Jared Mancuso and Nick Gallardo of Florida Studio Theatre's "Rock 'n' Roll Reignited" Join the Club

Robyn Bell: My friends at the Florida Studio Theatre have a rocking good time show for you to see it's called Rock and Roll Reignited, featuring the band Not Fade Away. And it is showing in their John C Court cabaret theatre now through August the seventh, the show was created by Jared Mancuso. Who along with Nick Gallardo wrote the musical arrangements and perform in the band. So you can imagine how excited I am to have them in studio to talk to us about this high energy show. So Jared and Nick, welcome to the club.

Jared Mancuso: Hello?

Robyn Bell: All right, guys, you just didn't wake up one day and know how to write and arrange music. So before we talk about this specific show and what the audiences will see and here, when they go tell us about yourselves and your sort of life path, and what led you to performing here on our beautiful Suncoast of Florida, Jared, let's start with you. 

Jared Mancuso: So yeah, I played music since I was little. I played I started off as a piano player. I also was big into just performing in general. I started of tap dancing when I was about three years old. 

Robyn Bell: Impressive. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. So I did theater for a long time. My sister, my older sister, Michelle she did the high school shows. So when I was in elementary school, I always kind of joined in with them. And my mom did the costumes. It was like a whole family. 

Robyn Bell: Shout out to Michelle and mom. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. Michelle and mom come. 

Robyn Bell: And where, where did you grow up? 

Jared Mancuso: New hope. Pennsylvania. Yeah. It's this little artsy town right along the Delaware River, north of Philadelphia. And only about like two hours from New York City. So I kind of, it's funny enough. I lived closer to Philadelphia, but New York was always where we went cuz my dad was from Staten island. 

Robyn Bell: Got it. 

Jared Mancuso: And yeah, we, I just was always involved in music and arts kind of growing up. My parents just were really adamant about keeping. All you know, I have a younger brother as well, all three of us involved, whether we wanted to or not.

Robyn Bell: And so you learned to play the piano? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: And what any other instruments? 

Jared Mancuso: The drums. I ended up teaching to myself uh, when my sister would be at rehearsal for her shows, my mom would be, you know, having meetings about the, the costumes and then I would. Be with nothing to do. I would go down into the pit and there was always a drum set. That was the only thing that like wasn't plugged in or had to blow into 

Robyn Bell: you didn't need electricity. Right? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. And I would just pick up the sticks and I started teaching myself like, and that was eventually how I learned how to play drums. When I was 10, I wanted to play guitar. And my sister said, everybody plays the guitar. You should play bass. So I played bass 

Robyn Bell: nice. 

Jared Mancuso: And then what my sister says goes, I guess, and then. Later on, I, I picked up the guitar and taught myself how to play the guitar. And it's just been that journey ever since. Just been continuously going 

Robyn Bell: You kinda look like you do a good Danny Zuko. You done Grease before 

Jared Mancuso: I've done Grease, but I've not done, Danny. I've been, I've been duty. Yeah. Duty. Yeah. I I'm it's. I've always, when I was doing theater, I was always kind of like the goofy sidekick character. Yeah. It's my nose. It's the Italian nose that I have. , it's hard to be an ingenue with this nose.

Robyn Bell: So did you go to college and formally study?

Jared Mancuso: I, yeah, I formally studied acting. I went to Marymount Manhattan college. 

Robyn Bell: Yep. 

Jared Mancuso: Um, And I graduated in oh with degree in, in acting in my musical theater, 

Robyn Bell: that was the year when everything collapsed.

Jared Mancuso: It was perfect timing. Yeah. It was, it was like the, it was the ultimate millennial year. Yeah. It was like, oh, you just spent all this money at school now. Good luck. but I, I managed to work pretty steadily in theater, regionally. I worked around the country, a bunch doing, any type of show and. Eventually Buddy Holly started floating around and people would say, you know, you should do that. You should audition for that. And I did, I auditioned for it a bunch and didn't get it. Um, And then. Yeah, and eventually Arizona Broadway theater hired me to do it. And you know, it just, that was the turning point, once you do it and people see you do it, if you do it well, I guess, and they they're like come and be with us, and do it here and do it here. And that's how, Nick and I had eventually tied in together, cuz we both knew somebody who was putting together their own Buddy tribute show. 

Robyn Bell: It's the same story with um, last year we had the fellow that was doing the Jerry Lee Lewis. Yes, Jason 

Jared Mancuso: friend of mine I've worked with him before. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. It was the same thing where he said, once I did Jerry Lewis, well, I just keep doing it and doing it and doing it and the doors that are opening.

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: And you may not know this, but I am from Amarillo, Texas. 

Jared Mancuso: Okay. 

