Herman li biography

 A little about Herman…
Born in Hong Kong, currently resides in London, England. Herman Li (Chinese: 李康敏) is a guitarist, songwriter and producer of the Grammy nominated metal act DragonForce.

‘Inhuman Rampage‘, the band’s international breakthrough album, featured the U.S. & Canadian Gold Single ‘Through the Fire and Flames’, also a hit in the multi-million selling video game ‘Guitar Hero III – Legends of Rock’. However, ‘Ultra Beatdown’ is the album that has taken DragonForce to new heights, crashing into the Top 20 national album charts in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore and the Top 10 in Japan.

In the last few years, Herman has established himself as one of the most recognised and influential guitarists of the new generation. Accolades starting pouring in, starting with the 2005 ‘Best Shredder’ award at the annual Metal Hammer Golden Gods. Herman also won four categories in Guitar World’s 2007 Readers Poll for ‘Best New Talent’ (winning by 70%), ‘Best Metal’, ‘Best Riff’ and ‘Best Shredders’. He also won ‘Best Guitar Solo’ for ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ in Total Guitar’s Readers Poll in 2007, as well as numerous other polls in media around the world. Outside of DragonForce, Herman has been invited to perform with guitar legends such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Paul Gilbert, just to name a few. Recently, Herman won for the second time the ‘Best Shredder’ award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2009.

Between intensive world tours with DragonForce, Herman found time to write a monthly guitar column in UK’s Total Guitar magazine as well as becoming involved in guitar clinics around the world. Always continuing to evolve as a guitar player, Herman likes to understand his instrument as much as possible. He has a fascination in electric guitar development, working on new ideas to improve the instrument as much as possible. After 3 years of hard work and dedication, the result was the Ibanez E-Gen guitar, Herman’s signature model.

Outside of music, Herman other interests includes computer technology and martial arts. He enjoys training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts. He also speaks three languages fluently; Cantonese, French and English.

In 2010, Herman will be appearing at a number of guitar workshops and events to showcase his own approach to the instrument and continue to help inspire guitarists worldwide.