Zack of All Trades — A chat with Zack Sandler of the Transparent Clinch Gallery

By:  | November 2, 2025 |  Entertainment | 

Photo by Danny Clinch

by Ryan Loughlin

It’s 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept 14. On the final day of the 2025 Sea Hear Now festival in Asbury Park, the gates have already opened, and various acts have begun taking the stages while fans are huddled in clusters, buzzing with palpable excitement and basking in the gorgeous 75-degree weather that has somehow become a calling card of this festival. Public Enemy — the legendary New York rap group fronted by hip-hop icons Chuck D and Flavor Flav — is set to take the stage later that afternoon and will ultimately put on one of the most memorable performances of the entire weekend.

But before that, Flavor Flav has agreed to make a special appearance on the other side of the festival grounds, inside the intimate confines of the Transparent Clinch Gallery Art Tent where he plans to personally donate one of his signature clock necklaces to be auctioned off for charity. Only problem? His luggage got lost, and now there is no clock to auction unless someone finds him one — and fast.

This problem now belongs to Zack Sandler, a North Jersey transplant turned Asbury local who works as famed photographer and festival organizer Danny Clinch’s right-hand man. Clinch is a cohort of Asbury’s other adopted son, Bruce Springsteen, as well as being the face and co-curator of Sea Hear Now. The Transparent Clinch Gallery Art Tent at the festival features dozens of his photographs of famous musicians as well as artwork created by many of the artists appearing at Sea Hear Now. Sandler is his problem-solver, both during the festival and beyond.

“Doesn’t this sort of thing make you a nervous wreck? Where are you getting a clock in the next half hour?” I ask him.

“Nah … I thrive on this kind of stuff,” he says with a convincing smirk that yin-yangs somewhere between amusement and pride. The pressure of the moment is a rush for him. He quickly finds the right guy to track down the missing timepiece and somehow get it back to the tent for Flav’s grand entrance. It all comes together … like clockwork.

This 10-second snippet of his day that I personally witnessed gave me enough reason to want to pick Sandler’s brain for Community Magazine. Graciously, he agreed to let me do so.

Community Magazine: You didn't originally grow up in Asbury Park. How did you end up in this area and what keeps you here?

Zack Sandler: My family always had a beach house in Bradley Beach. In the summer, we’d always venture into Asbury to see concerts. Even at Convention Hall, I’d see roller derby and wrestling there. I always grew up coming down here for the arts, whether it was music or physical art or food. The businesses here are all mom-and-pop shops. You meet the owners of the stores, and you can put a face behind the name, which is always so special. Where I grew up, it wasn’t that way. I felt more comfortable [in Asbury Park].

I ended up going to school at Monmouth University. Once I went there, I established my roots. I went to school during the day and came to Asbury at night to practice the craft. Something my boss loves to talk about – that was instilled by his boss, Bruce Springsteen – is preaching about community and giving back to the community. That’s been passed down to me. You can be here on the boardwalk and everything’s great, but a couple blocks inland, everything’s different. It’s important to help out people by donating your time as well as financially. That’s in my blood. That’s in the culture down here.

CM: How did you get involved with Danny Clinch? Tell us a bit about what you do with your job at the Transparent Clinch Gallery.

ZS: It’s ironic. I’m not really a photographer. I’m a tech nerd behind the scenes. I started with Danny right in the beginning of Covid. I was a tour manager for a band and just came back from this tour across the country when Covid happened. I was graduating from Monmouth and went from seeing hundreds to thousands of people to sitting on the couch with nothing to keep me busy.

Everyone was in the same situation. Myself and my friends in the Asbury area were some of the first pioneers to approach the concept of [quarantine era] live streaming for musicians and we were figuring out how to monetize on that. Danny Clinch had caught wind on that. Danny wanted to have a conversation with me about doing some live streams for content he had in the can.

This was the tail end of 2020 into 2021. I put together a website for him. On social media, I started producing these videos, and one thing led to another. Five years later, everything just kinda came together. I’ve always been a problem solver. I think my resume said: “opportunity obsessive problem solver.” With anything, there’s always a problem to solve. That’s what I did with Danny and his digital media. That’s what I just started to do with the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music and some other businesses in town. Creating their first impression to the world.