Robyn Bell: And I have family in Lubbock, Texas home of Buddy Holly. Yeah. Mm-hmm . And even at Texas Tech University, where they perform their symphony orchestra concerts and their symphonic band concerts. It's Buddy Holly. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. So I have, I have a unique connection to Buddy Holly. I understand. I feel connected to him, but you know, just cuz regional things. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. You, I think when you're from that area, it's a, it's a part of the whole history of that area, you know? 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Jared Mancuso: And it's an important history, you know, 

Robyn Bell: So you've been doing the Buddy Holly thing for how long would you say 

Jared Mancuso: the first show I did was in 2013? Yeah. 2013. So almost 10 years the first time. Yeah, I did Buddy Holly Story, and then, Not Fade Away, came along around 2016 when we started piecing that together. But before then, yeah, it was just kind of production after production and I'd done a couple musicals. I did the Producers. I did Fiddler on the roof. I did that. In between all those, I was still kind of mixing with theater, but eventually I had to kind of dive the dive and, stick with theater or stick with, with music because they were starting to collide too often. So. Now I just do music. I love it. 

Robyn Bell: Okay, good. You haven't done a musical on how long? 

Jared Mancuso: 2016 was the last time I did a musical that wasn't the Buddy Holly Story, so, 

Robyn Bell: all right, got it. Got it. All right, Nick, your turn. Tell us about your life. 

Nick Gallardo: You know, don't have, I don't have a lot to say actually no, I uh, 

Robyn Bell: I don't believe that

Nick Gallardo: Well, I was born just down the road from Jared, about 3000 miles in in Tucson, Arizona. It was dusty and, and all that good stuff and hot and yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's a dry heat. So it's a, it's a little bit easier to sustain in, I guess sometimes 

Robyn Bell: that's what they all say. We were, yeah, we were in Scottsdale. It was 106 and we had to go out on this person's veranda and we just all went back in.

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. You made the mistake of going outside. That was . 

Robyn Bell: But then we went to Sedona. Beautiful. There. Gorgeous temperature there. Okay. I'm so sorry, Tucson. Go ahead.

Nick Gallardo: No, no, we got plenty. Uh, So yeah, I was born in Tucson. It, my family was a theater family. My mom and dad actually met doing theater and uh, yeah, Southern Arizona light opera company in Tucson was pretty cool and cool. And then I was immersed in the Tucson, Arizona Boys Chorus, and that's where I got any musical discipline that I have. Uh, Right. And then from there I just kind of jumped in of course, because I'm from Tucson, we would do like trick rodeo roping and stuff like that. And so I stuck around with like the branding and performing when I was really young. And then. I uh, went to a theater camp called Stage Door Manor when I was a little bit older. And that kind of gave me a little bit more confidence as far as theatrical stuff. And then from there I jumped to Dollywood. 

Robyn Bell: Yes. In Tennessee. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. Yeah. I worked there for uh, for six months did 465 shows and that, that gave me all the discipline I needed. And that was 2013 when, when Jared was doing Buddy, and then we met up. When I was doing a lot of concerts, that's when I started like the concert circuit was right after Dollywood. And I, you know, we did like a, a teen idols, one, a Frankie Valli, one a Christmas, and I was, we were just cranking em out. and then Jared and I met and that's when it was kind of like, okay, well we're doing something together here. Let's take it to the next level. so I think it's right. When we were both immersed in the concert world that we were like, you know, there's some energy here. Let's roll.

Robyn Bell: Right. When you find your kind of musical soul partner there 

Nick Gallardo: mm-hmm right. 

Robyn Bell: And so this is when the band Not Fade Away was formed 

Jared Mancuso: sort of 2016 was the first time Not Fade Away. Officially was formed. Mm-hmm okay. We had had like iterations of it before then. We had met the show we were doing together was called Rave On. Like good name. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. I was still Jared Mancuso, but it was, the bopper mm-hmm mm-hmm , you know, Dion, we were very strict in terms of the form of that show. Versus it being really about us. It was talking a lot. these artists and it was great. It was really fun. And, we had a blast doing it, but it was one of those things of like, okay, they can hire us or we can like, quote, hire ourselves. If we, you know, try to do this.

Nick Gallardo: I think, I think that we've kind of been stirring about and like it's, there's, there's something wonderful and, and I can be very, we can be very proud of, of emulating artists, but if we can take their music build on. And add our own energy and individuality, and that's kind of what started to build. And so that's where we started to push more toward, Not Fade Away versus a standard tribute again. Beautiful. But we wanted something a little bit more new and energetic.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. And you know, that kind of leads me into my next thought because I was reading about this that, you know, maybe it's your. Brain child, but it's not just to make the music the way it was, but to modernize it and give it its own little spunk. And as I call it sprinkles on the cupcake. So Jared, talk to us about that process of arranging this music and, the twist that you put on it. 

Jared Mancuso: So each song is a little different the original idea, like what you said, you know, was to revamp it and, and add our own twist to it. And, I write my own original alt rock music. That's much more modern. And obviously I'm not gonna, you know, come into a place and be like, you know, here's. Like a metal version of every day, you know, it's gonna, we still want to keep the essence of these songs. But you know, when we started playing with Rave On and even when I play with the Buddy Holly Story, they, they do the songs very traditionally and traditionally, these guys were making it up, you know and, and I'm they're, and it's amazing. And it's organic in this beautiful way. And then we were tasked with. Imitating them making it up. We worked with a guy David Simmons, who once said to me and I think he might have been quoting somebody else. He was like, but you know, once upon a time people played rock and roll and then somebody tried to write it down and that's 

