Steve Porcaro(I)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Steve Porcaro is a platinum-selling songwriter ( "Human Nature" by Micheal Jackson), Film/TV composer (FX's "Justified"), synth pioneer/keyboardist, and founding member of the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling band Toto, which he founded with his brother, iconic drummer Jeff Porcaro (Paul Simon, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen), and later included brother Mike Porcaro (Stevie Nicks, Bob Weir, Boz Scaggs) on bass.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the golden age of the recording industry - the Porcaro brothers were in constant demand as session musicians.
Third generation musicians, all three Porcaro brothers started playing professionally at young ages; led by Jeff, one of the most successful session musicians of all time. Their father, Joe Porcaro, was a legendary jazz drummer and educator who was a part of The Wrecking Crew and appeared on over 1500 TV/Film scores including: Hawaii 5-0, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Chinatown, Badlands and The Jerk. Steve is also known as one of the stars of HBO Original critically acclaimed documentary "Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary."
Toto was one of the best-selling bands of the era, thanks to monster hits like "Africa" (#1 on Billboard Hot 100), "Rosanna" (Grammy Record of the Year) and "Hold the Line." The band's 1982 4X platinum "Toto IV" secured 6 Grammys and captivates some 25M monthly listeners on Spotify, nearly as much as The Rolling Stones and more than Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
A visionary, Steve was an early adopter and master of analog synthesizers, including the Yamaha CS-80, Polyfusion Modular, Minimoog, and later digital synths. Steve's cutting-edge programming and atmospheric/textual sound design helped popularize synthesizers in rock and pop music. Soon he became a major go-to producing, designing, composing synths and drum loops for artists and producers such as Quincy Jones, Micheal Jackson, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, David Foster, Elton John and Don Henley. Roger Linn has credited Steve for suggesting he record samples of real drums onto a computer chip, resulting in the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, which thanks to Gary Numan, Michael Jackson and Prince became a staple of 80's pop.
In 1984, along with Toto, Steve composed music for David Lynch's Dune (1984). In 1987, Steve left Toto to focus on songwriting and scoring. He has composed music and arranged orchestration for such film/TV shows as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Une nuit en enfer 2 : Le Prix du sang (1999), Eddie Murphy's "Metro" and Jackie Chan's "The Medallion."
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the golden age of the recording industry - the Porcaro brothers were in constant demand as session musicians.
Third generation musicians, all three Porcaro brothers started playing professionally at young ages; led by Jeff, one of the most successful session musicians of all time. Their father, Joe Porcaro, was a legendary jazz drummer and educator who was a part of The Wrecking Crew and appeared on over 1500 TV/Film scores including: Hawaii 5-0, Ghostbusters, Goonies, Chinatown, Badlands and The Jerk. Steve is also known as one of the stars of HBO Original critically acclaimed documentary "Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary."
Toto was one of the best-selling bands of the era, thanks to monster hits like "Africa" (#1 on Billboard Hot 100), "Rosanna" (Grammy Record of the Year) and "Hold the Line." The band's 1982 4X platinum "Toto IV" secured 6 Grammys and captivates some 25M monthly listeners on Spotify, nearly as much as The Rolling Stones and more than Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
A visionary, Steve was an early adopter and master of analog synthesizers, including the Yamaha CS-80, Polyfusion Modular, Minimoog, and later digital synths. Steve's cutting-edge programming and atmospheric/textual sound design helped popularize synthesizers in rock and pop music. Soon he became a major go-to producing, designing, composing synths and drum loops for artists and producers such as Quincy Jones, Micheal Jackson, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, David Foster, Elton John and Don Henley. Roger Linn has credited Steve for suggesting he record samples of real drums onto a computer chip, resulting in the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, which thanks to Gary Numan, Michael Jackson and Prince became a staple of 80's pop.
In 1984, along with Toto, Steve composed music for David Lynch's Dune (1984). In 1987, Steve left Toto to focus on songwriting and scoring. He has composed music and arranged orchestration for such film/TV shows as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Une nuit en enfer 2 : Le Prix du sang (1999), Eddie Murphy's "Metro" and Jackie Chan's "The Medallion."
