Mr. Cancelled – Interview – Thanks for Asking

Mr. Cancelled – Interview – Thanks for Asking – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Who are you? Not, like, philosophically, but you know, who are the members of the band, who plays what? Describe yourself in one sentence (it can be a long sentence.)

MC: Self-described as not so uplifting post-punk from Saratoga Springs, Mr. Cancelled himself is Gary Ziroli on guitar and vocals, and pretty much all of the song writing (with creative input from the band). The rest of the band came together after Gary was sick, tired, annoyed, bored, borderline suicidal, got the ick from, playing solo. This band consists of Chris Simple on bass and backing vocals, and a small series of drummers: Jon Canitello (1st release), Chris Wildy (2nd release), & Shane Sanchez (most recent demo).

RRX: What do you have out right now that people can enjoy, and what’s the best way for them to get it?

MC: Mr. Cancelled’s 2 albums, ‘Every Town Has Its Dolls’ and ‘Pieces of Head’ (and Gary’s ‘Half Dead or Worse’ solo EP), is out there on all streaming sites and MrCancelled.bandcamp.com, but our latest that we’re here to promote ‘Pieces of Head’ was just finally released December 2023 – for fans of DIY dark humor garage punk, or in our case, apartment above the garage punk.

RRX: How does practice go? Is the road practice enough, or do you have a practice shack? If so, how does it look? What’s on the walls? What cool sh*t is in there?

MC: When we used to practice, oh yeah we’re on indefinite hiatus btw, the 3 of us would pack into Gary’s Saratoga carriage house apartment which was pretty tight BUT we were surrounded by Gary’s cool collection of stuff and things: an old Minor Threat T-shirt, a Mark Mothersbaugh postcard set, a bunch of old film cameras, even older records, Buck Gooter and Evil Sword merch, a bike we’d have to move out of the way, an adorable black cat named Gilbert (sorry it was so loud buddy!), books about The Beatles and Andy Warhol, plants, no television. We didn’t have a regular practice schedule but it was always a good time, and when Gary would bring a rough idea to the band we’d basically jam on it and write it on the fly which somehow seemed to work out pretty well.

RRX: I know when pitching to help to tell them it’s “this meets that.” So let’s try that with you. If you had to give me two bands that meet each other in your sound, what are those bands? More than two bands?

MC: I’m always so bad at answering these “What do you sound like?” questions haha, but i’d say if two bands were to meet in sound/ style it’d be something like The Minutemen and The Ramones. We do get our name from a Cows song though.

RRX: Is there a song you wrote that really died on the vine? Something you all like but somehow just couldn’t make it work. You swear never to play it live, that sort of thing?

MC: I’m pretty sure none of our songs ever got cut from playing live or being recorded (some might argue, ahem Gary, that this was a mistake). But seriously, we always “made it work” and had fun playing/ working out each song, well you know, until we didn’t. Gary would definitely get sick of songs and retire them live when he stopped enjoying them. Actually we’d just play them faster for a bit first and then never again. “Half Dead or Worse” is the #1 example.

RRX: How can people keep up with you? What’s coming up, soon or eventually?

MC: I guess you can keep up with us via Instagram @MrCancelled where we are still promoting our music, sharing stories, posting demos, and whatever else, but the hiatus continues – partially cuz we ran out of drummers, but mostly because of cancer. Ugh! But the songs, the humor, and the love continue on and we appreciate the interview and to all of you reading, listening, supporting local music! This has been Chris Simple on behalf of Mr. Cancelled, and Thanks for Asking!

Photos:

Pieces of Head album art by Shane Sanchez. Mr. Cancelled’s last show at Madison Theatre 5/22/21 by Tessia Bekelja. Gary by Bryan Lasky.

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