By Nancy Correro
The Times of SWLA
There are a lot of bands trying to be heard and make it to the big time. The 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 little 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.
These are some of the hardest working guys in music around here. They have a three hour show of cover tunes and now, they are going to be hitting us with their original music as well.
Justin Crain, Lead Guitar
“The 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. That whole first six to eight months we were learning those songs we kept holding off on writing. We thought we should get our three hour show down and then start filtering 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. That’s why they’re all playing with three and four bands a night and it’s always just us all night,” Crain said.
The band did exactly as they had promised themselves and they started writing songs.
The bands 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 little bit of everything. Me and Crain come from two different 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 off of each other and Mike and everybody,” Royer said.
“Most of the time a riff 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 written 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 sitting 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.
They explained how a dead alligator ended up in their truck, and with this explanation, I am certain there is more to the story.
Cody Royer, Lead Singer & Rythym Guitar
“Well there was a traffic jam and we got out and people watched us get out and get the jumper cables and we tried to jump start the alligator. That’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 butts off to get where we are,” Royer said.
Crain and Royer ran into each other at a Candlebox concert. They both went to Sam Houston High School in Moss Bluff, but didn’t hang out together. Royer gave Crain a call after being reacquainted at the concert.
“We got a bunch of people together—everybody we knew that could play music so we could have a full band, just to see what everybody was doing. We did that the first day, [Crain] heard me sing and then we formed the band right there, I mean we kind of picked out the group from people that were there at the moment so we could get started. We stayed together. We slowly filtered people out that were just helping and moved people in that wanted to be permanent that we felt like were on the same page that we were,” Royer said.
As with many bands, members come and go for a variety of reasons. Recently, Crooks Carnival had to replace their drummer. Crain was working sound at Isle of Capri when her heard Mike Alexander playing drums with another band. He knew Alexander was the drummer they needed. So Crain approached Alexander about the opportunity.
“I’ve been on the road from 90 to about 2004 I was touring across the country. I was playing with Mike Zito, David St. Romain and I started playing with Laurel. Well, I’m a rock player and these guys play all the rock stuff I like to play and I said [to Laurel] hey look, I’m going to go do this,” Alexander said. Alexander has been with the band for about two months now.
There is a consensus amongst bands and other artistic acts in Lake Charles that there needs to be more community support.
“It’s hard to make a living in Lake Charles as a band. That’s why I stayed on the road for so long. People in the Mid West go out to see a band and it’s nothing against Lake Charles or anything, but people going to OB’s are not going there to see the band. There is not a music venue where people go and watch music. When I first started out, if you played Monday you played the whole week until Saturday and this is that one club. Then you tear down and go to the next club. I did that for ten years easily,” Alexander said.
“But it’s not even like that now. There are still places where you can play during the week, but it’s in major cities, you know, St. Louis, Chicago, and Minneapolis.”
Crain and Royer were quick to respond to Alexander’s assessment of the difficult times and struggles a band can experience in a smaller market.
“That would be great to have that kind of scene,” Crain said.
“There is a lot of potential in Lake Charles; it’s just got to happen,” Royer said.
Crain went on to say that they had been meeting with others in the community of Lake Charles and they would all like to see an entertainment “subgroup” stem off of the Downtown Development Committee.
“I think that is in the works. They’ve talked to people, some of the city officials about it. We are just trying to make things happen,” Crain said.
Crooks Carnival is making things happen. This is not a band that sits around waiting for work to come to them. They are active in the community and they are dedicated 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. There will be a Showcase of different types of music. There will be some R&B acts, some singer/songwriter acts—a broad spectrum of acts. We are also doing a benefit at the civic center October 24th for The Art on Wheels Bike Show. We’ll be playing Halloween at OB’s, it’s huge,” Crain said.
“They’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.
If you like hard rock, you need to go check Crooks Carnival out. Their 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 the bands myspace page at: www.myspace.com/crookscarnival. You can book the band through their myspace page as well.
