Crudeza bring fresh new life to classic rock

(Reed, Hernandez, and Moon at the Crudeza practice space)

Consisting of lead guitarist, George Moon (real name Jorge Luna), rhythm guitarist James Reed, drummer Rene Hernandez, and bassist Sergio Loera, Crudeza have been gaining a lot of notoriety in the Laredo music scene for their spot-on classic rock cover songs. Especially in a city where cover bands such as The Shakedown, .. have traded their classic rock songs for more modern and contemporary covers of pop and hip hop artists, one thing is for certain with Crudeza, the heart and soul of classic hard rock is alive and well.

Despite only having been playing for close to seven months, Crudeza have recently had several gigs at the Charlie’s Coronas, Chano’s Patio, and they even performed at the Relay for Life at the Texas A&M International University grounds.

Lately the band has had a few successful gigs at the Cold Brew rock bar. Crudeza guitarist James Reed comments, “We like performing there, it’s always a lot of fun. It’s always a good time. Even though we just play covers, people really seem to love that.”

The young hard rock group has won plenty of fans over in their short career, including rock veteran vocalist Claudia E. Wolfe of the bands Jolly Ranchers and SweeTooth. At the moment, Wolfe has been temporarily fronting the group until they are able to find a permanent lead singer.

Nevertheless, the Bridge caught up with Crudeza members Hernandez, Moon, and Reed on their musical upbringing, influences, and what they have planned for the future.

In discussing how the young teenagers first got into hard rock, rhythm guitarist James Reed credited his older brother for getting him into the world of rock n’ roll. “I saw him play the guitar and that always got me interested. I had actually wanted to play the drums, but my dad declared it “too loud” so he said, “I’ll get you a guitar.” So he did. Since then (five years later,) I’m still still here and playing the guitar,” says Reed.

Percussionist Rene Hernandez cited his parents and older sister for influencing him to listen to classic metal and rock. He states, “my dad would always play Metallica and all the old school stuff.” Funny enough, Hernandez recalls when he first wanted a guitar his parents denied him of the instrument proclaiming that, “it was too expensive.” Years later however, the Crudeza drummer ended up getting a drum set in-which he jokingly admits to being far more expensive than the guitar he originally wanted. “I started playing loud at first, but then I started playing better, so I started playing nice-fills and beats. I started liking it and six years later I’m here,” says Hernandez.

Lead guitarist George Moon on the other hand, admits to being a fan of rap and hip hop before discovering rock. However, he cites that it was the video game franchise Guitar Hero that first introduced him to rock music and pursuing him to want to play the guitar. Moon says, “I started on Guitar Hero. But before that, my mom and dad would always be playing classic rock. So I knew a lot of that, but I was mostly into hip hop and rap. But Guitar Hero changed that. My mom bought me my first guitar which was a classical black one. I started lessons and six years later I am still playing.”  

As far as their musician and band influences go, Moon says he has gone through several stages of talented guitarist influences. “When I started, my first influence was Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine. I just thought of all the noises he would do and I just thought it was really amazing. Then I heard Eddie Van Halen and I really wanted to shred like him. Then it went from Jimi Hendrix, which was an amazing songwriter, then it went on to Slash [of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver,]” says the lead guitarist.

Reed cites his biggest and main influence is James Hetfield of Metallica, proclaiming, “I gotta represent Metallica!” However, aside from the Metallica frontman, Reed goes on to list Slayer  and “Zakk Wylde and a lot of lead and rhythm guitar players” of the thrash metal genre as having a profound impact on his guitar playing.

Like Reed, Hernandez also lists a Metallica member as his influence. He says, “I would have to say Lars Ulich because I listened to a lot of Metallica as a kid and then I started to switched over to Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan from Avenged Sevenfold, Mark Portnoy of Dream Theater, and then John Bonham of Led Zeppelin.”

When on the topic of releasing their own original music, Moon states, “When it comes to originals, it’s basically in our own time and when we get together we share those ideas, like, ‘Oh, here is something I made’ and “here is something I made.”

At the moment, the band doesn’t want to push and force themselves to release new music for the sake of releasing new music. However, the lead guitarist does assure fans that, “originals are coming.”

Reed also elaborates stating, “we don’t really have a specific time to release our stuff, but we are really trying to work on it, and as soon as possible.” Crudeza drummer, Rene Hernandez also concedes that it is their perfectionist approach toward their music that refrains the group from releasing new material. “We are always picking on our music. Every time we have a gig, we will practice everyday for two weeks before till we get the song perfect. We are really stubborn,” says the talented percussionist. 

As far as their future and where they would like to take the band, James Reed goes on to say, “I guess what we’d like to say is that we are setting our goals really high. We all have this dream that we wanna reach the top, we want to get to the top, and then just take it from there. Where it takes us, we just want to keep getting bigger and just keep going.”

Moon specifies, “ever since I started playing guitar, I knew that I wanted to do that.” In seeing videos of his favorite musicians performing and reading and watching their interviews, the guitarist states, “I knew thats what I wanted to do.”

Hernandez further elaborates on their planned goals of popularity and longevity saying, “not a lot of people listen to rock, but they know several different bands because they are well known and because they have been around a long time.”

Currently, Crudeza have been actively looking for a lead vocalist to join their band. Ideally, the group is seeking for an energetic vocalist that could fit in with their style and are able to hit a higher range of notes. Moon highlights Phil Anselmo from Pantera as an example of what they are looking for, saying, “he’s a real good vocalist and in the early years he knew how to sing so high and he could also do that ‘metal’ growl. We want raw, punchy energy, and very energetic.”

Hernandez agrees, saying “yeah, that they can also put on a show as well. It doesn’t really matter if they can’t though, but as long as he or she can sing, I don’t really mind.”

In the end, for those wanting to know more information about the band, scheduled performances, videos, Reed advises to look for them on social media websites, “we are on Facebook, Instagram, and we just started a Twitter account. Those are the three main webpages that you can find us and contact us.”

Lastly, if one is interested in joining the band as the lead vocalist, Crudeza suggest sending a message through Facebook and they would get back to you.