John 'Woz' Wozniak (Marcy Playground) Interview - Part 1

By Chad Bowar

Marcy Playground was everywhere in 1997 with their hit single "Sex and Candy." It was number one on the Modern Rock chart and a top ten single on the Billboard Singles Chart. You probably haven't heard about them since. That's about to change. Their second album, 1999's Shapeshifter was not promoted by the record label and sank into oblivion. The band has been touring and recording in the years since then and have found a new home on Reality Entertainment. Their latest album, MP3, is their strongest to date. It's diverse, interesting, and has a hit single or two. The first single, "Deadly Handsome Man" is getting airplay on many rock stations across the country. I recently spoke with Marcy Playground's founder, lead singer and guitarist, John "Woz" Wozniak.

Chad Bowar: What caused the 5 year delay between your albums?

John Wozniak: There is so much to it. One of the big delays was the fact that I had a flood in my house. I lost some material. I needed to go back and revisit a whole ton of new songs. One of the other delays is that we left Capitol Records. It's not quick and easy to find another record company. That took a little bit of time. We left Capitol because they completely bungled our second record. It was bad. It was particularly bad because they had fired all the people who had worked at the record company prior to that. It just became this really foreign company to us. Getting off the label took some time then finding another label took some time.

In between that I bought a recording studio in Vancouver Canada. That's taken up a lot of my time, personally. But I don't think it's that unusual for bands to take a little while to come out with a record. It was a long period of time, but I think it felt longer because the first record did so well and then the second record was completely botched by our crumbling record company. It didn't really get a chance to be promoted and see the light of day.

You also have a new drummer on this album.

Yeah, Gonz. (Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera). He's been playing with us for the last few years. He's phenomenal. We met him when he was with a band called Lincoln. I personally became close friends with the guys in that band and when they stopped playing together we decided to hire Gonz. We're still really tight with Dan, our old drummer. He's been pretty successful. He played on Norah Jones' first record.

How has Marcy Playground's sound changed and evolved in the five years since the last record?

I think it's changed a lot. Initially it was pretty acoustic. The second record was a little more polished, but in a weird way. I was going for a certain sound on Shapeshifter. It 's very moody, dark, sonically very affected and dense. It had a lot to do with playing with Dan, because Dan was very intense and brought a certain energy to the band that translated onto the second record. This new record is different. It's a bit of a combination of those two things. Obviously we've grown. I've matured as a songwriter and I think it's really going to appeal to people. It's diverse as well. I do think when you listen through there is a cohesion, a flow. Sonically there are a lot of things that I started to work with that I didn't work with in the past, like string players, some piano, musical elements that I normally would have forgone.

The first single from MP3 is "Deadly Handsome Man." That song has actually been around for several years, hasn't it?

It has, but it hasn't been on a label. It was used for the "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" soundtrack, but we didn't have a label at the time. We told them we didn't want them to use it as a single because we were planning on doing it ourselves. That's why it's a single now. When we signed with Reality Entertainment, we wanted this song to come out. We personally feel that it's a really strong single. It's connected. The places where it gets played it gets really good reaction.

How has your new label, Reality Entertainment, been so far?

I think they've been really good. This is a record company that is part of the new, upcoming breed of record companies. It's an independent record company with a lot of money that has good A&R and good marketing and promotion. Primarily they are artist-driven and artist-friendly. It seems to me like they're doing a really good job. I like the record company, I like the people that work at the record company. I like them better than most of the people that worked at Capitol Records. I think there's a certain kind of drive you have to have to work for an independent record company, and these people have it.

In Part 2 of the interview, Woz talks about his expectations of the album, how the group got started, and more.

For More Information: