FITTING LIKE FISMITS - MARK BIAGIO

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT
FISMITS FOUNDER,  MARK BIAGIO 

By RubySage

3 July 2026

The FISMITS.  A name that has been stuck in my head since the first moment I heard it.  Why?  Well,  two reasons …1. I am a first class supporter of  the 'play on words' and 2. .. being somewhat of a misfit myself, I felt an instant kinship of sorts. An  understanding, in a sense.  ( And as I am writing this, I think to myself, "...brilliant marketing strategy -  Great hook."  )

One of the many things I really enjoy about what I do is interacting with and learning more about my fellow musos and people of interest ( to me that is).  I haven't,  as of yet, had the privilege of spending time with the Fismits guys ( I'm hoping o rectify that soon!), but I do find myself very intrigued by who they are as a band and what they bring to the local music scene.  More so, I find myself totally engrossed and getting happily lost in their Indie-Alternative Rock vibe.  Deeply  impactful and identifiable, these songs are written with emotional honesty  and transcend the understanding of real life and lived experience.  

As their music is something to be experienced, not just heard, the EP, Falling Joy, released  in June this year  left me hungry to know more about Fismits founder Mark Biagio,  who is described as a songwriter committed to the emotional honesty of the craft.     I found myself drawn in and obsessed with a journey across time, from its infancy years to date,  The  Fismits ,  at its core, is about continuity, between youth and adulthood, past ambition and present clarity, friendship and creative independence.

With the help of Devo Oosthuizen, (Devographic Music Agency) I was able to catch up with Mark and do the thing I do... ask a whole bunch of questions.  And just as I did, I am sure you, too, are going to enjoy reading  this insightful, enlightening and somewhat amusing at times dialog. 

Q1. Who is Mark Biagio, on and off the stage?

A: Husband, father, sailor, software geek, music junkie and creator.

Q2. How old were you when you picked up your first instrument, what was it, and why?

A: I could not pick it up. It was a piano! I was seven, and my mother dragged me, kicking and screaming, to piano practice from around the age of seven until I was about 14. It was classical piano, and I just never got it. Only much later, when I saw Sean Fourie, a jazz cat, playing piano, did I start playing again, because the way he played made sense to me.

Q3. When did you know you wanted to pursue the life of a musician?

 A: I think it would have been in my late teens, when I started playing guitar. When I started playing in my first band at university, I began making plans to make sure music never went away. It has been more of a dedicated ‘perusal’ than an outright pursuit. Too often I had an empty fridge, and that is where the pursuit stopped. In fact, the original album cover idea I had for the new single ‘WHEN’ was an empty fridge with a tomato in it. True story.

Q4. When was The Fismits formed, why, and by whom? And why the name The Fismits?

A: The Fismits was formed in 2016 by myself, together with my long-time friends Francisco, Tshepo, Nielle and Luke. The project started from a shared DIY spirit and a desire to make music. Over time, The Fismits evolved into my primary creative vehicle. The name The Fismits is a play on the word ‘misfits’. When we started the project, it felt like a group of musical misfits coming together after years of playing in different failed bands. We did not fit anywhere else but here.

 

Q5. Who writes your songs? Where do you draw inspiration from, and what is your writing process?

 A: Most of the songs are written by me, although collaboration has always been an important part of my musical journey. On the ‘Falling Joy’ EP, the songs were originally written by my long-time friend and songwriting partner Bruce Barrett during our time together in The Mind Theatre in the early 1990s.   My role was to revisit, reinterpret and reshape those songs through the lens of who I am today, while staying true to the emotion and intent that made them special in the first place.

 I draw inspiration from lived experience, memory, relationships, personal struggles, the passage of time and the sometimes-complicated process of making sense of life.  Many of my songs explore themes of love, loss, friendship, regret, resilience and personal growth.  I am particularly interested in how our understanding of events changes as we get older. 

My writing process varies from song to song. Sometimes an idea starts with a lyric, sometimes with a melody, a guitar riff or even a mood.  With ‘Falling Joy’, the process involved revisiting songs that had been living in my head for decades and asking how they would sound if they were written and recorded today. I spend a lot of time experimenting with arrangements, production ideas and textures until the song feels emotionally honest. 

For me, a song is finished when it simply feels right and every element serves the song.  Hopefully, out of that comes something sonically that resonates with others.

 

Q6. What is your day job, and how do you balance day-to-day life with life as a musician?

A: I am a software architect by day. It is hard, not so much balancing the day job and being a muso, but when you add all the other things into the mix, it becomes quite challenging. I do not get the balance right either, so at any given point there is someone in my life feeling a little abandoned.

 

Q7. What is your most embarrassing stage moment?

