Fender Crowe has been writing songs since middle school, but for most of that time, almost no one was listening. The 20-year-old Charlotte artist, who performs under the name Cleopatra’s Angry Bees, spent years as a bedroom musician before branching out into the city’s live music scene over the past year. Since then, they’ve gone from first-time open mic performer to gigging artist to festival organizer. All while finishing a debut record about capitalism, meritocracy, and the people who run everything.
That record, Owners, has been steadily growing in real-time on Fender’s Bandcamp page since October 2025. Live recordings and demos are turning into full-fledged songs without compromising on the raw catharsis that folk punk provides. All this work is planned to culminate in Fender’s upcoming DIY showcase, Playdate Music Festival, set to be staged on an actual playground.
Tell us who you are and what you’re working on right now.
Fender: My name is Fender. I make folk punk music. I’m also dabbling in some jazz rap stuff with some of my buddies right now. I’m putting out my album, Owners, which has everything I’ve been releasing over the last four months or so.
I’m releasing that album the same day as a music festival I’m organizing with some folks in the scene. The stage will be on a playground, and we’re calling it Playdate.
That’s an awesome (and very DIY) festival idea! How did Playdate come together?
Fender: I’ve been a bedroom musician for a long time. I’m 20 years old, so breaking into performing live was a challenge since most venues are basically just bars. I didn’t even really know about open mics or if I was allowed to just walk into one. Now I know I could have been doing it years ago, but I had no idea.
I started open-micing at the Evening News around November, and a couple of months in, I got a DM from Rosie’s Coffee and Wine to set me up with gigs. So I did that, and then I just emailed every venue in Charlotte saying, “Hey, I exist, put me on whenever.” I quickly learned that’s not how it works at all. [laughs]
Then I went to this show called Disorder. It was in an old courtroom, a bunch of different acts over a couple of days, and my partner knew the guy who organized it. He was just a regular guy, and I thought, “If he can just do this, I can do this.” So the idea became: why keep trying to get venues to bill me when I can just control the means myself and DIY it?
My buddy Ma, who’s helping me organize it, was talking to me at Starlight and said we should do a big show with people from the Muse open mic. It’s just this incredible hub for talent. Originally, we were going to rent an amphitheater, but that was a ton of money. I even tried to get a grant from the city, but it was too much red tape. Then I found out it’s about $7 an hour to rent a field in front of a playground, and the playground thing became part of the event’s stylized identity.
What was your journey into music? What inspired you to start?
Fender: I feel like I’ve been making music ever since I had the consciousness to actually enjoy music. The first artist I really got into on an artistic level was Billy Joel. I listened to every single one of his songs all through middle school. I was really drawn to the lyricism. “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” was a song I loved; just this long story about a divorce and the futility of it all. I knew he was writing cool stuff and I wanted to write cool stuff. So I just started writing lyrics, even though I couldn’t play any instruments yet. I was imagining what they’d eventually sound like in my head.
Eventually I taught myself guitar, got into Nirvana and the grunge era, and that’s actually how I got my name. I work at a summer camp and I was always hogging the speakers playing Nirvana, so they gave me the camp name Fender. Later, when I figured out I was non-binary, Fender just became my name. The folk punk side of me appreciates the irony that Fender is a corporation, but nothing’s going to mess with that for me.
After grunge I got deeper into rap, especially because I was always a lyrics-first person. I got really into Kendrick Lamar and JPEGMAFIA, so I made two albums of experimental rap mixed with folk punk stuff. Layered instruments, clipped sound bites, the whole thing. The quality wasn’t always amazing because I didn’t have the best mic, but it worked for a lot of it.
For a while I just wasn’t promoting anything. I got frustrated with making art and having no one hear it. I went through a lot of laptops too, which always created gaps. Eventually I came back around to folk punk because it was easier and worked well live, and everything going on politically just made it feel right. All my music has always been political but now I’m fully leaning into folk punk for this record.
