Crystal Aer: Two man band sets out to make a name for themselves

The Campus Voice recently stumbled across a new up and coming band, Crystal Aer. Although they have yet to perform at any local hot spots they do show promise of a bright future with many hits to come.

The band consists of only two performers, FSCJ's student Chris Caddell (vocals and pianist) and Dylan Bailey (guitar). We were able to snag an interview with Chris on what the bands about, who they are, and what the future possibly holds.

Q: How did you come up with your name?
A: Well we kinda just came up with it, I mean honestly, I'm not sure where we got it from. Crystal was a part that we decided on fairly early, we both liked the word and wanted to try to make it part of our name, eventually we narrowed it down to like crystal ocean and crystal aer, I think we even looked at the Latin spellings and stuff, but one day we just decided, "Hey! that was it!"



Q: How did your band get started?
A: Ok several years back me, Dylan and another friend of ours had tried to start a band, but because of school and this or that and the other we just never had time to get together and stuff. So back last August, I believe it was, I decided that we had never really given it a good try, so I called them up and asked them if they really wanted to give this a shot. Unfortunately, our one friend went off for college so he just wasn't really able to do it, but me and Dylan talked about it and decided that we would do what we could and see what happened from there.


Q: What genre of music do you consider yourself?
A: Umm, that's somewhat difficult, honestly at the moment. I would have to say, a chill type of music or genre...the thing is, we are still experimenting with different ideas and we really aren't just limited to the sound we are making now, or at least I don't think. It's a bit complicated, but at least for now, chill...something a little bit like Jason Mraz or John Mayer.


Q: Who do you consider your major influences?
A: Well for sure bands like OneRepublic and Coldplay artists like Owl City and Lights, the thing is, while me and Dylan share a lot of similar interests in music, each of us seems to also be a little bit different from one another, we draw from a lot of different styles and sounds and we kinda try to mesh them together and make our own. Hopefully that gives you some idea.



Q: What do you hope people get from your music?
A: I hope people enjoy our music, but I hope they feel the emotion that we are trying to put into the song, you know, hope that in their own way they can understand and connect with what we are trying to say or get across. I'd like to hope that maybe we can brighten someone's day, or help someone get through a rough time, even if it's a song about our own pain and struggles to let them know that they aren't alone


Q: You haven't yet performed a gig, where do you hope to perform in the near future?
A: No and I am incredibly nervous about it, but we hope to probably get two more songs done and then start slowly playing around locally if we can and things like that. Honestly, I would love to play all over but in the near future, umm, you know just around Jax and St. Augustine, places like that.



Q: Which song is your favorite? Or you think best describes your band? Why?
A: OH! Tough one. I don't know that I honestly have a favorite, I really like all of them, I had a blast working on all of them, they all describe our band in their own way, like I said we are still doing some experimenting and things, but if I had to say right now, with the direction our sound is heading so far, I would probably say The Universe is Ours best describes us, at least at the moment.


Q: What is your role in the band?
A: What is my role? Smile and wave! [HAHAHHA] Um, I play the piano, I'm not that great at it but I try and I sing, which I'm not really all that great at that either, but Dylan won't sing so I kinda have to, I also help with writing the lyrics and I guess you could maybe say a little bit of producing/composition.



Q: What's the best way to find out about your bands updates?
A: The best way to find updates would probably be just to check our Youtube channel, generally when we put a new song out, it goes up on Youtube first.