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Music Producer Finds Niche In Documentaries

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By CHERYL BENTLEY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

Rocco Guarino has traveled far since getting his first paying gig.

That was in the 36-year-old's younger days, when he played piano chamber music consisting of his original compositions at the opening ceremonies of the Pasco Arts Council in Holiday.

Today, Guarino is a Los Angeles director of documentaries and music videos with his own music production company. He also is a recording artist.

He hooked up with Grammy Award-winning hard rockers Velvet Revolver at the group's beginning and toured with it in South America, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the United States as producer, editor and director of three documentaries for the band.

He most recently directed Velvet's music video "The Last Fight" that aired on cable channels MTV, VH1 and Fuse TV. The video reached No. 9 on VH1's "VSPOT Top 20 Countdown."
Guarino moved to New Port Richey as a teenager and lived there until he was 29. His parents are Bobbi Janson of Port Richey and Vince Guarino of New Port Richey.

In high school, Rocco Guarino attended a school in Clearwater for youths with addiction problems.

"I got clean and sober there," he says. "I'm still clean and sober, and it's been over 20 years."

After high school, he had a pretty good thing going, he thought at the time, with a day job, a live-in girlfriend, four dogs, and his own band and recording studio. (Guarino plays piano, guitar, bass and the drums.)

But he decided that life wasn't what he really wanted.

"I knew there was something better for me," he said.

In 2002, Guarino took off for Los Angeles in "Able Mabel," his 1993 Saturn, and spent five months in a cross-country odyssey.

"I learned what was missing and what was there," he said.

What was there was his musical talent.

What was missing? "I wasn't doing what I was put here to do, which is to write music."

He's doing that now, working on his pop rock album, "2 Bit Floozy."

But he also discovered he loves directing documentaries.

"When filming documentaries, you don't know what's going to happen. You have to be on your toes all the time. It's capturing a real moment of time."
Guarino hasn't forgotten west Pasco County, returning to visit his parents each year.

Does he still have Able Mabel?

"No," Guarino laughs. "These days, I drive a Lexus."

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