Veipa Cray

Who is Veipa Cray?

It all started when Robert Smith found it at a vintage art show in Chicago.

Smith, a graphic designer at a local ad agency, always has an eye out for quirky artwork from the city's past, and this was special.

So he bought the poster, the exact amount for which is undisclosed to preserve matriomony. And in most cases, the story would end there, the story of another decoration in another house in another city in America.

But not in this case.

The poster, dated back to the 1920's, announced the upcoming jazz showcase of one of they city's rising stars. And it was signed: "To Robert, all my love, Veipa Cray."

"I had to have it," Smith said. "It was just so cool. It had my name written all over it. Literally."

"I started to get obsessed with this woman," Smith said. "I Googled her, and came up with nothing. But there she was, sitting on my wall, staring at me."

The obsession got to the point where it was affecting his dreams. So he did the only thing he could; he wrote.

" I thought about her and then all the other people who have had an impact on my life, most of whom I don't know where they went or what happened to them," Smith said. "That became 'Secret Lives of the Left Behind.'"

He pulled in ex-Sunspots bandmate Scott Hargis in to help him write the music to Secret Lives, and a new muscial venture was born.

Smith was not the only one affected by that fateful artwork.

"Sometimes I hear music when I look at it," Hargis said. "I don't mean in my head, I mean, it sounds like it's outside. Like I'm really hearing it.

"I've had people tell me I need to stop doing drugs or start doing other drugs, but it's real to me."

Reflecting on the impact of this forgotten star of yesteryear was the basis for "Something to Remember," Hargis said.

The band now had a muse. But what the band didn't have was a band. After several attempts to find a rhythm section, they eventually hooked up with bassist Ben Cirillo, who brought along an old high school friend, drummer Tony Alberti.

And what do the newcomers think of the band's muse?

"It's a cool poster," said Cirillo, "but as for any kind of inspiration from beyond? I think it's just a trick of the subconscious."

"That chick creeps me right the hell out," Alberti said. "No matter where you are in the room, it's like she's staring at you."

So who is Veipa Cray? Muse reaching out through time into a new generation, or an elaborate trick of the mind? In truth, we have no idea. The poster seems to be the only evidence she ever existed. There is only one thing that is for certain in this whole saga: Real or imagined, this woman will keep inspiring music for years to come.