Biografia
Steve Porcaro is a platinum-selling songwriter ("Human Nature" by Michael Jackson), film and TV composer (FX's "Justified"), synth pioneer/keyboardist, and founding member of the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling band Toto. He co-founded Toto with his brother, renowned drummer Jeff Porcaro (who worked with Paul Simon, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen), and later joined by brother Mike Porcaro (who played bass for Stevie Nicks, Bob Weir, Boz Scaggs).
During the 1970s and 1980s—the golden era of the recording industry—the Porcaro brothers were highly sought-after session musicians.
As third-generation musicians, all three Porcaro brothers began playing professionally at young ages, led by Jeff, one of the most successful session musicians in history. Their father, Joe Porcaro, was a legendary jazz drummer and educator, part of The Wrecking Crew, and featured on over 1,500 TV and film scores including Hawaii 5-0, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Chinatown, Badlands, and The Jerk. Steve is also featured in the critically acclaimed HBO documentary "Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary."
Toto ranked among the best-selling bands of their time, delivering massive hits like "Africa" (#1 on Billboard Hot 100), "Rosanna" (Grammy Record of the Year), and "Hold the Line." Their 1982 album "Toto IV" achieved 4x platinum status, earned 6 Grammys, and still attracts around 25 million monthly listeners on Spotify—comparable to The Rolling Stones and surpassing Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
A visionary musician, Steve was an early adopter and expert of analog synthesizers such as the Yamaha CS-80, Polyfusion Modular, Minimoog, and later digital synths. His innovative programming and atmospheric sound design played a key role in popularizing synthesizers in rock and pop music. He became a sought-after producer, designer, and composer of synths and drum loops for artists and producers including Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, David Foster, Elton John, and Don Henley. Roger Linn credited Steve with inspiring the idea to record real drum samples onto a computer chip, which led to the creation of the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer—a defining instrument of 1980s pop music used by Gary Numan, Michael Jackson, and Prince.
In 1984, Steve and Toto composed the score for David Lynch’s film Dune. In 1987, Steve left Toto to concentrate on songwriting and scoring. He has since composed music and arranged orchestration for films and TV shows such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999), Eddie Murphy’s Metro, and Jackie Chan’s The Medallion.
