Now playing: The musical journeys of 3 young LI bands

Maxwell Peters, a live music booker and champion for local artists across Long Island, has been energized by the raw talent of young bands. While teen — and slightly older — groups are not common acts in his weeknight and weekend events, the rare ones, like N’Theory and Social Cyanide, wound up on his radar through good word-of-mouth and video performances.

“If you compare it to fishing,” said Peters, 35, of Planet of Sound Promotions, “the small fishes coming up, regardless of how big the pond is, need to be able to grow and get to the point where they can flourish. It helps to sustain the whole musical ecosystem here.”

Peters has noticed a general rise in assembled bands since the pandemic has eased and venues opened up again. And he hopes more young music makers emerge. “At that age, it’s about finding your identity and place in a group.”

Mike Fincken, who founded New World Music Center in Baldwin in 1988, has observed a shift in how kids consume and make music. Whereas waves of kids started their own bands when Fincken, now 60, was growing up in Freeport, he said the availability of prerecorded music, electronic instruments and online music sharing changed that.

“There’s a certain organic nature to playing with other folks rather than playing with recordings or prerecorded beats,” said Fincken, whose music school has enrolled thousands of students and regularly hosted concerts and events. “Having that bond between musicians, there’s an unspoken communication that goes on, whether that’s in the garage or at Madison Square Garden.

“Not to mention the confidence. . . . There’s a lot of kids that are shy, who don’t say two words to anybody,” he said. “They may not have many friends, but they can play the heck out of their instruments and become that other person.”

Here we share the budding musical journeys of three bands.

Match made in Hauppauge

In different schools across Long Island, the four teens who would become Social Cyanide didn’t find an outlet for an obsession with angsty hard rock, pop-punk and emo bands from the 1990s and 2000s until they met at a music school. There they bonded over deep dives into discographies and concert videos of artists that rose to prominence before they were born.

“There aren’t too many people who are still into being in rock bands in our areas,” said Lucas Bohr, 16, a junior at Islip High School.

Since the four met, music from Descendents, Misfits, Green Day, Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Arctic Monkeys has fueled a close-knit friendship and urge to pick up instruments together.

Once or twice a week since September 2021, the friends have gathered in the loungey basement at drummer Mike LaRosa’s home in West Islip.

Down there on a recent Saturday, framed band posters decorate the walls and shrink-wrapped vinyl albums sit on shelves above a MacBook Pro used for recording and mixing demo tracks (for an EP they’re recording in a professional studio).

There are guitars on a rack, a pile of amps and a four-piece drum set — about which LaRosa, 15, a junior at West Islip High School, says with a smile: “I don’t treat them with any mercy.”

Before the band starts playing, Luca Ferrandino, 15, a sophomore at Bay Shore Senior High School, puts earplugs in as he stands in front of LaRosa’s kit. Ferrandino plays bass and is lead vocalist; Bohr plays guitar and sings occasionally; Liam Armstrong, 14, a freshman at St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, also plays guitar.

“It’s therapeutic to be around them and just play and forget everything,” Bohr says, adding that he gets a lot out of “creating something together in here with a group I would call my second family.”

Among their blood-pumping covers are “Sugar, We’re Goin Down,” by Fall Out Boy, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),” by My Chemical Romance, and “Sleep Now in the Fire,” by Rage Against the Machine. Also in the mix are original songs: a punky earworm called “Guillotine” and a heavy, anthemic shout-along called “Gone.” LaRosa came up with the riffs and Ferrandino wrote the emotional lyrics. In “Gone,” for instance: “Gone / So cruelly disregarded / And if I didn’t feel a thing / Maybe something’s wrong with me.”

Between songs, they crack jokes and laugh. Then they adjust gear and get back to playing.

Social Cyanide performed this year at Napper Tandy’s in Northport and Finley’s of Greene Street in Huntington, shows they booked themselves. “With our gigs, our parents are always gonna be there,” said Bohr, “because there is literally no way for us to get there without our parents.”

