The Undiscovered: Erix Pizano

Tampa, Florida guitarist Erix Pizano submitted a CD-R of the best songs he has written over the past ten years. The collection is entitled Historias Y Lugares, and represents the story of his life told with guitar music. With eleven songs, the set features mainly instrumental music, with a few cuts featuring vocals, spoken voice (in Nahuatl) or choir voice. Pizano has developed a fluid guitar vocabulary, while compositionally, the songs range from Tangerine Dream-like ("Mortal Race Towards Balance", "The Great Voyage") to hard rockers ("Metallurgy"). We'd like to hear Pizano improve his intonation and bending a bit, and strive for a better selection of note choices for his key melodic phrases, but with continued development, this young axeman should have a lot to offer.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Erix had an unusual introduction to the guitar - he was forced to take guitar lessons as a punishment when he was 13. He did enjoy being able to learn chords and sing songs in order to impress the girls. Hearing Iron Maiden and Def Leppard in a high school yard drove Erix to want an electric guitar in order to play those sounds. He began taking classical lessons from Gerardo Carrillo, while working to save enough money to buy his first electric instrument. He eventually succeeded, and since the age of 14, Erix has been playing and composing guitar music.

Pizano has been influenced by almost every musician he's ever heard, but his favorites include Andres Segovia, Paco de Lucia, Eddie Van Halen, Carlos Santana, Ian Critchton, Steve Howe, Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale.

Erix Pizano
United States