Professional Careers Are Just a Cover for Rockers
By Oliver Peterson for The Southampton Press; June, 2007

On a Tuesday night in June at La Superica bar and restaurant in Sag Harbor, the gyrating crowd of assorted 30-and 40-somethings wasn't dancing to the usual reggae tunes. The crowd was moved by a surprising and eclectic mix of contemporary, obscure. and classic alternative rock from a band that in no way resembled the standard collection of scruffy rock star wannabes hacking it out at a weeknight performance in the Hamptons.

Clamor, a group of six musicians. doesn't play for the money and has no sights set on stardom. Instead, its members play for their love of music and as a way to blow off steam after a day's work either caring for patients, writing briefs and litigating for clients. or keeping order among inmates.

Tuesday's show was the band's first gig, booked only after the two doctors, two lawyers, one corrections officer, and a novelist had perfected 20 cover songs. including titles from Blondie, the Libertines, the Cowboy JUI;kies, Pink, and even Guns N' Roses.

"We needed energy," said lead singer and jazz band veteran Andrea Schiavoni, 40, an attorney in Sag Harbor who is also running for Southampton Town Justice.

Guitarist Michael Garabedian. 47, the other attorney-he lives in Sagaponack and practices in Southampton and Islip-said he and his fellow professionals get along well and their group has "no head cases, no attitude" and "no problems." But practices had become monotonous as the group gathered in the basement of their bass player, Ray Diaz - a Water Mill obstetrician and gynecologist- every Tuesday and Thursday for the last year and a half.

"We realized it was time to make that next step and promised ourselves we'd start playing out by summer," Mr. Garabedian said, noting that Clamor would like to play out every other week, schedule permitting. He seemed optimistic about the available opportunities and said representatives from a few other bars and nightclubs were in attendance at La Superica to see the group play.

The members of Clamor are all connected, either through work, familv, or their spouses, and their band formed out of a simple conversation. Garabedian said, 'explaining that he and Diaz, 50, who hosts most ofthe practices, brought Clamor together.

"We were at a hospital party," Dr. Diaz said, describing the night he and Mr. Garabedian's younger brother, Clamor drummer Mark Garabedian, learned of each other's passion for music through small talk and decided (0 get together and eventuallv form a band.
Mark Garabedian, 45, a pediatrician living in East Quogue has never been in a band with his brother, and Tuesday was his first gig out in 17 years. His wife, Carrissa Garabedian, 40, has taken on the mantle of band manager and jokes about a "mid-life crisis" as the impetus for Clamor, though she is clearly a huge fan and professes herself a "groupie."

All six members of Clamor are married. Zachary Lazar, the band'slead guitarist, and youngest member, and a novelist, came to the group through his wife, Sarah Lazar, who is a partner of Dr. Diaz at Hamptons OB/GYN. Mr. Lazar's novel. "Sway," tells a fictional tale of the Rolling Stones in the late 1960s and is due for publication by Little Brown in January. The author described the book as "historical fiction with rock stars."

The newest addition to Clamor, Suffolk County Jail Corrections Officer Briall Dyer, joined the group just six weeks he· fore the gig at La Superica.

Michael Garabedian said the band. which will play its next gig at Tom Mc· Brien's in Hampton Bays on July 19. The band has no intention of recording.