By Anton Dedvukaj
In late 2016, then sixth grader Will Leitner and friend Findley McRae, started a classic rock band. Later on, they would reach out to their friend, Dylan Wels, who would eventually become their bass player.
The V.I.P.S, began to work on a debut album, entitled “Are You In The V.I.P.S?”, and posted updates to YouTube regarding the album’s progress throughout 2017. Later in the summer, they uploaded various covers such as “Hotel California” and “Seven Nation Army” on all major streaming platforms. After about a year of work, the album’s writing process had been completed and they released its lead single, “Play My Banjo.”
The band would continue to release new covers and singles. One of which was a cover of the Beatles’ “Let it Be”, which contains uncredited piano playing from the IMS band teacher Mr. Paul Scattaretico.
This, however, was not the end of Wels nor Leitner’s music career as they collaborated with an IHS freshman rapper, Yung Toni. Wels, under the name Lil Dilly, and worked with him on the song “Living My Life,” which was released on SoundCloud in March. Leitner, under the moniker Globo 18, worked with him and fellow rapper Robin Dabank on the song “Electric”, which was released in July.
Leitner has also made solo music throughout the past year and a half. On May 4, he released an extended play entitled “Welcome to the Herd”, as the one-man band Mammoth. The album contains three of the songs from the extended play as well as five additional tracks. The three songs that were featured on both the EP and the album were previously released as instrumental demos in August 2018 as a part of Globo 18’s three track single “Metal”. Most recently, he released an acoustic instrumental EP entitled “Summer” on September 2, 2019.
Leitner confirmed that he is “done” releasing music as a part of the V.I.P.S, stating. “I’ll just keep making music by myself or with other people. Whether Dylan [will be] a part of that, I don’t know.”
When asked how the band started, he said, “I just wanted to make music and I found other people who wanted to make music too. Before, I was just practicing playing alone, but playing ‘Hotel California’ with Dylan made it so much more fun.”
Wels stated that he learned about the “importance of being a bandmate” and that there “aren’t any plans for future music” at this current time.
Leitner and Wels both agreed that “Play My Banjo” was their favorite track that they’ve made. “It’s a really fun song to listen to,” said Leitner. He continued, “When we first released it, people came up to us and knew the lyrics. It was cool to see people gravitating towards it.”
To listen to VIPS, check out their Youtube page here.
