Pat O'May
Encyclopedia
Pat O'May is a French
musician
born in 1961 in Rouen
(France
).
From an essentially rock
and metal
background, he explores new territory with an original blend of is own guitar approach and world music
elements using among others Celtic
, Arabian and Chinese sounds.
, who introduced him to rock
and R&B, but it was the Machine Head
album by Deep Purple
that gave him the urge to become a hard rock guitarist. He became the guitarist and vocalist of the heavy metal
band "Marienthal". From then, he wanted to become a professional musician. He takes guitar lessons with Patrick Duplan who makes him work on classical music
, blues
and the bossa nova
are a discovery to him. From the outset of his career, he has always been musically open-minded, seeking out such wide and varied experiences. The band is on tour all over France, England and Algeria
. They doing opening act for Girlschool
, Alvin Lee
and Chariot
. During a tour in Belfort
, O'May decided to disband and start a solo career to express himself more freely.
to compose his first solo album "Bob up", welcomed by French press, followed by his second opus "Kids and the War". In 1996, Godin
, French distributor of guitars, chooses him as their demonstrator and he travels all over the country. In 1999, his third album "Breizh-Amerika", recorded in Brittany
and mixed in New York
, is produced by Guns N' Roses
guitarist Ron Thal. He refines his idea of fusing rock and traditional energies, with the participation of Celtic musicians and Norbert Krief
. He was touring throughout Europe. He produces in 2002 "Un souffle pour la vie" (breath for life) for which all profits go to cystic fibrosis
research, and tour his new album "Anakoustik" along with the pianist Philippe Turbin. In 2003 he creates a show with Gilles Servat
. He meets up with many musicians (Jeff Beck
, Joe Satriani
, Steve Vai
, Van Wilks, Stuart Hamm
, Jonathan Mover
…). In 2005 he writes more of 100 musics for the worldwide television serial "European coast seen from the sky" (distributed in 15 countries worldwide) and Alan Stivell
contacts him to record on his new album (Explore). In 2006 he records "Brittany celebrates St. Patrick's day" in Bercy
and also plays as guest artist on Johnny Halliday's "Flashback Tour". He signs in 2007 with Milan Music/Universal
for his new realise "Omega", comes out 8th July during the "Festival des Terre Neuvas" in France in front of 47,000 people. In 2008, Pat goes touring in France and Europe. He is also contacted by Alan Simon to participate in his rock-opera "Anne de Bretagne" in the company of Barclay James Harvest
, Ange
, Fairport Convention
, Tri Yann
, Cécile Corbel
, The choir of the opera of Genes... Next year, Pat joins up Alan Simon new project "Excalibur
", Celtic Rock Opera, in Germany
with Johnny Logan
, Alan Parsons
, Martin Barre
(Jethro Tull
), John Helliwell
(Supertramp
), Fairport Convention
, Corvus Corax, Bruce Guthro
, Moya Brennan
, Jackie Mc Shee, Les Holroyd
(Barclay/James/Harvest)... and continues writing for television. 2010 starts strongly by the colossal tour of "Excalibur
" in Germany and Switzerland. He records live a new CD and DVD entitled "In Live We Trust", with 10 original tracks and a brass section. He plays in Bercy
for St Patrick's Day, just before recording Excalibur III. Then the Excalibur tour starts up again in England during the summer and the end of the "Anne de Bretagne" tour in November. In 2011 Excalibur is back in Germany and "In live we Trust, European Tour" starts in Switzerland, France, Germany… The friendship with Martin Barre
leads them to built a tour in October.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
born in 1961 in Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
).
From an essentially rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
background, he explores new territory with an original blend of is own guitar approach and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
elements using among others Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
, Arabian and Chinese sounds.
Groups
As a teenager, he was a fan of The OsmondsThe Osmonds
The Osmonds are an American family music group with a long and varied career—a career that took them from singing barbershop music as children, to achieving success as teen-music idols, to producing a hit television show, and to continued success as solo and group performers...
, who introduced him to rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and R&B, but it was the Machine Head
Machine Head (album)
Machine Head is the sixth studio album released by the English rock band Deep Purple. It was recorded through December 1971 in Montreux, Switzerland, and released in March 1972....
album by Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
that gave him the urge to become a hard rock guitarist. He became the guitarist and vocalist of the heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band "Marienthal". From then, he wanted to become a professional musician. He takes guitar lessons with Patrick Duplan who makes him work on classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and the bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
are a discovery to him. From the outset of his career, he has always been musically open-minded, seeking out such wide and varied experiences. The band is on tour all over France, England and Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. They doing opening act for Girlschool
Girlschool
Girlschool are a British heavy metal band originating out of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene in 1978 and frequently associated with contemporaries Motörhead. They are the longest running all-female rock band, still active after more than 30 years...
