Steve Porcaro is a platinum selling songwriter ( “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson), Film/TV composer (FX’s “Justified”), synth pioneer/keyboardist, and founding member of the Grammy winning, platinum selling band Toto; which he founded with his brother, iconic drummer Jeff Porcaro (Steely Dan, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon), and later included brother Mike Porcaro (Seals & Croft, Stevie Nicks, Bob Weir, Boz Scaggs) on bass.
Throughout the 70s and 80s, the golden age of the recording industry - the Porcaro brothers were in constant demand as session musicians.
Third generation musicians, all three started playing professionally at young ages; led by Jeff, one of the most successful session musicians of all time. Their father Joe Porcaro was a legendary jazz drummer and educator who played with Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Stan Getz and went on to create The Percussion Institute of Technology and later the drum department at the Los Angeles Music Academy. Steve is also known as one of the stars of HBO Original critically acclaimed documentary “Music Box: Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.”
Steve dropped out of high school at 17 to join Gary Wright’s 1975 “Dream Weaver” tour. The following year he joined the Boz Scaggs’ “Silk Degrees” tour, along with his brothers Jeff and Mike and future Toto bandmates David Paich, Steve Lukather and Lenny Castro.
In 1978, Columbia Records released Toto’s self-titled debut. The band would go on to become one of the best selling bands of the era, thanks to monster hits like “Africa” (#1 on Billboard Hot 100), “Rosanna” (Grammy Record of the Year) and “Hold the Line.” The band’s 1982 4X platinum “Toto IV” secured 6 Grammys and captivates some 25M monthly listeners on Spotify, nearly as much as The Rolling Stones and more than Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
A visionary, Steve was an early adopter and master of analog synthesizers, including the Yamaha CS-80, Polyfusion Modular, Minimoog, and later digital synths. Steve’s cutting edge programming and atmospheric/textual sound design helped popularize synthesizers in rock and pop music. Soon he became a major go-to to produce, design, compose synths and drum loops for artists and producers such as Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, David Foster, Elton John and Don Henley. Steve’s innovative synth work with Danny Kortchmar on “Dirty Laundry” and his dreamy, meditative synth textures on “Boys of Summer” became defining elements of those Southern California pop anthems.
Steve produced synths for Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall,” “Thriller,” “Bad” and “HIStory: Past, Present, Future: Book 1,” and “We Are The World.”
In a twist of pop music fate, his song “Human Nature” ended up on “Thriller,” which with an estimated worldwide sales of 120 million copies, is still the best selling album of all time. He never intended to submit “Human Nature.” Producer Quincy Jones inadvertently heard it—and the rest is pop history.
In 2018, indie rock band Weezer covered Toto’s “Africa” prompted by a fan campaign. The cover inspired an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” featuring Steve on synths.
Steve’s music has been sampled by such artists as Nas, Big Sean & Lil Wayne, SWV (Sisters with Voices) and Chris Brown. “Human Nature” has been covered by numerous artists including by Miles Davis and Jacob Collier.
Roger Linn has credited Steve for suggesting he record samples of real drums onto a computer chip, resulting in the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, which thanks to Gary Numan, Michael Jackson and Prince became a staple of 80’s pop.
In 1984, along with Toto, Steve composed music for David Lynch’s 'Dune.’ In 1987, Steve left Toto to focus on songwriting and scoring. He has composed music and arranged orchestration for such film/TV shows as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money”, Eddie Murphy’s “Metro” and Jackie Chan’s “The Medallion.”
In 2024, Steve sold the majority of his publishing estate, including a number of unreleased co-writes with Jackson to the Estate of Michael Jackson and Primary Wave.
Many fans continue to cite Toto as one of the most significant oversights in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame history.
Steve’s first solo album “Someday, Somehow” was self-released in 2014, his follow-up, “The Very Day” will be released in 2025 on a Sun Records imprint. He continues to write songs and produce and create sounds in his studio. He is a very proud father of three children: Heather, Dominic and Micki.
