Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy Mastandrea, Patrick Tyrrell and Jenna Mastandrea.
Jimmy, Patrick and Jenna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
JIMMY: I was part of a band that had a residency at a local Irish pub in Marina Del Rey for several years. For a good while, we would pick a different artist every month, learn all their hits, and make it a live tribute night. This included everything from Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, U2, The Police, etc.
PATRICK: When I moved to LA, my uncle told me to “look up your cousin Jimmy, who works at Sony Music.” I felt too cheesy and exploitative to call up Jimmy and say, “Hey, we’ve never met. Apparently, we’re related. Help my music career!” But when my uncle came for a visit and forced the introduction, Jimmy started giving me opening spots for my original band at the Irish pub, and he would call me as a fill-in for his tributes when needed.
JIMMY: Once I exhausted the tribute night concept, I decided to put all those songs I had learned over the years to a different use, and give dueling pianos a try. One of the players from this group had performed at various dueling pianos bars and mentored me in the format. We then built a one-of-a-kind upright dueling pianos shell and were successful at bringing our own brand of dueling pianos to the Irish pub scene.
PATRICK: When Jimmy tried to rope me into dueling pianos, I was very reticent: he and I were good rhythm players and singers, as we were both longtime songwriters and front-men. But neither of us could “shred” on the piano like his current partner could, the way I assumed a dueling pianist needed to. He kept convincing me it would be alright, and so I tried it and was hooked.
JIMMY: We ended up having a great 5+ years at this Irish Pub, until the owners sold the place, sadly. One of the most memorable gigs was when this girl watching the show filled out a song request slip with her phone number on it (which I swear never happens ha-ha). This was Jenna.
JENNA: I saw Jimmy play and was instantly charmed. It also helped he was the only good-looking guy in the bar at the time (aside from the other dueling pianist, of course). He likes to say that I put my number in the request jar, but I was much smoother than that and set it right in front of him on the piano and touched his shoulder before walking out of the bar.
JIMMY: I had no idea at the time what an amazing singer Jenna was! Eventually, not only did we end up getting married, but we got her in on the act!
PATRICK: Normally, a bandmate saying, “Hey, is it cool if my wife joins the band?” is the death knell of any project, but Jenna is a great singer, greatly improves our visual appeal, and allows us to play a wider swath of songs. But she starts every show by clarifying that the cousins in Dueling Cousins are just Jimmy and me so that people don’t look weird at her and Jimmy.
JENNA: We were playing local Irish Pubs on the west side for a while until I found out about this private event booking site, called Gigmasters, or Bash. Jimmy put together a profile, and out of nowhere we started getting gigs all over town.
JIMMY: Given that we had such a unique setup (upright piano shell), and were very affordable compared to other dueling pianos acts, we became an instant hit on the private party scene. Word of mouth and great reviews fueled an influx of bookings, and before you know it, our calendar started filling up with everything from small weddings to fundraisers, kids parties, anniversaries, etc. You name it!
PATRICK: But Jimmy missed playing bars, so he resolved to contact one new venue a day. After a few days, I felt so guilty about my lack of chipping in that I asked the local bar, The Sherman in Sherman Oaks, whether they’d consider dueling pianos. As luck would have it, the owner was a huge dueling pianos fan and loved the idea of having a regular dueling pianos night at The Sherman. He asked if we’d like to play a residency every Thursday night, so we tried a few dates to mutually try it out, and 18 weeks later we, the venue, and some local fans are all really happy with this routine. Best of all, my modicum of effort now looks like the architecture of our success.
JIMMY: We honestly never set out to try and make this whole thing as big as it has become. But we’re all musicians first, and love having a venue to do our thing.
JENNA: I’d say at an average show, we’re able to play about 75% to 90% of the song requests. Jimmy has all the Elton John, Billy Joel, and Eighties stuff covered. Patrick can play any Jazz requests, Seventies, and Nineties, as well as some of the hip hop and rap requests that come in. And I can usually do the current hits, some country, and musicals. And of course, they give all the female songs to me! We really have most of it covered. We probably know about 800+ songs between us, but as long as there’s internet/wi-fi wherever we’re playing, we can attempt to play just about anything, even if we’ve never tried it before.
JIMMY: That’s usually a turning point in any given evening when someone has requested something, and they know we’ve never tried it before, but we go for it and somehow pull it off! Either that or when they hear Patrick start rapping!
PATRICK: I think the roar of applause that comes after our raps songs is because I’ve stopped rapping. But I did relish hearing an audience member, during my Nate Dogg / Warren G / Michael McDonald medley, yell out, “I appreciate you!”
JENNA: We pride ourselves on that moment in gigs where the person at the party/event who hired us realizes how lucky they got by booking us – mostly because we ENJOY what we’re doing and you can see we’re having fun. We love catering to everyone’s taste and getting their guests engaged in what’s going on musically. Even to the point where we will have people come up and sing as if attempting live karaoke.
Has it been a smooth road?
JIMMY: We definitely had a period of time where we couldn’t seem to get a gig anywhere. The Irish Pub in Marina del Rey which had booked us for over five years completely ghosted us with the new owners. Another Irish Pub in Culver City booked us for six months straight, and out of the blue stopped calling us. From that point on, we probably went six months without a gig and were about ready to throw in the towel until GigMasters and The Attic came along.
Please tell us about Dueling Cousins.
JIMMY: The Dueling Cousins is a musically versatile, very affordable dueling pianos act that fits most spaces that others can’t. We are musicians-first and can cater our extremely deep repertoire to fit any type of celebration or event with endless hours of song requests. We pride ourselves on being extremely personable, while maintaining a high standard of professionalism, making us a great value.
We are also very entertaining when performing in a bar-type atmosphere. Every week when The Dueling Cousins performs at its local residency, we consistently manage to keep people singing along to song requests well past last call.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
JIMMY: We are already seeing Dueling Pianos becoming a new trend for weddings, as we have already been booked for three this year. Private parties and events love the song request-driven format, which makes it completely interactive for guests, and therefore different than most traditional party bands.
Contact Info:
- Website: duelingcousins.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @duelingcousins
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