“We’re CRYRS,” reads the Lafayette, Louisiana-based band’s website. “The ultimate EMO experience bringing the glory days of emo, pop-punk, post hardcore live to you. In person, at a show, on YouTube and maybe even on TikTok.
“Ready to hear Paramore, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Newfound Glory, Blink-182 and more?” the site continues. “It’s never too late to channel your ‘elder EMO’ and come out to re-experience one of the greatest eras of hard rock and punk.”
The band learned in April that they would be opening for double-platinum producing, alternative rock icons – Fuel at the Cajun Heartland State Fair in May. Roux magazine caught up with the band weeks before their biggest show to date.
CRYRS, a local 5-piece band, practices in Tim Benson’s Music Academy of Louisiana. Benson (Burt Timson), who plays guitar and handle screams for the band, puts the origin of the band in perspective.
“We’ve all been in different bands over the years,” says Benson. “I run a music school... It seems obvious that I’d be in a band. I need to be able to connect with other musicians.” “I’ve been in bands since I was 15 or 16 years old,” adds Lee Gauthreaux (Leedrumsalot), the band’s drummer. “When one breaks up, you find another band & find more people to keep playing.
“It just takes a while sometimes to find the right people and make it work,” lays out Gauthreaux. “Guitar Hero saved my life,” explains K-Rox (known only as “K-Rox”) of the journey that led to her current role singing in for the band. “I was listening to Hannah Montana before Guitar Hero... now I listen to Metallica almost exclusively.
“I kinda got into EMO stuff a little bit, because I was elementary school when it was everywhere,” admits K-Rox. “Eventually I really got into 80’s thrash & heavy metal… Metallica, Megadeth, & Iron Maiden were everything, but I also like those hair bands like Def Leppard & Van Halen.” K-Rox admits she draws heavily from David Lee Roth and Def Leppard for her performance style, she feels Roth is one of the greatest performers of all time.
Gauthreaux, Benson, & K-Rox have all been in bands together. K-Rox met Benson when he started giving her guitar lessons.
“We’ve had a lot of Names,” laughs K-Rox. As to the Bands’ name… that came from Brandon Bordelon (B-Rad), who plays Bass and sings.
“Tim had a few ideas for names, I had a few ideas too,” remembers Bordelon. “We voted mostly based on how people could perceive it.
“There’s a band called LVVRS, and it had no vowels in it, and we chose to go with the same approach,” adds Bordelon. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t have had the same effect... We aren’t exactly a group of criers.”
“And we all said we wanted a name that would stand out,” says Benson. “We always write it out in all capital letters.” CRYRS had their first gig on October 30, 2022, at the Grant Street Dancehall in Lafayette.
“That was our coming out gig,” remembers Benson. “It was well-attended, and I could really see the potential this band had.
“Our fourth show was in Baton Rouge at Chelsea’s Live,” adds Benson. “That was like 500 people, and that was the show where we walked out, the vibe was really great, and I felt like this is what it could be like.”
The band agreed they had turned a corner with the show at Chelsea’s, but their experience in Destin, Florida at Club LA six months later felt bigger.
“It was a very professional setup,” remembers Tyler Faulk (T-Bang), another of the band’s guitarists. “We showed up, and they had guys ready to help us... They were just on top of everything.
“This is how everyone should do it,” says Faulk, who apparently knows how to build stuff.
“Tyler is really good at building things,” injects K-Rox. “He built all our stage boxes.
“I take care of the website, our travel arrangements, and (for some reason) the band’s finances,” laughs K-Rox. K-Rox & Benson hail from Carencro, Bordelon is from Marksville, and Gauthreaux’s from all over as his father was in the Navy.
“I went to high school in northern Virgin,” explains Gauthreaux. “I’ve been down here for 20 years so.” Faulk’s origin is less clear.
“I actually grew up in the sticks,” details Faulk. “Near a place called Ester... Near Intercoastal City. I went to high school in Abbeville.”
The band considers themselves a tribute band and honors the music by playing it as well as they possibly can. “Lately we’ve been doing more than two shows a month,” injects K-Rox. “We are 5 solid musicians actively running around the stage, performing, and jumping off things.
“Mostly for 3 hours straight,” adds K-Rox. “It’s a full-on performance… No 15-minute breaks or anything like that.” “Typically, bands play for 45 minutes… an hour max,” chimes Gauthreaux. “We do more than twice that, and we never have an opening act.”
Benson is quick to distinguish CRYRS from any other cover band.
“If you put a viable product together, you’re going to be successful,” says Benson. “Our viable product is that we pay tribute to these songs really well… We put production value behind it.
“People will pay to have a great experience,” he adds. “And it helps when everyone is delivering a solid 9+ performance,” K-Rox says laughing with the rest of the band. When asked about their motivation to continue playing music while juggling families and careers, the band had some similar [but different] experiences.
“There’s burnout,” explains Faulk. “Every now and then… But with everything else in mind, I know I’ll miss playing. “I made the mistake once of selling everything because I thought I was done with it,” Faulk adds. “Damn, I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I did that in college,” admits Gauthreaux. “Every now and then I’d need some extra money. Oh, I got this cymbal I need to sell and get some gas money… But then, like 10 years later, I’m recording, and I need that that thing. “And so, I came to a point where it’s like, I always come back,” adds Gauthreaux. “I tell myself not to sell anything anymore. But I mean, it is a lifestyle. There’s a difference between people who play music and musicians- We’re all musicians. “We all know life for us would be pretty bleak without music,” remarks Bordelon. “I’ve always been one that has actively tried to run away from it,” interjects K-Rox. “Because I come from a music family. My dad played drums for Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys for decades and I’ve seen what touring looks like. I see what it does to families. I’ve seen the other side of it. “I was always like no,” K-Rox continues, “I’m not gonna go that route. But I always find myself running back into it… and loving it… and having this like crazy love, hate relationship with it.”
The band stays on the same page through communicating and compromising as best they can.
“We’ve all had to give up ground on our own personal things,” explains Benson. “But if it’s for the greater good, then it makes sense.
“There are certain bands that we may love,” adds Gauthreaux. “We may have obsessed about them since they came out. But does the general public that’s coming to see us have that same reaction?” The band created a document from the beginning called ‘The CRYRS Standard.’ “It’s these 5 tenets of what we try to live up to and remember,” adds Benson. “One of them is - We all operate as one voice. “So, whenever we have disagreements, we try to talk it out and kind of understand everybody is coming from,” adds Benson. “We try to come to a consensus on some level. We don’t want to carry that frustration over.”
“It’s like dating four people without any of the benefits of dating four people,” jokes Gauthreaux.
The commitment to a quality performance, the growing interest in the genre, the fact that they’re so into the music, and because they’re local are more than enough reasons to check CRYRS out at your earliest opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.