Peter Caty/the Mirror
Every college has the one student band everyone knows. They play at bars, school events and parties, and their music mostly consists of cover songs with a few of their own original songs scattered throughout. But Fairfield has a band that’s different and his name is Rob Belfiore. That’s right, senior Rob Belfiore is the sole member of his one-man band named Ipso Facto.
Ipso Facto is comprised of electric and acoustic guitars, a Boss RC-50 loop station, loop and effects pedals and his own voice.
Belfiore, a Bronx, NY native has been in other bands including a ska-punk band called Between the Bridges and has also written rap beats for his friend, Brad Brown, a rapper from the Bronx.
Belfiore’s unique way of creating music begins with using looping pedals. The looping pedals record whatever Belfiore plays into his microphone or guitar. When he hits the looping pedal, it starts recording and Belfiore plays into the microphone or guitar. As soon as he hits the looping pedal again, the chords are replayed over and over. On top of the recorded guitar cords, Belfiore uses beat boxing to make noises identical to those of drums and cymbals.
The other effects pedals he uses change his guitar into bass, distortion and reverb to generate a harmonized tune. The effect of the guitars, beat boxing, bass, and lyrics looping sounds like an entire band is playing when in reality, it is only Belfiore weaving these musical elements together.
Ipso Facto, which is Latin for “by the fact itself” means that if one thing happens, it’s a direct result of something else that happened previously.
“To me, it made a lot of sense to name the band that because of the looping,” said Belfiore.
Belfiore, who started looping nine months ago, was inspired by the band Dub FX after he watched a video of the band online.
“He does a similar thing that I do and once I heard him play, I thought that I could do that myself,” said Belfiore, “I started messing with looping pedals when I was a freshman so I had some experience before hand, but it never occurred to me to use beat box and incorporate that into the music as well.”
Belfiore, who has played several shows in Fairfield including at the Levee, May Day, the point at Fairfield Beach and Relay For Life has also played many shows in selected bars in the Bronx. Ipso Facto is also being considered as an opening act in the city for the band RX Bandits, which would help sky rocket Ipso Facto’s career and help Belfiore live out his dream “to be able to do this for a living” and “to go all around the world and play everywhere.”
Even though Belfiore wants to make a career out of his unique talent, like every musician, he realizes there will be plenty of struggles along the way.
“Being a musician is a disguisting struggle always, and as much as there are good things that happen there are just as many set backs, no matter how good you are, “ he said, “I’ve had a lot of set backs trust me. But, the best feeling I get is when I play my music. It’s even better than sex, well, sometimes.”
Besides Dub FX and German artist Rico Loop, Rob is one of the few to use a looping station to create music. Rob is not discouraged by this, in fact, Belfiore has an optimistic approach.
“I think that this whole looping idea is going to keep growing,” Belfiore said, “Not many people do this, but I think its technology being intertwined into music so that someone like me can sound like there’s a whole band behind it even though it’s me.”
For free downloads of Ipso Facto’s newest and updated songs, visit soundcloud.com/ipsofacto or go to youtube.com/user/ipsofacto. To contact Ipso Facto directly, you can email Rob at ipsofactomusic@gmail.com.
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