Eric Smith

Erik Smith was born 1965 in Hønefoss, a small town near Oslo in Norway. His first exposure to music was through his parents. His father is a trumpet player /drummer and his mother sings and plays the piano. At 2-3 years of age, Erik started to take interest in music, especially rhythm and drum-like sounds. He constructed his own drumset from pots, pans and other appliances and after being old enough to barely reach the pedals on his fathers drumset, he learned the fundamentals and basic grooves. At age 6 he started taking classical piano lessons along with playing the drums. He played a lot by ear on the piano, especially jazz standards and ragtime along with Mozart, Bach, Grieg, Chopin, Schubert and many more..

From age 12 Erik became a permanent member of his fathers band, playing everything from old Norwegian folk music to Jazz and Rock'nRoll. He also started playing in a local big band, even further developing his abilities to play different musical styles and to read drum charts.. At age 15, he got into the scene in Norways capital, Oslo. He played jazz club dates with different bands as well as freelance work such as recording jingles and radio specials for NRK (Norways national broadcasting). The ball started rolling, and along with school, Erik managed to lay a good foundation for his career. [hear som early Soundclips!]

After serving one year in the military as part of "His Majesty The Kings Guards Music and Drill Troup ",after wich he received a scholarship for "Outstanding musical and military service" , he went on to build his reputation as a very versatile, musical and technically outstanding drummer. He got heavily into all the aspects of Oslo's music/entertainment scene doing both concert/club live gigs as well as studio work and theatre/show/musical work. At 21, he became the youngest member ever to join the now discontinued NRK Radio Big Band wich featured many of Norways jazz heavyweights. He also worked with his own 8 piece "Erik Smith band".

Erik is the first Norwegian drummer to be extensively involved with some of the worlds major drum products manufacturers. He enjoys fruitful relationships with Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, ProMark Sticks, Evans Drum heads and Shure Microphones. He is the first "non american" drummer to have great succsess in doing clinics in Scandinavia in support of these companies. His band , the Erik Smith Trio featuring english keyboard virtuoso Roy Powell and bass player extraordinaire Frode Berg is also involved in Clinics/concerts for Yamaha throughout Scandinavia. Other activities on the Clinic circuit has featured "duo" clinics with Japans number one drum hero Akira Jimbo (go to gallery 4 and 5 for photos!) and a band consisting of guitar legend Georg Wadenius (Steely Dan , Donald Fagen, Blues Brothers, Roberta Flack) and Frode Berg on bass.

For a full bio and more pics of Eric visit his official site

http://home.online.no/~esmith/index.html