LINKS:

mxpx.com

Long before the likes of Sum 41 and Good Charlotte dominated the pop charts with their mass-marketed tunes, there was MxPx. Formed in 1992 as three 15-year-old classmates who wanted to play their own brand of fun, bratty punk, they are still going strong after all these years without ever stopping or forgetting their roots, as bands often do. In fact, not only have they come back to Tooth & Nail records, the very record label that signed them, they have also worked with Aaron Sprinkle, the producer who produced their debut, again, for their latest and eighth, full-length studio album, The Secret Weapon. So let’s hear what Tom Wisniewski, the guitarist of the band, has to say about it.

SK: Tell me about the new album, the title, debut single, recording process, new musical directions, working with Aaron Sprinkle again after ten years, et cetera. Tell me everything!

TW: Well, let’s see. Being back on Tooth & Nail, it was kind of like a homecoming. So we thought it would be sweet to work with Aaron Sprinkle because he did our first record and he’d been our friend for years. So we did that, and we banged it out. Really, we were in the studio and we bashed it out like we used to in the old days. We went in, and Bam! Bam! Done! Next! We knocked it out. We did sixteen songs in fifteen days. So yeah, it was all work--fun, but work. The title’s one of the songs. We thought it sounded cool. We couldn’t really think of anything else we liked. The song’s also up on our MySpace. It’s like saying to the world, “Hey, we got a record coming out soon, check it out!”

SK: The record is being released via Tooth & Nail, who released your first three albums. Why did you decide to come back to Tooth & Nail after 11 years?

TW: We worked with them over the summer last summer, and it was a good working environment. So when they made us an offer to do some records, it was like, you know what, it’d be cool to have a little homecoming, go back to your roots kind of thing. We didn’t really search it out. It kind of came to us.

SK: I heard the band recently filmed a video to the title song. Any fun stories during the filming that you can tell us?

TW: It was a very, very dusty day because we were in a dirt lot filming the video. I mean, it was really fun, but very dusty. Dust’s everywhere. The whole video is very punk rock--black and white, dirty--all punk. That’s the theme of the video.

SK: I want to know the relationship between the band and Christianity. Are you a Christian punk band, punk band that happens to have Christian members, Christian band with punk leanings, or what?

TW: I’d call us a band and people first. I am what I am. We’re basically people who happen to be Christians.

SK: I noticed that the band and the fan club have a very active and involved relationship, the band recording Christmas songs each year, doing live video feeds, et cetera. Tell me about the fans, things you do for them, what you think of them, the symbiotic relationship in general.

TW: We try to take care of our fans, the fan club especially. These are people who’ve been with us forever, so why wouldn’t we, really? We’re not one of those bands who look down on their fans. I think that’s ridiculous. I don’t get people who are like that, who kind of despise their fans. I guess people feel like they have to portray an image. We don’t, we don’t care.

SK: You guys did the Warped Tour in 2005, a deviation from your usual gigs, and the bands who have played the Warped Tour always seem to have a thing or two to say about it. What can you tell us about the experience?

TW: Warped is great. It’s fun. It’s like a summer camp for bands. You head out on the road, you’ve got bits of arts and crafts mixed in, you play a half-hour set every day, you hang out, you sign stuff for people, you meet different people. It’s fun, and it’s really hot! It happens that Warped tour plays every city on the hottest day of the year, no matter what. Every year we come to New York, the hottest day of the year, record-breaking. I think they call the weather guys and find out what the weather’s gonna be like and route the tour.

SK: This lineup has been together for twelve years now, which is a rare thing these days. What’s your secret for staying together?

TW: I think it’s the common drive to make music. I mean we don’t feel like it’s work for us. “Oh, it’s a drag, we gotta play music again.” It’s really fun, I get to do this for living, I get to travel the world, play music. I love it. It’s like a situation with brothers. Brothers may fight, but they’re still brothers!

SK: Tell me the highest of the high and the lowest of low you’ve experienced in the music business.

TW: It’s hard to say what was the high point and there are always low points. Stuff falls apart, you find out something that was gonna happen doesn’t happen. You trudge through it all, push through, and you’ve got to go with the “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” philosophy.