The Iron Martin (real name Martin Sabourin) is a foremostly self-taught and ear-trained Ottawa/Gatineau region bass player who's been playing bass since 1993."I tried playing the guitar and the drums, but I couln't handle them that well, so I turned around and tried the bass after seeing Steve Harris' seamingly boneless fingers on the "Maiden England" live video show. I just wanted to play every Iron Maiden song there was back then".Martin did various shows while at high school. "I played Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden tributes and those were my earliest live experiences". While in high school, Martin also played in a cover band with his twin cousins. They covered Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Deep Purple, and other similar bands, but mostly played Iron Maiden tunes. " I remember at one point we were playing like 30 to 40 Iron Maiden covers. We were just insane ! And I actualy had the task to sing while playing bass on some tracks 'cause we never had a singer".Martin later went on to take bass lessons at Musique Adagio's School of Music in Gatineau for about a year and, while doing so, got to play for the first time at La Maison de la Culture de Gatineau. "I played a Celine Dion and a Beatles tribute. I think we did like 5 songs from each of them and this was my first experience with a big stage and lots of tech guys taking care of every technical details. It was just so fun, I was hooked there and then".While in Montreal for studies, Martin went on to play with a local metal / glam / rock band called Shyna. "I think we played like 2 shows in a years time, it just wasn't enough live experience for me. The band mainly worked on recording and mixing an album at this point in time. The thing is, I never played a note on this album, 'cause the bass had been recorded prior to me joining the band and re-recording bass tracks really seemed out of the question. So things were a little too slow for me and I decided to pack it in.While studying Social Sciences and Political Sciences in Montreal, Martin never forgot about music. "I just had times when all I wanted to do was practice the bass and all I had to do was to read and study for the next exam ! But I never completely stopped playing. And now that I'm finaly done with university I can go back to my passion and work on the bass and I'm excited I can finaly make up for all of this."Martin is now officially back full time into music again. He got to launch his musical comeback on January 31st of 2008 while playing for Guillaume Guilbault at La Maison de la Culture de Gatineau. Since then, he joined Geneviève Vaillant's band and composed bass lines and recorded them at a studio session for her upcoming debut album. This took place at Martin Bedar's Capital Studios.Recently, Martin got to jam regularly with ex-members of local cover bands "Stoneslingers" and "Watch Out".We never established a name for our band so just called ourselves "In Works". "I think I jammed with them for about three months and we had a blast. We played classic rock stuff like "Hot for Teacher" and Rush's version of "Crossroads". Even though we really had good times, I look forward to play in original bands now. It's just what I want to do foremost. Having said that, I'm always on the lookout for more musical experiences to try out".And this is exactly what Martin is doing. And it all seems to serve him well, as this enabled him to jam along with noeone else than Ricky Paquette, the upcoming blues guitar god himself ! In May of 2008 Martin joins the Mike Larock band bringing his incredible talent to the future shows
to come. You can visit his profile there at http://www.mikelarock.com/biomartin.htm !!! Rock and Roll Martin !!!
