RITO

Rito is the brainchild of Lou Samaniego. The band’s name comes from Lou’s own middle name and their music reflects over 30 years of his commitment to songwriting and original music. Lou’s original music history in Northwest Indiana is extensive, including his work with Rook, Loudflower, The Bedheads, Electric X and Chris and Lou. Never one to commit to just one avenue for his creative work, the Rito project was formed in 2012 as a result of Lou’s own songwriting efforts.

Lou reached out to drummer and recording/mix/mastering engineer Scott Reder when launching Rito. In addition to an impromptu jam session in their teen years at a common friend’s house in the 80s, Lou and Scott performed together with Electric X and Chris & Lou throughout the 2000s. In addition to these live performances, Scott mastered the Chris & Lou “Sustain” record. This relationship would expand on Lou’s proven songwriting with a strong production capability to make the songs come to life.

Mike Curtis was raised in a very musical family. His father was an organist and choir director for 50 years and 3 of his aunts were in the Chicago Symphony. Therefore, there were many instruments in the house while growing up. Mike originally began playing the drums around age 5 and the piano around age 8. At the age of 12 the guitar made the largest impression on him and has since been his main instrument. Mike has an equally-long tenure in Northwest Indiana music, including time with Lou and Pete in many projects including, but not limited to, Rook and Loudflower, and The Crawpuppies.

Mike’s creative and organic rock guitar stylings and vocal presence are critical to the Rito sound.

Pete began playing guitar at 12 yrs old, teaching himself chords from his dad’s Beatles songbooks. He quickly moved on to progressive rock like Yes & Rush, with an ear lending towards jazz fusion by age 14 or 15. By his late teens he was playing with different bands, one of which was with Lou Samaniego & Mike Curtis. His guitar influences by that time had expanded to Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Eddie Van Halen, Neal Schon, & Joe Satriani.

After playing with the Daniel Doss band through the 2000’s and various other groups he reconnected with his longtime friends Mike and Lou and joined Rito. With Rito he is able to explore and utilize all of his musical influences from the Beatles to Kings X, to Allan Holdsworth & John Mayer.