Robyn Bell: yes, its like jazz. Same. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. And that's, and that's what. We struggled with, you know, do I continue to just sound exactly like Buddy Holly, do I continue to play it just like he did? Or, , do we come up with these new arrangements? So what we did was I started just with little things of, you know, like, oh, let's stop. The guitar is here and add claps. Let's, you know, put these two songs together. They're kind of similar. Let's make a mash up, let's do those sort of things. And we just kind of started there and then it was like, okay, let's add a distortion pedal, you know, like let's grunge the guitar out a little bit. At first there were definitely audience members. Who come, who are purists and, I totally understand that. And they come up and, you know, they say to me, , that's not how he played it, you know? And I, and it's like, yeah, no, I know, I know that I hope you still had a good time overall. You know, I hope it wasn't too offensive for you, but overall, the audience response to us doing it every time was so electric, you know? Right. It felt, we felt that it was working. so over time we just kept going with it. And now we have more mashups. We do a, a song, the Wanderer by Dion and there's two, two different songs that I kind of. There are a couple different songs that I mash up in my mind when I was coming up with the arrangement for it. But a little bit was like some Michael Jackson in there. And then there was some yeah. Of the Black Keys and we wanted to get this like kind of thing going and 

Robyn Bell: Billy Jean meet saying, 

Jared Mancuso: yeah, exactly.

Robyn Bell: Got it. 

Jared Mancuso: And it HES like meets Gary Glitter a little bit, you know, that, that chance song that they used to play in the stadiums you know, the like kind of a little bit of combo of all that. And. It's funny because the audience and Nick sings that song. And I knew that with his charisma, that he has on stage, that it was gonna be. This like experience of a song. And so we started off and you can see, he starts moving his hips and oh um, yeah, plug it all coy over there, but

Robyn Bell: don't pull anything. 

Nick Gallardo: It's it's pretty sexy. I'm just gonna say, 

Jared Mancuso: yeah, he, he, he does it and and the, and the audience, and it's funny cuz you see like you see them being like you can, you see in their face that they're excited that he's moving his hips cuz duh. But then also they're like, what song is this? And then he starts singing it and they're like, 

Robyn Bell: it's like a surprise. 

Jared Mancuso: Oh yeah. And. The Melody's still there. The form of the song is still there. It's just a completely different version of it. And that to me, right there is like it worked, you know, and, and that's the gamble we take. You know, the people do love these songs as they are, and for us to go well, do you like it like this without. Ever making it a completely different, different thing. 

Nick Gallardo: It's we take a respectful approach. And the integrity of the songs stays the same. Yeah. It's just what we do around it. That kind of creates something a little bit more modern while we get a little bit of the tradition as well. So it's kind of cool to see the hybrid of the two. Yeah. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. It feels, and, and it feels good for us. And I think that's infectious with the audience. You know, if we are having fun playing it the way we like to play it, they have fun with us, you know, mm-hmm if we were up there sure. We could. Be having fun, playing them the, the way they're written traditionally, but I. That would tire for us. I, I, I think that's why we started making these arrangements cuz it was like, man, we're gonna get bored quick if we, 

Robyn Bell: yes, it is the same thing over and over. It sounds to me like if you're a postmodern jukebox fan, you would love. As well. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, that's the idea. And I, I actually pointed to them a bunch of times of being like, they do this. Yeah. You know, like why don't we try? 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. It's so cool. 

Jared Mancuso: We can be a little more bold. We can be a little more bold. And like, you know, it's some, even as a listener for Post Modern Jukebox, there's some, some of them I love, you know, and then some of themm like, eh, it would've gone in a different direction, but they're still doing their thing. And clearly, you know, They cost millions of dollars to buy . Yeah. So, you know, they're doing something right. 

Robyn Bell: You know, as an orchestra conductor, we do with the pops orchestra, we do our shows twice and sometimes we'll do it three times. Like if it's a, a big name or we feel like tickets are really, so we'll add a third show. And by that third show, for me. It's you just kind of you're on autopilot, you know, all kinds. And I go to these kind of shows and that's the thought I have to myself. I wonder if they ever get bored with the same music over and over and over. And so just hear how you keep it fresh for yourself. It's really inspiring. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. Yes. The, I will say the Florida Studio Theater will be the longest run we've done of probably playing the same show in a row.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Jared Mancuso: Like normally, cuz we play here, we play here, we play here. And so along the way we change it so that, you know, we'll, we'll get to. You know, Amarillo will say it, like, let's play it different there, you know? Yeah. Like that's, let's play this a little differently. This time 

Robyn Bell: you've played Amarillo. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah.

Jared Mancuso: We have actually, yeah. 

Robyn Bell: My hometown shout out. 

Nick Gallardo: We did the Buddy Holly Museum and everything. Yeah. It was really cool. 

Jared Mancuso: We stopped through yeah. Lubbock and we went on. That was our tour we did in 2018.

Robyn Bell: Yeah. You know, they say about Amarillo. It, if you spend the night there, it's long as two weeks of your life. no, I'm just, 

Nick Gallardo: we have, we will tell you what happened in Amarillo. 

Robyn Bell: did, did you eat at the Big Texan with the 72 ounce steak. 

