe, particularly France, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom. He'll also be on stage in his own province, Québec, for a few performances. Meanwhile, the iVideoTune company will film four clips, such as Equilibrium, his latest composition.

Erik performed live at the August 2007 Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit.

For full Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Mongrain