"Jam Master" Mani Cregan Interview
Facebook (Ema Cre)
Interview by Roger Zee (05/03/22)
Roger Zee: Who inspired you to sing and pick up the guitar and bass? Do you play any other instruments?
Mani Cregan: I wrote my first song at age six or so inspired by the tragic death of a girl in my class. A girl who I had a crush on. She and her grandmother got killed in a hit and run by a bunch of joyriding teenagers up the road from where I lived. All over the TV news, they showed her little white coffin. I wrote the song as I lay in bed one night not long after. I called it "Flying Away Like An Angel." So a bit of an odd one.
I play guitar, bass, and some keys. I’m also the world’s worst drummer, LOL! For me, playing any instrument's something I only ever viewed as a necessary evil for writing songs. Something that’s only changed these last few years when I finally grew to love it. But I always loved singing.
RZ: Tell me about some of the musicians and groups you gigged and recorded with.
MC: Back home in Dublin, Ireland, I ran an open mic frequented by people like Glen Hansard, Mundy, and Damien Rice, and shared the stage with all of them at one point or another.
Here in Westchester, NY, I played with many of the local gigging musicians although the last couple of years obviously disrupted that! But people like Rich Kelly, Chris Burke, Tito Wilson, Geoff Hartwell, DJ Gromulat, Petey Hop, etc. So many great musicians here. It’s pretty mind-boggling.
I’ve done a few writing collabs with people. Some of my most recent included Mike Pennacchio, a brilliant, local songwriter from Pleasantville, NY. We wrote some great tunes together, one of which I’d love to place with a female singer with maybe a Nashville vibe. And another, more Urban Pop tune that I hope to put out this year.
RZ: Talk about your weekly Sunday 8P Jam at Freebird in White Plains, NY.
MC: After gigging regularly at Freebird for a number of years, the owner Nick asked if I wanted to try out a jam there. I had hosted/run open mics here and there over the years. So I had a bit of a feel for that aspect, but I certainly would never consider myself a "jammer" in the real sense. So it felt a bit ironic really. But it seemed to turn out a good thing in a way.
I come at it from the perspective of trying to curate every set so that each one's differentiated. So rather than it becoming a Blues, Soul/funk, or Jazz jam, it’s more of an eclectic potpourri. Already so many amazing jams that do the single-genre thing so well. I’m more interested in the variety and maybe even giving people known for one thing a venue or platform to try different stuff. And sure enough, a huge amount of variety of music comes through. I love that.
RZ: What instruments/string/amps do you currently use?
MC: I worked as a sound engineer for a good number of years. I like good gear but at the same time, really don’t care that much as long as it works! My gig guitar's a Nineties, Made-in-Mexico Strat. I probably need to update the shielding. But every time I ask anyone about sprucing it up, they talk me out of it saying it’s great as is. For a long time, I used a Simon & Patrick custom acoustic for solo/duo gigs, but recently went back to my Bluebird cutaway. It’s lighter! Sometimes expediency wins the day!
RZ: Talk about your home studio.
MC: I’m a total DAW nerd and I use Logic Pro pretty much exclusively now. I’ve used Pro Tools/Reaper/Reason and a bunch of others on and off but Logic's where it’s at for me. I know it like the back of my hand and can do nearly anything I want in it. It’s an extraordinary tool. I run it on a 2021 iMac with an RME Babyface for audio, Novation Launchkey controller, Native Instruments Komplete 13 Ultimate.
I also use some of the amazing plugins by Airwindows. These plugins act kinda quirky. They come with no interface, no documentation, and bad labels. But they are fantastic! The guy who makes them is a genius.
For monitoring, I use a pair of Mackie HR624 MkIIs. They're the baby brothers of the ubiquitous HR824, but they’re actually a much better monitor. And I go with the Avantone cube for mono-sum mix check. I actually use that 80% of the time.
For mics, my go to's a T4050. It’s a great workhorse. I own a lot of modded mics though, including some Nadys which I re-ribboned myself and upgraded with Lundahl transformers. And I bought these tiny boutique “Little Blondie” SDCs that you can put anywhere and sound great.
RZ: What and how do you practice.
MC: I don’t practice nearly enough. I’m too busy. It’s awful, but in reality, if it’s a choice between practicing and getting that song written or that production done or getting ready for that gig or making those charts, then practicing inevitably loses out.
I go through spurts here and there. I try and identify things that I don’t have down. But I possess a very slow brain. It works well, but in its own time. So things like pattern recognition don’t burn in quickly for me. Makes me sad!
RZ: Do you teach music privately?
MC: Yes. I teach mainly guitar. My very analytical mindset works great for people who want to understand what they do and why that hasn’t worked for them. I typically get students who’s teachers failed them and I flip the script.
I also song doctor for people. It’s not something I advertise very much. It’s kind of hard to because no songwriter wants the world to know somebody helped them realize their song. So part of the deal's a rights buyout/privacy clause. I also teach songwriting, but only to people already proficient in it.
I’ve given voice lessons here and there but I’m always uncomfortable with it. It’s so much responsibility if you assess something incorrectly. I mean a person can always get a new guitar or keyboard, but you can’t get a new set of vocal chords!
RZ: How has the Pandemic affected you? What's on the horizon?
MC: The Pandemic affected me surprisingly little, oddly enough. All of my private students went to Zoom/Facetime. I also broke my foot on the very first day of lockdown and couldn’t really walk for about five months. So while everybody else bounced off the walls, I couldn’t even do that! Not sure if that made it harder or easier. Maybe both!
When I got back on my feet, I luckily landed a residency at 105-Ten in Briarcliff, NY with my good friend Damian Petta. They kept live music right the way through the whole time and gave us a lot of fun there. What a great crew!
RZ: Describe your most special and/or unusual gig.
MC: The most incredible night of music I experienced probably took place on the Christmas Eve where I hosted the open mic at Lucy’s Lounge in Pleasantville, NY. Practically every great musician in the Westchester scene came out. An extraordinary night that turned into an all out jam. At one point, two accordion players, Jon Cobert, and Chris Burke from Soulshine, walked through the venue accompanying whoever played on stage. What a spellbinding night...
RZ: How do you see the future of the music business?
MC: I really don’t know. Not sure anyone does!
RZ: What advice do you give up-and-coming musicians?
MC: Start young. Never stop. Excel at one instrument at least, but learn them all a little bit. Learn to read. Learn people. Learn from people. Listen to all kinds of music. It’s so easy to get stuck liking one thing.
But that’s not what your heroes do. The Red Hot Chili Peppers don’t just listen to Rap Rock and never did. They listened to Gang of Four, Pere Ubu, and Sly and the Family Stone. And that’s what you need to do. Listen to it all.
It’s also really important to learn that it's not about you and your chops. Nobody gives a damn -- not the audience and not any serious gigging musician! It’s about how you listen. To the singer. To the kick drum. To the room. To the energy. Are you hitting the snare too hard for the number of people in that space? Are you reading the room from an ambience and age-appropriate perspective to calibrate what you're doing? Are you giving back enough on a musical/interpersonal level to the other musicians? All that stuff.
RZ: Do you live with any animals?
MC: My son keeps some fishies -- a beautiful Beta that’s all blue, a Zebradanio, and a Golden White Cloud Minnow.
RZ: Anything else you'd like to add?
MC: Come on out to the Sunday 8P Freebird Jam at y'all!
YouTube - "A Little Piece of God" - Mani Cregan Live at Lucy's 2015
YouTube - "Happiness Descends" - Mani Cregan Live at Lucy's 2015
©2022 Roger Zee