CM: Sea Hear Now is one of the biggest projects that you are involved in and has become Asbury's signature music festival. How does it all come together and what are your most cherished memories from throughout the years you have been working as part of the festival?

ZS: Once the lineup is announced, we start reaching out to the artists at the beginning of the summer. We really start to get cranking in July and August. Once the artists see that their next show is in Asbury Park, they get back to us. That’s when the art conversations start going. Billy Strings did these incredible drawings a few years ago. The mediums are incredible; we’ve had videos, photography, custom guitars, surf boards – if you name it, it’s probably happened. Alabama Shakes posted a great video of what they made for the tent this year.

We had an artist a few years ago take some polaroids, and our vision was to make a shower curtain of them. We were in the build week, and the artist’s manager reached out to us on the Thursday going into the fest weekend, and said, “This artist is willing to show up to the tent, as long as we can get him a vintage clawfoot bathtub, fill it with water, and he’s going to run over after his set, and jump in the tub. That’s the only way he’s going to show up to the tent.” We’re thinking, “Where are we going to get this in 24 hours?” But, of course, Tina and I made it happen. We went to a local vintage shop, got the tub, filled it with water, put a giant rubber ducky in it, put the shower curtain around the bathtub, and the artist came. That was a great experience.

We’re putting out those fires, but it goes back to being an obsessive problem solver. I’m grateful for everyone putting together these experiences.

CM: When Sea Hear now is actually happening, what is your role during the festival itself? It can't all be just watching great live performances.

ZS: I’m a co-producer for The Transparent Clinch Gallery Art Tent alongside Tina Kerekes. We’re behind the scenes. We curate these experiences. People say the music business is about making people feel happy. I think it’s making people feel something. Happiness, sadness – every kind of emotion. Danny has a mantra, “Music is medicine.” During Covid, listening to some music made you feel something. With the work we do, every once in a while, I have to pinch myself and come back down to earth, and think “Did that just happen?”

CM: You’re a big fan of Springsteen, Southside Johnny and others that embody the classic Asbury Park sound. You even play sax within the local scene. What is it about this music (some of which is a half century old at this point) that resonates with you? How were you first introduced to it?

ZS: I started playing saxophone in the fourth grade. Coming out of school, there was the decision of, “How long does this stay as a hobby, and do I want to transition it into a career?” At the end of college, the music industry took off for me, and I just ran with it. I wrote my senior year thesis while on the back of a tour bus, and I never looked back.

I always knew I wanted to play music, coming from a great household with parents that raised me around music. There was always a stereo playing, and I was always going to concerts with them. That inspired me to get into the career I’m in now. Playing, producing, touring. It’s really humbling. I’m playing a small part in a big picture.

CM: You have played sax in a number of local bands. Will we be seeing you performing onstage anytime soon?

ZS: I’ve been playing with Bobby Mahoney, one of my closest friends. I’ve collaborated with him for more than half my life. Recently, he put out his first record with Little Steven’s record label, and they’re working on another one now that I’m able to be a part of. The fact I’m able to go there and track some sax, put on some Little Steven on SiriusXM and hear myself play. To hear a new, refreshed version with Little Steven’s stamp of approval is really cool and humbling.

CM: For those that may never have visited, how does The Clinch Gallery differ from your average gallery?

ZS: The Transparent Clinch Gallery was originally supposed to be a three-month pop-up that’s now spanned into the seventh or eighth year. It’s not a white glove gallery. We call it a “Local Living Room.” You can come have an experience. You can see photos of everyone from Bruce to Bjork to Bob Dylan. You look in the corner and see something from Stevie Nicks or Nas. It’s so musically and culturally diverse. It’s an incredibly creative environment to soak it in and think. There are so many people that come here just for inspiration. A photograph is a way to visualize a memory; it’s tangible. That photo is a gateway to those memories. I don’t have words to describe the experiences that I’ve had in my 27 years of life.

CM: What exciting things do you have on the horizon? 

ZS: I’ve been working on some really cool projects for the 50th Anniversary for [Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 album] “Born to Run” for the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music, where we did candid interviews with Bruce, the E Street Band and those involved with the album. With Danny, we’re doing some cool things to celebrate the release of the new film, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.” I’m excited to keep playing and to travel. I’m excited for the things I know about, but even more excited for the things I don’t know about!

To learn more about the Transparent Clinch Gallery, go to www.TransparentClinchGallery.com.