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Ok. Ready? You
asked for it, chronologically from day one ... here
goes.
Early Years
I
started playing in bands when I
was 13. My first band was called "A". The idea was that our records
would be at the very front of the record racks, 'cause alphabetically speaking A
is first right? It was just an idea for a band though. We
never actually played a gig. However, we DID talk a lot about it. It was at that point
that I started writing songs and recording them by myself on my 4-track.
Playin' all the parts
myself. Just distorted guitar and me singing. I wish I still had those tapes ...
nah, on second thought ..."A" then changed
its name to
Apex, and played an actual gig. Yee-ha.
Groove Daddys
I went on to play in a bunch of
other bands ... all kinds really. I played in a couple real hardcore Metal
bands, some cover bands ... even a Dixieland jazz band. Anyway, the first "real"
recording/touring band I played with was called The Groove Daddys. We did
a tape in 1992 at the height of the Canadian DIY music explosion. People got excited and started buying
tons of them and coming to our shows. We became a fixture of the
thriving Kitchener-Waterloo (ON) music scene along with bands like The Rhinos
(alumni incl:Danny Michel)
and Strange Days (alumni incl:Shannon
Lyon, Mike Alviano, Hundred
Mile House), any of whom on a given night could pack 500-ish people into a
club. We thought "jeez, maybe we could actually do this for real".
And so started my "career" in tha music biz. Between 1993
& 1996, we did
several cross Canada tours, a couple of videos, and 2 CDs: "Bottom
Feeder" and "Sunburn". Along the way we
learned some music business lessons, hooking up with "big-time" Canadian manager
Tom Berry (Holy Cole, Kim Mitchell), and being shopped to US labels.
Here's a picture of us from our Sunburn
album; from left to right-Jeff Cowell, Paddy Flynn ... and me:
 photo:Jody
Koberinski
Have
a listen to our "signature" song: Meside
Myself (mp3)
**downloading
tips**
Both of The Groove Daddys CDs
are available for sale through Basement Bar
Records. Sample clips
of EVERY track are also available.
Marigold
Next came Marigold. We recorded an
E.P.. and a full length CD, toured western
Canada once. Things didn't really work out.
Here's
the cover of our Bunt E.P..:
 photo:erina
harris
This
EP is currently out of print, but here is a track that is close to my
heart from that time period:
Paper Planes>> MP3
Plasticine
And then
there was Plasticine. It featured my
longest running musical friendship. My best pal Steve Strongman and I were
the core of the group. Between 1999 and 2001 we toured intensely in
Ontario and went coast to coast several times. We recorded: "Plasticine"(s/t),
originally released independently in 1999, and later re-released by the SONG
CORP in 2001. We followed it up with "Public Address System"
in late 2001. We had a minor hit on Canada's Video Station MuchMUSIC
with the Video for our song "No One" in the summer of 2000 and ended
up signing a record deal with the ill-fated mini-major label SONG CORP (Alan
Gregg, Tragically Hip manager, and television personality's label), who went
bankrupt in less than a year.
Here's a promo shot of the whole band circa 1999:
(l to r: Roger Travassos,
Steve Strongman, Me, Adam Bushlen)
photo: joseph bergel & erina harris
I
still play
a number of songs that appear on Plasticine CDs in my live sets these days,
so for those of you wondering, these CDs are currently available through
Basement Bar Records.
Rob
Szabo
Shortly
before the dissolution of Plasticine, I left my native KW for a pad in
Toronto, where I currently reside. I recorded my debut CD 'a
battery of tests' there over the winter of 2002/03 and released
it that spring. I played a bunch around Toronto and southern
Ontario over the next year or so, and recorded
a double e.p.
(one 'side' electric/one 'side' acoustic) called 'Late
Bloomer/Sore Loser' and released it early 2005 ... which brings us up to the present
day: The new CD/DVD is called "Like A
Metaphor" and the rest has yet to be written.
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