Riccardo Vernaccini
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Formidable Italian Shredder
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Recording in his home studio, and playing all the instruments over his own drum programs, Italian guitarist Riccardo Vernaccini submitted his twelve song CD-R demo entitled ...At Last. A blend of hard rock, shred and fusion reminiscent of Greg Howe, Vernaccini has channeled all of his influences and a great deal of hard work into his compositions. Tight, intricate arrangements, which still allow for plenty of solo space, are a Vernaccini trademark, as the opening track, "Blind Date", will attest. Sweep picking, legato assaults, shred-lead choruses - all delivered with gut-felt conviction - are additional appealing qualities you'll hear a lot of in his guitar playing. He's not afraid to let it all out on a super high-energy number either, check out the closing track on his demo, "Run For Cover". Vernaccini is probably at that stage where hooking up with a virtuoso drummer and durable bassist is all he needs to take his instrumental career to the next level.
Initially inspired the Beatles, Neil Young and Mike Oldfield, Riccardo began playing guitar at the age of 12. Shortly afterwards, he began taking classical piano and music theory lessons. At age 15, Riccardo played his first gig in a KISS tribute band in front of 300 people. He credits Eddie Van Halen with changing his outlook and approach to the guitar. :Listening to players such as Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert also pushed Riccardo to become as technically proficient as possible. Then, he began to teach guitar (over 30 students a week), while performing in clubs, as well as entering local and national guitar contests. In the early '90s, Riccardo was involved in a vocal-oriented hard rock project called Mirage. Lately, he has been much more interested in writing songs with vocal lines, before deciding in 2004 to do a completely instrumental demo project. Additional musical influences include Brian May, Journey, Steve Lukather, George Lynch, Extreme, Joe Satriani, Dream Theater, Al DiMeola, Eric Johnson, Steve Morse, King's X, Andy Timmons and Brett Garsed.
Vernaccini is currently teaching, studying and looking for additional musicians to work on his projects.
MP3 Songs
Blind Date
Run For Cover
Contact Information
Riccardo Vernaccini
Via Di Magrignano #26
57124 Livorno
Italy
E-mail:
Riccardo Vernaccini
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Mario Tomic
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Croatian Guitarist Seeks Soundtracks
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Mario Tomic is a guitarist from Split, Croatia, who submitted his eighteen song instrumental demo. Tomic is very fond of soundtrack music, so not surprisingly, each of the first ten or eleven songs on the demo kind of follow in that kind of pattern - rambling, improvised melodic statements over a wash of arpeggiated or strummed chords. Tomic seems to also love effects. Normally you'll hear his guitar almost drowning in delay and reverb, which does give the music a dream-like soundtrack quality (probably what Tomic was striving for). Some of the later tracks on the demo feature a beat box and - surprise - heavily effected guitar, this time with some radically intense phasing. Overall the production is very basic and could use the strong hand of a focused and dedicated engineer or producer. Tomic just needs to channel his energies into stronger melodic themes, with a bit less improvisation, and a judicious use of effects.
Mario started playing guitar at the age of 10, after the father of one of his friends gave him a Led Zeppelin album. He is currently 29 years old, and has played in three local bands, the last two of which play blues covers. Mario went to school to learn acoustic and electric guitar and is versed in many styles, such as rock, blues, funk and jazz. When recording, Mario does all the composing, arranging, engineering and mixing. He is currently working for a music management company in Australia and plays gigs for management musicians in the rock, blues and jazz genres.
Tomic's goal is to release an instrumental album and to someday compose music for movies like his heroes Ry Cooder, Steve Lukather and Trevor Rabin. He would also like to work with other artists in musical collaborations.
MP3 Songs
Freeze Cinema
Piano Bar
Contact Information
Mario Tomic
A.B. Simica 15
21000 Split
Croatia
E-mail:
Mario Tomic
Web site:
rio660.tripod.com
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