Eric Martin (musician)

Eric Lee Martin ( born October 10, 1960 in Long Iceland, New York ) is an American musician and singer. He was active as a solo artist, but had his greatest success and highest name recognition as lead singer of the hard rock band Mr. Big. Martin is the author of the largest single- success of the group, To Be With You.

Childhood and youth

Eric is the son of Frederick " Lee Peppe " r Martin and Iris Martin. He is the eldest child and still has three siblings: Dan, Joan and Laurie. He is half Irish and half Italian descent.

Musically, he was first influenced by his father, who played the drums in the band "The Buzz ". The band played with Eric on drums as the opening act for Sérgio Mendes, a renowned jazz / R & B musicians in the 1970 and 1980s.

However, Eric Martin was only a short time drummer. In the next few groups whose member was Martin, he had each played the role of the singer. He sang in bands such as " S.F. Bloodshy " and " Back Home ", Southside High School Southside (Alabama ) visited. He also belonged to a group called " Stark Raving Mad " was called, in which even the later guitarist and keyboardist of the band Winger, Paul Taylor played.

Martin owes his vocal qualities of his singing teacher, Judy Davis. She taught him diction, stamina and breath control.

Around 1976, around the Martin family moved to the Bay Area. Eric Martin attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, where he met some of the people with whom he founded his first successful band: "Kid Courage". The band was the opening act for AC / DC at their first two concerts in the USA.

415/Eric Martin band ( 1978-1985 )

The guitarist of the band " Mile Hi", John Nyman, asked Martin if he would establish with him a new band. The two knew each other from the past because their bands ( " Mile Hi" and "Kid Courage" ) had played together. They agreed to winning musicians from previous bands, and formed a new group, which they called 415.

415 was founded in late 1979. It was the start of a career as frontman and vocalist for Eric Martin. The group first played in night clubs and beer parties, she was able to quickly develop a reputation as a live band, so they soon played as the opening act for Billy Squier, Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield, Molly Hatchet, Marshall Tucker Band and Foreigner. Although they still had no record deal, the group was allowed to perform in front of 60,000 visitors as organized by Bill Graham Days on the Green concert.

415 got a recording contract with Elektra / Asylum Records; their management took over Walter " Herbie " Herbert and Sandy Einstein. Both were manager of the band " Journey". They decided to change the name of the group in " Eric Martin Band" ( EMB). EMB released their debut album, " Sucker for a Pretty Face", 1983. With this album, they got the opportunity to perform at Dick Clark's American Bandstand and to be on different tours as a support act for bands like ZZ Top, Night Ranger and Journey here. Despite the onset of success, the musicians of the band in 1985 to disband the group decided.

Solo career (1985-1988)

After separation Martin made ​​as a solo artist on. He recorded the song " I Can not Stop the Fire" for the soundtrack to the film Teachers on. also " These Are the Good Times" and "Eyes Of The World" for the film Iron Eagle. In 1985, he released his first solo album titled Eric Martin, the 1987 album I'm Only Fooling Myself followed. This album contained songs that were written by other artists, such as Myles Hunter, John Waite and other famous songwriters. As a musician, worked on the album, the drummer Mike Baird, who had worked with Rick Springfield and Journey, and Mickey Curry, also the guitarist Richie Zito, Tim Pierce, Michael Landau and Rick Nowells.

Despite his still young age Eric Martin had been invited to this time of different bands of the 1970s and 1980s, such as Van Halen, Toto and Rainbow to to apply to them for the post of lead singer.

Mr. Big (1988-2002)

1988 FULL Eric Martin, the band founded by Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert Mr. Big. The group quickly succeeded to make a name for themselves and to achieve initial success, since only the reputation of the individual musicians was enough to arouse the interest of the ( U.S. ) media. The band received in 1989 a recording contract with Atlantic Records, and the already published in the same year debut album Mr. Big reaching number 46 of the album charts; with their second album, Lean Into It, the group reached superstar status. It contained the coupled as Singles To Be With You and Just Take My Heart. To Be With You reached number one in many countries of the single- hit lists, including Austria, Switzerland, Germany and the USA, in the UK at least third place. The album was successful and achieved high sales figures.

Mr. Big developed a strong following in Japan; the country became the core market of the group, mainly expressed in it that was there brought out virtually every studio album and a live CD of the respective tour.

While he was a member of Mr. Big, but Martin also participated in other projects. In 1995, he was the singer of The Power Rangers Orchestra, and the drummer Matt Sorum belonged. Their version of the song " Go Go Power Rangers " was in the movie Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie to hear.

Martin released his third solo album, Somewhere in the Middle, in 1998 and was in the autumn of the year on a tour of Japan with the participation of musicians from his old band ( 415/Eric Martin Band) involved.

Meanwhile, guitarist Paul Gilbert had decided to turn his back Mr. Big; he was replaced by Richie Kotzen. With him the group recorded the album Get Over It, which was published in 2000. However, the band could not connect to past successes and broke up after the next album, Actual Size on.

Solo career (2002-2009)

While Mr. Big no longer existed, Martin released more solo albums, including I'm Goin ' Sane (2002) and the EP Pure. In 2003 he sang the song Cheer Up on the Japanese publication Sincerely 2 - Mariya Takeuchi Songbook. Another album, Destroy All Monsters, was released in Japan, Europe, the U.S. and South America in 2004. In the following years he was still active as an artist.

Mr. Big

In 2009, the original members of Mr. Big back together and started a comeback. Since Martin is active in both the Eric Martin band as well as for Mr. Big. 2011 appeared the new album What If ...

Others

On 19 January 2013 Eric Martin announced in a video on the next Avantasia album The Mystery Of Time to sing a duet with Tobias Sammet. He will also be on the tour of Avantasia it.

Discography

Solo albums and projects

• Sucker for a Pretty Face ( 1983) (The Billboard 200 # 191)
• Eric Martin ( 1985)
• I'm Only Fooling Myself (1987 )
• Teachers Original Soundtrack ( 1984) ( " I Can not Stop The Fire" )
• Iron Eagle Original Soundtrack ( 1986) ( " These Are The Good Times" )
• Soul Sessions - The Capitol Years ( 1987)
• Somewhere in the Middle ( 1998)
• I Love the Way You Love Me (1999, solo track)
• I'm Goin ' Sane (2002)
• Pure ( 2003)
• Destroy All Monsters ( 2003)
• Mr. Vocalist (2008)
• Mr. Vocalist2 (2009)
• Love is Alive - Works of 1985 2010 (2010)
• Mr. Vocalist 3 (2010)

Mr. Big

• Mr. Big (1989 )
• Raw Like Sushi ( 1990)
• Lean Into It (1991 )
• Raw Like Sushi II ( 1992)
• Bump Ahead (1993 )
• Japandemonium: Raw Like Sushi 3 (1994 )
• Hey Man (1996 )
• Take Cover (1996 )
• Not One Night ( 1997)
• Get Over It ( 2000)
• Super Fantastic (2000)
• Static ( 2000)
• Deep Cuts (2000)
• Actual Size (2001)
• Mr. Big in Japan ( 2002)
• Next Time Around ( 2009)
• Back to Budokan (2009)
• What If ... (2011)

• Back to Budokan (2009)
• Greatest Video Hits (1996 )
• Group Portrait ( 1993)
• Live in San Francisco ( 1992)
• Live and Kickin ' (1992 )
• Lean Into It (1991 )
• Back to Budokan (2009)