MXPX tom wisniewsky

TOM - GUITAR

I was born in Dunnoon, Scotland on October 20th 1976 around six in the morning. My dad was in the Navy and that’s why after living in Scotland for six months we moved to Honolulu, Hawaii until I was four and we finally settled down in Bremerton, Washington.

My formative years were probably not too dissimilar from most of yours out there. In the summers I used to travel out east to Cleveland, Ohio to visit my extended family because we were the only ones family wise that lived in Washington.

Around my 13th birthday I started getting really interested in Music. A family friend played drums and the second I saw him bashing away in his room I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life…. Play drums in a band? I took it really seriously. I made a deal with my parents that netted me a great used drum set, I’d have to be in school band for the rest of my school years. I used to sit in my basement playing drums along with Guns N’ Roses’ “Appetite For Destruction”, Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood” and Rush’s “Presto”. It definitely helped having a really loud walkman in those days.

Fastforward a few years to my senior year of high school. I’d been playing in bands for around four years locally and all on drums. My friends in Magnified Plaid were starting to get out of town a bit and play with some cool bands from Seattle. They had a plan to head out on a tour of the U.S. as soon as they graduated Only problem was that their guitarist wasn’t really working out anymore. Mike, Yuri and I were all hanging out one night driving around Silverdale when they told me that they’d probably be getting a new guitarist soon. I naturally assumed it’d be one of our guitarist friends. I asked “Who ya gonna get?” Imagine my shock when they replied “You’ve got a guitar don’t ya?” Sure I played guitar a bit but just for fun and because everyone else I hung out with did too. Naturally I wanted to do it, This was a band with an apparent future.

After all that it started to get really interesting… Tours around the U.S. and the entire world, Recording with some very talented people, Shows where people actually knew who we were, All the fun times associated with jumping in a van with your best friends and going on a ten year road trip. You can’t imagine the feeling of traveling the world and playing music as a profession. As in anything there are always ups and downs but this is the greatest thing I could think to do with myself. There are too many stories for this bio but suffice to say if I died tomorrow I’ve had a great life.