Steven Maxwell Porcaro (born September 2, 1957) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother (after the deaths of

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

in 1992 and

Mike Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and docume ...

in 2015); as the songwriter of "

Human Nature Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or ...

" by

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

and songs by Toto; and as the composer of the TV series '' Justified''. He has won three Grammys, including Record of the Year for "Rosanna" and Album of the Year for ''Toto IV'', and three nominations. Porcaro has appeared as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

on recordings by Yes (on ''

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

'' and '' Open Your Eyes'') and

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ac ...

(on their self-titled 1989 reunion album). He was also a member of

Chris Squire Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4March 1948 – 27June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes. He was the longest-serving original memb ...

's short-lived band, The Chris Squire Experiment, in 1992.

Early life

Porcaro is a native of Connecticut. Just like his brothers Jeff and Mike, Steve Porcaro started out as a drummer under the tutelage of his father Joe Porcaro, before taking up piano. In 1967, his father bought him an organ made by Rheem, a company that specializes in heating and air conditioning. Soon after, he brought his father down to a

Guitar Center Guitar Center is an American Music store, musical instrument retailer chain. It is the largest company of its kind in the United States, with 294 locations. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California. Guitar Center oversees various sub ...

to trade in the keyboard for a

Farfisa Farfisa (Fabbriche Riunite di Fisarmoniche) is a manufacturer of electronics based in Osimo, Italy, founded in 1946. The company manufactured a series of compact electronic organs in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Compact, FAST, Professiona ...

with a Leslie 147 and preamp, which Porcaro called his "first real rig".

Career

Porcaro's touring career began playing with

Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (born April 26, 1943) is an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive", and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and po ...

during his tour in 1977, supporting the latter's ''

The Dream Weaver ''The Dream Weaver'' is a solo album by Gary Wright released in July 1975. The album was said by Wright to be the first-ever all-keyboard album (though there were many all-synthesizer LPs before this, including ''Switched-On Bach'' by Wendy C ...

'' album. Porcaro and the other original members of Toto then played with

Boz Scaggs William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until h ...

before forming Toto. Porcaro wrote or co-wrote at least one song on each of Toto's first six albums, with the exception of '' Isolation''. His two older brothers

and

were Toto's bassist and drummer as well as session musicians while his father Joe was a prolific session percussionist. Steve Porcaro 1982 (cropped)

Unlike most of his Toto bandmates, he generally did not contribute lead or even backing vocals; he considered himself a weak singer, and sang lead on two of his earlier compositions only because he felt that the vocal styles of his bandmates, with the exception of Joseph Williams, were not appropriate for his songs. The song " Rosanna" was supposedly inspired by Porcaro's girlfriend at the time,

Rosanna Arquette Rosanna Lisa Arquette (; born August 10, 1959) is an American actress. She was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, Emmy Award for her performance in the TV film ''The Executioner's Song ( ...

but this has since been denied by the song's writer, David Paich, and Arquette herself. In an interview with Ben Mankiewicz in 2022 both Paich and Arquette admitted on camera that yes, she was the inspiration. He left Toto in 1987 after the ''

Fahrenheit The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...

'' album in order to pursue a more full-time songwriting and composing career. However, Porcaro continued working with Toto in various supporting capacities, assisting with keyboards, drum looping,

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

and

arranging In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

/composing. Porcaro composed the music for the song "

" and produced the synthesizer for "

The Girl Is Mine "The Girl Is Mine" is a song recorded by American singer Michael Jackson and English musician Paul McCartney. The track was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. It was released as the first single for Jackson's sixth s ...

" from

's album '' Thriller'', as well as playing synthesizer and keyboard on " Stranger in Moscow" from Jackson's ''

HIStory History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

'' album. Steve Porcaro composes music for film and television, including the FX television show '' Justified'', among others. Porcaro returned to play with Toto at live performances since 2010, when they decided to reform the band and tour in Europe to support Mike Porcaro. They scheduled further concerts in Europe. Porcaro performed on the band's 2015 studio album ''

Toto XIV ''Toto XIV'' is the thirteenth studio album by the American rock band Toto (though the band's fourteenth album overall, when one counts either ''Toto XX'' or the ''Dune'' soundtrack). Toto released the album on March 20, 2015. It is the band's f ...

'', co-writing and singing lead on "The Little Things" and writing/singing lead on the Japan-only bonus cut, "Bend". When the band dissolved in 2019 and regrouped in 2020, Porcaro did not return.

