Charley Cliff
Born and raised in Montmagny, a small town of just a little over 11 000
habitants, French Canadian musician Charles Lamontagne discovered
his passion for bass guitar in his early twenties. He gained experiences
with a few bands but had yet to find his true fit due to the nature of
his playing style. Instead he decided to focus on his own technique, his
own style and started to write his own pieces.
He had an old bass guitar with little strings left, he didn't replace those
but instead bought a Groove Tools 7-String bass guitar. This was a
remarkable discovery in both sound and playability for Cliff. It was
time to follow the advice of a few good friends of his that noticed his
talent, Mario Lemelin as well as David Simard, and started to build his
own studio. It's in this small studio that he recorded his first album
"Free Bass" on which he composed, arranged, recorded and mixed all
the instruments and tracks. Charley Cliff's first album had many
influences in styles and genres but what stood out the most was the
EDM and Trance inspired vibe that both the crowd and him appreciated
the most.
Cliff joined Kaodic, a progressive hard rock band, after they discovered
him during a show in Montréal. Cliff continued to develop his tapping
style with them, they released their first EP in the winter of 2009, in
that same year they won the Canadian Emergenza Final. Cliff also
stood out and won the prize for Best Bass player at the Canadian final
and the second place at the World final.
After 5 years with Kaodic, Cliff decided to work on his solo career and
tour on his own. In 2017 he met Déguédine, another solo bass player,
with whom he shared the stage in a musical delirium of French funk
rock music and both of them took turns playing bass and drums. They
are currently working on their first album scheduled to be released
during summer 2018.