This is Leo Moracchioli. He's Norwegian. (I bet you weren't expecting that when you saw his name.) After playing in one band or another pretty much since high school, a few years ago he quit his day job and started a recording studio in his home near Stavanger. To promote said studio, he created a YouTube channel and started making videos about music-related stuff—gear, tips on recording techniques, and so forth. One day, on a lark, he recorded a heavy metal cover of a song that was not originally a metal song (I forget which one was first).

It got a billion-zillion views, and so that's kind of the Frog Leap Studios channel's main thing now. He still does other stuff—quite a lot of other stuff, to go by the vlogs he also posts pretty regularly—but the metal covers are pretty much his signature thing.

Leo's pretty interesting. For one thing, although he's recently put together a band to do some live gigging (inevitably called Frogleap), the videos he makes for his channel are largely a solo effort apart from the odd guest star here and there. That doesn't mean he's just one dude sitting there playing a guitar, though—his covers are full arrangements. It's just that for his videos, Leo plays all the instruments and tracks the parts together in post—sort of like Tom Scholz of Boston, if Tom Scholz were a Norwegian metalist who doesn't take himself seriously. :)

For another, he doesn't take himself seriously. Like, at all. The level of whimsy in his performances is hugely at odds with the very serious musicianship that has to be behind them.

I'm not going to sit here and say "you must give this guy a listen" because that's presumptuous, but I highly recommend it. Even if metal's not really your thing, consider just taking a riffle through his covers playlist. If nothing else, look at what's in there. I mean, the guy did a(n awesome) metal cover of the Ghostbusters theme. I also particularly commend his cover of "Sultans of Swing". Also watch for guest appearances by his adorable family.

--G.
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Poker Face. Sitting at...10M views...

For my money, his cover of Toto's Africa is one of his best. The original is a bit ridiculous, and that really plays to his strengths.

> Even if metal's not really your thing,
I would suggest his acoustic work, which is usually more serious, or at least played more straight, but no less well done. playlist.

-VR
And of course, there is this.
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

-- Bob
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My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

Patrick is not only a skilled woodworker, primarily working on lathe turning, but is also a genuinely funny guy, as a tip for others.

...!
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