You never forget that moment when you realize your calling. For Aldo Leopardi, it was when he was just ten years old. “I was watching TV, brushing my chompers and AC/DC came on, playing ‘Jailbreak.’ I was hooked,” he said. “I thought, wow, that’s a pretty shitty theme they are singing about, but they are having a great time.”
The video for AC/DC’s classic “Jailbreak,” in case you haven’t seen it, is starkly straightforward by today’s music video standards. It’s Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Bon Scott, Phil Rudd and Mark Evens rocking out hard, banging heads, pumping fists and wailing into mikes. There’s no storyline, no actors or models, no CGI. The only prop that appears in the video is a hacksaw, brandished with a wink by Bon just before Angus takes center stage to rip a solo. It’s rock ‘n’ roll charisma, crystallized in its purest form.
“It inspired me to learn to play music and pursue the art of rock ‘n’ roll,” Aldo said.
Aldo spent his childhood and teen years idolizing the likes of KISS, David Bowie, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and other classic rockers. He took up the guitar and began gigging in Australia when he was a teenager. By his early twenties, he was self-producing and recording his own music.
Aldo still admires many of the same things about his rock idols as he did when he was a kid growing up in Australia. But he also has a deep appreciation for the artists who’ve helped shape the genre through innovation, such as the Foo Fighters, Powderfinger, Linkin Park and Nickelback.
Aldo draws inspiration from his eclectic tastes in music and combines them into a sound and act that’s all his own. The showmanship of Van Halen, the pop sensibility of The Cars, the virtuoso guitar playing of Stevie Ray Vaughn, the meat-and-potatoes songsmithing of Foo Fighters; you get a hint of it all when you listen to one of Aldo’s records or catch one of his concerts. Yet, when these influences and inspirations from across the decades come together, it sounds like something completely unique. The result is something refreshingly honest and original that celebrates the best of all worlds.
Aldo Leopardi’s sound and attitude all come to a head at his concerts. A far cry from low-key coffee shop gigs, Aldo curates a full night of non-stop entertainment with a rock and roll party vibe. From handpicking hot opening acts to spicing up the show with dancers, video streams and other surprises, there’s never a dull moment while in the crowd.