About PS 7:17
Band Biography
PS 7:17 is a rock band. It is also a process and a mission. They are a group of musicians who have a vision for impacting whoever in the world they are able to reach with a universal language: music. Hailing from a small community in Southwestern Virginia, called Fincastle (near Roanoke, VA) they had humble beginnings which set the stage for dreams. Big dreams. They have gone through a time of explosive growth since their official conception in the summer
of 2012 and have moved from being a small band playing acoustic music to being a band that makes a big statement every performance they put on whether it’s acoustic, or full-blown electric. PS 7:17 is a band that is all about going against the grain of the typical. They
are a band of high energy, big sound, poetic presence and honesty, as well as
band that is all about love. Their music exists as part of their mission: to provide anyone and everyone who will listen with a message of love as an alternative to much of the negativity which dominates today’s modern world. They see love as the most
powerful force in the world, and they want to make it known through their blend
of upbeat, soft and edgy rock that this force is for everyone. PS 7:17
aims to play music that makes God—whom they believe is love—known and to be honest in sharing music that is intended for everyone, regardless of faith. Their aim is to also engage people from all walks of life, all faiths, and all systems of belief and to share a style of rock music that offers a positive and encouraging message of love for everyone, for audiences and venues
anywhere and everywhere. Music can be a way to say things that sometimes regular
words can't and PS 7:17 desires to play a part of the conversations that come
from that. They are currently in the process of writing and recording their
first EP.
of 2012 and have moved from being a small band playing acoustic music to being a band that makes a big statement every performance they put on whether it’s acoustic, or full-blown electric. PS 7:17 is a band that is all about going against the grain of the typical. They
are a band of high energy, big sound, poetic presence and honesty, as well as
band that is all about love. Their music exists as part of their mission: to provide anyone and everyone who will listen with a message of love as an alternative to much of the negativity which dominates today’s modern world. They see love as the most
powerful force in the world, and they want to make it known through their blend
of upbeat, soft and edgy rock that this force is for everyone. PS 7:17
aims to play music that makes God—whom they believe is love—known and to be honest in sharing music that is intended for everyone, regardless of faith. Their aim is to also engage people from all walks of life, all faiths, and all systems of belief and to share a style of rock music that offers a positive and encouraging message of love for everyone, for audiences and venues
anywhere and everywhere. Music can be a way to say things that sometimes regular
words can't and PS 7:17 desires to play a part of the conversations that come
from that. They are currently in the process of writing and recording their
first EP.
One Wild Ride, And It's Only The Beginning
More of Our Story
PS 7:17 is a Christian alternative rock band that is literally a band of brothers from a small town community in Southwestern Virginia. They all hail from opposite ends of a widely spread rural Botetourt County, spending a great amount of time outside the town of Fincastle, near Roanoke, Virginia. In a way, the band has existed for as long as its members have been playing music, but in way invisible to even its members.
The band consists of two sets of brothers: guitarists Eric and Greg Whiting and rhythm instrumentalists Rob and Matthew Smith. The blood-line bound quartet that is PS 7:17 (pronounced P-S, as in post script, seven-seventeen) had quite an unusual conception as a band. All of the band’s members attended James River High School in Buchanan, Virginia with their friendships actually having been planted further beyond that in Middle School. All through high school the brothers spent a great amount of their time in musical activities and playing varsity soccer. When they weren’t playing soccer they were dreaming of forming a rock band with many other friends in school and maybe making it big someday like the bands they listened to such as Yellowcard, The Almost, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus among others.
Forming a rock band in high school was not how PS 7:17 started. In fact, it was nowhere close. Although they loved playing music and were content to rock out in Bassist Rob Smith’s bedroom, they were all young teenagers spread across a very rural setting without many resources or life experience to start a band. The four friends all eventually graduated from high school and went on to the world of balancing college and workforce demands. They all kept in touch and in winter of 2011 the two guitarists and bassist started meeting at the Whiting brothers’ church on Sunday nights to play a few praise and worship songs to empty pews purely for fun and their own pleasure. They never really anticipated the get-togethers going anywhere. They thought of themselves simply as an amateur and loosely associated group of guys that loved God and loved playing music and thought that church on Sunday nights was probably as far as they were going to go. This continued until Spring of 2012 when drummer Matthew Smith showed up one night with a full drum kit and filled the church with a driving sound not familiar, yet beautifully energetic to the other three men. Having the presence of a skilled, motivated, and self-taught drummer completed a full ensemble on stage for the first time for the brothers. They played together for fun and were blown away at how they could sound as a full band. This was the turning point where they decided they wanted to pursue playing music publically and thus the conception of PS 7:17 came to be. In all their excitement with this thought, the group temporarily dubbed themselves “717” as a joke almost, combining their jersey numbers 7 and 17 from playing soccer.
The next day the band checked Psalm 7, verse 17 in the Bible just to see what it said. And appropriately so, they discovered that the verse said “I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.” This idea of singing praises and the fact that it was located in chapter seven, verse seventeen resonated within the band and the name PS 7:17 was immediately accepted without a doubt or second thought. From that point on the members of PS 7:17 started noticing the numbers seven and seventeen appearing for them on numerous occasions. Rob Smith noticed that a coffee shop purchase of his totaled $7.17. He was also driving one day and observing the numerous churches on the drive and the frequency with which he saw them when suddenly he realized that he had just passed state route 717. Eric Whiting’s mathematical equations in his engineering homework yielded the number .717 on more than one occasion. For the band’s first large performance they were singing hymns in a church as part of a Christmas service when Greg Whiting cracked open the hymnal absent-mindedly and opened it to hymn number 717. These were all occurrences the band felt that they could not ignore or merely cast aside as coincidence. The frequent (and still ongoing) appearance of these numbers paired with the encouragement and prayers of many friends, family, and supporters plus the various resources and opportunities opening up skyrocketed PS 7:17 in their pursuit of playing Christian music in ways they never anticipated.
