Eric Martin (musician)

Eric Martin live at Wacken Open Air 2018

Eric Lee Martin (born October 10, 1960 in Long Island , New York) is an American musician and singer . He is active as a solo artist, but had his greatest success and best fame as the singer of the hard rock band Mr. Big . Martin is the author of the group's biggest hit single , To Be with You .

Childhood and youth

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

Musically he was first influenced by his father, who played drums in the band “The Buzz”. The band played with Eric on drums as opening act for Sérgio Mendes , a well-known jazz / R&B musician of the 1970s and 1980s.

However, Eric Martin was a drummer for only a short time . In the next groups, of which Martin was a member, he played the role of the singer. He sang in bands like "SF Bloodshy" and "Backhome". He also belonged to a group called "Stark Raving Mad", in which the later guitarist and keyboardist of the band Winger, Paul Taylor, played.

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

Around 1976, the Martin family moved to the Bay Area . Eric Martin attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton and met some of the people there with whom he formed 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 start a new band with him. The two knew each other from the past because their bands (“Mile Hi” and “Kid Courage”) had played together. They agreed to get musicians from the previous bands and formed a new group they named 415.

415 was founded in late 1979. For Eric Martin it was the start of a career as a frontman and singer. The group first played in nightclubs and on beer parties, she was able to quickly develop a reputation as a live band, so soon as the opening act for Billy Squier , Hall & Oates , Rick Springfield , Molly Hatchet , Marshall Tucker Band and Foreigner played. Although they did not yet have a record deal, the group was allowed to perform in front of 60,000 people at the Days on the Green concert organized by Bill Graham .

415 got a record deal with Elektra / Asylum Records ; Walter “Herbie” Herbert and Sandy Einstein took over management. Both were managers of the band “ Journey ”. They decided to change the group's name to "Eric Martin Band" (EMB). EMB released their debut album, "Sucker for a Pretty Face", in 1983. This album gave them the opportunity to perform with Dick Clark's American Bandstand and to support bands such as ZZ Top , Night Ranger and Journey on various tours . Despite the onset of success, the band's musicians decided in 1985 to break up the group.

Solo career (1985–1988)

After the separation, Martin continued as a solo artist. He recorded the song "I Can't Stop the Fire" for the soundtrack to the film Teachers . also "These Are the Good Times" and "Eyes Of The World" for the film Iron Eagle . In 1985 he released his first solo album entitled Eric Martin , which was followed in 1987 by the album I'm Only Fooling Myself . This album contained songs written by other artists such as Myles Hunter, John Waite and other well-known songwriters . The musicians featured on the album were drummers Mike Baird , who had worked with Rick Springfield and Journey, and Mickey Curry , as well as guitarists Richie Zito , Tim Pierce , Michael Landau and Rick Nowells.

Despite his young age, Eric Martin was invited by various bands from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Van Halen , Toto and Rainbow , to apply for the post of lead singer with them .

Mr. Big (1988-2002)

In 1988 Eric Martin completed the band Mr. Big, founded by Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert . The group quickly managed to make a name for itself and achieve initial successes, since the reputation of the individual musicians alone was enough to arouse the interest of the (US) media. The band received a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1989 , and their debut album Mr. Big , released in the same year, reached number 46 on the album charts ; with their second album, Lean Into It , the group achieved superstar status. It contained the singles To Be With You and Just Take My Heart . To Be With You reached number one on the singles hit lists in numerous countries, including Austria , Switzerland , Germany and the USA, and number three in Great Britain. The album was also successful and achieved high sales.

Mr. Big built a strong following in Japan; the country became the core market of the group, which was mainly expressed in the fact that practically every studio album there was also released a live CD of the respective tour.

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

Martin released his third solo album, Somewhere in the Middle , in 1998 and went on a tour through Japan in the fall of that year, which also included musicians from his old band (415 / Eric Martin Band).

By now guitarist Paul Gilbert had decided to turn his back on Mr. Big; he was replaced by Richie Kotzen. With him the group recorded the album Get Over It , which was released in 2000. However, the band could not follow on from old successes and broke up after the following album, Actual Size .

Solo career (2002–2009)

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

Mr. Big

In 2009, the original members of Mr. Big got back together and started a comeback . Since then Martin has been active for both the Eric Martin Band and Mr. Big. In 2011 the new album What If ... was released , in 2014 "The Stories We Could Tell" was released.

Others

On January 19, 2013, Eric Martin announced in a video that he would sing a duet with Tobias Sammet on the next Avantasia album The Mystery Of Time . In 2013 he was also on The Mystery World Tour and the appearance at the Wacken Open Air Festival 2014 by Avantasia. In 2016 Eric Martin supported Avantasia again on their “Ghostlights” world tour and various summer festivals.

In March and April 2015 Eric Martin was part of the German project "Rock Meets Classic", which toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland together with the Mat Sinner Band, the Bohemian Symphonic Orchestra Prague and various guest singers.

In addition, Eric Martin continues to tour as a solo artist.

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't 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

Albums

• 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)
• Channel V at the Hard Rock Live (1996)
• Hey Man (1996)
• Take Cover (1996)
• Not One Night (1997)
• Live at Budokan (1997)
• Get Over It (2000)
• Superfantastic (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)
• The Stories We Could Tell (2014)
• Defying Gravity (2017)

Video

• 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)

Web links

• Eric Martin at Allmusic (English)
• Eric Martin at Musik-Sammler.de
• Official website of Eric Martin
• Mr. Big: Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ VeroRocK.it - ​​ERIC MARTIN: The VeroRock Interview! ( Memento from December 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Verorock Interview with Eric Martin, by Michael Rouan, 2005
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Interview with Eric Martin; Patrick Rossi ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Eric Martin Biography of Geocities Eric Martin Official Page ( Memento from October 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Eric Martin at Myspace.com
6. ↑ Eric Martin Biography at Yahoo! Music
7. ↑ ^{a b} Music Might Biography of Eric Martin ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Music Mayhem Interview with Eric Martin, 2002 ( Memento from February 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Mr. Big Biography on Sing365 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.