ECHO WEEKLY (Kitchener, Cambridge,Waterloo, Guleph) 05/08/03

TRI–CITY REVUE
CHANGING THE BATTERY
By Brent Hagerman

Rob Szabo on His Own

“I’ve basically been building up to this since I
started dabbling with recording using a 4–track
as a teenager, and progressed to looking over
the engineer’s shoulder as I made records
with the bands I’ve been with,” says Rob Szabo
about his new solo album, a battery of tests. “It
seem quite logical and natural to me.”
Indeed, it seems like the most natural thing in
the world to do for a guy who has spent the
decade since leaving high school making
music professionally. But a solo album for Rob
Szabo has been a long time coming. Fronting
The Groove Daddys, Marigold and Plasticine,
recording six records and touring across the
country several times have, well, eaten up his
time. But a move from Kitchener to Toronto and
a sort of sabbatical from Plasticine have
allotted Szabo the time and space needed to
finally hunker down to work on a battery of
tests.
“I started out without any specific goal in mind,
other than to record a bunch of songs and see
where it took me,” says the musician, who
recorded the album in his apartment. “The
songs on battery are a mix of songs that were
written very recently and songs that I’ve had
around forever. I mean “One More for the Road”
was written when the Groove Daddys were
recording Sunburn [1995] and I’ve been playing
the song “Trampoline” at solo shows since
about ’96. So there are a lot of orphan songs,
just songs that didn’t fit with the band I was
playing with at the time.”
Perhaps the most refreshing thing about
battery is its exaggeration of the typical
singer–songwriter convention. It has its share
of acoustic guitar and voice songs, tracks that
are restrained and intimate like “Eye for an
Eye,” and that are often enhanced with a
simple drum loop or harmony vocal. But these
are offset by tracks like “Life of the Party” where

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Szabo explores the emotion of the song by
adding Radiohead atmospherics, layers and
textures.
Szabo agrees that battery has it’s experimental
side but says his intention in making the album
wasn’t necessarily to stretch the sonic
boundaries of his past projects.
“It has more to do with deciding exactly what I
wanted to put out there and what best
represented where I’m at right now,” he
maintains. “Having said that though, I think this
record did end up being more experimental. I
think that’s not because I “allowed” myself that
as much as it’s just what happens naturally
when I’m left to my own devices.”
And being left to your own devices in a home
studio is a different animal than in a
commercial studio. Szabo’s recording
credentials have swelled gradually on the job,
as he and Plasticine bandmate Steve
Strongman recorded much of their last album,
Public Address System themselves. But there
is no comparison to recording at home,
according to Szabo.
“The apartment setting was fuckin’ great,” he
insists. “I will absolutely do it this way again. I
captured vibes and got to experiment in a way
that I never got to when I was working in a
commercial studio and watching the clock. It
also gives you the flexibility to record when the
inspiration strikes. I mean, I could go for a take,
have a listen, decide I didn’t like the vibe, and
go and make myself dinner, have some wine,
and come back to it in a totally different
headspace and start recording immediately.
That is a luxury. That’s why so many people are
doing it these days. It makes sense on so
many levels.”
In addition, the recording sessions produced
enough extra material that Szabo is planning to
release an ep later this year and an animated
video, one that will have more of a pop vibe
than battery.
Battery comes at the same time Steve

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Strongman is releasing his own solo record
with The Steve Strongman Band called
Tuesday Night Live. Both records will be on
fledgling Hamilton label Basement Bar
Records and the timing means that both artists
will be away from Plasticine for awhile.
“We’ve been hitting it hard with Plasticine for
about four years,” says Szabo, “and it makes
sense for us to take time off from that now
’cause we’ve both got a lot going on. Steve’s
got his solo cd and he’s touring with Kazzer as
his guitar player. And I’ve got my solo thing.
We’ll do the Plasticine thing again, it’s just a
matter of when.”
Strongman shows up as a guest on battery, as
do drummers Roger Travassos and Craig
Lapsley, but Szabo played the majority of the
instruments himself.
Next Thursday’s concert will feature Szabo
backed by Strongman, Travassos and Steve
Barber on stand–up bass. Tickets are $10 and
doors open at 7:30. Shannon Lyon will be
opening and taking the stage at 8. For more
info on Rob Szabo check out
www.robszabo.com.