VCU Pep Band to release first album this week

Samantha Foster
Staff Writer

The Peppas, VCU’s Pep Band, will be releasing their self-titled album on Nov. 30.

Best known for keeping the crowds entertained during basketball games, the Peppas began recording their album this past May at Mills E. Godwin High School.

The self-titled album can be purchased from any VCU basketball game and from any member of the pep band for $8. At each game, there will be a table set up in the lobby selling albums, as well as a member of the band walking around in the stands selling them.

Pep band director Ryan Kopacsi said that the decision to record an album came from several people asking him if a recording was possible.

“With so much interest, I knew we had to do it,” said Kopacsi.

“The album was a long time overdue,” said Leslie Lopez, art history major and administrative assistant for the pep band.

Any pep band member who had the time was welcome to record for the album.

“The kids that are in the band have worked so hard during the past few years. They earned (this album),” Kopacsi said.

The CD is 10 tracks long, but not all the tracks are music. One track is a “thank-you-for-listening” track, and a few tracks describe the history of the pep band. Some favorites of the musical tracks include “Do What Cha Wanna” and “She’s a Keeper.”

The pep band also called upon VCU Pep Band alumni as guest instrumentalists and to arrange songs for the CD.

“We are forever indebted to them for helping us,” Lopez said.

The Peppas will not be turning any profit from their album sales.

“We will merely look to cover the cost of the CD production,” Kopacsi said.

Even though the release of their album at the Nov. 30 basketball game will spark more of a celebration, the pep band says that they party every time they get to play in front of their VCU basketball fans.

“There are a lot of new songs and the old classics,” Lopez said. All the songs that really get the crowd going are on the album.”

Photos by Chris Conway