Vittorio of V2

2014 Recipient – Guitarist of the Year – 24th Annual LA Music Awards

I started playing the guitar when I was 7 after my brother Vincenzo started playing the drums.

The first song I learned was Deep Purple’s, Smoke on the Water and then Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love.

My dad told me about these two brothers, Angus Young and Malcolm Young who went to Catholic school just like Vincenzo and me. I asked what songs they played and he gave us AC/DC’s, Back in Black CD to listen to. I loved Back in Black. It was great, so we asked to see an AC/DC concert DVD and when I saw Angus Young playing I knew I wanted to play just like him.

So Vincenzo and I started playing together and taking some lessons. We chose to learn TNT, Back in Black, and Highway to Hell in that order. Pretty soon we thought we should form a band so we started V². V² stands for “Vincenzo and Vittorio” or “Vittorio and Vincenzo.” It really doesn’t matter. I was born first, about 1 minute before Vincenzo, so since I am oldest I guess V² is named after Vittorio and Vincenzo.
I love the sound of Angus Young and Malcolm Young’s guitars. My guitar teacher tells me I like the sound of the power chords. I guess I do and I like playing them LOUD. I also like Angus Young’s solos.

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The first time we ever played in public was at our Cub Scout talent show where we played TNT and Back In Black but we did not sing. A month later was a talent show at our school, and we played TNT, Back in Black, and Highway to Hell and sang the songs too. Singing while playing is harder than it looks! My brother Vincenzo does most of the singing even though I think I’m a better singer.

A video was filmed about us at the catholic school talent show. You can see it on our Rockumentaries page. If you like it, press the like button so all your friends can see it too.

We held our first real concert when we were 9 years old at Rock Star University’s HOUSE OF ROCK. We played 6 original songs and 6 ACDC covers. You can read the full page article that ran in the newspaper about our performance here. It was quite a show and I realized how much fun it is to perform in front of 300 screaming fans!V2-001

When we were ten, we delivered another big, live concert playing 12 original songs and 6 ACDC songs at HOUSE OF ROCK and Jack Blades from Night Ranger interrupted our final bows to give us his personal guitar that he signed “To Vittorio and Vincenzo, Keep Rockin! Jack Blades, Night Ranger” Jack then asked us to play his favorite AC/DC song, Highway to Hell. My brother Vincenzo said we would play it if Jack would sing it, so Jack joined in. It was cool. Jack told the audience we were the greatest ten year old rockers he had ever seen. That was quite a compliment coming from the lead singer of Night Ranger. Those guys have been rocking the world for 40 years! You can read the article that was in the newspaper about the show here.

One afternoon, V2Ron Nevison stopped by to watch and listen to us when we were rehearsing at Rock Star University’s HOUSE OF ROCK. Ron Nevison is a legendary engineer and rock album producer who has produced over 75 rock albums including multi-platinum albums for Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, The Who, Heart, Chicago, Damn Yankees, KISS, Night Ranger to name a few. Ron watched us play Long Live Rock N Roll and I Like Doing This the Best and then stopped us and asked us to come off the stage to talk to him. I thought he was going to give us some advice, but instead he asked us if we would like him to produce our first studio album.

rsu-v2-cover2We had never done a studio album before, but he said it would be fun, and we had the time over the summer to do it so we spent 14 days in the studio, producing our first album, We Are V². Ron was right, it was a lot of fun, but was also a lot of work because I had to play every guitar part, both rhythm and lead, and sing every song too. My brother Vincenzo sang every song as well. We did lots of takes and then at the end of the day, we would listen to all the takes and decide which one was the best and whose vocals would be on the song. Some songs sounded better with my singing and some sounded better with Vincenzo. On a few songs we both sang either chorus or verses.

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The album really turned out great. It was nominated for 7 Los Angeles Music Awards. In the 24 year history of the LA Music Awards, nobody has ever been nominated in seven categories. I was especially happy to be nominated for Guitarist of the Year.

We played two songs at the LA Music Awards show on November 12, 2014. We played the title track to our debut album, We Are V² and a song off the album that was nominated for Rock Single of the Year, Long Live Rock N Roll. Before we have finished our two song set the entire crowd was on their feet screaming and applauding for us. It was really cool. After we completed our songs, the producer of the LA Music Awards, Al Bowman came on stage with SEVEN LA Music Award plaques. V² Second Album Cover We won ALL 7 Categories! Boy was that exciting! Best day of our lives! You can see a full page article about our LA Music Awards night that was published in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat here.

We went to Disneyland for the next two days and even stayed in the Mickey Mouse Signature Penthouse at the Disneyland Hotel. Life is sweet!

We are going back into the studio over Christmas to produce our second album, Pass the Rock N Roll Torch. Here is a picture of the album cover. Pretty cool.

If you would like to listen to the songs on our new album and receive a free song download of your choice, subscribe to our fan club. We’ll also let you know what songs we are learning and the details about our next concert. We will also make sure you get to see any concerts that get filmed.

V2And please get a V² hat and shirt to wear so people will ask you about us. When they ask, tell them to go to www.VSquared.Rocks and subscribe to our fan club. Every T-shirt and Hat that we sell goes toward our lessons and equipment so we can keep learning more songs and play better concerts for you.

Thanks for being our fan.

Vittorio, V²