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.