Close Your Eyes

Close Your Eyes is an American melodic-hardcore band from Abilene, Texas. They are signed to Victory Records and released their debut album in 2010, We Will Overcome, and a second album Empty Hands and Heavy Hearts in October 2011. The music video for their first music single, "Song for the Broken", became a viral internet video and gathered over one million views in a short time. All the band's members are openly Christian and their beliefs are often the subject matter of their songs. History edit: The band had their roots in 2005 at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, where Shane Raymond and Brett Callaway met and started searching for other musicians to round the line-up. After several line-up changes, they recruited Andrew Rodriguez, Sonny Vega and David Fidler. In 2008, they released their self-titled EP independently and in 2009 were signed to Victory Records to record their debut studio album. We Will Overcome was released in 2010 and had received positive reviews, selling over 12,000 copies in June 2011 according to Nielsen Soundscan. The band has released three singles from this album ("Song for the Broken", "The Body" and "Digging Graves"), with music videos released for all three of them. Since then, the band has toured with Underoath,The Word Alive,A Day to Remember,Stick to Your Guns, and Norma Jean.They have played on some major festivals, including Cornerstone Festival, Sonshine Festival, Ichthus Festival and Scream the Prayer Tour. In 2011, they played live two new songs from their upcoming album, Empty Hands and Heavy Hearts, which released on October 24, 2011, through Victory Records. The label released a series of video previews of the upcoming album in their YouTube account. Their song "Valleys" was the theme song for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's 2011 Turning Point pay-per-view. A music video featuring TNA professional wrestler Jeff Hardy and centered around his redemption storyline has been released through the wrestling promotion's YouTube account. On March 2, 2012, it was announced on the band's Facebook page that vocalist Raymond had left the band, due to personal reasons. On May 17, 2012, it was announced on the Alternative Press website that Mikey Sawyer would be touring with the band as vocalist. On July 10, 2012, the band announced via its Twitter account that Sawyer would no longer be touring with the band because he did not fit in well with the band. In November 2012, the band posted to their Facebook page that they had began writing songs for their next album. Band members edit: Current edit: Brett Callaway - lead guitar, backing vocals (since 2005), Jordan Hatfield - drums (since 2012), Andrew Rodriguez - rhythm guitar (2006-2011; since 2012), Sonny Vega - bass, backing vocals (since 2006), , Former edit: Ben Clinard - bass (2005-2006), Chris Coltman - drums (2005-2007), David Fidler - drums (2007-2010), Tim Friesen - drums (2010-2011), Shane Raymond - lead vocals (2005-2012), Mikey Sawyer - lead vocals (2012)

Source: Wikipedia

Text from this biography licensed under creative commons license