Wepro
Boston, MA | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF
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Marco Castelluzzo is a songwriter, composer & producer who hails from Depressa, Italy and now calls Boston, MA. his home. His musical background runs the gamut of genres from Funk to Pop to Rock with stops in between for good measure. His first EP, “The White” was well received in New England and with various Indie pubs that heralded this newcomer to the scene with high praise.
The band is composed of Marco Castelluzzo (Wepro) on vocals, guitars, piano and synth; Lipe Carvalho on drums; Rafael Minerbo on bass; Enrico Orlandi with his orchestration in "Young People Learning" and the strings section which includes Marcelo Maccagnan, Addy Harris, Bebe H. Kim and Kailey J. Zercher.
His latest, a 5-track EP, “The Black” opens with “Hometown” that captures you right from the door. This mid-tempo rhythmic track features Marco's awesome set of pipes and full-sounding accompaniment from his band mates. I could see this track breaking in MOR and CHR formats. MY FAVORITE! “Around” has a more pop/rock flavor where the guitars are more prominent. The vox are alive and project that special feeling that one looks for from a talented vocalist. “When It Was March” gives the listener the artists deep inner feelings that Marco projects with a passionate energy. The vocal ranging on this track is awesome!
“Young People Learning” is one of those in-between tracks, which I described earlier, that incorporates both acoustical prowess and powerful vocals. The orchestral backing from Enrico Orlandi is both full-sounding and adds depth. This laid-back feeler will be a favorite for the ladies. The final track, “Life on Mountain's Roof” opens with some eerie keys and banging guitars which morphs into the vocal intro which builds into high energy ranging falsettos from Marco which emulate Colin Farrell's style. The composition and production on this track is totally off the scale!
This collection of musicians has it all together. They are tight, talented and creative. One only has to listen to become a believer in their message. I listened to this numerous times and was captivated from start to finish.
This EP is a MUST LISTEN! On the Nor'easter Storm Scale, I give this a FORCE 3! WELL DONE! - Michael McKenna - Nor'easter Entertainment Magazine
Discography
Wepro - The White EP (09/2015)
Wepro - The Black EP (03/2015)
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Bio
Marco Castelluzzo thought he was going to be a classical musician until he listened to the first three rough guitar chords accompanied by a sharp voice from a guy called Billy Joe Armstrong. Even though punk rock is not his genre, he took the energy from it to make his own music sound like a punch ready to hit. For this reason he left his piano lessons at the age of 9 to start playing guitar. Playing rock was for cool people, but his guitar teacher Luca Accogli trained him with a technique called finger-style that he mixed with influences from funk, pop rock, acoustic and electronic music. His main influences include Victor Wooten, Aerosmith, Tommy Emanuel, Damien Rice, Jon Hopkins, among others.
After discovering the potential that his voice had, he started making many collaborations with the Disney Company. The most notable are from the movie “Tangled“ where he recorded the Italian soundtrack and also some background actor roles for the TV series. He has also been part of a famous TV show called “Amici“ as a songwriter where his song “The sun is here with me“ was used and won the award of “most downloaded song on iTunes“ in only one week.
Castelluzzo attempted many times to put a band together, but the fact that he needed to keep working alone to express himself better lead him to be a solo artist. In 2012 at the age of 19 he released his first album “I pensieri fanno l’alba“ which he describes as a mixture of styles where his music is still faded. In the same album that he wrote, composed and arranged, he had the opportunity to collaborate with the guitar player Phil Palmer (Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, etc.) and the bass player Phil Spalding (Kylie Minogue, Elton John, Mick Jagger, etc.).
After that, he decided to leave his country to study music abroad at Berklee College of Music in Boston where he is currently enrolled as a student. Through the years, he started noticing that all of his friends usually called him by his Facebook nickname Wepro, which is a fusion between the two words “wedding” and “project,” the name of his last band back in Italy. He liked it and decided to keep it as his artist name.
Wepro recentely released 2 EPs and 3 Music Videos saying: “This is who I’ve always been“. In these 2 EPs, The White EP and The Black EP, he focused on the main features of funk, pop, finger-style and electronic music.
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