Currently PS 7:17 spends much of their time playing in Southwest Virginia in the Roanoke Valley area with intentions of playing churches, festivals,--virtually anywhere they are led to go. Their plans also include playing around the Harrisonburg, Virginia area, since Rob and Matthew Smith reside there. Despite the two halves of the band being two hours apart, PS 7:17 is dedicated to playing and practicing whether it be in a church sanctuary or a basement. As a band they are willing to go out to play music geared toward both worship and secular settings. With their flexible style of light and edgy rock mixed with an ever-increasing experimental sound, PS 7:17 aims to play music that glorifies God first and foremost and to be honest in sharing music that is intended for everyone, regardless of faith. Their aim is to also engage people from all walks of life, all faiths, and all systems of belief and to share a style of rock music of many types that offers a positive and encouraging message of love for everyone, for audiences and venues anywhere and everywhere. Music can be a way to say things that sometimes regular words can't and PS 7:17 desires to play a part of the conversations that come from that.
The band consists of two sets of brothers: guitarists Eric and Greg Whiting and rhythm instrumentalists Rob and Matthew Smith. The blood-line bound quartet that is PS 7:17 (pronounced P-S, as in post script, seven-seventeen) had quite an unusual conception as a band. All of the band’s members attended James River High School in Buchanan, Virginia with their friendships actually having been planted further beyond that in Middle School. All through high school the brothers spent a great amount of their time in musical activities and playing varsity soccer. When they weren’t playing soccer they were dreaming of forming a rock band with many other friends in school and maybe making it big someday like the bands they listened to such as Yellowcard, The Almost, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus among others.
Forming a rock band in high school was not how PS 7:17 started. In fact, it was nowhere close. Although they loved playing music and were content to rock out in Bassist Rob Smith’s bedroom, they were all young teenagers spread across a very rural setting without many resources or life experience to start a band. The four friends all eventually graduated from high school and went on to the world of balancing college and workforce demands. They all kept in touch and in winter of 2011 the two guitarists and bassist started meeting at the Whiting brothers’ church on Sunday nights to play a few praise and worship songs to empty pews purely for fun and their own pleasure. They never really anticipated the get-togethers going anywhere. They thought of themselves simply as an amateur and loosely associated group of guys that loved God and loved playing music and thought that church on Sunday nights was probably as far as they were going to go. This continued until Spring of 2012 when drummer Matthew Smith showed up one night with a full drum kit and filled the church with a driving sound not familiar, yet beautifully energetic to the other three men. Having the presence of a skilled, motivated, and self-taught drummer completed a full ensemble on stage for the first time for the brothers. They played together for fun and were blown away at how they could sound as a full band. This was the turning point where they decided they wanted to pursue playing music publically and thus the conception of PS 7:17 came to be. In all their excitement with this thought, the group temporarily dubbed themselves “717” as a joke almost, combining their jersey numbers 7 and 17 from playing soccer.
The next day the band checked Psalm 7, verse 17 in the Bible just to see what it said. And appropriately so, they discovered that the verse said “I will give thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the Lord Most High.” This idea of singing praises and the fact that it was located in chapter seven, verse seventeen resonated within the band and the name PS 7:17 was immediately accepted without a doubt or second thought. From that point on the members of PS 7:17 started noticing the numbers seven and seventeen appearing for them on numerous occasions. Rob Smith noticed that a coffee shop purchase of his totaled $7.17. He was also driving one day and observing the numerous churches on the drive and the frequency with which he saw them when suddenly he realized that he had just passed state route 717. Eric Whiting’s mathematical equations in his engineering homework yielded the number .717 on more than one occasion. For the band’s first large performance they were singing hymns in a church as part of a Christmas service when Greg Whiting cracked open the hymnal absent-mindedly and opened it to hymn number 717. These were all occurrences the band felt that they could not ignore or merely cast aside as coincidence. The frequent (and still ongoing) appearance of these numbers paired with the encouragement and prayers of many friends, family, and supporters plus the various resources and opportunities opening up skyrocketed PS 7:17 in their pursuit of playing Christian music in ways they never anticipated.
Currently PS 7:17 spends much of their time playing in Southwest Virginia in the Roanoke Valley area with intentions of playing churches, festivals,--virtually anywhere they are led to go. Their plans also include playing around the Harrisonburg, Virginia area, since Rob and Matthew Smith reside there. Despite the two halves of the band being two hours apart, PS 7:17 is dedicated to playing and practicing whether it be in a church sanctuary or a basement. As a band they are willing to go out to play music geared toward both worship and secular settings. With their flexible style of light and edgy rock mixed with an ever-increasing experimental sound, PS 7:17 aims to play music that glorifies God first and foremost and to be honest in sharing music that is intended for everyone, regardless of faith. Their aim is to also engage people from all walks of life, all faiths, and all systems of belief and to share a style of rock music of many types that offers a positive and encouraging message of love for everyone, for audiences and venues anywhere and everywhere. Music can be a way to say things that sometimes regular words can't and PS 7:17 desires to play a part of the conversations that come from that.
Copyright PS 7:17