Sometimes a good song can feel like it came from another world. Zalerno, a band from New Jersey, showed just that with their new track Curious. The craziest part? The song’s main writer, Griffin Salerno, is only 16 years old.
Griffin and his bandmate Joaquin Narucki, who is 19, started playing music together after meeting by chance. What began as a simple jam turned into a strong partnership built on trust, instinct, and pure sound. They called themselves “sound mates,” and you can hear why when you press play.
Zalerno did not care about fitting into any box. They mixed rough rock sounds with catchy pop touches and pieces of underground noise. Griffin’s voice and guitar parts brought honest feelings right to the front, while Joaquin’s steady beats held it all together. Both grew up around music and artists, so it made sense they wanted to push every boundary they could find.
Their new single Curious came out of nowhere. Griffin said he was stuck for months, feeling like every idea was just noise. Then, on an ordinary weekday, a few notes popped into his head that he couldn’t shake off. He knew he had something worth fighting for. That tiny riff turned into Curious—a song about how strange and tangled people can feel around each other, and how connections can be easy and hard at the same time.
At just 16, Griffin managed to turn teenage worry and late-night thoughts into a song that feels raw and real. Zalerno doesn’t need big labels or trends to tell them what to do. They want their music to move people the same way it moved them when they wrote it—free, messy, and true. Griffin is son of James Salerno of the North NJ indie rock band Cyclone Static a project with respected New York art dealer Jonathan Levine. Both have been acting as Griffin's management and now they join the same label roster with NJ's Mint 400 Records (the labels first father and son label mates).