James Rotondi, aka ROTO

I am a guitarist, keyboardist, synth programmer, singer, songwriter and producer, formerly with iconic French band Air, as well as Mike Patton’s legendary Mr. Bungle, Fareed Haque's Garaj Mahal, The Grassy Knoll, and more. I currently play guitar with Humble Pie, The Cringe, Hundred Hounds, Jettatura, and my own Roto's Magic Act and Roto's Mad Mirrors. I've scored, played, and sung on hundreds of TV commercials, video games, and Internet trailers, and have MC'd events worldwide for corporations from Vivendi to American Express for the Song Division group. Still, writing about music has been an equally key career cornerstone: the author of dozens of cover stories, I've been the Editor-in-Chief of Future Music Magazine, a Senior Editor at Guitar World, Guitar Player, and Remix Magazine, and I've written for Rolling Stone, Spin, JazzTimes, MOJO, and Acoustic Guitar, as well as top manufacturers including Universal Audio, Line 6, and Izotope, and I've created artist bios for labels including A&M, Rope-A-Dope, and Warner Brothers. Playing music and writing about music. The one always informs the other. Best, JR