User:Mcoenen

Marcel Martinus Anna Coenen, is a guitarist / producer / music teacher / songwriter from The Netherlands.

He is born in the hospital in Sittard, The Netherlands, on the 21st of September 1972 just a few minutes before midnight.

Marcel got his first electric guitar with a small amp at age eleven. There his career as a guitarist started. He took lessons at that time from a guy named Piet Muurmans, Piet was studying at that time at the conservatory in Maastricht, The Netherlands and he taught Marcel a lot of theory.

When Marcel had lessons for almost a year and a half he joined his first band called Streethawk, they played some covers from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Twisted Sister, Manowar and some own songs. Marcel was 14 years old at that time. After being in several bands (Sanctus Spiritus, Speedica, Dungeon) Marcel releases his first full length CD with his band Form at that time. Form was a band coming from Speedica. The style was melodic Thrash/Power Metal. The CD “I Choose My Own” was released in 1994.

The band Aura was also started in 1994. This band started out playing covers from bands like RUSH, FATES WARNING, DREAM THEATER and QUEENSRIJCHE. Aura also started to write their own material and a first demo tape was made in 1995. This demo tape got the attention of US record label Magna Carta and Aura signed an agreement with them. The band name was changed into Lemur Voice and the first CD Insights was recorded and released in 1996. Lemur Voice did some touring and got some serious attention from all kind of countries. A second album Divided was released in 1999 but the band disbanded in 2000 due to musical differences.

In 1998 Marcel also joined the Dutch guitar contests and he became best rock guitar player from the Netherlands, this lead into an endorsement with Ibanez guitars and he got playing clinics for them.

Marcel started the band Sun Caged in 1999, first as a side project next to his band Lemur Voice. When Lemur Voice disbanded Sun Caged became Marcel his new progressive metal band. With this band Marcel released three EP's and two albums. The debut album, named Sun Caged has been released on October 22nd 2003 by Lion Music Finland and was getting great reviews everywhere. The second album Artemisia which has been released in March 2007 also gets raving reviews. The band released their third album "The Lotus Effect"in July 2011.

Marcel also released two solo albums and a Live DVD for Lion Music. The first album Guitartalk was fully instrumental and was recorded with minimal equipment, this album was released in 2003. The second solo album Colour Journey was released in February 2006 and was a half instrumental/half vocal album. This album showed a different side of Marcel, because the album was a journey through different musical styles. On the album he worked with guest musicians as Hans In T Zandt (Vengeance), Micael Andersson (Cloudscape), Bob Katsionis (Firewind) and many more. The Live DVD A Live Time Journey was the next release. The CD Release party for the album Colour Journey was filmed by 6 camera’s. At this show Marcel played a full live set with songs from his solo releases. Almost all the guest musicians played with him on stage that night. The DVD also has some special features like a part of the live set Marcel played in Thailand when he visited Bangkok in 2006.

The long awaited instructional DVD Speed Up was filmed in Taiwan (Taipei) and was released in November 2006. This DVD features in depth guitar lessons from Marcel, along with Tablature, 5 backing tracks of Marcel’s songs and 15 licks out of songs of Marcel like Moyra, Skill Factor, Abstract Impact and many more. It also has a full transcription of the song New Race.

Marcel met guitar builder Huub Boel in late 2003 and Huub showed Marcel his guitars. Marcel fell in love with the sound of the guitars and asked Huub if he also was building guitars with 24 frets, floyd rose type tremolo etc. At that time it was not the case but two weeks later Marcel got a letter from Huub asking him if he was interested to assist Huub in making a guitar with the specs Marcel wanted, it would become his signature guitar. This lead into a signature model at the Bo-El Guitar Company. Marcel endorses two models, the MC6 and MC7 models, 6 and 7 string guitars with floyd rose type tremolo, 2 humbuckers, 24 frets, set neck system, phase tab, kill switch and much more options.

Marcel was also invited for session work, for artists like Hubi Meisel, Bob Katsionis, Mistheria and a lot of others, even Dutch mainstream artists like Peter Beense and Henk Wijngaard. Marcel is always available for session work, if you want information about this do not hesitate to contact Marcel.

Biggest Inspirations: Joe Satriani, James Hetfield, Allan Holdsworth, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Eric Johnson, Scott Henderson, Crimeny, Greg Howe, Queen, Meshuggah, Rush, Haji's Kitchen, Racer X, Dizzy Mizz Lizzy, Steve Morse, Neil Schön, Mike Oldfield, Paul Gilbert, Dimebag Darrell, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Endorsements: Marcel endorses Curt Mangan Guitar Strings, Laney Amplification and Bo-El Guitars.