Valerio Rinaldi

Valerio Rinaldi –
Valerio Rinaldi is a rare bird in the music scene of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Born in the city thirty something years ago, he started to write songs and perform live his trademarked catchy and powerful pop-rock en español at an early age. He shared stages with some of the biggest names in the local scene, (guys like the local legend Sumo, for instance). Some of the bands he was member of recorded albums for major labels during the 90's. Yet, there's something unique in Valerio: although everyone knows him in the Buenos Aires scene, he's a star in the USA.

Well, kind of. Valerio uses to travel regularly to the United States and he's a very well known name in the rock en español scene. He played everywhere there, every Latin venue in most major cities. Places like La Oveja Negra in New York City and The State Theatre, in Washington DC. He appears regularly at Latin TV channels like Telemundo. "For some reason I am working in the USA most of the time. They have a huge Latin market, and I feel very comfortable working there. I play five times more shows in the USA than the ones played in Argentina, where I live".

If you're not familiar with those places and venues, those are the places where the big stars from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries play in the USA, guys like Gustavo Cerati, Fito Páez and Charly García. Valerio is a name as big as them for the Latin guys in the USA.

This explains why Valerio used to open for bands like (the megastar Latin pop band) La Ley, when they toured Buenos Aires (and Valerio happens to be at home instead of playing at the States). Valerio is a good friend of Beto Cuevas, singer of La Ley and a huge Latin music star. "We met each other on tour, on those long nights when you're in a strange city in America and no one speaks Spanish", Valerio recalls. "We used to have long talks about life, philosophy and women at hotel halls in cities like Chicago or LA. The good thing about being a Latin pop star in the USA is that you can still walk into a bar and people doesn't necessarily know you, even if you have a platinum album. Beto asked me to open for La Ley at Buenos Aires in 2005. Just because we're friends". Valerio has many friends among the big names in the Latin scene, but he's modest about it. "If you spend several weeks every year touring the USA and paying at the Latin scene venues, big and small, you'll end up meeting all these big names", Valerio says. "It's not such a big deal".

Valerio's music is guitar-based and sounds like rock and roll, but he's got a pop heart. "I grown up during the 80's listening to all those incredibly catchy songs. I want to write choruses that people can sing along to". And he means it. Take some time to listen to his songs and you would see his songs are catchy and powerful. He's also a producer, having produced in his Buenos Aires studio bands like Bea Ba, from New York City.

Valerio's fist solo album, Vida Pop (Pop life) was recorded in 2004. Two singles were taken out of it and two videos were shot and airplayed at channels like Latin MTV, Much Music, CM and others. It featured the cult hits "San Rocanrol" ("Saint Rock and Roll") y "Nuestro Lugar" ("Our Place").

His sophomore solo album is Amplificarse (meaning something like: Amplifying ourselves). Valerio was tempted by several majors to release it, but he was not convinced with the approach they proposed for the commercialization of his music. "I need my music to be available for my fans in the USA. That's where most of my fans are, and big labels in Buenos Aires can't reach that market easily, so having my songs in radio rotation in Argentina but with no copies of the album to sell in Miami made no sense for me". So, he decided to get digital. "I was contacted by Eternal Sunday Records to release Amplificarse as a direct-to-digital release and I was delighted. It was just what I was looking for, because now everyone in America can buy it, so I told Emiliano, [from Eternal Sunday] here's the album, sell it as a download and we'll talk in three months", an enthusiastic Valerio says. "Emiliano is a big friend, we just shaken hands".

Now Valerio's fans can have access to Valerio's albums as digital downloads. Amplificarse is an exclusive digital album. Both of them are packed with the catchy guitar-driven pop-rock en español that made Valerio Rinaldi a big name in the Latin scene in the USA.

www.valeriorinaldi.com.ar
www.myspace.com/valeriorinaldi
Manager in USA: Luis Ayala 240 328 3275 rockactivo@yahoo.com.ar
Manager in Argentina: Emiliano Canal management@eternalsunday.com.ar