“Everybody’s got a favorite song. With every song we wrote, we set out to make it our own favorite song – and not just because we wrote it. We wanted to put our songs up against the best rock songs we’d ever heard and feel just as good when we heard them. It wasn’t a record-selling strategy. It was a desire to make great music that we ourselves loved to play. Turns out others liked it, too.”

THE STORY OF THE BAND
Formed in the mid-90s at West Virginia University, the band caught the ear of a local investor/producer who believed enough in their original songs to pay for a studio album. While still students, the band headed first to Pittsburgh then to Smash Studios in Manhattan to record an original album. Being everyone's first experience in the studio, the band didn't know what to expect. But the album represented youthful energy well, and sold steadily. The band was invited to play live on WXDX 105.9 The X in Pittsburgh who spun tracks on their local's show.

ATLANTA
The album was strong enough to catch the attention of a promoter in Atlanta who invited the band to move south.

The band relocated to Atlanta in 1996 to plan their musical future.

The promoter who invited them to town didn't pan out. But they made new friends, including the Shane brothers, sons of Bob Shane, lead singer of the 50s/60s folk icons The Kingston Trio. The brothers stepped up as believers and funded the recording of an all new album.

Just days after completing their album Escaping The Wheel at Exocet Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, the album's first track Bitter Times received it's first airplay during peak drivetime at about 8:15AM on one of the country's highest-rated new rock stations - 99X - during their award-winning morning show The Morning X.

The band was still awaiting the mass-produced CDs to come in, but word of "the hit-qualities of every song on the album" had moved even faster. Early copies fell into the right hands.

The show's DJs gave an impressive introduction to the song. The fact that Wil's Drama was a young, unsigned band being spun among Foo Fighters, Creed & Dave Matthews raised some eyebrows. In just days, Billboard magazine and several major record labels were calling.

Airplay continued in Atlanta and Wil's Drama signed J. Reid Hunter (counsel for Grammy-winning and multi-platinum recording artists like John Mayer, The Fray, Shawn Mullins) as entertainment attorney in preparation for managing the business-side of music.

Over the next year, the band was voted one of the best unsigned bands in the country separately by VH1 & Musician Magazine, and played countless festivals and showcases including the Van's Warped Tour, Atlanta's Music Midtown, The 99X Big Day Out Festival, and the famed Continental Room in New York City.

The band also had various live radio encounters, including a live performance on Atlanta's 96ROCK morning show with The Regular Guys.

COMING FULL CIRCLE
Lenny Diana, music director at WXDX 105.9 The X in Pittsburgh, had the entire album in rotation. This was the very same station where the band played live in their college days.

The band was invited to perform at Pittsburgh's downtown M2 Festival in Market Square in front of a crowd approaching 10,000.

But in 2000, the days of big record deals came to a sudden, grinding halt. Downloading was becoming wildly popular and still unregulated. Record labels were hit hard due to the resultant lack of record sales. Just a year prior, 7-digit advances and multi-album deals were still happening. But suddenly, the tides turned. Unlike today, there were no other avenues to distribute music without the help of a record labels. The band found themselves at a crossroads, and Wil's Drama decided to take a break and wait out the storm...which never passed.

What's remains is the music. Set in stone forever, the songs are a legacy in the truest sense of the term. They resonated. And they are still here.

TODAY
All members of Wil's Drama are still active with music, some more publicly than others. Eric Hopper is now a popular country solo artist and songwriter. James Beale is the bassist for State of Man, a popular rock band who has toured the world, most notably on USO tours to support our troops. Kevin Caldwell became drummer for Sugarland for a period during their breakout success, and continues to drum with popular bands. Dan Ray and John Hansbrough focus more on their respective businesses and families these days, but are rarely far from their guitars or home studios and remain in form.

New Wil's Drama music? It's up to you, the listener, to request.

(The name Wil's Drama was based on a character from James Redfield's acclaimed best-selling novel, The Celestine Prophecy).

Wil's Drama is:

Eric Michael Hopper
Vocals

Dan Ray
Guitars

James Beale
Bass

John Hansbrough
Guitars

Kevin "Pony" Caldwell
Drums

BAND CONTACT

With Thanks To:

Mike Yablonicky
Drums ('94 -'97)

Shawn Nardella
Guitars ('94-'95)

All songs © Wil's Drama, BMI Publishing, General G and Infinity Records

EHOP Publishing
Ran For A Day Publishing
Slim-Tunes Music
Primer Blue Publishing
Pon-Star Music

Wil's Drama's
"Escaping The Wheel"
receives 5 out of 5 stars by
reviewers at AMAZON.com