Erik Mongrain

Erik Mongrain (born April 12, 1980) is a Canadian composer and guitarist.

Biography

Mongrain was inspired early on by the work of Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. When he was 18, he heard the work of guitarist Don Ross and he thought: "This was a new revelation to me. I finally found my niche." After that, he was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Hedges, and also began to experiment with a technique known as lap tapping.

Mongrain plays live shows in the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, and England. Erik was featured in Le Journal de Montréal and many other acoustic guitar magazines. His first full-length album, Fates, was released 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 of Montreal where the live performance was recorded. Mongrain was invited for the premiere of the « World Music Heritage », a drive by Gontiti on the national Japanese network (NHK).

The iVideosongs company have filmed four clips including Equilibrium. The clips are tutorials of Mongrain's lap tapping style, downloadable on the company's Web site.

His "AirTap!" video has been viewed over 7 million times on YouTube.

In August 2012, he released a 10-track album called Forward.

Discography Fates (2007) Equilibrium (2008) Forward (2012) Tempo (2022)