WHIPLASH

          It all started when Jay was writing lyrics in his spare time. After getting some ideas

down on paper he started creating musical ideas to go with the lyrics. Before he knew it

he had quite a few songs started. He began refining these songs and little by little

transformed them into what they are now.

          Jay put together a three piece band using a couple of friends from work. There it

was, Jay on guitar and vocals, Ben on drums, and Vivian on Bass and Epitaph was born.

They practiced three days a week, learned some covers, and then played some parties at

Vivian’s house for friends and family. It was a lot of fun for awhile but Vivian finally

dropped out and Jay and Ben were on their own.

          Jay and Ben found Mike to play bass. The new Epitaph was born. They worked

diligently coming up with more ideas for songs but never finalized anything. They worked

on new covers to get enough material to play somewhere for money. After about six

months of practice Ben decided to stop coming to practice. Mike knew a drummer though

and invited Steve to come over and audition. Steve was fitting in quite well. He picked up

on Jay’s material quickly and brought new covers with him that we could work on to

expand our repertoire. Then we decided to change the name to Devastation and continue

learning and practicing new material. We were getting pretty tight when Steve’s fiance

decided it was either going to be her or the band. Steve, of course, chose her and that was

the end of Devastation. Mike went on to form Zero Fixx and Jay was on his own again.

          After a few months Jay started practicing with his neighbor Lonnie up the street.

Lonnie got some people together to watch them play in his basement once or twice a

week. They were having fun messing around with new sounds and old music and thought

it was fun to have new people come over and play along. Jay asked Jeff to come over to

jam on the drums one night. Jeff liked the songs Jay had written and arranged. Jeff

wanted to jam more, so they set up a regular jam night once a week. This went on for a

few months when Jeff thought we should start looking for additional personnel to add to

the songs. We had several people come over to audition for lead guitar and bass. There

were two people that had been playing together for awhile that was pretty good. We

practiced twice a week and got pretty good. We decided on the new band name of

Phyxius. We had decided to go play some parties and wherever we could just to get the

exposure. Then one day the bass player, Don, came to practice and told us he had been

asked to play in a country band. Don was more into country and I said he should follow

his true feelings. The lead guitarist, Jerry, wanted to teach Tai kwon do. Needless to say

Jeff and I were back looking for replacements.

          Jay and Jeff practiced continuously for about six months when Jay asked Todd to

come over and jam one night after work. Todd really liked the songs, smoked the leads,

and brought a lot of energy to the mix. Todd, however, was really busy with family

activities and could not make the once a week practice. Jay and Jeff kept practicing for

months. After Todd’s schedule calmed down he started making the once a week practice.

They jammed on new material and covers as well as the original material. They decided

they needed a bass player to get anywhere so we started asking around work. They had

Dan come over and jam with them, but he was too busy to make the practices. Finally

Jerry said he didn’t care what he needed to do, but he wanted to be part of the band. Jay

told him to learn to play the bass, because they needed a bass player.

          Jerry borrowed Jay’s bass guitar and amp and practiced with the band. Jay would

tab out all of the songs for Jerry to be able to play. The added amplification of the bass

and two guitars made it impossible for Jay to hear himself sing the songs, so Jay decided

he needed a bigger PA system. Jerry bought the bass rig from Jay so he could afford to

buy more PA equipment. Jerry also bought a bass guitar. Things were starting to roll.

Everyone liked the songs and was getting very comfortable with playing them. They

practiced once a week at first then added another day. They were ready to play out but

they need a name. Everyone bounced names around but nothing stuck out. Then one day

Jay was moving some PA speakers around and tweaked his neck. He went to the

chiropractor to have it looked at and found out he had an old injury to his neck. The

doctor showed him some X-rays of his neck and began to tell him he at one time in his life

sustained a “Whiplash”. There it is!

The name of the band was destined to be Whiplash. Jay checked the trademarks for the

name and was told there were no musical groups with that name. Jay took all of his songs

and sent them off for copyright under the name of Whiplash.

          Whiplash built a portable stage and played their first gig at a Halloween party for

some friends at work.

          The band decided to go into the studio to cut a single, “In And Out In A Day”. They

printed off 65 copies and started circulating them around to their friends and family. Jerry

took one up to the local rock radio station and they played it during a local battle of the

bands. People called in to the station to vote on which band they liked the best. Whiplash

won the radio contest and got the opportunity to play at one of Wichita’s oldest

established venues, “The Port of Wichita” against another local band named “Third Hill”.

The contest was held on a Tuesday night and the winner was decided by a decibel meter

reading of the cheers of the crowd on hand. Unfortunately Third hill won the live contest

by a narrow margin.

          The next gig was in Haysville Kansas with another local band “Mind Decay” for an

all ages show. About 160 to 200 people showed up and rocked the house.

          The next step was to go into the studio and record the entire CD, which consisted of

10 songs. It began about 10:00am on a Saturday and ended about 5:00pm on Sunday.

After a couple of weeks listening to the master it was decided to make a few alterations.

About two more hours on a Sunday afternoon in February 2007 and the project was

complete. Whiplash “In And Out In A Day” was finally a reality and available to the public.