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Local Guides
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Rob Szabo and Steve Strongman
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by Bill Adams
December 20, 2007 |
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Spend any amount of time in the music business and there isn’t a
soul alive that wouldn’t eventually begin to get cynical. For better
or for worse, virtually everything is done for one of only a couple
of reasons: either for money (musicians have bills to pay too and
lucre would even explain the recent return of Rage Against The
Machine for less than a handful of select shows), or for
promotional value (the easiest form of which to spot is the run–
of–the–mill live appearance). Yes, it’s cynical – call me a grinch –
but the truth of the matter is that the business of making music is
still a business and while lots of artists like to say they do one
thing or another for “the fun of it”, unfortunately that is seldom
the case. Never say never though, and Rob Szabo’s third annual
holiday show being held this year at the Starlight is the exception
that proves the rule. According to the singer, the evolution of the
holiday gigs is the height of organic and hasn’t shown any signs
of stalling since day one. “It's funny because it just started out as
the kind of show that you do for fun,” says Szabo with a laugh.
“Steve [Strongman] and I are best friends and we played in bands
around Kitchener for years. Now we're both doing the solo thing
so the first time we did a holiday show, it was just an excuse to
play some songs that we'd written in past bands and play around
with some new material too because we don't get to play together
very often anymore.
“Anyway, the first show sold out really quickly so we did the
same thing again last year and this year we thought we should
probably move it to a bigger venue because people were a little
too uncomfortable and it was a little cramped last year.”
If Szabo’s increased work schedule this year is any indication,
there’s little fear that the turn out for this year’s holiday show will
be poorer than in years passed either. The singer experienced
one of his most lucrative years ever last year as people ate up the
material from his then–new Like A Metaphor album at every tour
stop he made. While Szabo does say that plans have already been
set into motion to record the follow–up, he’s also quick to point
out that the holiday shows are not a PR tool in disguise as he
won’t be introducing any new songs at the Starlight. That, says
the singer, would be contrary to the point of the show and,
besides, none of the new songs are ready yet anyway so the
holiday show will be built both on and around fun.
“It's a different sort of show than Steve or I would normally do,”
says the singer frankly. “The show's a little different in that it's
about old friends; Steve and I are old friends, a bunch of our
friends have said they're going to come out, it's just designed to
be fun. Even if I wanted to, I won’t be doing new stuff because I
haven’t finished the songs for the new album yet! It was pretty
hard to come up with a set because we wanted to play some old
Plasticines songs – that was a band that Steve and I played in
before years ago and I think our last album under that name
came out in 2001 – and we wanted to do some songs that people
knew, and some Christmas songs as well and just have some fun.
We're not coming out to say we're promoting this record or that
record, we're just out to have a good time. We have no axe to
grind. The new songs aren’t done yet - not by a long shot. We've
got so much work to do, it's nuts. I've been on the road for so
much time this year that I've got notebooks full of lyrics and a
dictaphone that I use for song ideas, and now I'm sifting through
it to see where I'm at. We're going to go up in February and record
in The Barn Studio to make the next record.
“This show is separate from all that,” explains the singer. “It’s a
change of pace for both of us because we're actually doing it
together. It's fun! It's an excuse for us to hang out, have fun and
play together. It doesn't happen often enough. We just did our
first rehearsal last week and you forget how much fun it is to play
together after it's been so long. It is surprising how quickly some
of this stuff comes back though – it hasn't felt like a chore to
remember a lot of the songs.”
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