''Someday/Somehow''

Steve released his first ever solo album on June 10, 2016. '' Someday/Somehow'' was co-written/produced by Michael Sherwood, former member of the band Lodgic. The album contains 13 songs, one of which reunites Steve with his late brothers Mike and Jeff Porcaro, from recordings made prior to their passing. Contributions are from Michael McDonald,

Jamie Kimmett Jamie Kimmett is a Christian music singer-songwriter signed to Provident Label Group under Sony. Career Jamie Kimmett was born in Scotland. He grew up listening to artists like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and John Mayer. While studying t ...

Michael Sherwood Michael Sherwood (27 October 1959 – 5 November 2019) was an American keyboardist and singer. Biography Michael Sherwood was a US keyboardist and singer who came from a musical family which included his father Bobby Sherwood, who was an acto ...

, Mabvuto Carpenter,

Marc Bonilla Marc Henry Bonilla (born July 3, 1955) is an American guitarist and composer, who has worked as a sideman to artists such as Keith Emerson, Ronnie Montrose, Glenn Hughes, Edgar Winter and David Coverdale. Career Early years and film work ...

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

, Lenny Castro,

Jimmy Haun Jimmy Cary Haun is an American guitarist and composer, known for his work with the bands Yes, Air Supply, and Circa. Career Haun got his start in the music business through his childhood friend Michael Sherwood and toured with Michael's father� ...

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973 in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a pr ...

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...

and

Mike Porcaro Michael Joseph Porcaro (May 29, 1955 – March 15, 2015) was an American bass player known for his work with the rock band Toto. He retired from touring in 2007 as a result of being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was ...

Equipment

Steve Porcaro played a huge variety of synthesizers on Toto albums. While David Paich handled piano duties, it was usually Steve's job to complement the music with creative synth sounds. He was known to use Yamaha GS1,

Yamaha DX1 The Yamaha DX1 is the top-level member of Yamaha's prolific DX series of FM synthesizers. Background The DX1 features two sets of the same synthesizer chipset used in the DX7, allowing either double the polyphony, split of two voices, or dua ...

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980 ...

Yamaha CS-80 The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer released in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of hardwired preset voice set ...

Roland Jupiter-8 The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981. The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Approximately 3300 units have b ...

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

Oberheim Xpander The Oberheim Xpander () is an analog synthesizer launched by Oberheim in 1984 and discontinued in 1988. It is essentially a keyboardless, six-voice version of the Matrix-12 (released a year later, in 1985). Utilizing Oberheim's Matrix Modulation ...

, Polyfusion Modular, Dynacord Add-one and

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977, who used microprocessors, then a new technology, to create the first polyphonic synthesizer with full ...

synthesizers among others. The synth solo in the Toto song " Rosanna" is a noted example of his approach. In later years he gravitated towards working with software synthesizers. Onstage he is using two Yamaha keyboards (a Montage 8 and a

Yamaha Motif The Yamaha Motif is a series of music workstation synthesizers, first released by Yamaha Corporation in August 2001. The Motif replaced the EX series in Yamaha's line-up and was also based on the early Yamaha S series. Other workstations in the ...

XF7) to drive his Apple MainStage-based virtual synth rig, which draws samples from Logic's ES2 plug-in and

Spitfire Audio Spitfire Audio is an England, English technology company based in London that creates virtual instrument sample libraries used for music production. The company was founded in 2007 by professional composers Christian Henson and Paul Thomson (co ...

libraries among others.

Personal life

He collaborated with his daughter Heather Porcaro on her debut album, ''The Heartstring Symphony'', released in 2009. Heather was featured in ''Paper'' magazine's "Most Beautiful People" issue in 2002.

References

External links

Official homepage on Toto website
* *
TOTO-Hydrasolation — Le site Web des Fans de TOTO

Heather Porcaro official site – Steve Porcaro keyboards

Steve Porcaro
NAMM Oral History Program Interview (2006) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Porcaro, Steve 1957 births Living people American rock keyboardists American film score composers Songwriters from Connecticut Musicians from Hartford, Connecticut People from South Windsor, Connecticut American session musicians American people of Italian descent Toto (band) members 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male musicians 20th-century American keyboardists American pop keyboardists The Chris Squire Experiment members Conspiracy (band) members