{"id":22522,"date":"2026-07-13T14:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=22522"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T18:41:17","slug":"before-office-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/before-office-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Office Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Ralph Cuseglio\u2019s students Google him, they find the usual items: syllabi, research interests, office hours. Dig a little deeper, and they uncover what the associate professor of social work calls his \u201cformer life as a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a modest description.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long before he taught at Monmouth, Cuseglio fronted Rye Coalition, a New Jersey\u2013based post-hardcore band that seemed destined for stardom\u2014until the music industry shifted beneath them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuseglio was 17 when he formed Rye with high school friends. The band\u2019s music drew from early \u201990s grunge, metal, and punk and, later, classic rock of the \u201960s and early \u201970s. Its shows were loud and intense. Onstage, Cuseglio was kinetic and unfiltered, \u201ca stark contrast to day-to-day Ralph,\u201d he jokes. But being the frontman offered him a release valve. \u201cRye was catharsis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Ralph
Ralph Cuseglio, right, with Dave Grohl, who produced Rye Coalition\u2019s major-label debut album. This photo and above courtesy of Ralph Cuseglio<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That was equally true for his bandmates, all fellow teenagers and several of whom were navigating broken homes. The band provided structure; it was family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2000, Rye had graduated from basements and VFW halls (and once, memorably, the trailer of an 18-wheeler) to relentless touring across the U.S., sharing stages with the White Stripes, the Strokes, and Queens of the Stone Age. Cuseglio put his graduate studies on hold to focus full time on music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2002, the band signed with DreamWorks Records and headed to Los Angeles to record its major-label debut. Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters produced. Actor and musician Jack Black hung out with them in the studio. It all felt surreal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then DreamWorks Records was sold amid industry shakeups tied to the shift to digital downloads. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Recent
Rye Coalition still reunites occasionally, says Cuseglio, and the band\u2019s early material was reissued by the Numero Group in 2026. Photo by Matthew Geller.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Rye finished the album, but its release stalled due to the corporate reshuffling. \u201cSuddenly we had an A&R guy who hadn\u2019t signed us and whom we didn\u2019t know,\u201d says Cuseglio. Years passed, lawyers got involved, and eventually, the band regained control and released the album independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after came a full European tour opening for the Foo Fighters, playing 25,000-seat arenas\u2014gigs most bands only imagine. But by then Rye was \u201crunning on fumes,\u201d says Cuseglio. \u201cWe were so heartbroken and disillusioned by the experience \u2026 and we started taking that out on one another.\u201d They went their separate ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuseglio resumed his graduate studies, earned a doctorate in social work, and built a private practice he maintains today. Since joining Monmouth in 2016, he has taught advanced clinical courses that prepare graduate students for real-world work with children and families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connection between his two careers isn\u2019t as unlikely as it seems. Years of performing taught him how to read a room and manage energy. They also gave him a better understanding of how emotion shows up in words, behavior, and creative work. That informs both his clinical practice and teaching, he says. For years he kept that early chapter close to the vest. Now, when students discover it online, he makes it a teachable moment. One day, he reminds them, their clients will Google them, forming impressions before they ever meet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet the professor who fronted a band that recorded with Dave Grohl and toured with the Foo Fighters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":22526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":45,\"y\":37}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"Spring\/Summer 2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22522"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22553,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions\/22553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}