Luca’s mom, Stefania Ferrandino, said, “We live in our cars, and there’s no place we’d rather them be because we know this is where their heart is.”

Ferrandino, a drummer active in his school district’s music department, found his singing voice through immersion in the music of Twenty One Pilots and Green Day; Bohr, a choir, drama and marching band kid, picked up the guitar in fourth grade; LaRosa, who’s played drums since third grade and guitar since sixth, watched and attended rock concerts with his dad; and Armstrong — whose mom and dad met through their own bands, metal and punk, respectively — started playing guitar in fourth grade.

Bohr and Ferrandino met in 2019 in the Band Rehearsal program at Rock-n-Roll U in Hauppauge that matches students with similar strengths and interests. Meeting for 90 minutes a week, Band Rehearsal groups prepare songs to play live at shows at Long Island venues, each band getting a half-hour set.

Bohr and Ferrandino were matched in 2019, and — after the school’s closing and reopening through the pandemic — they were joined by LaRosa and Armstrong in September 2020, at a distance and through masks. The first song they played together was Green Day’s “Brain Stew.”

During the height of pandemic isolation they played more — if alone — becoming more serious “because, you know, not much else to do,” Armstrong said.

After their first show in January 2021 at Napper Tandy’s in Smithtown, they knew they wanted to keep playing together.

“We’re all there for each other as friends and as a band,” Armstrong said.

“We’re at an age in our lives when we’re trying to figure ourselves out and the music, itself, is a way we can express ourselves,” Bohr said.

Having supportive parents helps. Mike’s mom — and band host — Jennifer LaRosa said, “When you have teenagers, you don’t really want them hanging out at your house when you’re not there. It’s different with them. They’re here to be productive.”

High school plus one

Eager to form a band with like-minded musicians since high school, Slinky’s members had to wait until college to find their groove.

Jack Digena and Sean McCourt, both 19, have been playing together since 10th grade at Kings Park High School. Chorus kids, they taught themselves instruments in middle school. Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” pushed Digena toward the piano; John Bonham in “When the Levee Breaks” — and an assist from Xbox’s Rock Band — unlocked McCourt’s love for the drums. In high school, they played a talent show with other students in a short-lived band; Digena and McCourt say they were the more serious of the group.

While Digena was at SUNY Potsdam in fall 2021, McCourt met Nick Fuscaldo, now 19, at orientation at St. Joseph’s College in North Patchogue. McCourt was the guy tapping his legs, in good rhythm, recalled Fuscaldo. “I was like, ‘This guy plays drums.’ ”

A 2021 graduate of Centereach High School, Fuscaldo started playing bass in ninth grade but couldn’t find others who wanted to play outside of school. “I had to be my own band and just play along to songs, which helped me in a way,” he said.

McCourt and Fuscaldo started jamming together, joined by Digena on keyboards and vocals in March after he transferred to Suffolk County Community College.

Pulling from a wide range of influences, McCourt and Digena enjoy a blend of classic rock, jam bands and modern pop songs. Meanwhile, Fuscaldo brings his love of rock, funk and jazz fusion into their crowd-friendly covers.

McCourt said that playing with Digena for years has given them a natural connection — and that Fuscaldo “was the missing piece of the puzzle.” Feeling the chemistry, the trio called themselves Slinky and set their sights on playing Monday on Main, a July festival hosted by the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce.

In a few months in Digena’s basement, they put together a three-hour set of 29 songs, spanning Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” to The Beatles’ “Come Together” and “Jellyfish Jam,” from SpongeBob SquarePants.

McCourt recalled looking out into the crowd and seeing friends, family and his girlfriend dancing along at Slinky’s first gig in Kings Park. “It was enthralling . . . because it was like multiple years of work and waiting for this opportunity. Like, man, this is what music is about.”

Digena said that through Slinky, he feels “what it’s like to really be part of something great. When I was young, I loved watching small cover bands and other artists perform as it always left me in such a feel-good mood, and I’d think about those bands for weeks to months after. To be that person and seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces at different venues warms my heart.”

