MXPX

Mike Herrera (vocals,bass)

Tom Wisniewski (guitar)

Yuri Ruley (drums)

“We’re portrayed as good guys and we are good guys,” admits Mike Herrera. “We don’t swear at the audience or tell girls to get naked on stage. At the same time, we’re not perfect and we do get pissed off. But we’re just real with people.”

But can “good guys” be in a pop punk band? Can you succeed by emphasizing empathy instead of apathy or anarchy? Will kids sing along about something other than cars, chicks and beer? For MxPx the answer is a resounding yes. Coming off its first gold album, 1998’s Slowly Going The Way Of The Buffalo, MxPx takes the next step in an ever-growing career with The Ever Passing Moment (A&M Records), released May 2000.

Produced by Jerry Finn (Blink-182, Rancid, Green Day, Superdrag), The Ever Passing Moment mixes primal punk roots, uncanny pop savvy and what Spin magazine has called “suspiciously un-punk soul-searching.” Immediate, powerful, fast ‘n’ loud, MxPx hits hard while at the same time balancing poppy, even hummable, melodies.

“It’s everything we love about MxPx and more,” says Herrera about its fifth studio album.” it says a lot about how we’re growing. When you get older you start listening deeper than what’s on the surface. I think we’re growing along with our audience.”

That audience has been following MxPx since the three were in high school. Classmates al Central Kitsap High School in Bremerton, Washington, Herrera (who writes most of the band’s songs), Yuri Ruley and Torn Wisniewski were each 17 years old when they recorded their debut album, Pokinatcha (1995). During spring break their senior year they recorded their second, Teenage Politics and, when they weren’t skateboarding, they also recorded a covers EP. On The Cover presents punked-up versions of songs such as “Take On Me” by A-ha, “Oh Boy” by Buddy Holly and “Donna” by Ritchie Valens.

On the Monday following graduation the band headed out on their first national tour. Thai year they played on bills with No Doubt and the Sex Pistols (at Seattle’s 1996 Bumbershoot Festival). “All we wanted to do was rock, to do something to fight off that small-town boredom,” Herrera says. “That’s the bottom line now too; we’re really into just rocking out.”

Fans have been drawn to the band not because they’ve been there but because they are there. “Kids don’t feel we’re in a totally different world from them like other bands. We’re not into the image of big rock stars, and that comes over in the songs. They’re real personal but not so personal that you can’t relate. They’re experiences kids deal with every day.”

These boomer babies from a working class Seattle suburb auditioned in Herrera’s parents’ garage to earn their first record deal with local indie Tooth & Nail. (Wisniewski replaced the original guitarist in 1995.) On weekends during high school the band (originally Magnified Plaid but abbreviated to MxPx) would fly or drive to Vancouver or Portland to do shows. “High school was surreal, weird. Nobody cared we had a band. They’d go, ‘Oh, cool,” Herrera recalls. “Now they see us and it’s ‘How’s your band?’ Now they talk to me!” With a DIY punk ethic they promoted their own shows, printed their own flyers and drove their own van.

MxPx’s third indie album, Life In General (1996), caught the attention of A&M Records, which reissued it the following year. The video to “Chick Magnet” made it to MTV and MxPx landed on the Warped Tour. In 1998 the group returned to that tour (with Rancid, the Deftones and NOFX) and journeyed to Europe to open for Bad Religion (whose guitarist, Greg Hetson, played on Life In General) and for Euro Warped. MxPx made its major label debut with Slowly Going The Way Of The Buffalo, which featured “I’m OK, You’re OK.” Within a year they played more than 200 concerts, many of which were headlining dates, and even toured Australia.

“Our career has been gradual. We never shot upwards. We’ve just been growing out our hair over the years, just going to the next level, each tour getting a little bigger. We haven’t sold millions but where we are now is amazing. We’re happy to play and have people sing along. Otherwise why do it?” Adds Wisniewski: ‘Because our songs are really melodic and really hard at the same time, they’re really fun to play live.”

Ruley acknowledges that MxPx is often compared to other pop punk bands “but we’ve made our own niche and we’re moving on. This album was the first one we had the time we needed to focus on more ideas. We have a unique energy, especially live, and that we’ve come close to it on an album is pretty cool.”

The only drawback to success is that their time was spent in the studio rather than just hanging out. “Every Friday night Yuri and I would skate down the hill into town. Now the band takes up most of our time.” Still, MxPx is a favorite of the skateboard/snowboard set. When one famed skateboarder scrawled “MxPx Rocks” on the bottom of one of his decks, fans noticed. “What’s cool is that high school kids are into lots of different punk bands, but when they’re into MxPx, we’re their favorite.” The extraordinary number of fan web sites devoted to the band is proof of that.

In 1999 an indie live album, At The Show, was released. At the beginning of 2000 came the home video release It Came From Bremerton, the story of MxPx through live performances (including clips from its first show), interviews and even embarrassing high school photos.

It’s been a long way from playing backyard barbecues to a gold album. “The first couple of days after we found out we went gold we were stoked. We’d never really thought about it before. But we know we have a great fan base.”

The band’s fans know a lot about MxPx, including that the three are Christians, which has been problematic for others. Explains Herrera, “We are Christian. It’s not a cult or something. It’s part of our story and I guess it’s different and controversial. But it’s a personal thing. It’s what we choose to believe. That’s all there is to it. We don’t preach to anyone.”

But MxPx does have a message to deliver, it just happens to be an optimistic one rather than a cynical one. “I’m pissed about a lot: greed, untruthfulness. Everyone’s unhappy about something. Life sucks for a lot of people. But when I write songs about that I try to leave it on the up, that things can get better. If you live for another day, you can live better. Nothing changes unless you make it change. Not that all our songs are serious but it’s good to say something once in a while. We don’t care if someone doesn’t like it. We love what we play.”

Now that’s a punk attitude, even for good guys.