Save It 4 Later is a bastion of classic rock and roll music made up of four talented twenty-somethings who are hitting it big on the local bar and party scene. However, it was a slow burn to success that came with a lot of hard work and dedication.
Save It 4 Later is made up of Adam Christel on lead vocals and rhythm guitar; Tommy Scardino, vocals and lead guitar; John Dennehy, vocals and bass; and Jess Winter on vocals and drums. But the unique thing about the band is that, at any time, the four will mix up who does what. On any given song you may find Christel playing bass while Scardino sings lead and Winter plays bass, driving home Save It 4 Later’s talent and versatility as a unit.
The band members all hail from Carle Place except for Christel, who lives in Piermont in Rockland County, but happily makes the drive every weekend for their gigs. Founded by Winter and Christel in 2011, Save It 4 Later has gone through several personnel changes until finally settling on their current lineup, which has been together since 2013.
“Adam and I started the group, and we’ve been through four or five different changes in members,” Winter said. “It just had to do with the commitment level of different members changing…people moving on to different groups or going away to college. They just had other commitments.”
Save It 4 Later’s main focus is on classic rock from the 1960s onward, with band members noting influences such as Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Eagles and The Beatles. The group started small, but in time word got out and the paid gigs started flowing in, according to Scardino.
“When we started out back in 2013 we mostly played for friends and family at their local parties. We also played at some town festivals here and there,” he said. “Over time, it just spread out to other towns. I’m the youngest member and once I turned 18, we started playing at bars also, which is where we mostly play now. We also play a lot of private parties.”
“It’s really exploded this summer,” Winter added. “This summer we’ve been playing every single weekend, at least two gigs a night. Word of mouth really helped us. We would play one gig and people in the audience would approach us afterwards and hire us.”
Save It 4 Later has become quite a draw in the local bar and concert scene, playing numerous venues throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties, including Manning’s in Carle Place, Eleanor Rigby’s in Mineola, the Tides in Freeport, the Ernesto Strada Piazza in Westbury and many more, according to Dennehy.
“It’s been awesome being in the band. It’s become a second job of sorts, since we play every weekend,” Dennehy said. “However, it doesn’t feel like a job when it’s something that you love.”
The group is mainly a cover band, but in their spare time the group has been composing their own material, which they hope to debut in the near future on their own self-released EP, according to Winter.
“Adam, our lead singer, is also going to school for broadcasting and one thing he has to do is record an EP, so, that’ll probably be our band’s first CD of original music,” Winter said. “The music we’re writing is like a classic rock take in a modern rock world.”
The only thing keeping the band from running a full-time, year-round schedule is the fact that lead singer Christel goes away to college upstate. However, the band remains quite active whenever he’s on break during the winter and summer months. In fact, according to Scardino, their absence in the off-season only makes their fans’ hearts grow fonder.
“I don’t think taking breaks affects our momentum at all,” Scardino said. “In fact, they’re really itching to have us play during the spring and fall because people will still contact us to see if we’re able to play, but they don’t know that Adam goes away to school.”
“It’s been interesting with me going away to school and having to come back every break and play with these guys,” Christel added. “It’s a joy every time and it really sucks having to go away to college because you just don’t want to stop playing. When the four of us are together, we don’t even have to practice and the music that we make is unbelievable, even though we spend part of the year so far away from each other. Sometimes when I get home I feel like I’ve never left.”
As for the future, the band is content with their current level of success and the possibility of releasing an EP in the near future. However, if the opportunity presents itself, they certainly wouldn’t mind crossing over into legitimate rock and roll stardom, Christel said.
“We love playing live…that’s what we love to do,” he said. “But somewhere down the road, if we have a shot at hitting it big, we would definitely take it. All of my bandmates are very talented, and we’re writing some great original stuff, but we also love just playing the songs we grew up listening to. That makes us feel good and with people singing those songs along with us, it’s a very fun experience.”
