Eric Hansen was born in Oceanside, New York and raised in South Florida. He began serious study of the guitar at age 13 and quickly worked his way into the neighborhood garage band performing popular rock music of the 80s. His early guitar heroes were of the same genre and included, Alex Lifeson (Rush), Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Ozbourne) Edward Van Halen, Al di Meola, Carlos Montoya, Pat Metheny and John Williams (Classical Guitarist). Additional musical influences were The Beatles and Billy Joel. After the rock sound of the 80s changed to the Grunge movement Eric decided to broaden his musical endeavors and attend college for music.
He started with Jazz guitar but would often arrive for his lesson to hear his instructor, Dr. Michael Di Liddo practicing Classical guitar. The Classical guitar albums of John Williams had a lasting impression from his early days and having access to a teacher who could guide this interest was the spark that caused the shift to nylon string guitar. Eric got his first nylon string guitar and added Classical guitar to his studies. During this period the music of Post-Romantic Spanish composers along with Bach became his passion. Eric enrolled at Florida Atlantic University and and began study with Dr. Ken Keaton. Having met a number of guitar students from Spain and South America Eric found himself in impromptu rumba jam sessions on campus that lead to performing Spanish and Classical guitar at local establishments. At this stage new influences like Strunz and Farah, Paco de Lucia and Vicente Amigo took hold and a new direction emerged.
In 2001 Eric launched his solo career and landed his first distribution deal with Neurodisc Records. Eric's first two releases, Without Words and Romancero spent many weeks on Billboard's Top 25 New Age Music Chart. Eric went on to release two more albums under the Neurodisc label with Colores del Alma and Across the Universe, a Beatles Journey. Colores del Alma featured collaborations with Latin Jazz guru Ed Calle who arranged horn sections on two tracks. Across the Universe, a Beatles Journey was a departure from the Spanish guitar genre and featured original Classical guitar arrangements of the music of the Beatles.
Having satisfied his contract with Neurodisc, Eric continued to display his versatility by releasing his fifth album, a Smooth Jazz endeavor entitled, 360 Blue which featured collaborations with renowned soprano saxophone player, Marion Meadows as well as some of South Florida's finest musicians. In March, 2011, Eric returned to the Spanish Guitar genre with the release of his sixth album entitled String Theory. StringTheory blended elements of Flamenco, Jazz and Classical music combined with Latin and Middle Eastern percussion. This album also included his arrangement of The Eagles Hotel California with a fiery double time finale of the famous arpeggiated outro. 2016 saw the release of Glistening and more of a shift towards World Fusion featuring a more complicated composition style and progressive sound for Spanish Guitar. On March 10th, 2021 Eric's eighth release, Transcendence will mark the shift towards World Fusion as his landing spot. Expanding on the composition style of Glistening, Transcendence takes on a bigger sound, broader style but with a more programmatic approach. Transcendence features collaborations with guitarist, Dan Sistos, Stephen Duros and Troy Gifford.