Erik Norlander is an accomplished keyboardist, composer and producer with over 40 album credits including 9 solo albums, 7 with his Rocket Scientists project, and 10 albums with vocalist wife Lana Lane. In 2018, Erik appeared on the debut album from Dukes of the Orient, a spinoff of the supergroup Asia, along with former Asia frontman, John Payne. The two co-wrote all of the album’s songs and produced 2 videos. Prior to that, Erik toured with Asia Featuring John Payne for 6 years. Erik also toured extensively in the US and Europe in 2016-2018 with Last in Line featuring original Dio members Vinny Appice and Vivian Campbell. Before Last in Line, Erik toured with Big Noize, a supergroup featuring hard rock all stars, Joe Lynn Turner, Simon Wright and Carlos Cavazo. Erik also wrote the music and produced the album Roswell Six – Beyond the Horizon in 2009 for science fiction author, Kevin J. Anderson, in support of the first of his Terra Incognita fantasy novels.
Outside of the music world, Erik co-designed the UNO Synth analog synthesizer for IK Multimedia in 2018, carrying on the legacy of his design work on the legendary Alesis Andromeda analog synthesizer in the late 1990s. Prior to that, Erik was the first synthesizer product manager for Alesis Studio Electronics and presided over the creation of the QS series of the synthesizers, DM5 and DM Pro drum modules and several other products.
Erik has led many other synthesizer and sound design projects for several other major companies around the world. He produced 200 ultra-accurate cover songs for the GuitarPort product for Line 6 in 2001-2002, many of which were licensed to the Guitar Hero video game. Erik also actively works with The Bob Moog Foundation to advance the legacy of the maverick synthesizer pioneer. Erik performed a 2009 concert along with Keith Emerson to open “The Legacy of Moog” exhibit at The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California, and the epic “Moogus Operandi” concert in Asheville, North Carolina in 2010.
Erik’s studio and live technique integrate classic analog synthesizers and keyboards with leading-edge modern technology giving his stage and studio productions a signature that wholly his own. Although he is quick to deny that he is a “collector,” Erik curates an encyclopedic array of vintage keyboard instruments centered around his 1967 modular Moog synthesizer that has been nicknamed “The Wall of Doom” by his fans.
Erik has been featured in the December 2016, February 2013, October 2009 and September 2006 issues of Keyboard magazine in the USA as well as four appearances in the Japanese Keyboard magazine along with multiple appearances in Burrn!, Strange Days, Progression and Electronic Musician magazines, among others. He has been interviewed on numerous radio shows and continues to receive energized reviews in countless publications around the world.
Erik Norlander was born in Hollywood, California, and grew up studying both jazz and classical music on several instruments from a young age through his years at university where he also graduated with a degree in English Literature. He abandoned a masters degree program on the road to becoming an English professor when he realized the call of his music was too strong to resist. He remains an avid reader and occasionally writes for both art and technology magazines. Erik currently resides in El Dorado County in Northern California with his wife, Lana.
Here are some great photos of Erik and his Rocket Scientists project when they performed at ProgStock 2019!
