Artist Spotlight
In this month’s artist spotlight we bring to you Crydrive...
Edward Crossman: Let's start with a quick introduction. What's everybody's name and role in the group?
Kylie - Lead Vocals
Tyler – Drums
Brady – Bass/Vocals
Hunter – Guitar
EC: You've been playing as Crydrive since at least 2023. Would you like to quickly tell us how that came to be? How did each of you get involved with this particular project?
Kylie: When Tyler and I moved to Ohio in 2021, he spent a lot of time on Reddit looking for things to do, places to go, and he ended up making a post looking for people who were trying to start a band and connected with Hunter so we met up with him and we decided to give it a shot and try to jam together.
Brady: Hunter and I went to high school together, and we’ve been friends ever since. He mentioned to me that he had found some people online interested in playing some music and asked me if I’d play bass.
EC: I feel like you have a real throwback sound. Super 90's-ish. I absolutely love it! How would you describe your sound to the uninitiated?
K: I feel like this is the thing I’m always the worst at because I genuinely don’t know, it’s kind of pop punk, but overall we just play whatever we come up with that we think sounds good and we enjoy playing.
B: Pop punk/emo with just a dash of alternative rock
H: ’d say I just try not to stick to any one sound. Every song offers the opportunity to take from different influences - whether that’s a bluesy guitar run, a post rock instrumental breakdown, or a goofy math rock lick thrown in - it’s fun to have that freedom to try different sounds in our songs.
EC: The name Crydrive is pretty memorable. What's the story behind that?
B: I’m not 100% on the inspiration, but I remember a brainstorming session after a practice one day, and Kylie made a joke about going on a drive just to let out some emotion. “Crydrive” became a running gag, and then it just kind of stuck.
K: ’m just still a sad middle school girl on 2007 Myspace on the inside so it was definitely a me thing. When we first got together to play with the guys, I was going through a really difficult and stressful time in my life trying to balance getting my degree and my professional/financial life so I would get in my car, turn up music really loud, usually Off With Their Heads because that’s who I always tend to listen to when I’m going through it, and I would cry on my drive because I can multitask like that and then get back to doing what I need to do whenever I reached my destination, no time wasted, and I called it going for a crydrive and it just stuck. The lyrics I write tend to be emotional and sad or angry and it’s my own little thing that I do so it worked for us and it’s pretty representative of the lyrical content we create.
EC: I know that Kylie has an extensive history of playing music, including punk amongst other genres, especially up here in New England. Do the rest of you guys have any background playing other forms of music or being in other types of bands? And if so, how has that influenced the Crydrive sound?
T: I played in numerous punk bands in the Merrimack Valley music scene, as well as being in Don’t Blow It with Kylie prior to moving to Cincinnati and starting crydrive. I also served as the fill-in drummer for quite a few bands throughout Massachusetts for a time.
B: I played in a couple bands in high school, but I hadn’t really played much since, until Crydrive started. I’d jam with some friends here and there, but never really with the intention of playing out or committing to something. I’ve dabbled in a few different genres: Electronic, “Desert” Rock, Alternative, Indie; I’m kind of all over the place with my music tastes. I don’t necessarily listen to the same kind of music we play in Crydrive, but I try to meld my preferences with our sound.
H: I’ve played in numerous bands in the Cincinnati area over the years, some with widely different sounds spanning punk, pop rock, and even hip-hop. It’s really fun to play different styles of music and it has allowed me the opportunity to share the stage with a bunch of different types of great acts including The Ataris, The Loved Ones, Mixtapes, the dreaded Laramie and MC Chris, to name a few. It’s given me the ability to not have to stick to one sound and take from different influences.
EC: You don't have a lot out there right now, but the few songs you do have are very well produced, especially 'Lifeline'. Do you do it all yourselves or do you have a studio and engineer you work with?
B: That was all Hunter. He cobbled together some equipment and we recorded everything in our practice space. He spent a lot of time mixing things, learning the process as he went along.
K: Yeah, that was a labor of love from Hunter, he researched the equipment, how to use it, and spent a long time going through the process to learn as he went to put out a final product that we were proud of and it’s given us more of a chance to feel comfortable in messing around with things and trying different things as we record without the pressure of an hourly rate at a studio.
EC: Your song 'Trauma Queen' deals with some heavy topics including grooming, and I know it's a pretty personal number. Would you like to share the story behind it? And do any of you have any words to share with someone who might be in a similar situation?
B: That’s all Kylie - I won’t pretend to speak on her behalf. But if I had to address someone in a similar situation, I would say reach out to the people you trust. The sooner you open up, the sooner people can step in and help. No one should be treated less than a human.
K: I’m states away and nearly twice the age I was when the situation this song is about happened and it’s crazy to look at how I’ve changed since it happened. I joined a heavily male dominated music scene as essentially the only girl when I was 14 years old and was subject to a lot of this but, specifically, this is about a former bandmate of mine who was twice my age, married, with kids, who thought that he could try to manipulate me into doing what he wanted, threatening my “music career” and even threatening to leave me in various random cities alone when I was 17 on my first national tour. Those feelings of fear and confusion really transformed into anger and a sense of vengeance over the last 15 years and the comments he made about “sweet 16” and “teenage dream” directed at me make my skin crawl at this point so it’s kind of the way those feelings have evolved about the situation as I’ve gotten older and felt more comfortable standing up for myself and having confrontations, specifically with men in the music scene. Anyone going through this or something similar now, you do not need the approval of that older man, you may be mature for your age but what it truly means is that he’s not mature for his age, and you need to tell someone about this because it’ll save you from a lot of pain and heartache and a lot of weird rumors that will go on further into your life.
EC: I heard one of you just had a new baby. Congrats! How do you find juggling fatherhood with the schedule demands of being in a band? How does the rest of the group feel about having to work around the new timetable?
H: My wife and I just had our first baby! It’s absolutely terrific but does impact the band a lot. Our house doubles as our practice space - so with having a little newborn we can’t do much rehearsing when he is home. Luckily, my wife is kind enough to take him out of the house occasionally for us to rehearse from time to time. And the band has been super supportive. They could probably find another guitar player to fill in for me, but I’m thankful instead everyone is patient and flexible because I really enjoy playing together.
B: It’s been tricky, for sure. Practices have been postponed due to lack of sleep, which is totally understandable. We’ve definitely had to scale back how often we meet, but we’re working on a more baby-friendly practice method so we can get back into the groove of things.
EC: What does 2025 hold in store for the band? Will we get a full length Crydrive album? Any awesome shows coming up?
B: Things are kind of up in the air at the moment while Hunter figures out what works best for him and his family. We don’t have any shows scheduled at the moment, but once things get settled, we’re definitely going to work towards getting back out. I know Kylie has lyrics in the chamber for when we next get a chance to sit down and write some music, so we’d definitely have enough songs for a full album. But we might need to enlist some outside help with that - Hunter has enough on his plate as it is!
K: I definitely want to play more shows and work on writing while we’re kind of in a position where we can’t use our practice space as much so I feel like that would be a good use of our time and a lot of fun in the meantime. I have a bunch of lyrics, like Brady said, so working towards a full length and just doing what we can when we can. We do this for fun, a break from all being professional adults in the real world, so it’s truly a pleasure every time we’re able to get together in any capacity and we’ll see where it goes.
EC: Any last words or nuggets of wisdom you would like to share with our readers?
B: Stick it to the man.
K: If you like our music or relate to the lyrics, you probably need therapy.
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