Close Your Eyes | A Message And A Revolution
f you are thirteen or new to the scene then I should tell you, Hardcore used to be about something, a message, a revolution, taking a stand for what you believe in. The “Pop Forty” scene has seemed to seep into our lives, our way of thinking, and in turn, our music, changing the way that we write and arrange. Close Your Eyes, however, have way too much conviction to waste their tracks, this platform, on songs about girls or partying. Bringing the fire and passion back to hardcore, these guys give us hope and give hope back to this scene. With their technical guitar work and catchy choruses, following anthem chants, Close Your Eyes know how to grab us. With a debut Mid-February release (We Will Overcome) on Victory records, these guys are fresh out of the gate and ready spread their message as far as willing ears reach. Get to know these guys, their name is about to get very familiar in your iTunes.
Tell us how Close Your Eyes got its start?
Brett Callaway: I just moved to Abilene from Houston. That was a little bit of culture shock to me moving to Abilene, it’s a small town so when I got there I was like “Oh man, I’m never going to find anyone who likes the same music as me”. Within about two weeks of when I moved there I saw Shane walking around school wearing an As I Lay Dying shirt and he said he was a vocalist. We kind of hit it off from there and we started looking for some other members for our band.
So you guys were attending college and playing music at the same time. Was that hard to juggle? Are you still doing the school thing or are you guys done with that for now?
BC: It wasn’t for me. I had no problem skipping class. Shane is the same way. We never had problems with our grades.
Are you guys done with college now?
BC: Yeah I graduated and Shane is graduated. Sonny didn’t go to college. David went to community college for a little bit and Andrew isn’t going to school right now but he’ll probably go back.
Right on. You guys have an incredibly catchy sound, it is also seems like your influences are pretty eclectic. What would you say are some of your main influences as a band?
BC: We listen to so much stuff. Andrew and I pretty much write all the music. I grew up listening to punk and hardcore stuff like MxPx and Stretch Armstrong. Andrew grew up listening to more metal stuff; he’s listened to Metallica since he was two I think. Most of us have had classical training so we listen to a lot of classical jazz stuff also and I think it translates in our music not that it sounds classical or jazzy but our chord structures are influenced by that.
I love your album art. How did you come up with the idea for robots? What does it say about your album?
BC: The robots actually were part of a different working title that we had for the album. Then our album art just took forever so we just kind of went with it anyway. There were robots there that were kind of lifeless. On the inside of the album there is a man who is walking by in a cloak who is lighting the inside of the robots. So it’s supposed to be that there needs to be more passion in our hearts, more fire.
That’s really cool. So tell us about some of the themes in your songs.
BC: There’s a huge theme of hope throughout the whole album. There are a lot of personal struggles and trials, things that people can identify with. As far as the things that I write there’s just this idea of hope and purpose. The bridge of “Songs for the Broken” says “This is my worship; this is my life, to bring hope into a broken world”. Its kind of just my calling on my life is what I’m doing, you know? This idea of hope and love goes through the album. If you look at the gospel there’s the idea that Jesus isn’t just coming to uphold these rules but to bring hope and love to the world. We try to be an embodiment of the gospel, we are never the people to push anything down anyone’s throats. We just try to live it with our lives and love on kids and give them hope.
I recently read that you’re from the same town as Dimebag Darrel and that it was tough coming up in that scene considering you don’t sound like Pantera. Tell us a bit about the scene where you’re from and how you are received there?
BC: I’m actually pretty good friends with his niece, she’s really cool. We were never really in that scene; we kind of had to start our own scene. The metal scene in Abilene is so entrenched in the bars. I say metal but it’s more like alt-rock metal. I consider Pantera metal but these bands are wannabe Pantera/I’m listening to way much alt-rock radio. It’s all about drinking and stuff like that, it’s not about the music. We had to create our thing, there was no place for us to play and we had to make places if that makes sense.
Wow, so have you seen more bands come up since that time?
BC: Yeah for sure, there have been a lot of them. There were bands there before us; I don’t want to make it sound like we started everything. There were metal core bands, metal core and the bar metal are way different. There was more of a metal scene before we started playing and now it’s more of a hardcore scene.
Would you contribute your success more to your local scene or being able to get out and tour?
BC: I think that touring is important for any band because you can be the king of your local scene but that’s not going to mean anything anywhere. You can be the hometown heroes or whatever but nobody really cares about that unless you’re pulling 3,000 people to your shows.
What can you tell us about your upcoming video shoot.
BC: It’s a full production video that Victory is doing for the single on the album. I honestly don’t know much about it, our director will be telling us today. Its in a big warehouse that used to be a grain processing factory and that’s about all I know.
I’m honestly surprised you guys haven’t gained more notice as of yet but I’m sure its coming. How did Victory discover you?
BC: They found us on a flier actually for a festival for we were playing for our clothing company, Self Destruct. We were playing the main stage at their festival right before MxPx. They saw it on the flier and said “Who the heck is this playing the main stage that’s not signed to a label and that’s how they got a hold of us.
Are you going to have a chance to get out with some larger acts anytime soon?
BC: We’re leaving in a few days for a two week tour. At the end of March we’re going out for a month and half with The Overseer. Then we’re doing almost two months this summer with It Prevails.
Your album, We Will Overcome, came out on the 16th of February, where can we pick it up if we haven’t gotten it already?
BC: As far as I know pretty much everywhere. It’s going through Sony distribution which is what Victory uses for all its releases. Hot Topic will be carrying it as well as Hastings and stuff like that.
