Showing the prowess of a strongly influenced improvisational guitarist, Freds style tickles peoples ears and his new music takes them back to another time - after the sixties but before they were really dead, when people struggled to give a live performance that was fun, worth seeing and slightly different every night.
Fred started taking notice of the guitar at the age of 11, when he heard cosmic sounds coming from Brian Mays Red Special at the start of Queens 1980 album The Game. From that moment he knew there was something very special about this particular instrument.
He taught himself the old fashioned way, by trying to learn anything within listening range: first from Led Zeppelin to Jimi Hendrix and B. B. King, and then later on Bob Marley, Miles Davis and Frank Zappa. Fred always sought inspiration in their style, technique, and crazy new guitar sounds.
At 17, Fred graduated high school with honors in drama while playing his first bar gig with the reggae band "Gentle Virus." Five years later, he was an accomplished reggae guitarist playing with some of the best Montreal bands, including Brotherhood, Killawatt, and Mellowmood. Fred played guitar for Gregory Issac in August of 2002 in Montreal and Toronto.
More recently, Fred participated on local Montreal sensation Kulcha Connections album Plus Haut, and then performed with the band for 2003s Francofolies and 2004s Montreal International Reggae Festival where he also performed with JoJoe and the Crowded Bus.
But now, watch out Fred is on the loose. Having spent most of 2005 refining the songs he had and re-recording two of them, time is nearing for his first solo project to come to light, an album called "So Far...". Towards the end of the year, Fred has found a world class drummer in Dan Moscovitch (who plays drums on the song "The Muther-Fonker") and is setting out to do live shows in and around the Montreal area. Right now, he's working on a live set of original material from the upcoming album "So Far..." and interpretations of some of his old favourites with his new band "The Derfs."Hear more music from the soon coming "So Far..." at www.sonicbids.com/fredandthederfs
FREDERICK CUSINATO
