Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy Mastandrea.
Hi Jimmy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
If we really wanted to talk about the “beginning”, we would have to go back to when I worked in music publishing as a tape room librarian by day while playing clubs and bars in an original band by night. My group had a great run but met the same fate as most of the other pre-Myspace era indie bands in the 90s who couldn’t get record deals. We had a residency at a local Irish Pub, and I didn’t want to lose it when my band broke up, so I put a Police tribute band together and learned to play bass. From there it transitioned into a U2 tribute band, and then eventually myself and a bunch of my musician friends became the “Brennan’s unofficial resident tribute band.” Each month we would pick a theme, learn that artist’s top 16+ songs, and play that as our tribute show for the month. This started with a Springsteen night, Tom Petty, Green Day, Eagles, John Mellencamp, The Who, Train, Counting Crows, Billy Joel, and REM.
Personally, I’ve always wanted to explore some of these famous artists I, for one reason or another, wasn’t exposed to. I most certainly gained a new appreciation for all of them and now had a whole new span of music at my fingertips. As these monthly jam bands got harder to put together, I figured I could continue down this musical path by making the jump to a different live format – Dueling Pianos. One of my musician friends, James, who led the Billy Joel tribute, had performed in Dueling Pianos bars and was willing to show me the ropes.
From here I really enjoyed the challenge of bringing the Vegas-style Dueling Pianos show to a small Irish Pub but was always trying to take it to the next level. That’s when I busted out a hack saw and toolbox and built a one-of-a-kind upright double piano shell I had envisioned. We needed something we could set up, break down and transport easily, hold two electric pianos, and fit on small stages. But most importantly, we needed a place to put our iPads!
Now coined as the “Brennan’s unofficial dueling pianos act”, the next year was spent learning hundreds of new songs and gaining some confidence with the format. But the true defining moment was when we needed a sub for a St. Patrick’s Day gig and something very special happened. I called my cousin, Patrick, who was a very talented musician and piano player, and told him I desperately needed him to sit in and play this show with me. He told me he wasn’t good enough to be a dueling pianist, and I assured him that neither was I, so he agreed to give it a try. Patrick was a test prep teacher by night (LSAT, GMAT, GRE, etc.) and a musician by day. After moving to LA from the Washington, DC area in 2006, Patrick wrote, recorded, mixed, and released three original albums and performed those locally with a band called Nerds & Jerks.
To say Patrick was very reluctant to play a dueling pianos show was an understatement. But once thrown into the deep end of the pool, he realized the water was pretty warm. And it turned out that Patty’s Day gig was the beginning of both our new musical journey together, which 8 years and hundreds of shows later, has become the successful local dueling pianos group known as “Dueling Cousins”.
Flash sideways – somewhere between the transition to dueling pianos and said St. Patrick’s Day gig, a third protagonist came into the picture. Jenna showed up to Brennan’s to see her friend’s band, which was opening for dueling pianos that night. The legend has it that she wrote her phone number on a request slip and set it on the piano next to my iPad before disappearing into the night. But my version has her putting it in the tip jar – either way, the story has the same ending with us getting married, her joining the band and having a couple of kids.
Jenna had an extensive theater background and grew up to 90s music. She was no stranger to big stages, just little stages. She had naturally great rhythm for percussion, could harmonize really well and knew an entire era of music that Patrick and I did not. Movie soundtracks are her bread and butter. People are often surprised by how many classic songs she knows that were hits way before her time, and Jenna’s response is usually something like ‘Oh, that was on the 13 Going on 30 soundtracks’.”
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The band had a few years of monthly residencies – Brennan’s Pub (Marina Del Rey), Irish Times (Culver City), and Tabula Rasa (Los Feliz). But things really dried up, the residencies went in different musical directions, and soon we couldn’t get a single gig. At one point we went almost an entire year without a show, which was heartbreaking. That’s when Jenna found out about a party-booking website and convinced us we should invest. Gigmasters (now The Bash) ended up being our saving grace for that moment. We started playing private functions: weddings, fundraisers, anniversaries, birthdays, family reunions and found a new niche. And our unique upright dueling pianos shell made us a perfect fit for a lot of these smaller event spaces, so things naturally began to take off.
Between the summer and fall of 2019, we had been averaging 3 private shows a month and picked up a weekly residency (The Attic, Sherman Oaks) which had things booming. And by the new year, we had added a second weekly residency (Surfer Rose, Santa Monica), and booked 8 Friday nights at the Morongo Casino near Palm Springs.
Everyone knows where things go from here. And it was quite ironic that it all officially shut down for good on St. Patricks Day of 2020, and our entire calendar of bookings, residencies, and weddings had officially vanished.
Post-pandemic, we were fortunately able to build things back up slowly over time. Our reviews on the booking site were great – which led to tons of gigs once people started having parties again. And we found two new bars in the Los Angeles area which were willing to give us residencies (CanTiki, Glendale and The Mermaid, Los Angeles).
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As mentioned, we have performed hundreds of shows all around Southern California, including bars and clubs, weddings, backyard BBQs and pool parties, fundraisers, retirement communities, family reunions, holiday parties, American Legion concerts, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, casinos, church singles events, anniversaries, milestone birthdays, wine tastings, and country clubs.
Dueling Cousins can be seen every first Thursday of the month at The Mermaid (Downtown Los Angeles), and every second and fourth Saturday of the month at The CanTiki (Glendale).
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Our shows are all request-driven, and it’s never the same show twice!
We’ve really taken pride in how far we’ve come musically. When you see a Dueling Cousins show, you can’t help but leave impressed. Through years of performing together, we have built up an incredible list of songs played. Our goal is to play nothing but audience requests for the entire show (usually 3-4 hours long). When the requested jar gets empty, we love to troll the audience with Irish Drinking songs (or rare pop songs), or even give people a chance to try live karaoke and guest sing. I think the highlight of shows for us are the song requests that we’ve never tried before. You get requests like Piano Man and Sweet Caroline at tons of shows, but someone might request Toxic by Britney Spears, and if we’re familiar at all with the song, we will attempt to get through it.
The most successful songs of the night are usually not the ones that sound the most polished. They are the ones that sparkle with the spontaneity of improvisation. They often sound terrible at first, but then once the vibe coalesces by the 2nd verse/chorus, the victory is everyone’s to share.
Jenna was talking with one of the bartenders at The CanTiki after a show who used to work at ‘Howl At The Moon’, a dueling pianos bar. She said this is what she loved most about us, this willingness to try new stuff. She said many acts she saw there would play a set list of the same songs night after night and never stray from it – no matter how much they were tipped.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.duelingcousins.com
- Instagram: @duelingcousins
