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Garage Musician

Tribune photo by ANDY JONES

Vinny Androsiglio photographed in his home recording studio in Port Richey. Androsiglio does a variety of recordings in the studio through his business, Daystar Music Productions.

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By GEOFF FOX

gfox@tampatrib.com

Published: March 14, 2009

PORT RICHEY - Vinny Androsiglio hasn't worked full time since 2007, and he was walking with a cane recently, a result of overexerting himself while moving a couch.

He's not 55 anymore.

Despite his aching back and protracted unemployment, the 56-year-old proprietor of Daystar Music Productions still seems as happy as Mr. Rogers - minus the fuzzy sweater and toy train.

"I'm not in the studio as often as I had hoped or as often as I would have liked. But most of the people who come in are repeaters," he said. "I always tell people to keep my number, and they usually end up coming back to me."

A Long Island, N.Y., native, Androsiglio has been enjoying repeat business since shortly after moving to the area about 20 years ago with his wife, Loraine, and their children, Theresa, now 23, and Matt, 27. About a year after the move, the longtime musician converted his two-car garage into a home recording studio.

A full-service setup, the tiny soundproof space doesn't look capable of accommodating large drum kits and entire bands, but it does.

Throughout the heavily carpeted studio are mementos from a life in music: a signed and framed picture of Dion, a framed Elvis Presley stamp and Gibson guitar posters of B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix. Hanging near his soundboard is an ink drawing of Androsiglio wearing a fedora. It was drawn by Paul Croce, uncle of late singer Jim Croce.

Through the years, respected local entertainers such as Mikki Taylor, Crystal Lee Gifford and Daniel Lee Martin, as well as country singer Dusty Ward, soon to be Androsiglio's son-in-law, have made some of their first recordings there.

Until 2007, Androsiglio also was an instructional assistant at River Ridge Middle School by day, but he doesn't like to talk about his departure from the school district.

Music is his passion, anyway.

Eric Neubauer knows that as well as anybody. They met in high school, when Androsiglio was a guitarist in a band called The Lighter Side of Darkness. The pair probably could spend hours reminiscing about playing small venues in the New York area.

"They needed a keyboardist, and that's where I came in," Neubauer said. "We hit it off right away and started playing seventh- and eighth-grade dances, then we'd go to all these different shows afterward.

"I remember we played a dance one night, got our $25 and went and bought tickets for The Who concert. It must've been 1967. 'I Can See for Miles' was their new hit. That was at the old Long Island Arena. Vanilla Fudge opened."

Now retired from the U.S. Postal Service, Neubauer, who also performs in local groups Shotgun and Knight Sounds, spends much of his time in Androsiglio's studio. Both are multi-instrumentalists, and they write music together as well as arrange and produce songs for other artists.

"He's had everybody in here, from rap artists to bird callers, from public service announcements to Northeastern heavy metal band Spellbinder," Neubauer said. "It's a format that offers everybody an opportunity. Some folks are really talented, and some people want to be helped and coached.

"We're not looking to be rock stars, but we want to foster the music and keep it going."

Androsiglio said he also is looking for players to form his own blues band.

"I have a friend who's in a band called the F&F Blues Project," he said. "After hearing his band, I had the fever to do kind of the same thing but mix it up a little. It sounds crazy, but I was thinking of blending it with contemporary Christian jazz.

"Sometimes things lay dormant in your mind for a while and then just pop up from out of nowhere."

DAYSTAR MUSIC PRODUCTIONS

For information about Daystar Music Productions, call (727) 207-0209 or go online to www.myspace.com/daystarmusicproductions.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613.

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