Choose Your Character

Live music

Choose Your Character (CYC for short) is a new and quickly emerging indie rock band based out of the great city of Chicago. All throughout Chicago and the surrounding area, CYC has sold out shows and performed at some of the most popular and reputable venues in the local scene. Though selfly labeled as indie, CYC prides itself with not being contained by a specific genre. Instead the band insists on the free form of music creativity which means to harness the passions and styles of its band members to create something completely new and yet palpably familiar. Choose Your Character primarily writes original music, but whenever it is suitable, the band has been known to pay homage to the greats and perform covers of some of the classics of emo rock, punk rock, math rock, alternative, as well as pop ballads. Specific influences include though not limited to: The Strokes, The Smiths, Dance Gavin Dance, Foo Fighters, John Mayer, Jack Johnson, Gorillaz, Chon, Oasis, Green Day, Blink 182, Two Door Cinema Club, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, and The Arctic Monkeys. 

Super Duper Epic Origin Story:

The founding members - Remu Paul De Leon, Nick Boehm, and Geoffrey Hills were schoolmates at Bolingbrook High School, and yet they never collaborated in any capacity of music (unless you count Guitar Hero competitions). As musicians and proud geeks, throughout the years, each one developed their own taste in music and never once renounced their love for the nerdy stuff: anime, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, comic books - you name it. Fast forward to the Summer of 2019, Paul texts the other two and thus the trio formed a band and agree on the band name Choose Your Character because of its gamer connotations and a direct pretext to a song writing philosophy to diversify creativity and to write passion filled songs with themes and ideas that are deeply entrenched with the human experience. After debuting their first 4 song EP - ‘Challenger Approaching’, CYC played their first set at the upstairs stage at Subterranean and received incredible support from fans both new and old. Afterwards, the band had lined up their 2020 calendar with numerous gigs and exciting opportunities that were sure to launch them with an incredible start…and then Covid-19 shutdowns happened. 

Though faced with a huge setback, the wind never left their sails and the band used the following years to continue writing their songs and finalize their band roster with the recruitment of their full time drummer Lucas Roden and second vocalist / rhythm guitarist Julie Jordan in 2021. Since then, Choose Your Character has built a wholesome and distinctive brand for itself by creating a strong online presence through their social media (thanks Julie) and by continuously proving to be a solid and recognizable act in the local live music scene of Chicago. 

Choose Your Character is set to leave their indelible mark on the music industry and will make 2024 and the following years a pinnacle period for its band’s history. 

“Shout out to all our fans, our friends, our family, our household pets, as well as all the fictional characters that have one way or another inspired us to press onwards and upwards.” - CYC 

Testimonials

Set List