My name is Rauno Pella. 
I was born and raised in a small south-western Estonian town called Pärnu. My interest in music started in early childhood - I guess I was only five years old when I started to have an interest in my dads huge record collection and a the first band that really took grabbed my attention was Queen with their charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury. I loved the powerful sounding guitars of Brian May, strong pocket groove of drummer Roger Taylor and the bass player John Deacon was also a strong player that added a nice texture to the rhythmic section. 
As I became older and started to take drum lessons at the age of 11, I had already been practicing drums for three years and was playing along with my favorite Rammstein records. 
Influences: 
Bands such as Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, 36 Crazyfists, Bullet For My Valentine etc forced me to push my playing skill to the next level as the band, where I was playing (Mushy), played metal-core music witch needed some thunderous double bass drumming and fast technical fills. Drummers like Chris Adler & Mike Portnoy were the ones that influenced me a lot. During that period I also started to practice seriously guitar and with only a few months I had managed to transcribe all riffs and solos from Lamb of God's 2006 album called "Sacrament" and by the end of 2007 I knew all their songs and later went on to study Killswitch Engage riffs only by listening and transcribing solos and riffs by ear. By doing that, my ear became quicker and it helped me to transcribe melodies in music schools theory class and I became very fluent at that. Then jazz progressive rock and be-bop started to grab my attention while I was starting to play with jazz groups and wanted to get some new musical ideas. I started to dig odd-time signatures and rhythmical illusions and virtuos playing. So the next big influence for me was Dream Theater and their guitarist John Petrucci still has a huge impact on my playing. Right after that I discovered Opeth and started to practice finger picking riffs and was fond of Mikael Ackerfeldt's melodic guitar solos. Drumming wise Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) and Sean Reinert (Cynic) were the guys that got me interested in using polyrhythmic grooves and ghost notes, which added a nice texture to my groove approach. Cynic's main songwriter, lyricist and guitarist Paul Masvidal was also highly inspiring and influential to my guitar playing and writing. As I had reached a high level in terms of virtuosity, I then wanted to discover new sounds and composition techniques and Steven Wilson, the frontman behind Porcupine Tree was a major discovery and their drummer Gavin Harrison's unique playing style fulfilled me with lot of creative ideas. If I think of 2  most influential and creative drummers then 2 names come to mind - one of them would be Matt Halpern from a progressive metal band called Periphery. His approach to the drumset is very unique as he uses a lot ghost notes and linear phrasing behind drum kit. The other huge influence would be session great Vinnie Colaiuta who has played on so many wonderful records that I discovered thanks to him. He has his own very distinguish style and way of playing, which has influenced many fusion guys around the world. Now I am into a lot of different stuff - from drum'n'bass to classical music or even listen to some atmospheric progressive rock like Anathema. All this different music influences me a lot and inspires to become a better player and writer. 
Future plans for me are to finish writing and recording my very first solo EP, which will hopefully hit the stores at the beginning of september and write some more music ... 
stay tuned ;) 

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