Rik emmett biography of martin

Cracking the U. But even as Triumph made inroads in the States, they faced constant comparisons to another hard rock Canadian trio.

Rik emmett biography of martin: From Triumph superstar Rik Emmett comes

They became much more progressive-minded, and their whole ensemble became a very conscientious kind of activity. The band I was in was something else entirely. I aspired to a higher level. I wanted to write songs that approached pop, but the other guys wanted that blues base.

Rik emmett biography of martin: In his collection, Rik also has

They wanted arena heaviness. Eventually, there was tension between us, and after a while I wanted out. Eventually, there was tension between us. Emmett, on the other hand, enjoyed considerable success as a solo artist, issuing numerous albums that touched on rock, pop, jazz, classical and folk. When you joined the band, it was pretty much run by Gil Moore.

Did that give you pause for thought at all? We had kind of a Three Musketeers mentality. His name was on the contracts, and he ran the production. He signed every check. There was never any problem with that. You liked a lot of British guitarists, but you were also a jazz fan. How did that fit with what Gil and Mike wanted to do?

I saw jazz as a logical part of my evolution as a guitar player. But if I wrote more of a pop tune, the guys wanted to make it heavy. For a while, it worked.

Rik emmett biography of martin: Rik Emmett of Triumph is this

Of course, I came up with the Beatles, and I loved Hendrix. Ritchie Blackmore was very influential for me. His phrasing and his choice of notes was very unique. Steve Howe was another one. The band got its first real airplay with the Rocky Mountain Way cover. So I did even better than a thousand. Then they did okay. The blues record was the easiest one to make and it was kind of the most fun and it sold the most.

Songwriter more than anything songwriter, focus on that, lean on that. So, it just depends on which part of my personality I decide I want to lean on. I started out singing in a choir church choir when I was seven years old. So I was a singer before I was anything else. Then when I got a guitar, I learned a couple of chords. I was a songwriter.

So I was writing songs before I was a guitar player. Then when you start to play guitar, it takes you a long time to get any good at it. I did show early promise. By the time I was 17 or 18, I had my union card and I was getting work. Part of that was because I was a singer-songwriter guy. So I had this sort of triple threat kind of ability.

The guitar came much later, the guitar heroism kind of thing. It ends up dominating, I think some people might say. His guitar playing is a fairly narrow kind of a palette, if you think of those three guys that came out of the Yardbirds, Beck, Clapton, Page. Eric was the narrowest of them all. What about Jimmy Page? Well, he expanded a lot more than Clapton did.

Then what about Jeff Beck? Well, he expanded the most. He was the most creative of them all in terms of what he made his hands do on an electric guitar. I had a little bit of all of them, the influence of all of them. Who am I? This is my story.

Rik emmett biography of martin: He is a singer,

I think eventually you arrive at that as an artist, as a guitar player. He was on a shortlist of intelligent musicians whom I felt could tackle the heavy stuff yet also display a Jazz sensitivity that I myself gravitated toward. We hit our stride on that album as a unit. Of course, no album is true perfection, but a lot of those songs would definitely appear on a greatest hits package.

What I mean by that is, if you were sitting around a campfire, would these songs hold up with just an acoustic guitar, and I think they do. There will always be people whose sole perception of me is holding a double-neck while wearing orange spandex pants, but time marches on. Personally, the only limit I have is my own fear and imagination. References [ edit ].

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. April 11, Retrieved September 12, July 11, Retrieved May 13, Retrieved July 18, External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rik Emmett. Rik Emmett. Discography Dave Dunlop Randy Cooke. Authority control databases. United States. Categories : births Living people Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male guitarists Canadian male songwriters Canadian rock singers Canadian male singers Canadian heavy metal guitarists Canadian rock keyboardists Lead guitarists Singers from Toronto Triumph band Writers from Toronto.