About Serenity Brings the Storm

Coronavirus took a huge toll on the Music Industry. Live music and the hosting venues for live music took the greatest hit.

Following the lifting of restrictions, Serenity received calls from some musicians known to her reaching out to see what her interest level might be in doing some Classic Rock and Country.

A year of rehearsal and sifting through appealing music to bring the idea to life..

And SBTS was born.

Serenity Brings The Storm is a Classic Rock and Country band bringing back favorites from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and more, spanning a broad cross section of classic rock, pop & country sprinkled with a few R&B and funk numbers to round out a spirited performance keeping it hard to stay off the dance floor.

Our Sample Song List can be found here (Link to be created to a shared file)

Read more about “The Storm” band members here: (link to be created or page)

The Band

Chuck Hilboldt – Percussion

Chuck Hilboldt started playing drums at the age of nine, with the Racine, WI Kiltie Kadets, Drum and Bugle Corps. After a long hiatus, he rediscovered his love for music in the 1990’s – teaching his young son percussion. Now retired, he practices practically every day, and particularly enjoys playing with Serenity Brings the Storm.

He plays a Yamaha Tour Custom set, with a 13” Ludwig Brass Snare.

Influences: Floyd Sneed, Rob “Beatdown” Brown and Joe Morello.

Chuck dedicates his playing to his first drum instructor, CPL Charles A. Johnson, KIA, Binh Dinh, VNM, 9.11.67.

Thank you Charlie.

Michael Caporaso – Guitar

Michael’s musical interests began during elementary school in Summit, New Jersey where he played drums in the school band and was invited to join the All-City Choir. He started playing guitar at the age of 14, inspired by a Junior High School assembly student performance of “Walk Don’t Run”. So, the journey begins. Michael purchased his first electric guitar and hand built an amplifier from old television parts laying around in his basement. This was soon replaced with a Fender amplifier and a 1966 Gretsch Tennesean guitar. Residing 15 miles west of New York City from the mid-1960’s to early 1970’s, he would frequent Manny’s Music for the latest in gear and listen to street musicians in Central Park and Greenwich Village. The area concert venues were endless and significantly influenced his musical interests. As a self-taught musician, he was absorbed in American Rock and British Invasion bands and developed his own style based on this influence. Michael began gigging with his 9th grade band and continued performing throughout his life in various groups and venues in New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Arizona. He is thrilled to have teamed up with talented bandmembers to continue his quest to play music for people to enjoy.

Paul Phillips – Guitar

Paul Phillips started off playing trumpet in the 5th grade. Paul’s interest quickly moved to guitar due to the many garage bands in his Livonia, Michigan neighborhood. The most popular band at the time was the “Phogg”. The lead guitarist and singer Steve Sampson lived behind Paul’s family and gave him his first guitar lessons. Paul’s mom made brownies for Steve as payment for lessons, a favorite of his! In High School Paul met a group of guys interested in progressive rock and blues. They played everything from the Yes, Todd Rundgren to Savoy Brown. Paul at this point was playing bass guitar. He returned to playing rhythm guitar with a rock band while at the University of Michigan. The school and work load caused Paul to take a 20-year break from playing. Renewed interest occurred when he saw a band playing on a street corner in Chicago. Paul returned to playing guitar and now drums. While working at Nissan Design & Engineering Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan Paul met a variety of musicians. Paul was asked by one of the Nissan executives Mutsuko Endo who was a prolific musician to play on an instrumental CD which Paul refers to as the ‘Japan elevator music’ sessions. Later Paul would do weekend jams with fellow employees. After retirement Paul moved to Carefree, Arizona where he played with an Elvis tribute band “Viva Lost Wages” and currently plays guitar with the “Serenity Brings the Storm” band. Paul enjoys the group very much and the collection of rock, soul and country music they play.

Tom Roche – Bass

Native born in a small Arizona border town, growing up listening to his parents am radio, Tom picked up the coronet and started playing. For fun, up on the coffee table, he blew his horn for friends and neighbors at his parents coctail parties. This was It! The kid had found his calling! Tom played the coronet all throughout his school years and had a lot of great times at the football games as the first coronet performing in his high schools marching band.

While at U of A his buddies needed a bass player for their rock and roll band. So between that and the girls hanging around, it didnt take much persuasion for him to set aside the horn, pick up the bass and hold the bottom end of the rockin grooves they were laying down.

As it often goes, the record producers weren’t knocking on their door and all this fun came at a cost, so he and his buddies needed to get serious about making some cash and they had to get paying jobs. Still, they were happy to keep jamming and play on the weekends.

In the early 80’s, Tom moved to Phoenix and without skipping a beat, he continued playing bass in several local bar bands.

Fast forward to today, Tom is retired now and has never stopped playing the bass and jamming with lots of other talented musicians. Music is what makes him tick. For Tom music is the heart beat of this crazy and wild world and it is what gets him through the ups and downs of life. Tom hopes when people hear him play with his bandmates it makes for some good music and happy memories spent together doing what they all love.