Moretti was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to an Italian father and a Brazilian mother. He was raised with his older brother, Leo Moretti, and step-sister Mina Boukoftane Moretti. Moretti and his family moved to New York City when he was three years old, and had plans to stay there only for three years, but in the end they stayed for seventeen. As a teenager, Moretti attended the Anglo American International School, which later merged with the Dwight School, where he met fellow band members Nick Valensi and Julian Casablancas. Moretti started playing drums by soundproofing a closet at home. Upon graduating high school, Moretti studied sculpture at SUNY New Paltz, before dropping out to focus on his music career with The Strokes.
Musical career
The Strokes
Moretti began playing as a drummer in an informal band with vocalist Casablancas and guitarist Valensi in high school, and continued after the two left Dwight. Nikolai Fraiture started playing as the bassist and the band was formed when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. joined in fall 1998. Their first show as The Strokes was at the Spiral in New York City on September 14, 1999. The band released The Modern Age EP in 2001 under Rough Trade Records and was signed for a five-album record deal by RCA Records. The band released six LPs including Is This It, Room on Fire, First Impressions of Earth, Angles, Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal with tours and festival sets in the North America, Europe, South America, East Asia and Australia. Following the completion of their album contract deal with RCA Records in 2013, the band has continued to release new music through Casablancas' Cult Records.
Little Joy
In 2007, Moretti joined with Los Hermanos guitarist, singer, songwriter Rodrigo Amarante and Binki Shapiro to form the trio Little Joy, a Brazilian/American rocksupergroup. Amarante and Moretti had met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. Little Joy was signed to Rough Trade Records label. Their debut album, produced by Noah Georgeson, was released in 2008.
Machinegum
Since 2018, Moretti has led the New York synth pop band and artist collective Machinegum which both performs and records music and presents gallery installations. The group is composed of Moretti and Ian Devaney, Delicate Steve, Chris Egan, Martin Bonventre, and Erin Victoria Axtel. The group has also collaborated with architect Joseph Vescio and actor/director Justin Bartha in the past. Machinegum released their debut album Conduit in December 2019. Released on Frenchkiss Records, the group later signed to the record label in February 2020.
Collaborations
Moretti was also part of a project, Megapuss, with Devendra Banhart, Gregory Rogove and Noah Georgeson in 2008. Moretti has played drums for Neon Neon, on their track "Dream Cars", from Stainless Style. He has also co-written "Prisoner", from Har Mar Superstar's album Bye Bye 17 with Devendra Banhart, Rodrigo Amarante. Moretti also played on Kesha's 2012 song "Only Wanna Dance With You", together with bandmate Julian Casablancas.
Personal life
Moretti is an enthusiastic visual artist and enjoys drawing. He has created an art installation for Rag + Bone and showcased his drawings in New York. He has also worked on artistic project FUZLAB with French cartoonist Luz in 2012. In December 2019, Moretti collaborated with Italian art dealer Fabrizio Moretti to present the exhibit Fabrizio Moretti x Fabrizio Moretti In Passing at Sotheby's in New York City. The latter Moretti curated a collection of Old Master paintings and the former conceptualized the interactive exhibit. Despite living in the country from a young age, Moretti is not currently a U.S. Citizen, and is instead a citizen of his father's country of origin, Italy. Moretti is fluent in Portuguese, the language of his family, who live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Relationships
In the 2000s, Moretti was in a highly publicized relationship with actress Drew Barrymore. The two dated on-and-off from 2002 until 2007. Moretti has become progressively more private since this time. In 2007, he dated actress Kirsten Dunst. From late 2011 to 2013, actress Kristen Wiig and Moretti dated.
Equipment
Drums Moretti uses Ludwig Red Vistalite limited edition drums, Zildjian cymbals and Ahead sticks. 22"x14" Kick, 13"x9" Rack tom, 16"x16" Floor tom, 14x5" Ludwig LM400 Supra-Phonic Snare Drum. 14" A New Beat Hi-Hats, 22" A Custom Ride, 20" A Custom Crash.