Nick Gallardo: Whoa. No. Yeah, no, we probably would've shared that. I would imagine before

Robyn Bell: if you eat it all within an hour, you get it for free. Okay. We're not gonna talk about that anymore. So Nick, did you end up, we left your story just a little bit, but did you go to college or did you go right into performing from high school?

Nick Gallardo: No, I jumped right in the pool. I came nice. I straight outta Dollywood. I came home and I was just hungry. And luckily there was a concert entertainment company in town, Tucson. Tucson's not, not a Mecca for theater or concerts, but there was one, there was one in particular that I jumped into and we just, yeah, we just started cranking the concerts. And I think I I'd already found my identity on stage and it was just nice to like start to do different personalities. Sure. And um, 

Robyn Bell: Well, I, I, you know, I can hear your voice. You're a nice high tenor. I'm sure. Yeah. Just a little bit. Yeah. and, and Jared, you play piano and bass and drums. You play an instrument, Nick.

Nick Gallardo: Yeah, I do guitar. I also uh, play mean Kazu at times, but uh, whoa, no, you plays the bongos. I do play the bongos. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting more percussive. Uh, But mostly guitar guitar, rhythm guitar, rhythm guitar. Okay. I'll do a little bit of lead here and there, but um, Yeah, a nice, a nice guitar in bongos is, is just fine by me.

Robyn Bell: And so this, I can see the start of your band, Not Fade Away. So you're mostly singing and guitar playing Nick and Jared. Is there anybody else in the, Not Fade Away band with you here on this tour? On this stop? Yes. Just yes. Who else is in the band? 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah, we have uh, my cousin Mike Gallardo and then he's the drummer and then uh, Aurora Dubois. And she's our bass player. 

Robyn Bell: Are you say your last name for me again? Cuz I didn't say it right down. 

Nick Gallardo: Gallardo was is, is fine. I, I say Guyardo there's Yardo yeah. Hey, that's not bad. 

Robyn Bell: Well, you know, I don't like to brag. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. There's like four there's like four rolled R's in there somewhere, but that was pretty good. 

Robyn Bell: Thank you. Thank you. Let's get a neat though. We have your, your cousin along.

Nick Gallardo: It's really special. Yeah, I, yeah, I uh, there there's a lot of emotions stirring in my heart and it's pretty cool to have him on the road. He's like my kid brother really he's. I mean, he's 16, he's 16 years younger than us and wow. And he's still ripping it up, so it's just, I'm proud of him. And uh, but it's also. You know, everything that comes along with having a little brother there's the ups and the downs. And it's like stop playing video games. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. They wrestle at the house a lot. 

Nick Gallardo: I win every time, of course, but 

Robyn Bell: and who, who else is in the band? Say it again. The fourth person. 

Nick Gallardo: Aurora, aurora Dubois okay. She, yeah, she's our she's our bass player.

Robyn Bell: Oh of female bass players. 

Nick Gallardo: Get back 

Robyn Bell: Rock it out!. We gotta have some estrogen in there. My friends 

Nick Gallardo: are a changing. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Does it make the housing situation different? 

Jared Mancuso: No, not she's super chill. 

Nick Gallardo: We're all respectful of each other's boundaries and stuff like that. So 

Jared Mancuso: she has a bad habit of the dressing rooms more than anything of walking in. Right when I'm in my underwear. and it's like, it's an ongoing joke. Like she'll walk in. She'll be like, I have a question and it. How do you know? It's like you have radar. It is incredible. 

Robyn Bell: Well, at least you're wearing underwear jazz. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, exactly. No, it never grows beyond that. 

Robyn Bell: So there's no way for the two of you to know this. But when I taught high school, I developed a curriculum for a high school music appreciation class about the history of rock and roll. And I taught that class for seven years and I actually did my doctoral dissertation on that class as a high school music appreciation class. And so I was thrilled when I saw the wide variety of songs in your set list. I talked about all of them in this class, but I can't help, but thinking, I wonder which one of these songs, these guys wake up to in the middle of the night singing. So do you have like some ear worms from the show that like gets stuck in your head? 

Nick Gallardo: Yes. .

Robyn Bell: Which one is it for you? Nick? 

Nick Gallardo: For me, it's, It's So Easy. It's that? That cuz the song just flows. It's a pretty little Diddy and it's just all I, I like playing it a lot. It's just a piece on the guitar. Yeah. It just feels really good. And so sometimes it. Do do do do, and you hear the intro and it's like, boom, there it is. It's almost nostalgic and you don't even, you know what I mean? Like it's, it's like, it's almost like you feel like you've been playing it for a while and. I mean we have, but , 

Robyn Bell: and then there's a whole generation that only know that song from the easy off commercials. Right. Mm-hmm is so easy is so we, and you, it was like clean your oven with our product and that's a shame.

Jared Mancuso: Ah, that's I, one way to keep the music alive, I guess, is advertising. 

Robyn Bell: I hope the buddy Holly family is still making money off that. Yeah. Yeah. What about Jared for you?

