Prying Eyes

Ft. Myers newspaper article on Prying Eyes


Prying Eyes follows heavy metal dream

Winners of Cape Battle of Bands play around region

By JL WATSON
JLWATSON@NEWS-PRESS.COM
Published by news-press.com on October 22, 2005

The flowery curtains at the window and green walls give the room a sunny quality.

But if these walls could speak, they wouldn't talk; they would rock. The room in a typical suburban house is the practice pit for Cape Coral teen band Prying Eyes.

"I try to write lyrics that mean things," singer Earl Scott, 17, said. "Not about killing things."

He has just finished bellowing out the lyrics to "No Glory for the Fallen," one of the band's signature songs. The lyrics, however sentimental, are unintelligible. But Scott and the other members of the band wouldn't have it any other way.

There's no pop rock, hip hop, grunge or hard rock here. It's all about the the metal; they're hard grinding, loud as they wannabe metal.

"Take melodic metal with a couple of breakdowns, and throw some black metal parts in there and put it in a blender," drummer Doug Crooks, 17, said. "Some Lamb of God, Unearth, Shadows Fall and As I Lay Dying."

"Then, BAM! you've got Prying Eyes," guitarist Dan Deinhart, 19, added.

"Just like Emeril Legasse," Crooks finished, referring to Legasse's signature shout-out.

Uninitiated music aficionados may not have heard of the Prying Eyes influences, but they are well-known in the world of metal music.

Guitarist Phil Pluskota, 17, and bassist Andrew Deinhart, 16, round out the quintet. The five friends have been tearing up stages in Florida since getting their act together last December. They've played teen nights in Cape Coral and won the Battle of the Bands at the CoConut Festival, beating out seven other teen bands. Since then, they've played local shows and have traveled to West Palm Beach for a show and will head to Sarasota for a show in November. It's the beginning of what they hope is a budding career.

"I want to make a decent living and be able to not a have a job and let the band be my job," Dan Deinhart said.

"This is what we're best at," Andrew Deinhart added.

They practice at Scott's house, usually with a couple of parents in attendance. Because they are too young to rent a car, the group also relies on parents to ferry them to out-of-town performances. Crooks, Scott and Andrew Deinhart are still in high school, so unlike their older MTV influences, they still have to turn in homework.

"Our parents are very supportive," Andrew Deinhart said. "All of them commend what we're doing. None of them are like, 'You need to turn that racket off.' They're saying, 'Embrace it, excel at it, and you can go anywhere.'"

Just where that might be remains to be seen. For now the group is taking their earnings — $1,300 to date — and squirreling it away to pay for new equipment and recording time. They want to record by next spring.

"Eventually, we'll start fishing for labels," Pluskota said.

For now, Prying Eyes is taking it one show at a time. They balance their practice time with shows, jobs and school.

"We're not tough guys," Scott said. "We're a bunch of half kids."

It's the kid part that Scott's mother, Kathy Scott, 45, takes care of. She maintains the band's Web site, www.pryingeyesband.com, takes phone calls and maintains a calendar of the group's work and school schedule.

Dawn Crooks, in her 40s, said she wants her son to pursue his passion for as long as possible.

"I tell my kids, follow your dream," she said. "If you don't do it when you're young, you'll never do it. Before you know it you'll fall in love, get married and have two kids."

And what if the band goes the way of the steam engine? Scott is thinking about the video industry, Pluskota may attend Full Sail art school in Orlando to study the business end of the music industry, and Crooks could easily end up at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

"But the best-case scenario is that they have the talent to go all the way to the top," Pluskota's mom, Penny Bramlett, 39, said.



- Fort Myers News Press

9/17/05 Ft. Myers News Press by Charles Runnells
“Young Talents Go Head To Head”
•Prying Eyes beat out seven other groups in the 1st Battle of the Bands at Cape Coral’s SunSplash Water Park.
•Prying Eyes came to rock this Friday night.
•Prying Eyes built up a wall of double bass drums & shredding guitar.
•Teenaged metal heads showed their love by crowding to the stage, bobbing their heads & jumping up & down in a mosh pit.
•The audience hooted and clapped with enthusiasm.
- Fort Myers News Press