MuzicNotez: First off, it’s an honor to be doing this interview with you, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.

Introduce yourselves, what are your names and rolls in the band?

• FortinoDuo: Ray and Joe Fortino (FortinoDuo). We share the responsibilities working together to compose the music and write the lyrics. Ray is the lead vocalist while Joe is the lead pianist.

MuzicNotez: How did you meet and form up? How long have you been together?

• FortinoDuo: We are brothers who have shared a common passion for music for a very long time and working together as brothers has made this journey more meaningful and special. We started off by having fun playing cover songs singing in our basement and playing at family functions until someone suggested we start creating our own original music. We have been creating our own original music for the past 10 years.

MuzicNotez: How did you come up with the name FortinoDuo?

• FortinoDuo: It’s a simple name but it was very important to us to keep our family name within the band name so we did just that and attached duo at the end of it since it is 2 brothers.

MuzicNotez: Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the band you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?

• FortinoDuo: Coldplay has been and continues to be our idols and inspiration. The way they conduct themselves as musicians but more importantly as people is very inspiring. They possess the qualities that a professional musician should have.

MuzicNotez: What’s the greatest concert you’ve ever been to or performed?

• FortinoDuo: Going to our first Coldplay concert really inspired us to start creating our own music and become musicians. The energy they give during their performance and watching all the fans sing along, dance, and jump was so memorable. It’s something every musician dreams of.

MuzicNotez: What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a band? Any particular message you wish to send?

• FortinoDuo: Obviously we would love to build a big loyal fan base who will support and love our music and play in front of big crowds. A dream of ours would definitely be to collaborate with Coldplay on a song or another big named artist. It would also be a dream to write songs for big named artists.

MuzicNotez: You’re latest release is the track ‘How Do I?’, which also has a well done lyric video. What does this song mean to you?

• FortinoDuo: This is one of our favourite tracks we have completed so far and it is a very beautiful emotional track that details the roller-coaster of emotions you go through after a break up. The male vocalist lead singer is asking the question How Do I move on and truly live again? This is our favourite lyrics in the song because we feel after a break up many people hide their true feelings and go on with their day to day lives pretending they are ok but really they are hurting. They so desperately want to get back to feeling normal again and be able to “truly live again”. He is searching for answers to questions he doesn’t have and this can be heard in the chorus How do I move on and carry your debt? How do I pick up the pieces love myself and really believe it? How do I move on and truly live again?

MuzicNotez: You pride yourselves on your songwriting, and have had a lot of success in numerous songwriting contests. What’s your songwriting process together?

• FortinoDuo: Joe usually comes up with a melody on the piano and then asks me if I like it and if I say yes, he will continue working on building the song. Usually, we start with the music and then we come up with a few different words that we want to really stand out to be the hook of the song. We always want our lyrics to match the melody of the song.

MuzicNotez: What else are you working on? What can we expect to see and hear from you in the future?

• FortinoDuo: We are really excited about some new music we are working on. We are always evolving as musicians and we are not scared to work with different styles or genres of music. One song will feature a very talented female Spanish singer and another song will consist of a talented rapper. We feel that the sky is the limit and we have yet to reach our full potential as musicians.

MuzicNotez: Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Any message for your fans?

• FortinoDuo: Check out our music on all streaming platforms and follow our Instagram page @fortinoduo to keep up with our musical journey.