, Alvin Lee
Alvin Lee
Alvin Lee is an English rock guitarist and singer. He began playing guitar at the age of 13, and with Leo Lyons formed the core of the band Ten Years After in 1960...
and Chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
. During a tour in Belfort
Belfort
Belfort is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France and is the prefecture of the department. It is located on the Savoureuse, on the strategically important natural route between the Rhine and the Rhône – the Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate .-...
, O'May decided to disband and start a solo career to express himself more freely.
Solo
He changing home port and came to live in BrittanyBrittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
to compose his first solo album "Bob up", welcomed by French press, followed by his second opus "Kids and the War". In 1996, Godin
Godin
Godin is a French surname, one that is especially common in French Canada.-People with the surname Godin:* Carel Godin de Beaufort, racing driver* Christophe Godin, musician* Dave Godin* Diego Godín, Uruguayan football player* Eddy Godin...
, French distributor of guitars, chooses him as their demonstrator and he travels all over the country. In 1999, his third album "Breizh-Amerika", recorded in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and mixed in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, is produced by Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
guitarist Ron Thal. He refines his idea of fusing rock and traditional energies, with the participation of Celtic musicians and Norbert Krief
Norbert Krief
Norbert Krief , often known as Nono, is a French rock guitarist.Krief was the guitarist of hard-rock bands like Shakin' Street and Trust. He later worked as lead guitarist for Johnny Hallyday and Fabienne Shine among a variety of other collaborations.- References :...
. He was touring throughout Europe. He produces in 2002 "Un souffle pour la vie" (breath for life) for which all profits go to cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
research, and tour his new album "Anakoustik" along with the pianist Philippe Turbin. In 2003 he creates a show with Gilles Servat
Gilles Servat
Gilles Servat is a French singer, born in Tarbes in southern France in 1945, into a family whose roots lay in the Nantes region of Brittany.He spent his early childhood around Nantes and Cholet. His music evoques the Isle of Groix, off the coast of Morbihan.His music was originally inspired by the...
. He meets up with many musicians (Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
, Joe Satriani
Joe Satriani
Joseph "Joe" Satriani is an American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations...
, Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, Van Wilks, Stuart Hamm
Stuart Hamm
Stuart "Stu" Hamm is an American bass guitar player, known for his session and live work with numerous artists as well for his unconventional playing style and solo recordings.-Beginning career:...
, Jonathan Mover
Jonathan Mover
Jonathan Mover is an American drummer who has worked with a number of artists including Aretha Franklin, Fuel, Alice Cooper, Shakira, Julian Lennon, GTR, Everlast, The Tubes, Mick Jagger, Steve Howe, Peter Frampton, Oleander, Celine Dion, Elton John, Stuart Hamm, They Might Be Giants, Frank...
…). In 2005 he writes more of 100 musics for the worldwide television serial "European coast seen from the sky" (distributed in 15 countries worldwide) and Alan Stivell
Alan Stivell
Alan Stivell is a Breton musician and singer, recording artist and master of the celtic harp who from the early 1970s revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music.- Background: learning Breton music and culture :Alan was born in the Auvergnat town of Riom...
contacts him to record on his new album (Explore). In 2006 he records "Brittany celebrates St. Patrick's day" in Bercy
Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
Opened in 1984, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, often abbreviated as POPB or Bercy, is an indoor sports arena on boulevard de Bercy located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris...
and also plays as guest artist on Johnny Halliday's "Flashback Tour". He signs in 2007 with Milan Music/Universal
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
for his new realise "Omega", comes out 8th July during the "Festival des Terre Neuvas" in France in front of 47,000 people. In 2008, Pat goes touring in France and Europe. He is also contacted by Alan Simon to participate in his rock-opera "Anne de Bretagne" in the company of Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band. They were founded in Saddleworth, Lancashire, in September 1966 by John Lees, Les Holroyd, Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme , and Mel Pritchard .-History:...
, Ange
Ange
Ange is a French progressive rock band formed in September 1969 by the Décamps brothers, Francis and Christian .-History:...
, Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, Tri Yann
Tri Yann
Tri Yann is a French band from Nantes , who play folk rock music drawing on traditional Breton folk ballads.The band was founded in 1970 by Jean Chocun, Jean-Paul Corbineau and Jean-Louis Jossic – all of whom remain members – hence the suggested name of Tri Yann an Naoned , Jean and Yann being...
, Cécile Corbel
Cécile Corbel
Cécile Corbel is a French-Brettone singer and harper. She has released four albums of original music and worked for Studio Ghibli as a composer for their 2010 film, The Borrower Arrietty...
, The choir of the opera of Genes... Next year, Pat joins up Alan Simon new project "Excalibur
Excalibur (rock opera)
Excalibur is a three part "Celtic rock opera" written and directed by Breton folk-rock musician Alan Simon, the first part of which premiered in 1998, and was released as an album in the following year under the French title Excalibur, La légende des Celtes. Its success in France led to a second...
", Celtic Rock Opera, in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with Johnny Logan
Johnny Logan (singer)
Johnny Logan , is an Australian-born Irish singer and composer. He is regarded as "Mister Eurovision", having participated in the Eurovision Song Contest many times since the 1970s, and, since 1992, has been the most successful artist in Eurovision history.Logan has won the international contest on...
, Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
, Martin Barre
Martin Barre
Martin Lancelot Barre is an English rock musician.Barre has been the guitarist for rock band Jethro Tull since 1969. He has appeared on every Jethro Tull album except their debut This Was...
(Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
), John Helliwell
John Helliwell
John Helliwell is an English musician and the saxophonist and occasional keyboardist and woodwind player for the rock band Supertramp...
(Supertramp
Supertramp
Supertramp are a British rock band formed in 1969 under the name Daddy before renaming to Supertramp in early 1970. Though their music was initially categorised as progressive rock, they have since incorporated a combination of traditional rock and art rock into their music...
), Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, Corvus Corax, Bruce Guthro
Bruce Guthro
Bruce Guthro is a Canadian singer / songwriter, from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Guthro has recorded as a solo artist, and in 1998 also joined Scottish folk rock band Runrig, whilst still pursuing his solo career...
, Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan
Moya Brennan, born Máire Ní Bhraonáin , also known as Máire Brennan , is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist who began performing professionally in 1970, when her family formed the band Clannad, and is now widely considered as the "First Lady of Celtic Music"...
, Jackie Mc Shee, Les Holroyd
Les Holroyd
This derivative of the band featured Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard after the schism in the original band. Pritchard remained with the group until his death in February 2004...
(Barclay/James/Harvest)... and continues writing for television. 2010 starts strongly by the colossal tour of "Excalibur
Excalibur (rock opera)
Excalibur is a three part "Celtic rock opera" written and directed by Breton folk-rock musician Alan Simon, the first part of which premiered in 1998, and was released as an album in the following year under the French title Excalibur, La légende des Celtes. Its success in France led to a second...
" in Germany and Switzerland. He records live a new CD and DVD entitled "In Live We Trust", with 10 original tracks and a brass section. He plays in Bercy
Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
Opened in 1984, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, often abbreviated as POPB or Bercy, is an indoor sports arena on boulevard de Bercy located in the 12th arrondissement of Paris...
for St Patrick's Day, just before recording Excalibur III. Then the Excalibur tour starts up again in England during the summer and the end of the "Anne de Bretagne" tour in November. In 2011 Excalibur is back in Germany and "In live we Trust, European Tour" starts in Switzerland, France, Germany… The friendship with Martin Barre
Martin Barre
Martin Lancelot Barre is an English rock musician.Barre has been the guitarist for rock band Jethro Tull since 1969. He has appeared on every Jethro Tull album except their debut This Was...
leads them to built a tour in October.
Albums
- 1994 : Bob up - WMDWMDWMD may refer to:* Weapon of mass destruction, a term used to describe munitions with the capacity to kill large numbers of human beings indiscriminately* Weighted mean difference, a measure in statistical meta-analysis...
- 1996 : Kids and the War - Move OnMove OnMove On may refer to:Songs* "Move On" * "Move On" * "Move On" * "Move On" * "Move On" * "Move On" * "Move On", a song by Jet from the 2003 album Get Born...
/ Wagram - 1999 : Breizh-Amerika - Coop Breizh
- 2002 : Anacoustik - Prod'ig
- 2007 : Pat O'May Omega - Milan Music / Warner Music
- 2010 : In live we trust - Keltia Musique