Szabo's homegrown CD deserves success
Rob Szabo's new CD, Like A Metaphor, was recorded largely in Caistor Centre. |
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The Hamilton Spectator
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(Apr 25, 2006)
What: Rob Szabo CD release party for Like a Metaphor, with Matthew De Zoete
When: Thursday, 9 p.m.
Where: The Casbah, Queen Street and King Street West
Cost: $10 at the door
Life can be tough on the road for an independent singer-songwriter. You'd never know what to expect from town to town -- empty halls, dingy motel rooms, bad food and long stretches between laundromats.
Rob Szabo sure didn't expect what was waiting for him in an old firehall in Johnstown, Penn.
There were about 200 kids there, most of them fresh out of high school or younger. They had a punkish look in their eyes and obviously liked their music played loud and hard.
Szabo stood up at the microphone with his acoustic guitar and began playing his song, Good Son. It's a well-crafted tune, dripping in irony and expressing the screwed-up anguish of youth. It's got kind of a quirky, pop feel to it, but Good Son definitely leans more toward folk than punk.
"And they're all singing it back to me," Szabo says, still amazed. "I'd never played there before, but there's a couple of hundred kids in this fire hall and they all know the words as if it had been a radio hit. They just heard it on my myspace page. Just me and my guitar. It was as if I was Freddy Mercury."
The scene worked its way into a song, Johnstown Kids, one of 11 on Szabo's new album, Like a Metaphor. Released on the tiny Hamilton-based independent label, Basement Bar Records, it's one of those albums filled with quality songs that you know deserve commercial success but probably won't get without the backing of a major label.
This CD, recorded largely at The Barn studio in Caistor Centre,east of Hamilton, differs from most independent releases in that it also contains a professionally recorded DVD, featuring three videos to go along with the songs God Son, No One and the album's first single, Breaking Even .
The Breaking Even video is a Disney-quality animated short put together by Szabo's friend and collaborator Cal Brunker, a Sheridan College graduate who is now working in New York on the feature-length animated Dr. Seuss film, Horton Hears A Who.
The DVD also includes a short documentary that features clips from the Johnstown firehall show.
"I performed about 100 shows last year, most of them in United States and (filmmaker) Cal Brunker accompanied me on a two-week swing through the northeast including New York, Washington, D.C., and Johnstown. "It's kind of a road video."
Szabo is a Kitchener native, now living in Toronto. He was introduced to the Hamilton music scene through his longtime friend, guitarist Steve Strongman. The two had a brief taste of fame in the late '90s as members of the band Plasticene, which was signed by Tragically Hip manager (and Conservative party pollster) Allan Greg to the short-lived label Song Corp. The label, however, turned out to have more promise than money and went bankrupt shortly before the release of Plasticene's album.
Szabo, however, feels comfortable now working with a small independent label. It may not give him the mainstream radio play his music deserves, but it does give him control.
"This is exactly what I need," Szabo explains. "It's not like a major label where you get this small window of opportunity and then it's over. I own everything. I'm not beholden to anyone. What matters is the online music community. I don't believe (radio) is going to matter anymore. It's all about forming a relationship on the Internet. I'm trying to do more of a slow grassroots thing."
Szabo and his band will be premiering Like a Metaphor Thursday at the Casbah. For more about Szabo, go to robszabo.com.
See a video-taped interview with Rob Szabo and his new animated video, Breaking Even, on thespec.com.