Nearly five years of hard work and perseverance has paid off for a Branson entertainer and songwriter who released his first full album this summer.
Earlier this year, Santino Tomasetti began slowly releasing singles from his debut album, but now all 12 of the album’s songs are available for listeners. The album, called A Long Time Coming, holds such a name for a reason; as the compilation of songs have been in the works for a really long time. Tomasetti explained the idea to write, record, produce and release his own album first came to him in around 2016 while he was living in Los Angeles.
“I had a roommate who was working for Atlantic Records and I was watching him everyday at home or going to work. I would meet up with him sometimes at the studio and help track and get more excited about it. L.A. was nice to me for the live music scene,” Tomasetti said. “I started thinking, ‘I’m interested in doing this, but I kind of want to do it myself because that’s just part of my type A, who I am. I’m a controlling guy, so I want to know as much about every facet of it as possible.”
Tomasetti shared when he moved from L.A. to Branson and started working full time as a performer he realized he had both the time and money to start making his first album a reality.
“I started buying the computer, buying the programs and still being frugal and finding free ways to learn how to mix and master and doing free trials to LinkedIn Learning that I could learn off of these mixing and master classes,” Tomasetti said. “Just spending everyday studying it and downloading it on my tablet and bringing it to work when I was performing on the Showboat and sitting there taking notes on my phone.”
While he was learning, Tomasetti said he was also writing. In 2017 he wrote between 35 to 45 songs to possibly include on the album. In 2018, Tomasetti purchased all the equipment to record and produce his music, but in 2019 and 2020 his enthusiasm for the album slowed and so did his progress.
“But there’s nothing like a global pandemic to make you go, ‘You don’t know how long you’re going to be here. You don’t know what’s going on in the world. The only thing you can be sure of is the things you’re in control of.’ I started buckling down and recording stuff,” Tomasetti said. “I got really into it last year, because I finally had the facility and the understanding of comfortably knowing, I can do this inside of my dining room.”
After several months of dedication, Tomasetti released his album.
“The album came out on May 28. Until then I was still fixing and rerecording,” Tomasetti said. “I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so a lot of that was coming into play that I just had to go, ‘No that’s not right, go back and do it again. I don’t like the tone of the guitar, let me go back and re-track that.’”
Since the release of A Long Time Coming, Tomasetti shared the reception has been extremely positive.
“The most enjoyable thing is that there are 12 songs on the album and I would say at least nine or 10 of them, someone has told me is their favorite song,” Tomasetti said. “So it wasn’t probably it’s going to be this one, this one and this one. They’ve been hitting people differently and that feels so nice to me.”
In addition to Tomasetti, there are songs on the album which feature the talents of other Branson area performers like, Mallory Cunningham, Kayleigh Dominish, Alex Dominish, Ashley Jo Deaton, Janie Johnson, Zach Perko, Avilla Martin, Carlos Morales, Steve Parrish, Mandi Rosales, Chaunery Kingsford Tanguary, and Macy Watts.
“Coming in with a strong idea, it’s so nice to have people who I trust, people who also love being a part of something with their friends, who love music and I’m lucky that they love me and they were mostly donating their time,” Tomasetti said. “This town has so many talented people, I’m not necessarily the most articulate, but they could take their own flair and be independent enough to not rely on what I have to say and they can just kick it up a notch. That’s what’s so great about here. It’s just people that want to help and they’re good enough that they should be getting paid.”
Reflecting back over the last several years, Tomasetti shared there are several things he has taken away since finishing A Long Time Coming.
“I want to say the inspiring motivation of if you can stick to something then you can get it done and don’t settle. I have learned a lot. I have gotten better at guitar, I’ve gotten better at singing, I’ve learned different crafts that I thought five or six years ago I wouldn’t have thought of getting in,” Tomasetti said. “Give yourself every opportunity to be independent. It gets a lot harder when you don’t have the money, when you don’t have the facility, but technology is such a blessing and curse. The blessing of it is you don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to write a song or to create anything, to make art, to write, to build a business. You can do it all basically from the thing that’s sitting inside of your pocket.”
As for the release of any follow-up singles or albums in the near future, Tomasetti shared his game plan.
“I’ve already started to jump back on my computer and whenever an idea comes about, just try and invest as quickly as possible to get the idea into its final form as possible,” Tomasetti said. “As far as releasing things, the only thing I’m considering releasing this year would be a Christmas song, because I’ve had one that I wrote nine years ago that I got to do at the Lincoln Center in New York for this songwriter series they did and it’s a fun song and I’ve always wanted to put it out…I think that this album is probably going to sit on its own for at least a year or a year and half.”
A Long Time Coming is available online via a variety of platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and just about anywhere one can find music.
“I’d love for people to tell me what they think about it,” Tomasetti said. “They can hit me up on social media if there’s something they liked or they didn’t like or if they want me to come play in their backyard. I’m done. I’ll come do it. I’ll come give them a concert.”
Fans of Tomasetti’s music will be able to catch him performing live in Branson this season in Anthems of Rock, New Jersey Nights and Dancing Queen at The Kings Castle Theatre.
A link for A Long Time Coming can be found with this story at bransontrilakesnews.com.
