The Taxmen, a four-man band inspired by the Beatles and their English rock band song “The Taxman” is planning to continue their work after gaining popularity in August at Mad Planet, a dance club in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee.
The four members bring different musical gifts to the table; Anthony Kopczysnki is on bass, Will Maher plays guitar, Jeffrey Thaddeus Dziadulewiczv is on lead guitar and Will Martin is the drummer.
After playing together in a band called The Empty Blueprint back in high school, the four held onto their love of music throughout college at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and just recently are pursuing their dreams to make music a full-time career.
“We started playing music with each other in fifth grade, so like, 2011. But like we were kind of just a meme for twelve years until August of this year. August this year was technically our first real show that had nothing to do with a homecoming, it was actually at a venue that paid us money,” Anthony Kopczynski, lead singer, said.
The band said during the pandemic was the biggest way they were able to find inspiration.
“To be honest the year of quarantine, I guess 2020. I was home like living at my parents’ house I had so much time to just play music that I wrote the most songs I’ve ever written in my life that year,” Kopczynski said.
Kopczynski said overall they would consider themselves to be a jam band, playing any music from the 40‘s to current hits.
“We’re pretty jam bandy, I don’t want to say classic rock feel, but like classic rock with a modern edge. Bright rock, maybe? Tropical thunder. Pop rock, tropical thunder. We will play like ‘Sh-Boom’ and then ‘Kiss Me Through the Phone’ and then we will play ‘In the Mood’ and ‘Heartless,’” Kopczynski said.
Currently, Maher said, the band is playing at a variety of wedding and local parties.
“We are a band for hire right now I’d say mostly so really anyone that wants us, that will have us, we’ll go. That’s the thing we can play a range from a nursing home to a bar and we can fit into a style that say a company or a family wants,” Maher said.
Maher said the group has a strong bond, because during practice it can sometimes get stressful.
“We like to keep it joking and goofy forward. If we can joke around and that kind of thing it can diffuse tensions that are there,” Maher said.
The Taxmen is in the best place it has ever been musically and is excited for what opportunities are yet to come, Maher said.
“I think the thing I am most excited for is just to bring to life our songs we have written and have the physical versions of them that we can just share with people and be proud of. Because right now we just have a bunch of dreams and we got to put them down and like once it’s there, then it’s there forever. So, I’m just really excited to have that moment of owning actual songs and audio,” Kopczynski said.
The Taxmen are playing at Mad Planet Nov. 4 alongside two other bands for Battle of the Bands night.
This story was written by Mimi Sinotte, she can be reached at [email protected].
