Robbie Mangiardi’s new single, ‘Wayward Wind‘ takes a look at what’s going on right now and says the words that need to be said. We recently talked to him about the song, and what it means to him, and what he’s got coming up.
What led you to finally bring a song like ‘Wayward Wind’ out into the open after holding onto it for so long?
I think some songs take time to reveal what they’re really about. ‘Wayward Wind’ was one of those. I wrote the core of it years ago, but I didn’t yet have the perspective to understand it fully. It felt like I was starting to feel something in the air happening to the very soul of the USA and not necessarily in a good way. Life had to happen a bit more for me to put a finger on it. Over time, the meaning deepened, and it became less about a moment and more about a feeling that keeps returning. When I finally recorded it, it felt like the right moment had arrived naturally rather than something I was forcing.
You grew up around a wide range of sounds in New York, from Broadway to records and everything in between. How did that environment shape the way you hear music?
Growing up in New York exposed me to everything – Broadway, street musicians, classical music, but also the flavor of the neighborhoods like Chinatown, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, Harlem – all of it. That kind of environment trains your ear to appreciate contrast in a kind of subconscious way! You hear storytelling in one place, raw emotion in another, and structure somewhere else. To me, it’s always been about what’s coming out of me and feels honest rather than what fits a category, and to trust the muse and do what it says. Let others label it afterwards.
Spending time in Woodstock at 18 clearly left an impression. What stayed with you from that experience?
Woodstock was a wonder to be at as an 18-year-old. It was the most epic display of music, the hippie love movement, and psychedelia rolled up into three days. Hendrix was the last performer on Monday morning at sunrise. I was fifty feet from the stage, and you could feel it in your chest; it was so loud and magnificent at the same time. There was never an event that was cooler in the history of music, and the effect of it still lingers in my worldview of music.
Your influences span artists like The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, and Nina Simone. How do those different styles show up in your own writing?
All of those artists share one thing: they tell the truth in their own way. From The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, and Aaron Copland. Randy Newman et al, I don’t try to imitate any of them, but I think those qualities naturally find their way into my writing—somewhere between storytelling, feeling, and atmosphere.
You’ve had a long path that included acting, other work, and personal setbacks. How have those experiences shaped the perspective you bring to songwriting today?
Life has a way of reshaping how you see things. Acting, different careers, setbacks—those experiences strip away a lot of illusion. You start to see people more clearly, including yourself, and also hopefully, develop a sense of humor and humility at some point. That perspective makes songwriting less about trying to be clever and more about trying to be honest. The songs become simpler, but they carry more weight.
‘Wayward Wind’ started coming together around 2017. What changed over time that allowed you to finally finish and release it?
As a songwriter, it is very easy to talk yourself out of completing a song. I am very hard on myself that way, probably to a fault. At first, I was just wary of the title. There was a hit ballad in the 1950s by an artist named Gogi Grant called Wayward Wind! I had one friend suggest I abandon my creation because of that fact.
It hung in the air for years, but I knew in 2017 that the song was about the growing sense of division I was feeling and seeing in the USA – it felt manipulated, and that is what concerned me the most.
As it turned out, current events in the last few years basically helped write the ending of the song for me. I knew something had to be said, and I feel that this time is as good as any to say it in ‘Wayward Wind’
There’s a line in it that says “You can hear what the people won’t say“. Why I wrote it!
The track brings together a group of seasoned musicians. What was the dynamic like working with them in the studio?
Working with seasoned studio vets here in LA was initially humbling, as I am not a reader of music, nor is my sense of time that great! Everybody who plays with me is a black belt. People like Herb Pedersen, Dean Parks, Jay Dee Maness, and John Jorgensen, to name a few – I am in awe of what I call real musicians, even though I’ve been playing the guitar for 50 years. It made me get my playing chops much more up to speed, as I had a chip on my shoulder.
On the other hand, there’s a moment where the people that I’m trusting with my music with and whom I, in many cases, revere – actually seem to like my composition, and then I start to realize that I have some value in this equation as a songwriter as well, and that’s when the real magic happens. The defenses go down, and we create! Everyone contributes something subtle with their degree of pedigree, and those details are what give the track its character.
You’ve mentioned focusing on the feel or “vibration” of a song. What does that mean to you in practice when you’re building a track?
I think you need a great song, great musicians to work with, great production, great performance, great vocals, great lyrics, and all that; however, above and beyond that, I ask myself every time I’m in the studio listening to a mix if I can actually sense a feeling of frequency and vibration in what I am listening to. If it is done right, those elements are the things that subconsciously summon our ears to pay attention and hopefully disarm the listener in a way that they relax in the same frequency and vibration of the song that they are listening to!
You also directed the video and handed the visuals off to JAY JAY Kerospath for execution. What was your vision going into that process?
The vision for the video was to create an emotional landscape and tone to move the visual and lyrical narrative. Working with JAY JAY Kerospath allowed that vision to take shape visually in a way that stayed true to the tone but also proved to be very entertaining and powerful as a visual representation of ‘Wayward Wind’. We have others in the can!
Before we wrap up, what do you hope listeners take away from “Wayward Wind” when they hear it today?
I hope listeners feel something that stays with them after the song ends. Not necessarily a clear answer, but a sense of reflection. Wayward Wind is about movement, uncertainty, and trying to find direction. If someone hears it and connects that to their own experience, then it’s done its job.
Watch the music video for ‘Wayward Wind’ below, and find out more about Robbie Mangiardi and his music online on his official website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
