Otto D'Agnolo

Born deep in the 1900's, it was my father's Al Hirt records that lead me to playing the trumpet. It was my trumpet that introduced me to performance and it was a young friend's sixth grade show-and-tell performance that introduced me to electric guitar. My parents knew long before I did that music was going to be my path. As a young teen I put together bands, played shows, bought a 4-track reel to reel tape machine and began my journey into the world of recording music. A journey that continues to this day. It's been over 40 years since I was first hired as a recording engineer. My award winning career has been filled with magic moments and colorful characters and I'd love to talk with you about all it's taught me, about psychology, management, business and life in general. Most of all, what I've learned about the artist's brain and how that's helped me to help others to understand the artistic personalities in their life. The artist mind can be so difficult to deal with when you don't understand how it works.

At the turn of the century I started dabbling in video editing for fun. I found that I had a knack for it. Slowly, I became more involved in film and video and today most of my time is spent doing both audio and video for a TV show I've created called "The Recording Artist". (see link below). A few Scottsdale based film directors also use me as their first call editor for their projects. But even with all of this going on, at heart I'm simply a performer and so, I perform.

My weekly podcast called "The Otto D Show" is recorded and broadcast live because I prefer the energy of a live performance. It's something that a pre-recording doesn't have. Also, part of the process of making the TV show "The Recording Artist" requires weekly music recording sessions that are webcast live from my home recording studio. While these two weekly live shows do feed my need to perform, they don't come close to singing in a band on a stage in front of an audience. So, I have a touring show that is a tribute to the music of John Lennon and I perform shows of my own songs with my own band whenever the opportunity arrises. Since my personal fans come from all of these different projects I created a free app you can download in your app store called "Otto D " just to keep the act of "following me" simpler. (see links below)

On the personal side of things, I am married to my third wife who's 13 year old "artist mind" daughter found herself on a crash course with her mama's patience when I arrived on the scene. Both were ready to kill each other (figuratively speaking). My ability to understand the way her mind worked helped the two of them to understand their own different communication styles and thought processes, giving them a chance to see each other through a new and different lense. Today at 18, she is interfacing with the world much better and their relationship is stronger every day. I love them both dearly. You may think it strange that it took me so long to help raise a child but there's more to the story. Not the least of which is that my daughter from my first marriage is a very successful semi-retired entrepreneur in the pet industry but sadly I gave little help in raising her. Luckily for all, she had a wonderful home and family growing up. These days I love to cook. Especially different types of pasta. My wife and I are trying hard to eat well enough and exercise hard enough that I can still cook all the pasta I want. We're not quite there yet.