Dominic Castillo and the Rock Savants

Let's say you were a jazz musician who
studied at Berklee College of Music .
In addition, you also happened to have
had a classical education ala St. John's
College in Santa Fe, the curriculum of
which solely consists of the great works
of philosophy, history, literature, and
science. The countless hours of study
and practice would have prepared you
for what? - jazz clubs, academia, the
great American novel? The answer to
this question is of course "yes", that is
unless you are Dominic Castillo, in which case the answer is "writing songs, playing shows,
recording with the Savants...the jazz and the books, the punk rock of my youth and Mom's
soul music, all these apparently disparate elements seem to come together when
together when I'm writing and recording."
This is not the standard recipe for your average
rocker. And Dominic isn't, drawing comparisons
to Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, Phantom Planet,
Elliott Smith, and Jeff Buckley among others. And
like those mentioned, Dominic is supported by a
great band, The Rock Savants: Jonathan Barker on
guitar, Nate Szytel on drums and Kelly Masigat
on vocals/guitar/keys.

“Emotion, sincerity, with a dash of wit and
harmonic sophistication...these are the
elements I want in my songwriting - Oh yeah,
and incidentally in the novel I’m writing.