Jesse Tranfo Saluda Cymbals Artist and Endorser

I grew up in a positively charged musical environment; my father was a drummer who played gigs at local clubs and county fairs throughout Alaska while I was growing up, and I often spent time helping carry gear on while I was still young. At home, my father had a small home recording studio where I toyed around on almost everything, but was drawn to the drums that I saw my dad playing every weekend.

Throughout my pre-pubescent years, I took private lessons on everything I could convince my parents to buy. I took Piano, guitar, bass, cello, and even tuba lessons. Upon reaching Jr. High, I joined the jazz band and symphonic band as a drummer, while continuing to play cello in orchestra. My seventh grade year jazz band won second place for our school size at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho while I was 1st chair drummer.

During High School, I continued to play in symphonic band as a percussionist, and in the schools percussion ensemble, a 6-7 member group consisting up all percussive instruments. During this time, I fine tuned my understanding of mallet keyboards, timpani, and drum set techniques.

Once I started playing drums in Jr. High, I also started playing in cover bands and then on to original rock bands. At age 16, I recorded a demo CD and a professional music video. Following that band, I played in two other local Spokane, WA bands touring and opening for bands like Motion City (Epitaph) and Jimmy Eat World (Interscope).

Currently, I reside in Portland, OR with AristeiA (myspace.com/aristeiaband). In the past year, we have extensively toured the northwest corner of the US, earning us a wide reaching fan base and respect and label attention from all along the coast. Opening up for bands like Stutterfly, Maxeen, The Outline, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Stutterly, The Actual and a handful of other bands on smaller indie labels.

AristeiA is currently touring around the country.

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