Five Valley Forge Christian College alumni, employees and one student is a formula for successful music. Pompton Lakes is proof of that Jeff Martin, Isaac Strader '11, Vinnie Lupoli '07, Dan Desrosiers '05 and Denny Archer (sophomore), have combined musical abilities and efforts to create a band that produces outstanding music – Pompton Lakes.

Their “Safe Rock” sound (as it has been labeled by some) requires an enormous amount of instrumental prowess to perform. This is no garage band! Pompton Lakes is a group of highly proficient musicians and composers.

All five members have attended the same Philadelphia-area church for some time, and their cooperative musical career developed out of that connection. In 2011, the group led worship at a young adult conference in Pompton Lakes, NJ; spectators at the event loved the sound of their music, and urged them to continue performing together. Due to the encouragement of these attendees, the five decided to officially establish Pompton Lakes in January 2012. Naturally, the band’s name comes from the story of their initial formation.

For the first half of 2012, Pompton Lakes spent time composing the songs that are now featured on their debut album, entitled Rest (released October 30, 2012). The album is a collection of eight songs that tell the story of faith; essentially, Rest is a “concept album” that explains the nature of faith as a journey, and helps the listener realize that it’s okay to ask questions and seek answers. However, no matter what the message of the album may be, Desrosiers makes the purpose of Pompton Lakes clear: “All we are trying to do is glorify God.” In a recent interview with VFCC, he was sure to point out that “the whole album is really our worship.”

Pompton Lakes is in the process of building a fan base and booking concerts. In order to bring more glory to the name of God, they want to introduce as many people as possible to their music. One way that the band has done so is through the Internet; Pompton Lakes recently released an official music video of the song “Home” (which was recorded and produced by current VFCC students in the Digital Media Center) on YouTube – and it was greeted with a rapid surge of views. As a result, the band is now in the preliminary stages of producing another music video to post on YouTube.

Rest can be found on iTunes, AmazonMP3, and Spotify. For more information on Pompton Lakes, visit their website.