StickGrinder

Independent hard& heavy drummer, with
a twist for prog rock

How it all began

Born in 1978 as Paolo Pustorino but long and best known as StickGrinder (or just Stick), I lived my whole childhood in 80s' bluster. Equally a Duran Duran fan as well as an Europe addicted, I was seven when I bought a copy of The Number of The Beast tape, not exactly knowing what I was doing. That tape blew my mind away and I knew I would have become a rock guitar-player. I tried and I studied both classical and jazz guitar for a while, just to understand that it was not my way. But it allowed me to get in touch with music. Drums was every day more enticing, so I eventually switched to them and after a couple of years of self-training, I began my studies with Graziano Rampazzo first, and Corrado Ciceri at a second stage and started my transition to a real drumming badass.

So what?

As stated above, I consider myself mostly - but not just - a drummer.

On the drumming side, my musical tastes brought me to focus on hard rock and heavy metal styles (see below for my drummin' influences), but since I love 70s dance and funk, as well as a bit of electronic, I ended up summing them all together in my songwriting for Deus Nova project. The band eventually split in 2008 but it remains the highest musical expression in my personal career, mostly thank to my bandmates. That experience also taught I wasn't previously fond of.

Beyond storming my drums, along my musical career, I discovered the composer in me.
Experiencing with skilled musicians as Paolo Rosina, Paolo Garlaschè and Marco Colombo as well as early experiences in Giorgio Crespi's Schopenhauer's Suite taught me a lot about harmony and orchestration.
I tried to nurture my skills as a composer, producing some demo tracks for orchestra and background music, learning to sing and harmonize backing vocals and arrange songs. Being able to play the guitar at some extent and use a keyboard as a mere controller helped me a lot.
You could find some self produced result below.

Recently

Put aside authoring for a while, I'm currently playing with Went Out of Fashion, an hard-rock/heavy metal live band which brings some good'ol'not-so-renowned covers on stage. I'm available for studio recordings of both drums and backing vocals, as well as arrangements or lyrics writing.

It's hard to say which drummer is the best to me. There are tons of songs that I'd like to have authored, so much drumming I envy, lot of inspirational genius to dive into... not even mentioning obvious names (say Jeff Porcaro, Mike Mangini, Carmine Appice, Clive Burr, etc.), I'd like to depict my ideal skills as a merge of following artists' ones.
Here is my very Hall of Fame.

Ulrich Kusch

I'd like I had a tenth of the fantasy and dynamics of Mr. Kusch. He's perhaps what I could have been if I was a genius. Composer, arranger, songwriter and wonderful, wonderful drummer. He finds solutions I could never even search for.
Listen to Where The Rain Grows or Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period in Z, both written by Uli for Helloween to understand what I mean.

Scott Rockenfield

When it comes to prog rock/metal genre, we always hear the same award-winning names. But very few mention Queensrÿche's drummer. As Uli Kush, Scott comes up with fine-taste solutions, chiseling every groove, note by note. He masters the fine art of playing pauses, stripping away all notes but the ones which are very needed, ending up with complex but incredibly beautiful patterns. He also doesn't pass unnoticed on stage.

Jan Axel Blomberg

It's greatly to the credit of Mr. Blomberg (better known as Hellhammer) to have raised Black Metal drumming from a mere sprint-race to an avant-garde form of art. It's easy to spot his imaginative (sometimes bizarre) style, mixing killing speed, unpredictable twists, ever-changing themes and noticeable human touch. One of his greates achievement is actually not to play as a machine, while most extreme metal drummers end up in cold-hearted performances.

Dana Burnell

I really consider Crimson Glory the epitome of Heavy Metal genre. They're music is simply perfect. Dana is a wonderful, inventive musician, but despite his variety and good taste, he knows his place. He emphasize without being noisy, pump without pressing and helps his bandmates to be at their best without getting in the way. As a plus, I really love his sounds, most of all in Transcendence album.

Chris Efthimiadis

What always impressed me in Chris' style is his ability to be as raw as you can tell, without being violent. He's been my favourite power-thrash drummer while he was in Rage, and even if I loved Mike Terrana to be his successor, I can't help but taking a lot of fun playing Chris' music. When compared to other speedy monsters like Jorg Michael (RIP), he result much more human and... well, he still rocks as hell! Sheer power!

Pekka Kasari

While Hellhammer brought style into Black Metal, Pekka brought delicacy into Death. He entered Amorphis since Elegy and, despite I have no evidence to support this statement, I think he's been what changed the band sound from a tainted Death Metal, to something never heard before. Pekka seems to punch sound out of his drums while caressing them. He's powerful and gentle at the same time, and he privileges dynamics as no other Death Metal drummer does. An undiscovered master, in my opinion.