Lead Guitar - Vocals

My musical history is very short because my experience with the Local Heroes is the first ever as a member of a band.

I felt in love with Dire Straits music at the age of 11 years, when all italians went mad about "Tunnel of Love"; my neighbor used to play it in daily rotation on his stereo. It was the beginning of a passion that it's still alive these days, and it keeps growing. It was the stimulus to bring a classical guitar on my hands when I was 16. I played until my fingers were full of blisters, but I was chasing the dream to play one day on a stage, the songs I loved so much. Since October 2003 a young boy's dream came true and I must say that I never imagined that the emotions aroused by the music you love combined with the sensation to play them live on stage, could produce a result so beautiful and rewarding.

I am a guitarist almost by accident, I know very just a bit of music theory. I have a poor guitar technique  (I can't handle a pick). I always just pull out something resembling the Knopfler' songs, Clapton, Pink Floyd. Little home experiments, however, they proved themselves to be a good starting point for what is now our research for the "beautiful sound".

I am a singer even more by accident ... when the group was still in its infancy, there was not much choice ... someone had to do thie dirty work. Far from emulating Mark Knopfler charisma, professionalism and skill, my mission is to give the audience emotions and feelings that only this music, in my opinion, can offer.

The equipment currently I use in live performances consists of 4 guitars: 1 Fender Stratocaster American Standard built in 1991. 1 Epiphone by Gibson Les Pauls Custom model with Gibson 58 PickUp, a very good compromise between price and quality. 1 Resonator Parksons, similar to of the original "National" used to play Romeo & Juliet and made famous by the cover of the CD Brothers in Arms. And finally, the latest addition is the Fender Stratocaster Mark Knopfler Signature, the same model that Knopfler uses in his concerts since 2005.

I do not use many effects: 1 compressor Marshall ED-1, 1 Tech 21 DoubleDrive for the tube-type distortion (my amp has only clean inputs) and a classic Boss DD3 delay.

Of course I widely use a Ernie Ball volume pedal. The amplifier  is a  Fender Twin Reverb Reissue '65, 85W.

Every now and then it happens that friends / colleagues / guitarists would like to exchange some personal views about the inimitable style of Mark Knopfler. To facilitate the exchange of views I put some videos on youtube.

You can browse them by clicking on my YOUTUBE page

Enjoy!