I was twelve when my grandfather on my mother's side gave me a guitar, a “frying pan model”, to learn how to put my fingers on an instrument which fascinated me, but of which I knew nothing. Seeing that I applied myself somewhat, my father had the thought of sending me to a private tutor, a former teacher of classical guitar from the Conservatory of Venice. I lasted less than a month because my ear did better than his suggestions and partially because I've always been intolerant of authoritarian systems. Yet it was the beginning of an acknowledgment linked with the discovery that “I had the knack”. Two years after the “frying pan”, my grandfather, once again, came up with some money to buy an acoustic “Aria” which, after a little time under my claws, decently played what I then used to call “double bass” but was actually finger picking.
The day soon came when my dad bought a stereo, the first in the family, and I began to get records at a particular moment in the history of pop rock...the Seventies. Each record which came out created something destined to remain in time (The dark side of the moon, Trilogy, Foxtrot, Led Zeppelin, etc.). I also listened to the American West Coast (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Eagles) and, most of all, I looked for guitarists. Jorma Kaukonen, John Mc Laughlin, Rembourn, Grossmann, Di Meola, Rev Gary Davies... each one allowed me to grow because in the effort of replicating a piece just by listening, you learn a lot.
I was in my fourth year in high school when a schoolmate of mine came to school with a tape recording which was, in his view, fantastic saying “Fabio, listen to this...”. The next day during recess in the music hall (yes, we had a music hall) I played the piece. It was Mood for a day by Steve Howe from the album Yessongs. The fact is, I stopped there. With my studies, I mean. And this remains a regret. To tell the truth I always kept on playing, looking for something special amid the strings, listening and replicating the songs by this or that guy. Also, for a time I had a group with whom I shared some original songs and lyrics. Our name was Bountiful Rain and playing with me was my brother on the drums, a friend of his on the bass with his sister singing (now everybody has a female singer, but think 1980!), and a rock guitarist performing as a keyboard player. We had fun for a few months rehearsing here and there, but after a small demo tape, each for himself... it was 1983.
A year later I met Roberto Sgorlon. My brother said “Fabio, there's a guy playing, come and listen”. It was Roberto with his Gibson Artisan. I heard unamplified notes and I knew there was a great, great deal of talent involved. He had a group, he told me...Quasar Lux Symphoniae. He could play anything, but his was rock and my guitar was too polyphonic. Therefore, I could only admire that group with the extraordinary drummer and the incredible Roberto, who was at that point a friend. He, known as “the Beattie”, was then meeting a keyboard player “so good I almost don't have the heart to ask him to play a song with us, like that...only for a concert”. It was Paolo Paroni, pure talent. I met him during a concert which I organized for them in the province of Venice. It seemed to me that he was floating on air... a Martian. At the time I lived in Scorzč and often came around Friuli to stay with them in addition to coming for my job, thus learning that Beattie, after the certificate for theory and solfeggio, had begun to study classical harmony. Fabrizio was an increasingly rocking drummer and Paolo, the Maestro, had begun his study for orchestral conducting.
From that ferment a concert was born, which I remember well because it was the first for me with Quasar. I played along with them in covers (the last time Quasar would play covers), and original songs. Among them, one of mine! There was the seed of the first work. It was Sept. 18th 1992.
Later in 1992, Paolo left for Vienna after being admitted to the Musical Academy to study orchestral conducting. During our visits to the Austrian capital, the project for an original work took shape - the rock opera Abraham, the lyrics of which I'm the proud author. I was, at that point, a member of the group trying to do my best with my new acoustic six-string, a Takamine with nylon strings. Meanwhile, with Roberto as my tutor, I listened to a lot of classical music, becoming devoted.
In 1996 we recorded the second work, The Enlightening March of the Argonauts. I then began to study the cello, a wonderful experience, although it did not last more than a year and a half due to my professional life duties. It was because of this experience that the work most dear to me was born - MIT, a concept album where I wrote a story and inserted the lines into the little melodies that I held in my heart since the times of Bountiful Rain. It was released in 1999. But only the help of the entire group, Roberto, Paolo, Fabrizio, Marco, Mauro, Anna, Ulisse, allowed me to maintain an idea which, without them, wouldn't have become concrete. I believe that after so many years, the only positive variable which bonds such a diverse group of people is friendship.
Various ups and downs led me to Friuli, giving me the opportunity to spend more time with my musician friends. That's how I met Elvio (astounding guitarist! fast and musical) and Marco Filippo, now new members of QLS and participants in Synopsis...in which I've recorded my new Martin guitar for the first time.
I left the Faculty of Statistics three quarters of the way through - I prefer humanistic subjects:
I'm fascinated by literature and philosophy
I read alot, anything
I adore fantasy
I have a hypnotic interest for oriental philosophy
I study zen
I've been into martial arts for ten years - ju jitsu
I do shiatsu and I attend an ayurvedic academy
I board a sailboat whenever I can
I listen to music of all kinds (ahem... almost)
I love writing (short texts, poems)
I love playing the acoustic guitar
...
And I love cacciucco alla livornese! :-)

Fabio Giacomello's equipment