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How many contemporary string quartets can count renowned film composer Danny Elfman, members of Tool, Deftones, The Killers, Underoath, and hordes of teen Facebookers as devoted fans? Only one that we know of, and that’s The Vitamin String Quartet, the band who has made a name for itself as the spoonful of sugar that helps the classical-music medicine go down for a generation of music lovers who wouldn’t normally be caught dead imbibing chamber music.

How popular is ‘VSQ’? Well, loyal fans on iTunes gave the quartet its acronym, the label receives emails from high school students begging the quartet to play their hometown, and bands like Mastodon and Coheed & Cambria play their recordings at live shows. Several groups including influential metal act As I Lay Dying and prog-metal proponents Dream Theater have initiated and participated in the creation of VSQ’s tribute to their band. Meanwhile the best-selling Vitamin String Quartet tribute to the art rock band Tool prompted frontman Maynard James Keenan to invite Vitamin musicians to play on Perfect Circle’s The Thirteenth Step. Their recordings have been licensed for film and television, most notably on So You Think You Can Dance.

Comprised of a rotating collective of top-flight Los Angeles musicians, Vitamin String Quartet is widely known for its tributes to important rock acts, having built a wide-ranging discography over the past decade on Vitamin Records.