In the loop: Musician becomes a one-man band

MATTAPOISETT — Piano keyboard? Check. Bass guitar? Check. Harmonica? Check. Someone to play each instrument? Sort of.

When Mattapoisett musician Eric Beauregard steps on stage, he is a one-man act of a multi-instrument performance, and it is through looping that his music comes together.

“What that really means is you’re building a whole, full sounding band in front of the audience from scratch,” Beauregard said.

Using a tool called a Sheeran Looper, Beauregard can play a tune on the keyboard or strum a chord on the guitar and with the press of a pedal keep the music looping as he adds other instruments to accompany his singing voice.

Looping the instruments in a song also gives Beauregard the freedom to explore different instruments in the songs he plays.

“Whether it’s guitar, string bass or piano or drums or harmonica, I like the challenge of learning the chord structures for different instruments,” he said. “It’s helped with looping because I can pick up anything and lay it down and go right back to the prime bass line, which is guitar.”

He noted that when he performs he can see in people’s faces that they enjoy the “different perspective of instruments being performed.”

To Beauregard, building the songs in front of the audience is “part of the whole experience.”

“A song may take 10 minutes because you’re looping 15 seconds at a time and building it, performing it, and having a solo with it,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

He noted, “Having an ability to stop it all and then slowly start bringing all the instruments together in especially those popular songs, it just comes alive.”

“It’s live and vulnerable,” Beauregard said. “You’re building in that moment.”

Beauregard started getting serious with music when he was in college and joined a band called Old City Center.

As a part of the band, Beauregard opened for artists including Dropkick Murphys and Lee Greenwood.

But after joining the army, Beauregard put music aside and didn’t pick it up again for 15 years.

“[The army] took a lot of my energy, focus and spare time,” he said. “I was focusing on my career a lot.”

Beauregard re-entered the music scene in January of this year, this time as a solo artist.

He noted that being part of a band was “a lot of work,” and while performing songs in a looped fashion isn’t without its difficulties, he looks at it this way: “Why not be in charge of yourself and then have the opportunity of just having the full band effects with your equipment?”

Since January, Beauregard has performed in numerous gigs across the South Coast, including his first “double header” on Saturday, July 19 when he performed during Harbor Days followed by a performance at the Inn on Shipyard Park.

“That’s a lot of hours in a day,” he said. “Having that double header was really cool because there’s two different energies.”

Beauregard explained that he performs songs from a wide range of genres and chooses which songs to play depending on the venue and people he’s playing for.

“Building a catalog that complements every fashion of music is a challenge, and it’s fun,” he said.

He added, “I think if I can bring joy to people, whether it’s private or restaurants or a pub, then I think it’s a job well done.”