ABOUT ME I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I reside today. I grew up in a household full of highly-accomplished musicians, including a church organist, jazz bassists, and a heavy metal drummer. I started playing the piano when I was just tall enough to see over the keyboard, received my first drum set when I was ten years old, started taking tuba lessons in the 4th grade, picked up the bass guitar in the 7th grade, and somewhere in the middle of all that, I began playing the accordion. I officially started my musical career at age eleven, occasionally playing drums with a dixieland band. In 1986 at the age of sixteen, I joined my first polka band, and remained with them for twenty years. During that time, I also became involved with several other bands in the Milwaukee area. In the late 1990's, I started up my own polka-variety band. Today, besides running my band, I occasionally help out other bands as a sideman, whether it's playing drums, accordion, keyboard, or bass guitar. I am the proprietor of Tom Brusky LLC, which is an entity that encompasses all of my music business endeavors — band, recording studio, music production, and websites. My recording studio, Polkasound Productions, provides professional audio and graphic design services exclusively to polka musicians. Polkasound Productions started in 1990 as a four-track recording studio and has since grown into a digital audio workstation-based studio. When I'm not performing or recording music, you'll likely find me on the tennis courts. I've been an avid competitive and recreational tennis player since 2011. I also enjoy biking and spoiling my cats. [See a video tribute to Kittling, 1992-2009]