The Undiscovered: Carlos Castro

Some Sort Of Demos... is the name of Portuguese guitarist Carlos Castro's four song instrumental progressive demo CD-R, a one-man band creation released under the project name Volvox. Castro likes to inject odd-time signatures, Oriental melodies and many mood changes into his pieces, as the opening two tracks "Out Of This World" and "Living In A Lie" serve to demonstrate. His focus seems to be creating interesting compositions along the lines of a group such as Pink Floyd, where the music is guitar oriented, but not dominated by extended, furiously played guitar solos. It's an approach Castro can continue to develop as he writes and records more material - after only four songs it's still to early for him to shake his influences.

Carlos started his musical studies in 1992 at the age of 9, in a local philharmonic He started playing trumpet a year later, and received his first guitar in 1994. Carlos enrolled at the Lisbon Conservatory in 1995 to study trumpet and music theory. He is scheduled to graduate soon, and hopes to go on to University to proceed with his musical studies. Carlos received his first guitar lessons in 1998 after acquiring his first electric guitar. He has played live with several cover bands. Carlos lists musical influences such as Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Pain Of Salvation, Spock's Beard, Symphony X and King's X.

Currently, Castro is a guitar and music theory teacher, and he is involved with a pop/rock band called Vaga Ideia.

Carlos Miguel Silva de Castro
Portugal

Web site: www.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Volvox/