A: I am not sure. There must be many, but I just brush them off and move on quickly. Maybe not so much embarrassing as frustrating is that, at ‘big’ gigs, things seem to happen.  I recall a Grahamstown festival where I broke a string in the first song, grabbed the spare guitar halfway through and proceeded to break another string, and the first song still was not done. I think I changed to a new string in the car while the band played the next two songs without me. 

At one gig, I forgot my slide and decided to break a beer bottle on stage and use the broken neck as a slide. I then cut myself right between my fingers and, while playing, had blood dripping down. I got through the set, but I was in pain! Our lead singer thought it was great, as we were a goth-type band, so it fitted his stage show. 

Oh wait, a disastrous embarrassment was my on-stage moment at Wings Beat Bar. I had a junk R100 Strat that I would use to end the last song with and throw across the stage, leaving the band to play the last song. I did it, but it hit my amp, which fell and landed on my expensive guitar and broke the neck in half!

 

Q8. Share some bragging rights.

 A: I have done a lot of things, and I do not brag. However, if you show up, things happen, so I have got awards for work stuff.  I have sailed in world championships and won many national championships. I have got to work with some of the best musos in Africa, including Hugh Masekela, Oliver Mtukudzi, Prophets of the City and many more, and I have won an engineering award for a kwaito album! Spot the lack of mentions for Father or Husband of the Year!

 

Q9. What have you released to date?

A: As part of The Mind Theatre in the 1990s, we released a DIY album, ‘For Fakes Suck’, and we had a few singles on compilations, including ‘Soda Sex Fountain’, ‘Voices for Victory’ and ‘Get The Funk Out’, during that time. More officially, The Fismits released their debut EP, ‘Anywhere’ (2017). Then came the album ‘Before the Hindsight’ (2020) and the 2024 single ‘Halen’. This year, the singles ‘Scars’ and ‘Independence’ have paved the way for the EP ‘Falling Joy’, due for release on 26 June.

 

Q10. How do you feel the Internet and AI have impacted the music business?

 A: Let us just look at it as advancements in technology.  It has been good and it has been bad. It is much easier to write a song, record it and get it out there, which is the good part. Because it is easier, there is now a huge amount of material out there, and it is completely oversaturated, which is the bad part. With AI, it is going to become even more saturated.

 

Q11. What is one message you would give to your fans?

A: Thanks so much for sticking with us!

 

Q12. Any pearls of wisdom for new, upcoming artists?

A: Do not get desperate, and do not make decisions out of desperation.

 

Q13. What is the most trouble you have ever gotten into?

 A: I have a nose for trouble and generally go the other way.  However, I forgot my wife’s birthday once. I had to add the word ‘once’ in there.  Once is enough, though!  The short version is that I messed up, and unlike most other instances where I have managed to dig myself out of the hole, like the time I missed a university maths exam, this one was inescapable.

 

Q14. What is your absolute favourite sound that is entirely unrelated to music?

 A: A Highveld thunderstorm.

 

Q15. What is the most spectacularly useless real-world talent you possess that nobody would ever guess?

 KFTRA: Eventually, if you hang around me, you will know I do this, so it is guessable.  It is useless, though. I tend to remember British comedies that I can quote at very important and serious times. So, for example, at a very serious meeting of major software importance, I will drop a line from ‘Monty Python’, ‘Blackadder’ or even ‘The Young Ones’. Maybe it is not useless. Maybe it is just what is needed.

 

Q16. Do you sing in the shower? What songs?

A: Yes, all of them.

 

Q17. What is a piece of advice another musician gave you that you completely ignored, only to realise years later that they were right?

A: I did not completely ignore it, but Koloi Lebona, who discovered Brenda Fassie, told me one day in the studio that a good song at its core is melody and drums, and the rest is just nice to have. I had just played him a Mind Theatre demo in 1994, and this African muso told me that my rock track’s drums were not loud enough! This hurt a bit, as I was neither drummer nor singer, but the guitarist in the ‘nice to have’ department. Since then, every day, every mix, every song, I realise he was so right.

 

Q18. If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?

A: I would like to make it hard for people to find and buy music again. Bring back the decision of which album out of 20 to buy today with my pocket money. Bring back home taping, which was so illegal in 1988!

 

Q19. Which famous musicians do you admire, and why?

A: Joe Strummer, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Bruce Dickinson. All because of their work ethic, discipline and their ability to keep going.

 

Q19. Where can we find you and your music>

• Website www.fismits.com

• All Links https://linktr.ee/fismits 

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/fismitsband

• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefismits

• Twitter https://twitter.com/thefismits

• YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@fismitsthe9640 

• Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/5nqgrxXIFkHTLuoUaAFkM1

• Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-fismits/1224848051

• YouTube Music https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCmU5K3Urv8BKCkG4Ii_im_Q

• Deezer https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/12274614

• Tidal https://tidal.com/artist/8672777

• Bandcamp https://thefismits.bandcamp.com

• Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/the-fismits