Flamenco came in because I was watching a Rob Scallon video where he was doing flamenco stuff on bass, and I thought, I want to learn that. I looked up how to do it, learned about half of what they teach you to start, applied it to all my songs, and now it’s part of my technique. Interestingly, I always thought the guitar playing would be what caught people’s attention and the lyrics would be the slow burn, but it’s actually the opposite. People hear the classical guitar and think it’s cool, and then they realize I’m saying “fuck the government” and they’re like, wait.
Your music is very political. Does your personal situation feed into that?
Fender: Definitely. I work for the YMCA and I’ve got like ten dollars in my bank account right now. It’s not just abstract politics for me. There’s no good-paying jobs, or all the good-paying jobs are going to a handful of people while folks moving in from out of state are buying up housing we can’t afford anymore. You get shielded from how messed up that is if you’re not close to it.
What inspired the name Owners, and why the rolling single-by-single release approach?
Fender: Owners is about dissecting different parts of capitalism and breaking down the myth of meritocracy. “Dental Crown” is a big song on that theme. I’s about the people who own everything. The one percent, the billionaires. My partner is an artist and they’re drawing the album cover: a guy walking his dogs, but the dogs are eating him alive and he’s on the ground while still holding the leash.
As for the rollout, I’ve always been putting out albums, just nobody’s been hearing them. The way I’ve been doing it is just posting songs as I finish them because it was mostly for myself. There were never people to hype up a coming release, you know? I just couldn’t contain the desire to share things. It almost feels better to just put the stuff out than to tease something. Let the work speak for itself. The music is on Bandcamp now, but I’m releasing individual singles to streaming platforms to build a little anticipation before the full album drops there all at once.
I did end up writing a bunch of Christmas music for the album, which is kind of random. My most popular performing song has become “Santa Claus”. It’s just a fun theme, taking traditionally wholesome holiday figures and reappropriating them for more pointed purposes. I’ve got a song called “Naughty Lists” that’s pretty much a Donald Trump metaphor, and a song called “Frosty” — “Frosty the Snowman has blood on his hands, but he’s nice and white and full of ice, so the pigs don’t give a damn.”
What’s your read on the Charlotte folk punk scene?
Fender: I wouldn’t say there really is one, to be honest. There are bars and venues geared specifically toward jazz, or toward regular punk and hardcore but there’s no identifiable folk punk space or vibe. I know one other really prominent folk punk artist who plays at the Muse, and that’s about it.
That said, I’d say the Charlotte music scene in general is really popping right now. More and more people are going out to see local music, and it’s all coming up at the right time. If I had to single out one scene that’s really exploding, I’d say the rap scene is phenomenal. There’s a group of guys at the Muse called B.A.R Academy and every single one of them is incredible, they’ve got posse cuts, we’re trying to get them on the next Playdate bill. There’s also a rap open mic at the Common Market called Flow that I really want to check out.
And then there are bands like Group Therapy; they’re gonna be at Playdate and are literally at the top of my Spotify Wrapped. Just a great combination of heavier sounds and chill indie vibes with really fun, witty, satirical lyricism. Sometimes it’s heavy, sometimes it’s smooth. Just a great band.
Mondako has been blowing me away lately with their warm, jazzy lo-fi indie vibes. Every time I go to the Muse I’m just amazed by the number of artists I’d personally pay 50-plus dollars to see, and I’m there for five bucks at an open mic.
To that end, who are some of your favorite local or North Carolina artists?
Fender: Group Therapy and Mondako, for sure. Definitely Saarta Hannah, she just featured at the Muse and she was incredible — one of the best regulars there by far. If you’re into Hiatus Kaiyote, you’ll love what she does. Really sparkly, soulful, hypnotic little ballads that just put you in a daze.
Joe McGovern is the door guy at the Evening Muse and he rips every single night. He’s got some dance elements but also really passionate personal stuff. He’s got this one song called “All the Way Alive” with the funkiest guitars I’ve ever heard. Every time it comes on I make a stank face. That’s how you know it’s the best music.
And Risu is one of the artists from B.A.R Academy. He’s got these Mavi and Earl Sweatshirt vibes, very experimental, the kind of rap that makes you get in your feelings and just go damn. He’s really awesome.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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