Kazzer

Mark “Kazzer” Kasprzyk is a Juno-nominated Canadian musician and songwriter. He began learning judo when he was eight years old and became so skilled he later was part of the Canadian National Judo Team. He was an alternate for the Canadian team in the 2000 Summer Olympics.

However, in his teens he also discovered hip-hop and took up breakdancing. At sixteen, Kazzer began rapping and writing songs. Being relegated to alternate status for the Olympics inspired him to more avidly pursue a career in music.

Music was a hobby, judo was my career … At first they all thought I was screwing myself over (leaving Judo). They really did, because people looked at me as the next guy hopefully to bring the sport to a certain level in Canada. My parents were like, ‘Don’t abandon it for a silly dream.’

After his manager couldn’t land him a record deal, Mark decided to give it one last shot and produced another demo which made it from a friend at his Judo clothing sponsor to MTV and eventually into the hands of Epic Records who signed him in 2002.

When Kazzer submitted his completed album, Epic originally rejected it as ‘not radio-friendly enough’. He was teamed with Grammy-winning producer Brian West, who not only reworked the album, but co-wrote the additional song “Pedal To The Medal” with Kazzer – and it ended up being the record’s lead single. Its video was aired in heavy rotation on MuchMusic in late 2002.

The song reached #26 in Canada and was also a minor hit in Austria and Germany. Kazzer’s debut album Go for Broke was released soon after this success. It sold 25,000 copies worldwide as he toured internationally, including as a performer on MTV’s 2003 Campus Invasion tour. He was nominated for a Juno Award in 2004 for New Artist of the Year.

Epic Records then went through changes and Kazzer found himself without his A&R rep or the label’s President who’d signed him, so he moved to Linus Entertainment, a Canadian independent record label distributed by Universal Records. Kazzer’s second and final record Broke was released on June 28, 2005, featuring the single “Ordinary” which did not chart.

In 2009, Kazzer left rap-rock behind and formed Redlight King, who scored six top 40 rock songs in the US between 2011-2014. In 2017, Kazzer also began releasing music under the moniker M Rivers, with fans making comments like, “I loved your Kazzer albums, Sport Car Revolution show, Redlight King albums, and like this too. But it’s hard to keep up with the name changes. Should just be Kazzer. You ARE Kazzer!”