What better opportunity than the reissue of “The Record Of Capozzi Park” to interview Mark Szabo.
Luigi: “I have recently read this book by Richard Ford titled “Canada”. It is in fact a long journey backwards to answer the most difficult questions for a man: why did it happen like this? How much of a man’s destiny is the result of his choices or of a path already traced? Are these choices, whether right or wrong, truly an expression of one’s nature or do they obey randomness, sudden revelations or temporary environmental conditions? My first question is why did it end like this with Capozzi Park?”
Mark: “Like what?”
Luigi: “Richard Ford’s descriptions of the landscapes and the desolation of Partreau, Saskatchewan are so vivid that made me want to visit Canada. It’s a place I know very little about, I know that music is great over there and that many Apulians have distant relatives in Canada. My closest childhood friend had uncles in Montreal. They come visiting and the quantity of American chewing gums (or should I say Canadian gums?) they brought, was memorable. There are no American uncles in my family but It is very possible that the Capozzi that gives his name to the park arrived in Canada from Puglia. It is a very common surname here. There are three Capozzi that I know, the owner of the dairy where I buy mozzarella in Casamassima, my mother’s hairdresser where as a boy I browsed through gossip magazines looking for topless girls and the owner of my favorite toy store as a child. What pushed Capozzi to leave Puglia?
What’s special about Canada?”
Mark: “It is a land of peace and plenty, where all can hope that things will be different from before; and better; because there is so little history weighing on your back.”
Luigi: “If I had to rank my favorite Canadian singer-songwriters I would put Mark Szabo in first place. What is your personal ranking?”
Mark: “29. Neil Young
31. Destroyer
56, & 68. Carl Newman
86. Gil Evans (who did not actually sing). These rankings are by volume.
For orientation in a broader international context:
1. Velvet Underground
2. The Fall
3. David Bowie
4. Lou Reed
114. Mountain Goats.
Otherwise, roughly two Brits for every Yank, with a mere sprinkling of Germans, Irish, and Australians…”
Luigi: “I have read many interviews given by Capozzi Park and Mark in the past. One of my favorites is the one in which you are very evasive, answering in monosyllables or not at all. Could you answer these questions in the same way?”
Mark: “Yes.”
Luigi: “Why did Mark retire?”
Mark: “Everyone else was growing up. Music could no longer be done here just for fun anymore. After people started being noticed and signed by the industry, it had to succeed financially, or it was viewed as merely wasting time.”
Luigi: “Will Mark return?”
Mark: “I never arrived. I am still here, in Canada.”
Luigi: “About the reissue of “The Record Of Capozzi Park”, “MAX2000” includes a song that wasn’t included on the CD, what is “MAX2000″?”
Mark: “The deliberately daunting bonus track on the original CD. An attempt to capture the playful element in playing for fun.”
Luigi: “By drawing giant heads for “The Record Of Capozzi Park” I necessarily start fantasizing about the lives of the people whose faces I transfer onto paper. I attended the scene in Bari mainly as a spectator, knowing many of the protagonists, always meeting the same people in the audience. The giraffe man, more than two meters tall who, if he stood in the front row, eclipsed a good part of the stage. The man who needed to communicate, who fortunately limited his monologues to the moments before the concerts began. Honky Tonk Dark Man, whose clothing was obviously a hybrid of the two. Will Oldham’s lookalike or The Bodyguard who always wore earphones although he did not do any bouncer activity.
Returning to Capozzi Park, I’m also going to portrait people that weren’t part of the band.
The feeling I have, watching the pictures I received from you, is that you were having fun. How would you define the scene to which Capozzi Park belonged, if they belonged to a scene?”
Mark: “It was a great scene: musicians, artists, students, bohemians, bums.”
Luigi: “Steve Balogh also sent me some photos of the band in the park and now that I am drawing your faces, I can recognize many of you. Who was the best at basketball?”
Mark: “Max.”
Luigi: The title of the album “The Record Of Capozzi Park”, after all, can have more than one meaning. Is it the record of baskets scored by Max or by you?”
Mark: “The album was called “The Record of Capozzi Park” because it would be all that was left when our collective dissolved. It was called “The Record of…” because it was a Compact Disc.”
Luigi: “Finding Mark Szabo was not an easy task due to the disadvantaged geographical position in which I find myself, the stage name you chose, your choice not to be present on social media, the scarcity of information on the web, the inability to retrieve a paper Canadian telephone directory. Of the nine members of Capozzi Park, I tracked down you, Joshua Stevenson and Steve Balogh. What happened to all the others?”
Mark: “Only Josh, Scott, and I are still living in Vancouver. The others are scattered across Canada, from Pacific to Atlantic.”
Luigi: “Do you still hear (of/from/about) them?”
Mark: “I had tracked all nine members down, back when “Mark, et al.” came out. Lee, Josh, Steve, and Scott were still making music (individually) when their schedules permitted.”
Luigi: “I don’t remember exactly how I got hold of a video where The Hex perform a cover of Eleventy live and at a certain point you appear in the audience and sing with them. How did it go that time?”
Mark: “It is on YouTube. I would recommend watching it and deciding how it went for oneself.”
Luigi: “If I sang a cover of “Baby Song”, what are the chances of seeing you manifest before my eyes?”
Mark: “I am not Beetlejuice.”
Here‘s the link to The Hex video we talk about.
Listen and preorder your copy of “The Record Of Capozzi Park” by Capozzi Park here .
Mark is on bandcamp, click here.