Jared Mancuso: Honestly, for me, it changes a lot, you know, it, one day it could be, It's So Easy, but I sometimes I think Maybe Baby gets like that opening lick that do do, do, do, do get second there, but then we also, we throw in Burning Love. By Elvis and I, yeah, sometimes I'll just be in the house being like, I'm almost a hunker hunker burner in love. Like it's like, I can't stop, you know, I don't, I just, yes. So it, it changes all the time. All the songs are so good. And I mean, I don't wanna sound, you know, cliche it's, but it's. They're they're all really good songs. So it's hard for any of them not to just be magically in my head at any given moment. 

Robyn Bell: And I would never ask what's your favorite, cuz that's like asking a parent who your favorite child is. Yeah. But especially through this arranging process, is there a song or a group of songs or maybe a particular artist that you found more compelling? Like there's really a lot to this piece of music. Maybe is not from somebody else or maybe the chord structures or changes are just like, you were like, wow, this is cool. 

Nick Gallardo: I think I'm biased. But I would say that my respect for Richie Valens grew a lot more. Yes. Because it just to kind like do a little checklist of context mm-hmm he was 17 when he passed. And that was the latter part. Right. So all the music that he created was probably around 15 to 17. And just to know that you could emote so much truth with that youth. I that's, that's kind of I'll play it. Like I'm, I'm twice as age now. I'm more than twice as age and playing the songs that I do up there it's just, it's so weird. How simple and profound they are. 

Robyn Bell: Mm-hmm yeah, that's great. That's a great comment. And observation. How about you Jared did the arrangements, you know? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. So for me my focus goes into the arrangements and I, we, we don't have it in this show because we had to condense down at Florida Studio Theatre, but Freddy Cannon does Tallahassee Lassy 

Robyn Bell: yes.

Jared Mancuso: And there's that drum break that happens during the, I guess it's a chorus. That's like the thing about these songs, they don't always have like a chorus mm-hmm , but there's this drum breakdown. And it was when we were listening to it. On the radio and being like, this is such a cool, almost like ahead of its time, this like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. While they're like clapping hands and you hear these stomps and that my brain was like, I have to do something with this. And I did. I also turned out that Dick Clark was a producer on that song at the time. And he, how about he was the one who came up with the idea of having the instruments cut out and do the drums and. I was, there was just a fascinating history lesson to read about while looking into that song. But then we ended up doing that song and it, I, I always, really felt like that was fun to get to. Was that like stomp clap part. It's just such a cool thing. You know, 

Robyn Bell: you know, the knock on rock and roll from like academic classically trained musicians. It's just three or four chords and the melodies are usually just maybe three or four notes. Elvis notorious. Little bitty range. So is there one that's maybe more challenging to perform or sing? 

Nick Gallardo: I would say the one that, that I think is uh, Donna was, is probably, yeah. The, the most, the most closed mm-hmm and so that is one that vocally is not the hardest, but emotionally you have to get the story across. So that one is probably that one's a little, not a challenge, but you know, I have to put a little bit more thought into that one. And then the medley's of course cause there's just so there's just so much, it's just like, boom, boom, boom. You wanna, you want. The best of yourself to each song, whether it be an upper, you know, a lullaby or a softer song or something like that. 

Robyn Bell: Right. And they're changing keys and mm-hmm, , you know, it's the complexities of a medley are much more than just a standalone song. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. Yeah. And you have to keep the through line there. You have to make sure everybody's eyes are still sparkling in the audience, which they are. Yeah. And

Jared Mancuso: 100% of the 

Robyn Bell: more wine from this table, please. . Okay. I have, I have a question about a Buddy Holly song and I just need sort of a definitive answer. And Jared, you may be the expert on this, but do you think, cuz this was brought up when I taught high school we would listen to the music and we would project the lyrics so they could follow along. And I had a student, a female student, one time we got to the end and she said, is this like the first stalker song? So That'll Be the Day that I die. We do you think that that would. Like appropriate into if it was released as a single, would people look at that and go, oh my God, he's gonna kill me. And he is gonna kill himself. Oh, it wasn't about that. Right? 

Nick Gallardo: Glad this is your question. 

Jared Mancuso: no, I think it's interesting because we just saw the movie Elvis. Yeah. And, you know, there's certain things that they left out about his story on purpose and, or maybe not. But I it's, the, the same idea is looking at anything with modern day eyes is always a little tricky. We've had songs that we stopped playing because we felt as though it wasn't appropriate. Yes. At a point, you know, where it's like, okay, these lyrics are a little too pushy. I don't find that That'll Be the Day. I've never felt that way. Love is expressed in a lot of different ways. And I would argue that, you know, even for Buddy Holly in the fifties, he was singing his truth. 

Robyn Bell: Sure. 

Jared Mancuso: And that might be controversial for some people, but you can't take away somebody's feelings and, and call that valid. So I, I would still say that his song still works because I think there's still people who, you know, there is that guitar player who sits in his room going. I wish I had a girlfriend , you know, like, you know, I'm gonna write this song through that girl that I wanna ask to prom, you know, and that, that still exists. And that's a real feeling that people have in 1959 and in 2022, you know? 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. And i, I just found it from this student really insightful to read these lyrics, take, take the lyrics away from the music and it really could mean something completely different, but you put it to that. Tune and the great melody. 

