Biography First of all, "Moe" was never meant to be an artistic name, but only a nickname my brother gave me more than ten years ago and it happened that until today, a lot of people don't know my name and just call me Moe...so, here it is. My first instrument was an acoustic guitar inherited from my aunt when I was 5. My family was always very musical, everyone learned to play at least one instrument and I have been influenced from a very early age by the music my parents listened to - mostly classical music and many rock styles since my mother studied classic piano and my father played the guitar in some bands when he was younger. It was only a few years later that I decided to study music by taking classes and the acoustic guitar was a natural choice considering I already had one. My first contact with formal musical studies was in early 1992, at the age of 10, when I started taking acoustic guitar classes, which would soon become classical guitar classes. Studying classical pieces, I learned something about music notation and theory. It wasn't very long before I found out I wanted to have an electric guitar and go into another stuff, rock-oriented, following my dad's influences with classic rock and bands from the 70's, like Grand Funk Railroad, Black Sabbath, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper and some other bands. My first electric guitar was a gift from my father in April of 1996, when I was with my brother Marcel and my Time Train partner Renato looking for a drummer to start what would be my first real band. Some years after, in 1998, I would get to know the sound concept that changed my ways and musical interests: King Diamond. It really surprised me and I realized I wanted to do something with that information, and from that time on, it is one of my biggest influences. In fact that was what opened my mind to various heavy metal bands since until that time I was more of a seventies guy and knew only a few metal bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden. Some other big influences came by around that time, like Dream Theater and The All-Time Guitar Master Steve Vai. To tell the truth, Steve Vai is my main influence as a guitar player and musician for several reasons. His work is very diverse and I could spend my whole life learning new stuff only from his works, I think. His music inspires me everytime I listen, read, watch, inhale, breathe or do anything with it. After that, some other bands which also play a big role in my musicianship came along, like Nevermore and Savatage and I tried to get as many material as possible related to the bands I like: recordings, interviews, transcriptions, lyrics, anything I could find. So, another band I dived into was Queensr˙che, which I got to know in a live concert in 1997, along with Megadeth. Nowadays, I try to study as much as possible (and I really believe some day this will turn me into an owl for so many nights awaken...), learning songs from my favorite bands, studying guitar chops and technical exercises, composition and theory, which unlike the majority of guitar players, I like a lot. I also try to have as much contact as possible with other instruments, like keyboards and bass guitar and some percussion, too. I also sing, even though I haven't been the lead singer in a band for a while. I'm also working on my own compositions and some projects with other musicians and friends, where I can get in touch with other musical sources and learn experiencing these situations. If everything happens as planned (and I really hope it does), I'll soon have some new recordings of these projects to put out here, so you can know our work and tell me what you think. This bio is intended to be continued and updated...