User:Ptrocker

ptRocker is the solo project of portuguese Rock guitarrist Vasco Patrício (born Oct 9th 1974) since August 2002.

Early stages
Vasco had his first contact with the guitar at the age of 10. His first guitar was an acoustic steel-string guitar brought from Russia by his parents. For two years, that guitar supported all the learning and videoclip-mimics Vasco was into. The 4th fret was too low and unplayable in the upper strings. This fact forced him to develop his bending technique in order to obtain those notes.

At the age of 12, he got his first electric guitar, a black and white Strat-copy Maison. It cost 20 contos (approximately 100 Euros). He started playing with friends Rodolfo and Bruno at Estudiosom studios. Rodolfo's father played the drums during rehearsals.

A video from these sessions (and the Maison guitar) maybe found here: []

At Christmas '89, Vasco gathered enough money to buy a real Stratocaster he had his eyes on for months. A black Strat with white pickguard, Khaler locking tremolo and a 22-fret rosewood neck.

This became his main guitar up to date. Significant changes were made to the guitar: the pickguard became black; the bridge single-coil pickup got replaced with a DiMarzio Fred humbucker and the neck pickup was replaced by a Seymour Duncan humbucker. The middle pickup remained unaltered.

First bands
The first band Vasco played with was formed by Bruno, Rodolfo and Rodolfo's father. They started playing in '88 in Rodolfo's home and later at Estudiosom. They played for one or two years.

At the age of 15, Vasco started playing with Betinho (drums), Bé (bass) and Miguel Bispo (vocals and guitar), a bunch of older guys that have been playing for years at Senofila Studios. After a while, Miguel quits the band and Bruno joins in. They keep playing just for fun and had their first concert in Tomar in the Summer of '90. Original songs and covers from "Run Like Hell" and "Sweet Child O'mine" were played that evening.

After a few years, at the age of 18, Vasco played with Bruno (vocals and guitar), Miguel (bass) and Zé (drums). They played in Carnide in the Summer of '91 under the name "Estrada da Luz".

At the age of 20, Vasco starts playing alone at home, using a computer to save/simulate the additional tracks.

In October 1995, Vasco plays drums with the band "Sister Wolf" for a rock contest at Rookie (Bairo Alto). Two of his brothers (Pedro and André, both on guitars) also played in the band.

Last decade
From 1995 to 2001 Vasco layed the guitar and focused on the studies and beginning his professional life. He recorded a demo CD entitled "Big Bang" in 1997 with songs he had been playing at home for the last years.

In the year 2002, Vasco met Hugo Flores at work and they shared their own home-made recordings. The quality of Hugo's work impressed Vasco enough to convince him to try again. In the summer of 2002, Vasco asked for a one-month absence leave from his job and recorded "Rocker's Schizophrenia" entirely at his home in Lisbon during the month of August.

ptRocker was born.

One of the first people to listen to "Schizophrenia" was Fred Lessing that soon started to play around with its tracks. He created a vocalized version of "Mr Poet" that was called "Boundary of Nowhere". Shortly after, Paulo Chagas recorded his own version of the same track. The three became friends and started working on a new project (firstly called "Moonrock" but later changed to "Mispel Bellyful"). Their debut cd was released at Gouveia Art Rock Festival 2003.

At the end of 2003 and beginning of 2004, Vasco helped Álvaro Silveira in his solo project. He recorded all the backgroud tracks and guitars in Álvaro's album.

During 2004, Vasco recorded "Outer World". The first half was recorded in Lisbon and the second half at his new home in Ericeira.

At the end of 2004, Vasco went to work on Rihyad (Saudi Arabia). There he recorded a small acoustic guitar solo for the Miosótis debut CD. It was recorded at his totel room using the laptop microphone and a recently acquired acoustic guitar.

