Riko's Biography
Guitar Virtuoso Riko was born in Haifa, Israel, on November 19, 1980.
As a soloist, Riko main influences were Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani and Nuno Bettencourt, but as a songwriter he might draw from Queens, Aerosmith, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Guns&Roses, Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz, Prince, R.H.C.P and many more.
Riko grabbed his first left handed "Jackson" electric guitar by the age of 15. Practicing for hours every day, playing and performing with several area bands, Riko quickly gained guitar skills and technique, as well as musical knowledge. By the age of 18 Riko already composed and recorded several instrumental songs that later on came into his 2001 independently released debut album, "The Unknown", in which he played and programmed all the instruments. After submmiting his debut album to A&R departments of Israeli record companies Riko was disappointed to get response letters like "We enjoyed listening to your album but we can't find a place for it in our repertoire" and therefore decided to try his luck in the USA. He moved to Queens,NY, and soon after joined several Manhattan based rock bands as their lead guitarist. Although he was fascinated by the neat music scene in Manhattan, after two years there the longings to friends and family pulled Riko back to Israel.
In 2008, Riko collaborated with world famous DJ Yahel, on Yahel's eight trance album "XPORT", co-writing and playing all the guitars in that album. Following the release of XPORT Riko and Yahel started to perform worldwide together, playing live guitar trance shows in clubs and festivals.
These Days, Riko is focusing on the making of a new album, which he will write and produce while featuring various musicians from around the globe. Since influences from the rock, funk and blues genres are prominent in his playing style it will be interesting to find out how Riko will blend it all into one album.