Joe Faraldi a/k/a Jofa

Throughout my childhood, I'd always been exposed to music. From an early age, I had a fire for the guitar which was started by his uncle, Al Faraldi, an accomplished professional who's talents graced literally hundreds of recordings as well as live and studio sessions. In Uncle Al's wisdom, he thought it best that he wasn't the one who should train me, so I was introduced to Jimmy Garrett, a bassist in Al Faraldi's band, The Second Act. Through Jimmy's instruction, I received the basis for proper mechanics and scale progressions which gave me the roots for developing styles on both guitar and bass.

After the first years of instruction, I was determined to explore the realm of vocals and bass guitar, primarily because of my affinity to the musical styles of groups like U2, The Cult, The Who an Pearl Jam.  Unfortunately, resources were slim; too slim for purchasing a bass guitar. So, I grabbed an old classical acoustic that my sister, Laura had played, removed the strings and re-strung it with laces from a couple of pair of boots to create the world's first classical, acoustic shoelace bass guitar. To this day, I stick by my statement that it sounded good.

During the high school days, I assembled my first band with frineds Keyvan Rabbani (guitars), Kevin Curtin (drums)and Michael Sutera (vocals). This was a fantastic opportunity for me to put into practice what I had learned and felt during his early years. This group had influences from U2, The Alarm and R.E.M.

I've played various circuits throughout the east coast, winning vocal competitions and pleasing audiences in New York, New Jersey and the surrounding area with my former band, Smooth Opinion. This group enjoyed solid local success and was one of the founding acts for the NY/NJ circuit.

My biggest realization in life to date has been how God has shown a tremendous amount of patience and love to me by building a desire to play, write and perform music.  The realization part comes from the fact that, because I'm playing for Him, things are happening... things that never would have happened otherwise. 

God is faithful.