Born in sunny southern Italy, guitar virtuoso Karl Demata grew up listening to blues, rock, jazz and traditional folk music. At the age of 12, he picked up his first guitar and, by the age of 15, he was taking to the stage in a series of fusion, blues, punk and metal bands, quickly earning the reputation as the enfant prodige of the south-Italian underground music scene.
As his appreciation of music developed over the years, he began to study music theory and musicology at Bologna college whilst cementing his reputation as a serious live and studio musician. As his style and taste evolved, he became primarily interested in fingerpicking, flatpicking and slide guitar, and eventually began to concentrate his focus on the genres for which he is now known--traditional acoustic blues, folk and American bluegrass. He honed his live act both as a solo artist and with other Italian, American and British musicians.
Today, Karl resides in Oxford where he has earned a loyal following as the best fingerpicking guitar player in the region. He plays 70-80 live gigs a year mostly with his musical partner, bass player Chris Heilmann (formerly of Torme' and Shark Island), and contributes to studio projects as well, including an appearance on Hazel O'Connor's most recent album.