The VIPS are what one can call a "bonus room band". Over the years we have literally traveled from bonus room to bonus room trying to make room to practice together. Ironically, the bonus rooms are directly over the garage. Guess you could say we are the way of the future but then again, it didn't all start there.

We began just as friends who had musical interests ranging from drums to piano and even guitar. The eldest of us three was only 12 years old about the same time we came up with our first song entitled "The Donut Song". Song writing had to start somewhere and for Christopher, his muse then was food. He wrote up a few more but the lyrics didn't sound like a 12 year old had written them. The Donut Song, at the time, still remained the most prominent song performed by us and even gained recognition of executives at Krispy Kreme. Thomas always had a childhood rivalry with Chris and if Chris was writing songs he had to too. Thomas began creating fun and enjoyable songs that were simple but intriguing enough to grab anyone's attention. He struck gold when he came up with Workaholic and that was his first true hit. From there Tom and Chris were just laying down songs and we would learn them, practice them, and write another song; but all this time, Raymond hadn't written a song himself. One day Raymond came to Chris' house and began to play around on the piano when he found some awesome chords that just seemed to flow. He attracted Christopher's attention and from there "The Storm" was made. Raymond found himself to be adept in providing a percussive accompaniment in most songs and this only helped in creating a solid sound for the group.

High School came and distractions were everywhere. We picked up a few players along the way but Chris, Tom, and Ray were the core of the group from the get go. Well it was Christopher's Senior year in High School and they were having a talent show. We saw this as an opportunity to get our name out there and see how good we actually are. We practiced night and day and when it came to the performance, we made it known we were there to have fun and play some great music. The audience loved it and that was the beginning of The VIPS not just as a group of friends, but a band.