We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tom Wiggins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tom below.

Tom, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

The answer to that is yes, sooner for sure. The Bitz is one of the best cover bands I have been involved in. We are a relatively new wedding/corporate/variety band and this category is very competitive, more than being in the bar band category. I have been playing music in various bands most of my life and have only attempted running my own business once before as the owner of The Copy Cats back in the late 1990’s to the early 2000’s. Things went well, but I took a short break from the business side to adopt a child from a foreign country. I kept playing for other bands, but just didn’t have the time to run my own business.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My mom was a piano/organ teacher when I was growing up in Houston. My older brother played guitar, so I grew up in a musical family. I played in numerous cover bands in Houston. In fact, one of them moved to LA and I followed after them in the 1980’s to see what I could do musically. This is where I learned the business side of music and how to write songs. I joined the LASS (LA Songwriters Showcase) and started writing original music. I set up a publishing label with BMI. This is where I got my nickname Big Wig. I needed a name on the spot while I was in their office, so I created Big Wig Music. It’s a combo of the 1980’s big hair I had at the time and my last name. I stayed in the SoCal area for almost eight years, and then moved back to my home state of Texas. I landed in Austin based on my big brother’s recommendation and past musical experience. I continued testing the waters with my original music in the band Unlisted Numbers playing some well-known venues on 6th street and Austin festivals, but eventually decided to just play covers. I played in many bands and formed several bands. After a five-year term with Memphis Train, a popular R&B corporate/wedding band, I formed The Copy Cats. It was a ten-piece variety band. This was my first shot at owning my own business. Today I run The Bitz, a very similar model of a wedding/corporate/variety band, which is based out of Dripping Springs, Texas.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It took me a while to get going in LA. There were times I even slept in my car. My Dad retired and worked at Albertsons, so he would ship me some Wolf Brand chili so I could eat. Those were the tough years for sure. While performing in the 90’s in Austin with my original band we just were not getting the press we needed. I feel this was due to the type of music. We were very pop, and Austin had its own vibe for sure. Playing around town helped a lot and we got some good venues, but after a few years we just dissolved as the musical genres and demographics changed.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I am hoping to grow the popularity of The Bitz and bring clients a wonderful experience when they hire us. We are constantly learning tunes and expanding our very unique, yet popular, setlist. We are looking to the new year for a prosperous and busy one, and we are so excited to hear from our past clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebitzband.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebitzbandtx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BitzBand/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheBitzBandTx
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBitzBandTX
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/the-bitz-band-tx

Image Credits

Some of these photos were shot by Seven Pillars Photography, Michael Wright.