Dave Murray (musician)

Dave Murray ( born December 23, 1956 in Edmonton, London ) is a British musician. He is one of three guitarists in the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Life

Youth

Murray (actually David Michael Murray ) grew up in the London Borough of Hackney and comes from a poor family: his father was a painter and predominantly unemployed, his mother worked part-time as a cleaner. In his youth he was an avid soccer player and fan of Tottenham Hotspur. As the family moved often, he never managed to establish itself in one of the football teams, in which he played in the various schools he already left with sixteen years.

At 14, he came to the guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child on the radio. Other musical influences were Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana and Robin Trower. A little later he formed his first band, Stone Free, a power trio, in which he already played together with his school friend Adrian Smith. With Smith, he then played in a formation called Evil Ways and in between his band, Urchin. With this collaboration is an important foundation for the success story of Iron Maiden was placed, as Murray Smith in 1980 brought for the retiring Dennis Stratton in the band. Until he became with Iron Maiden for the professional musician, he worked as a car mechanic, as workers in a branch of the Guinness brewery and as a warehouse worker. When he was making more money through his music career, he bought the first his parents a house, where his mother still lives.

Career with Iron Maiden

Murray joined one of the first band occupations a few months after its creation in and then by the then vocalist Dennis Wilcock - like many other former band members - kicked out. Mid-1977, however, he joined at the request of Steve Harris of Iron Maiden again. In the following months, Murray and Harris presented a new line-up together. In this respect, Dave Murray is to be regarded just as Steve Harris as a founding member of Iron Maiden.

Murray is self-taught and claims to play what he feels. Especially in the live performances he likes to improvise with his guitar solos and pulls the stimulus from the fact that it works sometimes and sometimes less. His style is characterized by very fast, liquid, melodic and idiosyncratic play legato, making his solo game in conjunction with the neck pickup often used by him unmistakable and has the sound of Iron Maiden since its inception. Murray is not one of the lead composer, but he enriched the band for over thirty-five years with numerous melodies, riffs and technically demanding solos. Over the years he played with a few exceptions (ESP, Jackson, Ibanez Destroyer, Dean ) exclusively by Fender Stratocaster models from the American Series with humbucker - fitted in the bridge and neck position ( so-called Double Fat Strats ) and Floyd Rose vibrato systems. Some years ago he is now but three mini humbuckers ( Seymour Duncan Hotrail ) switched.

Murray now lives with his wife Tamar geehelichten 1985 and the 1995 -born daughter of Tasha in Hawaii. Besides football now also includes the game of golf among his hobbies. Among the largest and most important Metal guitarists in the world, he is currently ranked 11th