Slinky has also played at a graduation party and at Park Lounge in Kings Park.

Going from playing alone to playing live for strangers and friends, Fuscaldo said, “It’s the best. . . . We all work off each other.”

The trio wants to keep playing live and eventually write and record original music. “We’re just getting warmed up,” McCourt said.

Getting into 'the scene’

Even before a 15-song set on Oct. 9 at the Long Island Fall Festival in Heckscher Park in Huntington, singer-songwriter Calliope and her band members knew they could play dynamic covers and originals without worry.

That’s because of Alexis Haas, 13, the Finley Middle School eighth grader behind the drums.

The contrast between Haas’ age and skill level “turns heads,” said singer Jocelyn Manginelli, 22, the band’s founder whose stage name is Calliope.

Manginelli, who lives in Selden and works part time at a movie theater, brought Haas into the band in August after an audition. “It fell together perfectly, she picked up on stuff quickly, and she’s absolutely amazing,” Manginelli said.

Encouraged by her mom, a rock singer, to play an instrument, Haas started strumming on the ukulele when she was 7. She played everything from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to “Stairway to Heaven,” outgrowing her ukulele instructors. When she was 8, she played ukulele accompaniment for a schoolmate who sang the national anthem before a Brooklyn Nets game at Nassau Coliseum.

She moved on to guitar, bass and keyboards, and enrolled at School of Rock in Farmingdale. Through the program, she’s performed rock shows at Hempstead Lake State Park and The Bitter End in Manhattan, playing solos on versions of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she added drums to her repertoire. “The house was shaking for days, weeks, months,” said her dad, James Haas, 52.

In 2020, James, who says he’s Alexis’ biggest supporter and her roadie, had the family’s Huntington garage converted into a studio for Alexis’ drum sets, an electric kit, guitars and ukuleles.

“Lexi has courage,” said Arahmus Brown, 23, her School of Rock guitar, piano and drum teacher. He has invited Haas to perform in his band, Arahmus Brown, guiding her onstage presence and live techniques. “She would jump headfirst into anything, no matter what it is. . . . She’s fearless.”

In spring 2021, Alexis Haas and a friend formed N’Theory with the simple goal of having fun. Five middle schoolers and a high schooler, the band played classic and modern rock at locations including Finley’s and 89 North in Patchogue.

But after two singers dropped out this summer, N’Theory took a hiatus.

Haas — eager to keep playing — jumped at the opportunity when her dad shared with her a Facebook post from Calliope in July. At the time, Manginelli was seeking a backing band to play her songs and those of Paramore (which happens to be Haas’ favorite band), among others.

Manginello said after the first night of playing together, “I was like, ‘Yeah if you are down to be my drummer, I am down to have you.’ ”

“I wish I was as good at anything as she is at drums when I was 13,” said Kevin Gaughan, Calliope’s guitarist, 24, of Northport, who teaches guitar at Advantage Music in Lake Ronkonkoma and Sam Ash in Huntington. “If she sticks with it, she’s going to be a legend when she gets to her 20s.”

Bassist Andraleia Buch, 36, Amityville, a professional musician and music teacher who is also the band’s musical director, agreed. “Her skill set is unparalleled for her age, and [it’s one] that even well-trained, much older, seasoned musicians often struggle with.”

With Calliope planning to record originals in the near future, Haas is excited to lay down her own parts in a studio for the first time. “It’s nice to be able to fit in with an older group. . . . It’s getting me out there more, into the scene,” she said.

Follow the music

Social Cyanide, @socialcyanideband on Instagram

Slinky, @slinkytheband on Instagram; slinkytheband22@gmail.com

Calliope, @calliopexmusic on Instagram; calliopexmusic.com

Alexis Haas, @jamesdhaas on Instagram

Arahmus Brown, @theoriginalconcept on Instagram

Planet of Sound Promotions, @planetofsoundpromotions on Instragram and Facebook; Say Whats Radio, 3-5 p.m. every other Monday on WUSB / 90.1 FM