Jared Mancuso: Right.

Robyn Bell: And we don't hear it in the same way. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: It's fascinating. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. It's a lot of songs are that way even today, you know, you're like, oh, I'm dancing to this, but they're talking about their heart being broken, you know, it's like weird sensation

Robyn Bell: or Nick starts move his hips, you know? I don't know. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, exactly. Well, even the Wanderer, as an example, you know, lyrically, I read about when I was arranging that song, I, when I go to arrange these songs, I like search the heck out of them to try to figure out, you know, what they were all about. But Dion and interviews talked about actually the Wanderer being, not a song about somebody who was proud of what they were doing. Because the lyrics are, you know, like, you know, I get around essentially. 

Robyn Bell: I get around. Yeah. 

Jared Mancuso: But the, but in the original lyric, apparently he. Instead of two fists of iron and I'm going nowhere, it was something like two bottles of beer and I'm going nowhere. The idea that he was like drinking away, his sadness, that he was not happy about. So it's, it's kind of fascinating, you know, what these songs mean to the writer? Versus how we interpret them. That's there's always gonna be a difference. 

Robyn Bell: Well, how about Elvis's Jailhouse Rock? We just did an Elvis Presley show and we played Jailhouse Rock. And I'm gonna tell you, I never really looked at those lyrics.

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: And they're very like what things that happen in jail, you know? 

Jared Mancuso: Right, right. 

Robyn Bell: You know, and people. But I think because you put it to the melody because you put it to the tune, you separate the totally.

Nick Gallardo: I think another a pretty clear example is we do a Beatle song. And the opening lyric. She, well, she was just 17, if you know what I mean?

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: And the thing is, it doesn't feel weird though, because when we're performing it, we're performing to an audience who grew up listening to that song when they were 17. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: I'm obviously. Not up here as an older gentleman thinking like, oh, from my older viewpoint, this girl was just, I'm thinking of myself as a bopping Beatle when bopping was 19, who was 19, 19 when they, when they wrote that. And I'm, we're bringing them back to the luster and lure of what that, pleasant, bubbly time of being a teenager was, and it doesn't go past that. So for me, like that's the beauty of that song of the music of the lyrics. And then the more you, you talk about it and go into it, you convolute, you're just ruining it now, you know, like. Just let it be and lets this have some fun. 

Robyn Bell: All right. We'll stop talking about it. all right. Had either of you ever been to Sarasota before this run? 

Nick Gallardo: I had once and um, for about a week I was doing another show and just kind of like the little pocket yeah. Went to a restaurant. It was pretty cool. Which show did you do then? I was doing December 63. It's a Frankie Valli tribute 

Robyn Bell: also at the Florida Studio Theatre. 

Nick Gallardo: That was not, no, I don't. Okay. I actually don't remember where we performed. It was kind of like on a, we went to a couple different places. It was a, a fly do a show flyout type of thing. 

Robyn Bell: Sure. Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: Um, and I just remember staying at a nice hotel and having a decent bar dinner with Sarasota water.

Robyn Bell: It sounds like Sarasota, nice hotel and a nice bar dinner. That's it. So when did you guys get to town for this show? Do you remember 

Nick Gallardo: its two and a half weeks ago? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, two and a half weeks ago. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. And you're here all the way till August 7th. Mm-hmm unless they extend the run, which has happened, who knows 

Jared Mancuso: it has happened, 

Robyn Bell: but maybe not. Cuz you have something on 

Jared Mancuso: we have, we do have stuff after this, but we've chatted. You know, the PO, because it was brought to our attention that there was an, a rumor of extension. And we said, you know, we have other things that, so there might be like a returns by popular demand kind of thing. If we go that direction.

Robyn Bell: So you've only been here two and a half weeks, but you're gonna be here for another month or so, have you been able to get out and about and discover some of the neat stuff about our area? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, 

Nick Gallardo: absolutely. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Nick, what are you liking? 

Nick Gallardo: We both have long board. And we both like to wake up early, so he'll, do gym stuff. I'll take a long board and just kind of go around town. We do it after shows as well, but just meandering, just going and like, that's how I found The Barber. That's how I found, the Whole Foods where, you know, get certain meals, things like that. There's the ballet studio. It's really cool. 

Robyn Bell: You don't get lost in all roundabouts. 

Nick Gallardo: It 

Jared Mancuso: at first we did at first it was like, they're actually not going down. 

Nick Gallardo: Um, No, no, no roundabouts. Although if people 

Jared Mancuso: it's very in New Jersey, 

Nick Gallardo: if people knew how to use the roundabouts, that would be a little bit different, but um, 

Robyn Bell: you're asking way too much of us.

Nick Gallardo: serious. It's not much better in Arizona to be honest. But no, it's just nice to, to walk up, to feel this humidity. Um, We've already been to the beach. We went to, to Lido Beach, uh oh, nice. Huge, huge thunderstorm on the way. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, it was, it was crazy. I have a picture where one end. All black clouds. And then the other side was the beautiful sunset that was happening.

