John Wozniak is the singer, guitarist and primary songwriter of Marcy Playground. Odds are you know him as the voice behind "Sex And Candy," the larger-than-life hit that topped the charts for much of the late '90s and earned his band a Platinum Record and worldwide acclaim in the process. Before he was writing songs the whole world would sing, Wozniak was a kid in Minneapolis who was learning the ins and out of the guitar and playing in a church band called Angels With Flaming Swords.
Recently, My First Band host Tyler Maas spoke to Wozniak about Marcy Playground's incredible 20-plus-year run, what he's working on now and everything that came beforehand. Over the course of the interview, Wozniak talked about growing up in Minnesota, the process of writing and recording his Zog Bogbean solo project, his formative and life-changing move to Olympia for college, the process of getting signed to a major label deal, and the even-more-unfathomable occurrence of having the biggest song in the world after getting dropped from that major label.
My First Band is sponsored by Mystery Room Mastering and Lakefront Brewery. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you get podcasts. You can also listen to rebroadcasts of previous My First Band episodes on WMSE every Wednesday from noon to 12:30 p.m. CST. Music used in this episode comes courtesy of Devils Teeth ("The Junction Street Eight Tigers") and Marcy Playground ("Good Times").
