Birth Date: February 27, 1984

Influences: Jeff Denny, Steve Vai, Michael Angelo Batio, Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson,  Rusty Cooley, and more!

Biography

Ryan Formato was born in Brooklyn, NY and moved to Mastic, NY at the age of 5.  He picked up the guitar at the age of fourteen and seriously became interested after hearing Jeff Denny play his rendition of “Cliffs of Dover,” by Eric Johnson.  Ryan has been playing guitar religiously for 15 years.  Steve Vai is Ryan’s major influence along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, and Joe Satriani.  Jeff Denny has also been an incredible inspiration to Ryan as Jeff Denny taught him much about the guitar from fierce licks to the theory behind chords and musicianship.

At 18 years old, Ryan competed in Guitar Center’s Guitarmageddon competition in 2002 making it all the way to the Regional finals and then competed again in 2004 and won the East Coast Regional Finals in Florida and would later go to Dallas, Texas to play in the National Finals.  Ryan made it to become one of the top 6 guitarists in the country out of 3,500 contestants and played to a crowd of 15,000 people sharing the stage with many of music’s finest players at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Festival.  At this festival, Ryan also landed his endorsement deal with string giant Dean Markley. 

At the age of 18, Ryan Formato released his first demo album entitled, “Out of This World.”  With basically no budget, Ryan was driven to put out something to the world.  He recorded his songs in his “home studio,” and released his music to the world.  Inspired to create something even better, Ryan begin to invest his time honing his technique even further and learning how to record to put out a full release album.  This came to fruition in 2010 when Ryan Formato released his first studio release, “Rise From the Dead.” Ryan Formato established himself at a young age and is working toward becoming a major player in the guitar industry. His songs are inspired by his life, family, as well as his wife Patricia and his children, Ryan, Gianna, and Brendan.

Ryan has dedicated much of his life to the instrument practicing hours daily to achieve a high technical ability and a great sense of melody.  He will continue to write music to enrich his life as well as the lives of others.