Fernando Quesada

Fernando Quesada is a Brazilian bassist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer from São Paulo, best known for his work with Shaman and Noturnall. By his own account he was drawn to music as a child after hearing Guns N' Roses and Metallica, picked up the guitar around the age of eight and taught himself, later moving through drums, acoustic guitar and bass. He played guitar in an Iron Maiden cover band as a pre-teen and formed his first original band around the age of twelve. He gained studio experience early, working alongside singer and producer Thiago Bianchi — a relationship that would shape much of his later career. His breakthrough came in 2007, when he joined the rebuilt Shaman lineup alongside Bianchi on vocals, Leo Mancini on guitar and founder Ricardo Confessori on drums, as bassist and one of the principal songwriters, contributing heavily to "Immortal" (2007) and later "Origins" (2010). He stayed until the band's dissolution in 2013. That same year he co-founded Noturnall with Bianchi, Mancini, keyboardist Junior Carelli and drummer Aquiles Priester, playing bass through the group's most internationally visible period, until he and Carelli announced their departure in February 2019, citing musical differences and a focus on the acoustic project A.N.I.E. (Acoustic Natural Intense Experience), in which he performs on guitar and vocals rather than bass. In 2020 he joined the viking/heavy metal band Armored Dawn, leaving in September 2021. His bass playing is generally described as groove-oriented and song-serving within a technical power and progressive metal context, backed by a strong compositional and production sensibility. He has since worked mainly as a producer, arranger and music educator, and in 2025 launched Acústico BR, a project of acoustic reinterpretations of Brazilian rock in which he sings and plays guitar.