Eric Correa

Eric Correa, an artist based in Riverside, CA, plays many instruments including piano, guitar, bass, and drums, and he also carries knowledge in the field of production and digital instrumentation. Eric is known throughout Norco Music for his amazin… — Eric Correa, an artist based in Riverside, CA, plays many instruments including piano, guitar, bass, and drums, and he also carries knowledge in the field of production and digital instrumentation. Eric is known throughout Norco Music for his amazing piano technique, but his talent is further displayed as the guitarist for the more widely known, deathcore band, Impending Doom. Eric’s experience, aptitude, and ability to diversify his musicality have earned him a respected title in the Norco Music program, yet his amicable demeanor and upbeat personality have made him a valued member of the Norco Music family.

Tell us about yourself as an artist.

I’m always looking for the best way to describe what’s going on in my head, [whether] I put it down on paper or play it on whatever. I play piano and guitar, and I record everything in my little room, and I write songs. It’s a 50/50 between writing lyrics and/or music, I write both.

Tell us about your time at Norco Music.

I started taking a piano class because I was on tour and I thought it would be easy, so I started doing piano because I loved it. Then I heard about MUS 38, the private lessons, and that’s when the last tour I did stopped and I had missed all the finals… but I really liked it so I came back and took more and more classes and did more and more [music] theory, and… I like it there… It’s nice.

How long have you been playing piano?

A: Six years.

And guitar?

I don’t even know… it’s too long, let me think, I’ve got to do some basic math here… like, 17 years?

Do you have a favorite memory or experience from being in Norco Music?

Yeah. I played a recital really well once, and it felt good. You know, you get nervous sometimes, but it was Burgmuller’s “The Storm” and I played it well even though I messed up, I kept it going, no one knew, and I thought “DANG! That sounded so cool!” And it felt really good.

What are you doing now as far as school, professionally, musically, any other pursuits?

Writing for an EP for [my band] Impending Doom, I’m filling in as a bassist starting June 17th for a band called Fit For An Autopsy—that goes to Europe. Then I come back and I still need to write for Doom, and then I’m filling in as a guitarist for this other band called Oceano in July—all the while I have to write this EP. So I need to learn 8 songs by June 17th and then another 7 when I come back, oh my God what did I do?

So you have your band that you’re in, called Impending Doom, and you’re filling in guitar and bass for two other bands. So you’re just going to be on tour this summer, and that’s why we had to catch you before you went on tour because you’re going to be super busy.

Yeah, that’s the plan—and I’m moving, too! I’m moving houses.

Do you have any hobbies outside of music?

Yeah, I love movies that involve a lot of blood and guts and zombies (Eric watches terrible movies. He watches those ridiculous one star, C-List movies on Netflix). Yeah, I love ‘em.

Do you have any goals you’ve set for yourself, either short-term or long-term?

I’d like to get a degree in music, I’m working on that… And there’s all these other secret plans I have on the “down-low” that I can’t tell you.

You said you’re working on an EP with your band. Is there a projected timeline for that?

We wanted to record it over summer, and that’s it! So probably in August, we’ll do all the recording, and we’ve got a dude in LA who knows what he’s doing—I’ll be working on that in-between the European and US tours—the US tour starts at Chain Reaction and goes all the way to Chicago; I’m doing like one leg of that tour because for some reason the guitar player can’t make like three weeks or whatever it is. So I’m going all the way to Chicago and then they’ll fly me back. So Europe is first and then the US is afterwards, but in between that I’ll be busy recording in LA. And that’s going to take up my whole summer because June 17—July 10 [will be Europe] and July 21—August 2 [will be US]. And bass is first for Europe, and then guitar for US, and we’ll be playing a show with Behemoth and Slayer in Germany! So I’m really excited!

Will you be doing piano work in between at all?

Well I do piano on my own, and I like that a little more, but I gotta play the game, you know!

How did you learn to play the piano?

I had a terrible job that was so stressful, and at the same time, a piano was moved into the garage of the house I lived at, and so I would go and get bottles of wine and I would listen to music that had a lot of piano and I would go, “I SWEAR I can play this, I KNOW I can do this, it’s like a riff—and I got the sheet music and I took my sweet time learning how to do one bar at a time and I would go, “OH MY GOD, THAT’S IT! THAT’S IT!” And that’s how I learned.

So, for the Norco Music website, did you want to be associated with your band?

It would be nice to mention it, but I do want to be known as a songwriter who can do all of these different things [as opposed to] this is what I do: all of this heavy stuff. Because that’s kind of limiting.

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