26 October 1, 2009

By Nancy Correro

!ere are a lot of bands trying to be heard and make it to the big time. !e three main ingredients that separate those bands from one another are talent, dedication, and luck. Crooks Carnival has for certain talent and dedication. Now, they just need a li"le lady luck.

Crooks Carnival is: Cody Royer#lead singer, vox/rythym guitar, Justin Crain#lead guitar, Mike Alexander#drums, and Jay Moody#bass.

I sat down to chat with Royer, Crain, and Alexander (Moody couldn’t be there#he was recording at the time) about their plans for the band and how a trip to Houston, and a recently deceased alligator, gave them inspiration for two of their latest songs. !ese are some of the hardest

working guys in music around here. !ey have a three hour show of cover tunes and now, they are going to be hi"ing us with their original music as well.

“!e object of this band wasn’t to be a cover band, and we wanted to play, but we hadn’t been on the stage in a while so we thought, let’s get a three hour cover show together before we start to write. !at whole $rst six to eight months we were learning those songs we kept holding o% on writing. We thought we should get our three hour show down and then start $ltering some covers in. Most of the good gigs around here, they want cover bands. And nobody around here that’s original has a three hour show. !at’s why they’re all

playing with three and four bands a night and it’s always just us all night,” Crain said.!e band did exactly as they

had promised themselves and they started writing songs. !e band’s style of writing is to

bring ideas to the table, primarily the writing team of Crain and Royer, and see where it takes them as a whole band.

“It’s a li"le bit of everything. Me and Crain come from two di%erent styles of music writing and music backgrounds so sometimes we’ll get together and we’ll both sit down and

start working on some guitar parts and we’ll start feeding o% of each other and Mike and everybody,” Royer said.

“Most of the time a ri% or lyrics will come from me or from Cody and then we all get together and see if everybody agrees on it,” Crain said.

Two of those songs, Whiskey Well and Dixie Trick were wri"en on a recent trip to Houston. It seems there were some interesting moments during the trip.

“Our birthdays are real close together and so we decided the following weekend that just me and Crain would go to Houston and meet some friends. We stayed downtown in Houston and we were waiting to go out and we wrote Dixie Trick in the garage of a downtown apartment just si"ing outside right in front of the interstate with our alligator in the back of the truck,” Royer said.

“We picked up an alligator on the way,” Crain said, laughing.

I asked if this alligator was alive. As an interviewer, I was imagining all sorts of scenarios.

“No, it was dead,” said both Crain and Royer at the same time, laughing. “It stunk,” added Crain.!ey explained how a dead

alligator ended up in their truck, and with this explanation, I am certain there is more to the story.

“Well there was a tra&c jam and we got out and people watched us get out and get the jumper cables and we tried to jump start the alligator. !at’s what happens when we go places,” Royer said.

A band that plays hard together, works hard together. Crooks

Carnival has only been together for a year. In that year, they have created a powerhouse, hard rock band with a unique sound and style.

“We’re just happy to be where we are at, you know. We’ve been together almost a year. We’ve worked our bu"s o% to get where we are,” Royer said.

Crain and Royer ran into each other at a Candlebox concert. !ey both went to Sam Houston High School in Moss Blu%, but didn’t hang out together. Royer gave Crain a call a'er being reacquainted at the

CROOKS CARNIVAL:

GOT ALLIGATOR? NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Cody Royer, vocalist. Justin Crain.

Continued on Page 37

October 1, 2009 39

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to their success as a band. October is a busy month for Crooks Carnival.

“We’ve got a deal that we are a part of on November 6th at McNeese State University. !ere will be a Showcase of di%erent types of music. !ere will be some R&B acts, some singer/songwriter acts#a broad spectrum of acts. We are also doing a bene$t at the civic center October 24th for !e Art on Wheels Bike Show. We’ll be playing Halloween at OB’s, it’s huge,” Crain said.

“!ey’ll be having a costume contest there and we’ll be judging that. It’s going to be a big night, a big party,” Royer said. !eir covers range from Guns n

Roses to Motley Crue to Candlebox and many others. Most importantly, you will be hearing some original tunes in between the familiar songs. Check out their new tunes on MySpace page at: www.myspace.com/crookscarnival. You can book the band at its MySpace page as well.

TURN IT UP CONT.