Paolo Morena 11th April 2025

Paolo Morena stuns audience in his latest gig at Hot Box, as a singer / songwriter act, supporting himself on bass, lead guitar, backing vocals, drums and acoustic guitar. How is that possible? How can one man clone himself before our very eyes to achieve such a feat? Why, through the power of the looper pedal, of course!

Paolo is not your typical one-man band; looper pedal is not unheard of in the music industry, and is actually condemned by snobs as being rushed, boring or lacking in certain parts. But from where I was standing, I could guarantee this gig was nothing of that sort. There was nothing boring or repetitive about the musical ensemble that was created.

He starts off with his acoustic and vocals, then steps on a few pedals and covers himself for a couple of seconds, which gives him just enough time to grab a new pair of strings, and add a groovy baseline or a supportive beat. From bar to bar he steps on a couple more, and the arrangement changes completely, as he adds more and more stuff to his craft. It was like a ready-to-go mixed and mastered stereo recording, being mixed and mastered before our very eyes.

Paolo’s forte are his vocals - and his harmonic arrangement is a testament to this. He forms himself a triad, needing no retakes, and supports his live singing excellently.

I personally never knew he could play the drums: I sort of always assumed he can hold a beat, like most resilient musicians in the industry, but I never knew he could layer double times with such ease. That drum kit needed no looper pedal layering! The beat was done and ready to go in one take.

Mid way through, he invites over his friend, Bill Gates lookalike Steve, to accompany him on trumpet and violin, which adds a classically sophisticated sound to the mix that I never thought would work - and yet it does!

Suddenly we’re watching a complicated, jazzy gig with a mute trumpet, that could not be further from your typical Tik Tok looper pedal guitarists: we must have had eight to ten different layers to make these songs, which the crowd was singing along to in no time.

Greg hops on the beat and finishes the set with an EDM edge, which once again, should not have worked so wonderfully with Steve’s fiddle: but it did! What we closed with was a wonderful mix of early house, disco and funk, with a folk twist that had all of us boogieing together.

It was insane: I couldn’t believe he had played for over an hour.

Chatting to Paolo at the end of his set, he made me aware that for a minute there one of the channels on the looper pedal had gone dead. Normally a disastrous malfunction, but handled so seamlessly and discreetly you could not have said anything had gone in any way but according to plan. A perfect set to anyone who hears.

Check out some pictures I took from this gig in the photo gallery!

Follow Paolo on Instagram: @themightysmallmusic