American rock group The Verve Pipe hails from Michigan. Brian Vander Ark, Brian Stout, and Donny Brown founded it in East Lansing in 1992. Brian Vander Ark, a member of the band “Johnny with an Eye,” signed a production contract with Station C Studios Inc. owner and producer/engineer Thomas Jansen in November 1992. After producing, recording, and mixing every track on “Johnny with an Eye,” Jansen wanted a bit more from the band. The “Water for the Pool” band of Don Brown was being courted by Jansen at the same time to come over and finish recording their album at Station C Studios. After that, Frazer was tasked with engineering the remainder of their album project.
Villains, their first major label release in 1996, was a modest hit that gave rise to two respectably selling singles: “Photograph,” which peaked at number 53 on the Billboard Airplay charts, and “The Freshmen,” which peaked at number five and became their most well-known track. The band gave a performance at Edgefest in Barrie, Canada, on June 28, 1997.
Brian Vander Ark revealed on his website on September 15 that the group would release a new album titled A Family Album in October 2009. An “entire album of family-friendly tunes” was produced by the band after they were asked to submit a song to the compilation album Calling All Kids. The announcement also mentioned that a rock record would be released after the family album. The band played a number of small venues shortly after the family album was released, primarily in Michigan and along the East Coast.