Robyn Bell: That's how it is. Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: I just like to flaneur, 

Robyn Bell: oh, I don't know this word. No, 

Nick Gallardo: it just, it basically just means to just, just to look up and about and just to keep on walking no matter what happens, whatever interests you, whatever energy takes you, you just follow it.

Robyn Bell: I'm gonna use that in a sentence later today.

Nick Gallardo: It's pretty cool. 

Robyn Bell: Say it again. 

Nick Gallardo: Flaneur 

Robyn Bell: oh, beautiful. Yeah. Love the English language. or maybe that's not English sounds interesting. 

Nick Gallardo: It's kind Frenchs who knows what? It's flaneur do you like flan? Yeah. Yes.

Robyn Bell: And so you said you got your haircut at The Barber downtown Sarasota. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah, it was. And that's funny too, cuz it's, it's literally called The Barber. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: And so I was like, you know, I'm not being square here. 

Robyn Bell: They did a good job. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. His name is Chris. He was great. He gave, 

Jared Mancuso: he gave me, he gave me his card. Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: he got the card there. Next, got a recommendation to uh, you know, maybe to, to go and do like another um, Little rock and roll thing. Just, just word of mouth stuff. Yeah. It's just good to see, like there's a community and people doing good things. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. Jared, have you found some places you really like to go downtown?

Jared Mancuso: Uh, Being from Pennsylvania? I I really enjoy Wawa. Um, uh, So when I saw that they had a Wawa here being in Arizona all these years, I was like, oh man, I miss Wawa. No. Honestly we went to barbecue place. That was really good Bricks. We went to Bricks that was downtown. It was really good. 

Robyn Bell: Yep. 

Jared Mancuso: And enjoyed some some ribs there that were really divine 

Robyn Bell: because you've never had my ribs, which I make some wonderful. You have to come over the house. I make some great ribs. 

Nick Gallardo: It's you've, you've invited musicians. 

Robyn Bell: I've got a little pool and it's like on a little lake and we'll just hang out all day and talk about Buddy Holly stories. 

Jared Mancuso: Perfect. I'm in, I'm in barbecue pool and Buddy. 

Robyn Bell: Yeah. All right. When you finish your run here on August 7th, where do you go next? What's what's next for you guys it's together. You stay together or you have separate projects? 

Nick Gallardo: Both 

Jared Mancuso: it's both. Yeah. 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. 

Robyn Bell: Okay. 

Nick Gallardo: We're we will be back in Arizona. I have a show called Valens to Valli that we do that has a little bit that has like basic, you can't do every artist in, in one show. You know what I mean? So I'll do a little bit of Frankie Valli kind of like more like Teenie Boppers, like Neil Sadaka, stuff like that. And we have a couple of those shows. And then my girlfriend and I do a Lucy and Ricky live show. We have one of those coming up. He's the bass player for Valens to Valli PS. And then we jump back into more, Not Fade Away stuff. That's when we're doing the orchestra in September, is, 

Robyn Bell: is there music with that Lucy and Ricky show? 

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's basically like a live, like you're watching an episode of the best of Lucy and Ricky. And so we do like, we do Babalu, you know, we'll build a bungalow, all that good stuff and 

Robyn Bell: oh, we have to talk further about this.

Nick Gallardo: We jump in, 

Robyn Bell: you know, my head never stopped spinning, so I have some ideas. Right. I've got some ideas, 

Jared, what's next for you?

Jared Mancuso: I'll be playing bass with him and then the two of us will actually be doing we have a newer show that we created this year called Forever Everly. And this, 

Robyn Bell: oh, that's a great name.

Jared Mancuso: Mm-hmm yeah, it was cool because you know, that music was always kind of around Buddy Holly and them actually played together. But we wanted to make a show about the, the Everly Brothers and we ended up putting together something a little different. We made it into a documentary that's live. , so what it is, so we have a this. Screen that's next to us. And we're kind of surrounded by some nice furniture and a nice little lamp. And we like set a whole scene. It's just the two of us on acoustic guitars. And then I edited the whole film. It's like a 90 minute film and it tells the story of the Everly Brothers. And then we play the music live as it goes 

Robyn Bell: creative 

Jared Mancuso: but what's cool is like even some parts we do where there's it's video of them performing and we are the ones making the noise and that's when the audience kind of really loses their minds. They're always like, what, how did you do it perfectly with them? And we found it's a practice. 

Nick Gallardo: We found it pretty tasty blend, and we call it a rockumentary because you get a rock concert and a documentary and it just kind of flows seamless. So it's really cool. 

Robyn Bell: This is we're pretty creative. 

