Hello! My name is Tullio Forteleoni, I was born in Italy (Nuoro, Sardinia) the 5th of September, 1982. Music has always been in my life. My father and my mother had always a great attitude with music and I was truly gifted with such attitude; I really thank them for giving me this talent and for their help in everything I do. Since I was 8 (at that age my musical background was mainly all that my brother listened to.. so stuff like Queen, Dire Straits, Police, Pink Floyd and some nice italian bands like Elio e le Storie Tese) I started playing piano for several years, dedicating myself to the classical side of the music. Then, in 1994, inspired by two great friends of mine that have started to play the guitar since a few time, I took my brother's guitar (it was lying in the soft case, eating the dust) and taught myself how to play it. My roots grew up with Jimi Hendrix, Ac-Dc, Extreme and other similar artists. My first approach with heavy metal arrived at 14yrs old, when a friend of mine introduced me to Metallica and Yngwie J. Malmsteen, who became quickly my idol for some years. A year later my life changed: my best friend Marco stole a tape from his brother collection and lend it to me... I remember that day like it was yesterday.. he said "I took this right from my brothers stuff. I had a listen, that's really amazing stuff! This is Awake from the band Dream Theater". The first listen left me really impressed and it took me another handful of listens to get into their music, and love it of course. Since that year I started learning Dream Theaters' songs and searching for new artists in the endeavour of progressive rock (King Crimson, Rush, Yes, Frank Zappa) fusion (Chick Corea Electric Band, Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth)and Jazz (John Coltrane, Miles Davis, John Scofield). Before 18 yrs old I didn't have a real band experience, I was just playing piano and guitar and singing with those 2 guitarists friends of mine, but in that period I entered in a band called Stiffbleak. It was an alternative rock band, but the keyboard player and leader of the band, Stefano, that quickly became one of my best friends, was really into all kinds of music, so knowing my shred attitude, gave me the possibility to express myself in every way I wanted with the guitar. We had a great time together arranging and composing, so we decided to move both to Florence (I went there first for the university, he joined me after 1 year attending to the conservatory) and start a new project there with a bassist friend of mine. We formed a band called The Original Soundtrack; it was similar to Stiff Bleak referring to the music, but with a more mature approach to both composition and technical side. In 2003/2004 I decided to quit the band in order to follow my personal tastes: I wanted to play progressive rock/metal a la Dream Theater, and so I spent my time composing and improving my technique besides university. In 2005 my dream turned into reality: I met 3 guys that were playing prog music and were really into Dream Theater, old prog rock like rush, genesis and king crimson and into metal. We teamed up soon and, found a singer, we formed the band ProgressiveXperience. I had great time with them, we recorded our first demo and had some live gigs. In 2006 some misunderstandings were growing up between us, so with mistakes from both sides (more from my side, I have to admit it) and for personal reasons (which one of these is to join my girlfriend in Verona), I decided to leave the band. Now I'm alone again, rearranging my compositions and playing on my own, waiting to see what the future will deserve for me.
