CYE Street Team

Brett Callaway, guitarist for the newly signed Victory Records band, Close Your Eyes, never expected to find a good friend and musical partner the very first week he was on campus at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. But HSU was the very place that the paths of Brett and vocalist Shane Raymond converged. Shane explains their first encounter, “We met in the cafeteria. Brett was wearing a Dillinger Escape Plan shirt and I was wearing an As I Lay Dying shirt, and we commented on each other’s shirts. We started talking about music and realized that we had many of the same interests.” The two began working together, writing songs and looking for other talented members to join their partnership. Soon afterward bassist Sonny Vega, guitarist Andrew Rodriguez, and drummer David Fidler entered the picture to create Close Your Eyes. Each member of Close Your Eyes comes from diverse musical backgrounds with a vast range of influences, from hardcore to pop punk to jazz to metal. At first glance, that might seem to be a drawback, but it’s proven to be a great strength for the band. Their hook-laden tunes form a unique musical hybrid that truly distinguishes them among bands in the already crowded hardcore genre. Not only does their ear-catching music stand out, but the purpose and aim of the band does as well. Their message is motivating, musically compelling, and lyrically inspirational, as is evident in tracks such as “Song for the Broken”, “Something Needs to Change”, and “17:20”. Although some have categorized the band as Christian rock, it is not something they intend to capitalize on. Shane confirms, “We don’t hide our faith as Christians. It’s very evident in the lyrics, but we don’t push it on people. Many of the kids we play for have a pre-conceived, negative notion about Christianity. They see people who try to force it down their throats, and that’s not what it’s about. Christianity is about love and acceptance, and our desire is to show people that.” Close Your Eyes not only gained national radio play with the release of their self-titled EP in 2008, but was ranked #6 on both the FMQB and CMJ Loud music reports and was added to the play lists of more than 75 radio stations across the country. The band also competed against 250 bands nationwide to capture the coveted title of New Band Showcase Grand Prize Winner at the Cornerstone 2008 Festival in Bushnell, Illinois. Close Your Eyes opened the main stage at Cornerstone for 25,000 festival-goers with Flyleaf, Skillet, Family Force 5, and Disciple. More recently, Close Your Eyes was welcomed into the Victory Records family and was named one of the Top 100 Bands of 2010 by Alternative Press Magazine. Now the band is awaiting the release of their first full length album and will hit the road to tour in support of it. Brett confesses, “I love being on tour with these guys. We are like five best friends or brothers out on the road together. We have an absolute blast and give it our all every night. After a set on any given night you might see us with a pretty exhausted look on our faces because we have given every ounce of energy we had to our performance, and our fans really respond to that.” Close Your Eyes’ debut album on Victory Records will be in stores Feb. 16th.