I t’s a quiet morning at work till a shout from the adjoining cabin shatters it. An edition of MetroPlus folded to an advertisement of an upcoming gig is shoved under my nose. “It’s Eric Martin of Mr. Big,” says the department head breathlessly. We both break into an off-key rendition of ‘I’m the one who wants to be with you...’ Visions of college fests, summer afternoons tuned to music shows and relationships past flit by. We wind back years and giggle. The rest of the department, clearly a generation younger, look amused, but I’m envious of them — they are still on the brink of discovering his music. “Let’s interview him,” she says. Which is how, I find myself one Sunday afternoon at Design Hotel, Phoenix MarketCity, in search of a man with a remarkable voice and long locks.
As I wait at the cafe, with lights that shine from gilded bird cages and a breeze that whispers through a bamboo copse, I steel myself for a rockstar tantrum. After all, Eric Martin has just landed from Mumbai, and the snootiness of the music world has led us to believe that you are a better musician only if you have that little bit of snark. But, when he walks in in his denim jacket, printed scarf and a raspy voice that’s got the crunch of gravel, he snuffs out all signs of snobbery. He poses, jokes and gives the photographer a dozen perfect shots, before he recaptures the atmosphere in which he and his music grew.
In the time it usually takes for a reluctant rockstar to spell out his opening sentence, Mr. Big turns big-mouth (as he calls himself). Musical influences, the bands its opened for, the songs written, the lives lived... rush out like a runaway train. It’s the kind of engagement that has helped him keep his calm, as he did that evening at the mall’s Courtyard, where he had the audience in splits when there was a lull in the concert due to a technical glitch.
Martin, born on Long Island, found his musical career across the continent in San Francisco. His father was a drummer and he grew up learning to play the instrument, with no visible angst at having to convince his family that his future lay in music. “I was a good drummer for a teen, but when the lead singer of the band I was playing with didn’t show up, I filled in for him. Singing came naturally, though making money out of it was difficult,” he laughs. “For years, I didn’t make it. I was on the other side of 30 when I did, and that’s good because it means there’s still hope on the horizon for the older boy or girl. I just loved music and its power. It was about the lyrics as well... I wrote poetry to impress my sister’s girlfriends.”
One such girl, on whom he had a crush, is said to have inspired the iconic ‘To Be With You’ from Mr. Big’s seminal 1991 album, Lean Into It . But, before Martin found success as a solo artiste and as the vocalist of Mr. Big, he played with a punk band, at college clubs and opened for AC/DC’s first shows in the U.S., without allowing his struggles to whittle away his love for music. Inspired by rock and soul icons such as The Beatles, Humble Pie and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Martin performed with the West Coast’s rock aristocracy such as the band 415 and musician Richie Zito.
This long career finally found him in 1988 as lead vocalist of the Los Angeles-based Mr. Big, with Paul Gilbert (guitar), Billy Sheehan (bass guitar) and Pat Torpey (drums). “We couldn’t think of anything better,” he says, with a disarming smile, when asked how the band got its name. “Paul came up with Mars Needs Women, I came up with Red House, Pat came up with Hawks and Doves and they were all terrible. We picked the title of an obscure song by Free. Also, ‘Mr. Big’ looked good on a T-shirt.”
Over the next 14 years, the band accelerated to escape velocity, releasing six iconic albums with intimate lyrics that found more fame and fortune in other corners of the world than at home, although ballads such as ‘Just Take My Heart’ and ‘Wild World’ with their videos topped charts worldwide. Those were the years of the long locks — “I had them for 26 years, before my girlfriend insisted I cut them” — and a huge fan following in Asia, especially Japan, where they “replied to thousands of letters from fans”.
In India, Martin earned his street cred in the country’s hallowed portal of rock — the Northeast, where “I performed in Shillong at the invitation of the maharaja of Tripura, in front of a crowd of 20,000”. This time, he performs in seven cities, and says Mr. Big is popular here because “a lot of young Indians are into retro music. My beginnings are retro, I am retro. I sing songs their parents heard and we’ve passed it down, and this is beautiful”.
Martin has performed with other metal bands since, but says Mr. Big has the best musicians he’s ever played with. “They light the fire under my feet. And since we got back, we’ve become fans of each other.”
At 56, how has he kept it going? “I’m exhausted. I’m completely riding on fumes. The fact is that I love what I do, I’m an open book.”
As I leave, I ask if there’s a question I’ve not raised. He laughs and says, “How do you stay so handsome, Eric?”
***
Martin was accompanied at the concert by Sweden-based guitarist of Sri Lankan origin, Marcus Granberg. Granberg, who plays with Over And Out, has accompanied Martin on various tours, although this is his first visit to India. The self-taught musician is an IT engineer who is deeply influenced by Steely Dan.
