Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudio Magrassi.
Claudio, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m a guitar player and producer currently based in LA. I grew up on a farm in the northern Italian countryside, the most distant context from the Hollywood lights you could possibly imagine. My first contact with music was through the radio of my grandparents’ house and by watching the TV, especially MTV. I’m a kid of that generation, the ’90s. My cousin, who has always played the piano, received an acoustic guitar for his 20th birthday. I clearly remember him passing me his guitar to try to play it. I don’t know if my love for that instrument started there, but since then, I started going to his house more and more often to play or try to play the guitar even sneaking into the house when nobody was home because I knew where they were hiding their spare keys. After a few months of stealthy but not too silent sorties, my aunt, as you can imagine, extremely happy of having me sneaking into her house, decided to buy me a guitar. Since then, I started playing, and I never stopped. I began taking private lessons, playing with friends and after graduating from high school I decided to embrace the journey of turning my passion into my profession. I graduated at the Rock Guitar Academy in Milan and started playing for singer-songwriters and cover bands throughout Italy.
However, after three years of playing and touring I realized that I wanted to take my musicianship to the next level and I applied to Berklee College of Music in Boston where I got accepted in 2015. That was the moment in which I realized that playing guitar wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do. I got more and more into music production, learning more about synthesizers and writing music for images, opening myself to a new different prospective that widen my musical horizons. During my time in Boston, I got to collaborate and play with musicians from all over the world, peers and faculty members that have been crucial in my musical and personal growth. After graduation in December ’19, I decided to move to Los Angeles where I’m currently working as a freelancer, guitar player and producer for emerging artists in the LA scene.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been far from being smooth. The challenge of pursuing a career in music is already massime mountain to climb and new difficulties are always around the corner. It’s a journey made of sleepless nights constantly chasing self-actualization and financial stability. Music is my great love but like in love stories sometimes can be tough and require to fight for it. I would not being able to be here if I didn’t have the support of my family. They were initially hostile to my choice, like many other musician’s parents, but I’ve been able to take them on my side with my progresses and achievements throughout the years. I’ve been lucky enough to have received many scholarships that allowed me to continue my studies and partially relief the economic burden of college expenses on my family. During the past few years, I have been through a lot but I always tried to “enjoy” the process and the struggles that come with it, and I still do.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As a guitar player and producer, I get to collaborate with many different artists. Of course, everyone has different needs. Some ask me to play live, some others need guitars recorded on their albums, some ask me to be more by the book, some others want me to be more involved in the creative process. Every project is different and that’s the part I like the most, it keeps it fresh and challenging. Throughout the years, I’ve been able to improve and expand my gear, buying more equipment to accommodate the “sound needs” of my clients and have a palette of sounds that works in many different contexts and genres. Since I moved to LA, I’ve been working and more and more from my home studio, it also saves me a lot of time in LA traffic. On my set up, I produce, mix, record electric and acoustic guitars and vocals, sending the music to clients and nimbly going back and forth with them for revisions and fine tuning things. It going pretty well so far, I’ve been working with musicians in Boston, New York, LA, Italy, Japan, Greece, tracking guitars and producing tracks for albums, short films and commercials. I also got to build trust on a personal level with the people I’ve been working with and I strongly believe that played a really important role for the success of the projects I’ve worked on.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Coming from the rural Italian countryside to Los Angeles it’s been quite of a big jump even if living in Boston for three years has surely helped the transition. LA is, undoubtedly, the best place in the world to make music. I couldn’t imagine that I would have had so many opportunities from the very moment I moved. On the other end the competition is very high, everybody is super on top of their game and it’s easy to burn out yourself if you never slow down and take breaks to look around and trying to observe things from a more distant point of view. I always tell my friends from outside that you cannot understand LA if you have never been to it. It’s a place that can become your heaven or your hell pretty quickly and it’s important to follow the steps that will take you to your goal with the right pass. Honestly speaking, I wouldn’t see myself doing what I’m doing anywhere else in the world at the moment.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clodstrato90/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clod.magrassi
Image Credit:
Penelope Santana, Beatrice Beneforti
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