Back in 1998 Peter Kessler was managing Songbird Music. In the tight-knit Toronto roots music community, he and his brother Mark knew most local musicians on a personal level. In between touring with their own band, Peter started collecting vintage guitars.
At the time, Mark was renting a property at 921 Queen Street West with his then-girlfriend who had a small boutique cloting store (Capsule 921) in the back of the apartment. After they split up, Mark decided to keep renting the space. Peter had been collecting guitars privately for more than a dozen years at this point and, tapping into his experience managing Songbird, the siblings decided to open a niche vintage guitar store; Capsule Music was born.
“We were not businessmen,” Mark says. “We opened the store on two credit cards with no idea of what we wanted to do. Seventeen years later we are still going; it was a real learning curve though.”
Over the years, the pair employed many of fellow musician friends as sales staff, including Afie Jurvanen who is more commonly known by his stage name, Bahamas.
Capsule Music has survived over the years largely because of the pair's ability to adapt to changing market conditions. They even expanded operations for a while, opening a boutique store in Kitchener, Ontario in a repair shop owned and operated by Bob Egan — longtime pedal steel player for Blue Rodeo.