In 2005, after returning from the six-months stay in Saudi Arabia, Vasco joined an atempt to take Hugo Flores' project Sonic Pulsar live. He played with Carlos (Drums), Nuno Silva (Bass) and Hugo (Vocals and Guitar). This attempt was aborted a few months after it started. Vasco, Nuno and Carlos together with lead-singer Zara Quiroga formed a covers band called PlayLoudInsane. A video sample:

More or less at the same time, Vasco was invited to join "Miosótis" in their live formation. At the time, the band was formed by Paulo Chagas (Sax, Flutes), Álvaro Silveira (vocals and guitar), Fred Lessing (bass) and fernando Simões (trombone). They made their live debut in Gouveia on an unplugged format. Alberto Leitão joined on drums shortly after.

During that year, he played well over 30 gigs all over the country with both bands.

In September '05, César Delgado replaces Fred Lessing playing bass for Miosótis and Carla (César's wife) joins on vocals.

At that year's Christmas, Miosótis (with an alternative formation called "Miozappa") played tribute to Frank Zappa at Caneças.

Carlos left PlayLoudInsane in the middle of 2006 and George joined as replacement. They played once in Cadaval and after that, the band ceased to exist.

In 2006, Vasco released "Less Talk, Let's Rock".

During the first half of 2007, he played live with Miosótis, Passing Strangers and Ad Lib. His last concert was on June 8th (his sister's birthday), just a few hours before flying to Dubai.

He returned from Dubai in August 2008. He re-started playing with Ad Lib and their first gig in 2008 was on October 9th 2008 at Acercadanoite in Almada.

At the end of 2008, he released "SSSS". The first half of this CD was recorded in Dubai. The second half was recorded in Ericeira.

Ad Lib
By the summer of '06, Vasco played live for the first time with his originals band "Ad Lib" (Nuno Silva on bass, Miguel Gomes on drums, Ruben on guitar and Helena and Zara on Vocals) in Arruda dos Vinhos. A video of an instrumental song from that performance may be found here:

Few weeks later, Helena leaves the band and a few months later, Nuno and Ruben quit as well. Another Nuno (Miguel's cousin) joins the band on bass. The band changed their name to "String Vitae" and recorded a few demos. An audio sample may be found here:

Nuno leaves the band in January '07. The original Nuno returns to the band but for a short while.

In May '07, César joins Ad Lib for a gig in Tomar. Video sample:

After that, the band enters an hiatus as Vasco moves to Dubai for one year.

After his return, they play for the first time in October 9th 2008 (with Carla on vocals replacing Zara) and his brother André as special guest on piano.

Miosótis
In 2005, Vasco participated as invited musician in the track "O Monstro" from their "O Monstro e a Sereia" album while living in Ryhiad.

He joined the live formation of this band in 2005 after returning from Saudi Arabia.

In the beginning of 2007, Miosótis went on studio to record their second album, "Risco". Vasco participated as full-time band member and co-wrote two of the album tracks.

He toured with them during 2006 and 2007 until he moved to Dubai in June 2007. During those two years they did more than 30 gigs all over the country.

They played in Santiago Alquimista in 2006 and 2007. The 2006 concert was recorded on video and audio and edited on a DVD offered with a special edition of the "Risco" album.

Miosótis opened Gouveia Art Rock 2007 Prog Festival. That year, the stage was shared with names like Isildurs Bane and Robert Fripp. A video sample:

The last gig he did with Miosótis was in Santiago Alquimista, just a few hours before catching the plane to Dubai. In this concert, he dueted for the first time with Rui Speeds, his replacement on Miosótis' guitars.

After his return from Dubai, he played a few times as guest with them.

Other projects
Vasco participated in Hugo Flores's Project Creation's first two albums as invited musician.

He also played with Marillion-tribute band "Passing Strangers" several times. A video of one of those performances may be found here:

Small contributions were also made to Paulo Chagas' solo project, Zpoluras.

He also played live with alternative band Argot once.

While in Dubai (from June 2007 to August 2008) Vasco played with Zara Quiroga on a vocals and guitar format a couple of times at live-music bars and once on Dubai 92 radio station. A video of one of those performances: []

Solo
1997 - Big Bang

2002 - Rocker's Schizophrenia

2004 - Outer World

2006 - Less Talk, Let's Rock

2008 - SSSS

Miosótis
2005 - O Monstro e a Sereia (invited musician)

2007 - Risco

Project Creation
2006 - Floating World

2007 - Dawn On Pyther