- MY BIO -
It's not easy to write a bio not only because it's my first time but because I just realise that I don't like to speak about me in third person trying to impress the people with a lot of bla bla bla , so I'm going to do it like I would talk with a friend .
Obviously a bio starts with the birthdate , so . . . I born in Pisa (pretty famous worldwide for the Leaning Tower) , a Tuscany town in Italy , on 3 march 1968 and I always lived there (even if I can tell that I traveled quite a bit around the world) .
I always liked the music in general , since I was a child and my favorite instrument has always been the electric guitar but I didn't start to play it before the day I buy an acoustic used one for 30 $ at the age of 21 years old .
I have always had many hobbies and activities like the windsurf , the photography , the travels , the motorbike races and so on , so I never played "seriously" .
I did it for more than one year just exercising the chords in my room but my heart was for an electric one so , one day , I decided to buy a Stratocaster and a big Fender 185W ampli and started to play .
With three of my best friends we formed our first band and we performed for a couple of years in a big empty house that was my grandmother house , before to be sold. The lineup was composed of two guitars , a bass and a keyboard alternating each one as vocalist and using a programmable drum machine as drum .
We really had great times but I can tell that nobody wanted to become "a star" so we were mainly having fun .
Lately we decided to have a "real" drummer but , unfortunatley , we had to change many of them along the years . In the meantime the level increased quite a bit and , with the name of "Quarta Dimensione Rock Band" , we recorded two albums containing covers of the classic of rock : Pink Floyd , Jimi Hendrix , Steppenwolf , Ac dc , Steve Ray Vaughan , Gun's 'n' roses , The Cult and many more italian bands . We will remember ferever our first public gig not only beacuse it was the first one but because , in the middle of our performance , the police broke in inside the pub and took away a person who was "wanted" ! ...so we decided to play "wanted dead or alive" of Bon Jovi :-)
On the 2004 I started to play with another band too : the L.I.F. (that means Lupus In Fabula) , one of the two bands I actually play with , while the band I played for so long lost the drummer again and , added with some other problem , made us take the decisione suspend definitely the activity of the "historical formation" .
So I found myself completely involved with the L.I.F. project playing the progressive genre that was light years distant from the rock I always played and to tell the truth , in the begin , I not even liked it !
I was dealing with a new kind of music I never heard before and I with persons who are "real musicians" while I didn't even took a music lesson in my life , playing everything just by "my ears" : a real challenge !
. . . but the experiment has been very successful : the progressive is very hard to play but it can give you a huge satisfation so I found myself studying cover of Genesis , Peter Gabriel and songs self written spending more time playing my guitar(s) than I ever done before . After one year we have been ready to afford our first exibition live in a theater in Florence : a lot of persons there just to listen to us , so a lot of pression too . . . but it has been a great day that I'll always remember !
We continued to increase our song list and right now we have something like about 3 hours (of great music they said :-) ready to be played .
We had many gig in Tuscany and two in England participating to some festivals too .
Another incredible experience has been to play for the musical "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in front of more than 600 persons : to play for the artists who performed the musical has been fantastic and I can still remember the smell of the theatre , the atmosphere and the feeling to be part of the show instead to be a spectator .
Since more than one year I play in the "Onirica" too , a band that perform cover of rock and blues songs from 60's , 70's and 80's but that is very active to produce his own music which genre can be described as "experimental-progressive" .
The lineup is composed by a vocalist who is a woman , the drummer , the bass and two electric guitars , so to have a more interesting and complete midrange sound with different overlay riffs , alternating the role of "soloist" .
We use to practice in a empty house in the top of a hill in the middle of the country and , surrounded by the mountains and an incredible calm and silence , especially with the full moon , I can tell that emotions are really deep : that's why we are so "inspired" for our music .
We already performed some gigs and we are creating our own style with the target , one day , to play just our music , instead to mix it with the covers like we are doing right now even if the music we perform is so various that is really appreciated by a large number of persons .
An important thing to tell is that in both band I play I found real friends and this is very important to me to create the feelings I need to give the 110 % of my potential . Considering that nobody of us is a "pro musician" , that means that we have to deal with a "regular job" too , sometimes it's not easy to organize everything and to synchronize the everybody's timetables but we are very motivated . . . so everybody belives that :
What else to say?! Thank you to have dedicated to me so much time !
Good luck and I hope you could turn your dreams in reality .
Fabio
- GEAR TECH CORNER -
I can tell that I'm pretty "flexible" and that I like to play many different kind of music : progressive , experimental , blues , rock , pop and even heavy metal so I need very different sounds .
I always have been interest about to "create my sound" , so I dealed with every kind of pedals , studio racks and floor sound generators since I started to play the electric guitar . I used to create my own sound with the Marshall ampli working on the tubes , experimenting the effects of the the variation of voltage on them (I risked my life many times :-) and I worked quite a bit on the guitars doing experiments too like changing the internal electronics , brand and config of pickups and so on .
My gear is actually composed by a little collection of electric guitars and a GT-8 Boss digital multi effects generator .
I have two amplifiers Fender Pro 185W that would be enough to perform in a stadium :-) but , since the GT-8 has the great feature of the "ampli simulator" , often I prefer just to plug-in directly in the mixer obtaining amazing sounds and no hassles .
My collection of guitars is :
- an old anonymous ACOUSTIC (my first 30$ guitar :-)
- STAGG I 400 (to practice when I travel)
- IBANEZ JS 1000 BLS JOE SATRIANI SIGNATURE
- IBANEZ DT 120 "DESTROYER REISSUE" BLK
- IBANEZ S-540 "PRESTIGE" (JAPAN EDITION)
- IBANEZ JS 100 BK JOE SATRIANI SIGNATURE
- PEAVEY SECOND GENERATION S2 FLOYD ROSE EDITION
(equipped with active pickups "Generation Hum Canceling")
- YAMAHA EG 112 MOD. STRATO
- ESP LTD "DEVIL GIRL"
- PEAVEY WOLFANG EVH "SPECIAL EDITION" TREMOLO BRIDGE
- IBANEZ 3120 "PRESTIGE"
- IBANEZ JEM 7 DBK STEVE VAI EDITION
- KRAMER BARETTA INFINITY
I personally customized them modifying the internal electronic and I regularly set up them (very important aspect often underestimated) . On most of the guitars I substituded the original bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Super Distortion DP100 or Dimarzio Tone Zone DP155 that , after many experiments , I consider the best choice to have full clear deep distortions , armonics , sustain and power at the same time .
I use different brand of strings but generally 009-042 sets and picks Fender Heavy or picks of 1 mm in carbon .