Artist Spotlight – Francesco Artusato

Guitars Under The Stars String Bender Spotlight……Francesco Artusato – LIGHT THE TORCH!!!

One of my favorite parts of doing a Guitar Festival is being able to talk to the minds that create using my favorite instrument……an Electric Guitar. The sounds produced by an Electric Guitar changed my life as a kid, I remember the first time I heard bands like Hendrix or Deep Purple or Van Halen it left an impression in my brain that forever drew me to rock music and that powerful buzz of an Electric Guitar. After that it was Metallica and Motley Crue and it kept evolving. The one common denominator in all…..that familiar buzz. Now when I hear new bands that grab me with that loving sound in my ear, I am often drawn to wonder what they heard that led them to be drawn to the Guitar? What influences shaped they’re future and made them fall in love with that sound like I did?

We asked Francesco Artusato (What a cool name!!) from Light The Torch to share a bit about his early musical influences and who his favorite players are:

“I was born in Italy where I started playing guitar when I was 19. I had previously played the saxophone for a few years.Music was always very important in my family.My parents would take me to a lot of shows, from classical concerts to rock shows. I fell in love with the playing of a lot of great guitarists towards the end of my teenage years. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson, John Petrucci were definitely my favorite guitar players at that time.I kept studying as hard as I could, but I really wanted to make music my life so I decided to move to America to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2003. I was really interested in studying composition, arranging and songwriting while obviously playing a lot of guitar. I relocated to Los Angeles right after graduating in Film Scoring from Berklee in 2006.” You can see Francesco and LIGHT THE TORCH perform at this years Guitars Under The Stars Music Festival on Saturday July 28^th at Cheadle Lake Park in Lebanon Oregon. You can also nerd out like I did and indulge in some of Francesco’s music! He has multiple solo offerings with “The Francesco Artusato project” and has been a member of several great bands like “Hiss Of Atrocities”, “All Shall Perish”, “Devil You Know” and our favorite of course LIGHT THE TORCH!!!! I doubt I am speaking only for myself when I say I am grateful to Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson and John Petrucci for inspiring Francesco to hop the pond and come to America!!!! It makes me smile that I can bring something so special to Lebanon Oregon the very place where I heard my first ever Electric Guitar and felt that buzz!! I am honored to be able to share in our mutual love for all things Guitar and to share with Francesco the place where it all began for me. See you all in July!!!