Nick Gallardo: I think it's like the hardest

Jared Mancuso: it's really it's 90 minutes straight. I mean, we are up there singing 25 songs and I think, and 

Nick Gallardo: Jing out of acoustic guitars 

Jared Mancuso: and they're all, every single one of them is tight harmonies and, but it's, it's really cool. I, the first show we did it was back in January and it was such a busy week. We were doing tons of Not Fade Away shows. I was in the process of learning. I was working with Scott Morrow. Who's over at Florida Studio Theatre right now doing Ring of Fire. I was, I was playing guitar for him, for his 

Robyn Bell: Johnny Cash 

Jared Mancuso: Walk the Line show that he does. And I, so I was. So swamped and we were writing and editing this show that we knew we had to perform on Thursday. And it was like, it was honestly we've said it the other day. It was like, that was the hardest, I think I've ever worked in my life on anything. And I was, I remember going on stage and I was. it was this type of nervous that it was like, I'm so nervous right now that I don't even feel nervous because I don't know. There's no clue what's about to happen on this stage. Yeah. Like we've never performed this in front of anybody before. Not even a friend, you know, it's, it was just like, I hope this works and it does loved it. I left, we left both left stage being like we TA you know, it was, 

Nick Gallardo: it was a weird formula to follow because it's more of like the, the talking happens, not with us. You know, happens over us. We have a fantastic narrator and then we do all the music, but it's weird. Not wanting to be like, yeah, Hey, how's everybody doing? You ready to do some rock and roll? 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. Like we don't do any of that in the show. 

Nick Gallardo: And they still, and at the end, it's just a whoop. Everybody stands. And, and it's just, that was, that was the security that we had needed. And then we got it. So it was really, it was nice to have that fulfillment, 

Robyn Bell: what a great story and, and how just creative and to put it all down and, and bring it to the masses. Yeah. Outstanding. Speaking of the masses, how the Sarasota audience is treating you, you're getting lots of uh, good feedback and people. Like rushing you on the stage and stuff. 

Nick Gallardo: that's yeah. 

Jared Mancuso: Usually him, when he is shaking his head, 

Nick Gallardo: we, you know, we've definitely had a couple Agnathas throwing their garments on stage. No, 

Robyn Bell: whoa, 

Nick Gallardo: no, it's been, the audiences have been good. They've been full. They've been reactive. We have our in ears in most of the time. Okay. So we have to wedge out if we really want us. See, but it's you get everybody from the scale of people mouthing the words and you see like the shimmer in their eyes to the women who are clapping along, some of 'em can't help, but get up and dance in the aisles I saw there was like a, we had like a, there was like a train of four women doing like a conga line at one part for That'll Be the Day. And it's just, and it's, it's a cabaret theater, you know what I mean? So it's like, everybody is very mindful and respectful of each other, but at the same time, you can kind of see everybody individually. Going to town and really, really having a good time. 

Jared Mancuso: We've talked about this. I think they're very used to the cabaret setting of like, you know, like let's sit and watch a show and then here we are, we're pumping. you know, adrenaline right. In their faces. Yeah. And I think they're a little bit like, what do we do? You know, there's like almost this, like, do we dance? Are we allowed to dance? You know? And if you're listening and you're wondering if you can dance, you can totally dance. Totally cool with us.

Nick Gallardo: Yeah. You can dance one, two, you behind you beat. I was like, I'm not gonna do that one. And then you hit it. And I was like, oh, I'm in now 

Robyn Bell: seek that. Let let's go. Well, congratulations, Jared and Nick. Woo. 

Jared Mancuso: Thank you. Thank you. 

Nick Gallardo: Are those real screaming girls outside? 

Jared Mancuso: Yes, .

Robyn Bell: You are now officially part of the club. If our listeners wanna follow your careers and maybe dig a little bit deeper, where can they go find you on the dark web 

Jared Mancuso: on the seedy place? Uh, Is uh, we're on Instagram and we're on Facebook. Both are Not Fade Away. Show. Um, You'll find us 

Nick Gallardo: and you can find a link to our Forever Everly show on, on Not Fade Away on the website as well. So it's kind of cool. Just it leads you. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah. Not fade away. show.com forever. Everly show.com. They're all there. You can watch a little video about us. 

Robyn Bell: Good. Instagram, Facebook. 

Jared Mancuso: Yeah, 

Robyn Bell: YouTube. 

Jared Mancuso: Yes. We have video on YouTube. Yeah. YouTube, 

Nick Gallardo: Spotify, iTunes. Yes, we have all our music have 

Robyn Bell: twos just stay away from Twitter. That's just a mean place to 

Jared Mancuso: Twitter was a it's a, oh, hurts. My 

Nick Gallardo: never been so sad for really sad. Good for you. I like to go outside and read a book 

Robyn Bell: and flounder her. 

Nick Gallardo: Flaneur 

Robyn Bell: and flair. 

Jared Mancuso: They call me 

Nick Gallardo: the flounder. 

Jared Mancuso: they call me the flounder. 

Robyn Bell: Well, we will put a link to all of those uh, sites in our show notes. So people can go there and stalk you catch the guys performing at the Florida Studio Theatre's Court Cabaret with their hit show, Rock 'n' Roll Reignited now through August 7th, you can go to FSTs website at Florida studio theater. Org to get tickets or peruse the dates on our Suncoast Culture. Club's Calendar of Events, page Jared Mancuso and Nick Gallardo how I do. 

Nick Gallardo: Wonderful.

Robyn Bell: Thank you for joining me today to share your story. and introduce us to the show. I can't wait to see it for myself. Best of luck to you for your next five weeks or so in a successful career in the business. After that I'm looking forward to maybe working with you both one day.

Jared Mancuso: Absolutely. Thank you so much. 

Nick Gallardo: That sounds real nice. Yeah,