Pat O'May

French guitarist, composer and singer Patrick Maineult, known professionally as Pat O'May, was born in Rouen on November 5, 1961. Of Irish origin, he draws his inspiration from Celtic music, which he combines with his penchant for hard rock. After learning to play guitar as a teenager, he formed his first cover band, Sword, before joining Marienthal as guitarist and singer in 1984. This short experience - lasting just two years, with one album, Prohibition (1985), and one tour - was of great benefit to him, as it gave him an insight into studio work and the world of live performance. At the same time, he broadened his musical horizons with a guitar teacher who introduced him to other styles such as blues and bossa nova. After a spell with Road 66 in Belfort, eastern France, he moved to Brittany in 1989 and reformed the trio with new musicians. He also composed the music for two shows, La Mort de Marat (1989) and La Terre (1991), before embarking on a solo career in 1993. His debut album Bob Up, released the following year to critical acclaim, preceded Kids and the War (1997), before signing with the Coop Breizh label for Breizh-Amerika (1999), which established his style of Celtic progressive hard rock. Pat O'May embarked on a festival tour, then recorded the acoustic album Anacoustik (2002), followed by Omega (2007) and In Live We Trust (2010), his first record for the Keltia Music label, which subsequently released Celtic Wings (2012), Behind the Pics (2014) and Keltia Symphonia (2016). The guitarist has also collaborated with artists such as Gilles Servat, Alan Stivell and Johnny Hallyday, and assisted composer Alan Simon in the musical shows Anne de Bretagne and Excalibur, the Celtic Rock Opera in 2009. 2018 saw the release of the concert recording One Night in Breizh Land, followed by the studio album Welcome to a New World (2021). Involved in many other projects, including the Breizharock festival, in 2024 Pat O'May initiated the Guitar Night Project tour with Patrick Rondat and Fred Chapellier, which resulted in an album released in 2026.