Sam Totman


Ian Samuel "Sam" Totman is a New Zealand-English musician, best known as a guitarist and the main songwriter for the power metal band DragonForce.

Early life

Totman was born in England, but grew up mainly in New Zealand. He moved back to England around age 22, mainly because England's music scene offered numerous shows to attend every week, an option he did not have in geographically isolated New Zealand. He began playing classical guitar at the age of nine, receiving formal training for several years.

Career

Totman was part of the blackened power metal band Demoniac, which also featured his future DragonForce bandmate Herman Li. During his time with Demoniac, Totman was referred to as Heimdall. Demoniac struggled to achieve any real fame outside of Australasia, despite releasing three albums and relocating from Wellington, New Zealand to London, UK. Due to this, Demoniac split sometime in late 1999, shortly after the album The Fire and the Wind was released. Most of the members went on to form power metal band DragonHeart, which later became known as DragonForce. Keyboardist Steve Williams and bassist Steve Scott left Dragonheart to form Power Quest with whom Totman recorded on their demo and first album, Wings of Forever. Totman also provided guest instrumentation on the band's following album, Neverworld.
As the songwriter, Totman wrote both music and lyrics for a majority of their discography.