can't stop the rock
Houston musicians rally around rockin' couple after brain cancer scare
Charles and Lauren Eddy of Raudiver.
Husband-and-wife musicians Charles and Lauren Eddy were looking forward to starting a new chapter in their lives as a rock duo.
After doing time in Houston rock bands El Lago and Young Mammals, the couple began composing music as goth rock/darkwave duo Raudiver, naming the band after Latvian writer/parapsychologist/electronic voice phenomena investigator Konstantīns Raudive. Last September, they released their debut album Leave Before Dark, which got some critical love from the local press, including ranking No. 6 on the Houston Chronicle’s “10 Best Albums from Local Houston Artists of 2024” list.)
The Eddys were ready to start off the new year by performing live shows around Texas. But, in February, it was announced on their Instagram page that shows would be canceled due to a medical emergency.
“[Charles] always would get migraines,” says vocalist/keyboardist Lauren, 38, during a Zoom call with her guitarist husband. “He would have, like, nausea. He'd have to sleep it off. He wouldn't want to eat. And it was just becoming more frequent, more severe.”
On the morning of February 5, Charles had a seizure that prompted Lauren to call 911. “It was a really scary experience,” she remembers. “We went to the hospital, the emergency room, and they did the initial CAT scan and found a mass. And the bad news just kept going from there.”
Scans revealed Charles had a brain tumor two inches in size — a malignant, aggressive, grade 4 glioblastoma. The survival rate for this cancer is very low; the median survival time is 12-15 months with treatment, and the five-year survival rate is less than 5 percent.
After spending a week in ICU, he was transferred to MD Anderson Cancer Center for “awake surgery.” “They woke him up in the middle of it and had him do some exercises to make sure that they weren't bagging something important,” says Lauren.
For Charles, it was a three-hour process of answering simple questions. “They have you cut open and it didn't hurt or anything — just, every once in a while, some weird pressure,” says Charles, 34.
“And it's like somebody you've already talked to a few times – the speech pathologist. They have an iPad over here that you can see, and they'll say, ‘What animal is this?’ And it'll be a dog or a cat or whatever, and it's a sketch of the animal. And then they'll say, ‘Okay, what kind of tree is this? What kind of flower is this? What kind of bird is this?’ The whole time, they're feeding you one ice cube at a time, because you can’t move and your mouth gets dry.”
According to Lauren, doctors took most of the tumor out. Charles is currently going through chemotherapy and radiation therapy to get rid of the rest, which is still in a very sensitive part of his brain. Along with consuming several meds (which he carries in a fanny pack wrapped around his chest) on the daily, Charles is doing physical and occupational therapy just to get back to the simple things, like writing a song.
“I do have a problem with reading now,” he says. “I have to exercise that muscle. ! get a stutter and, even in my writing, I'll have sentences where I'm like, ‘Oh, God, what is that letter?’ And it just gets stuck sometimes.”
Thankfully, they have friends and family ready to help them. The former Galveston residents have been living at the home of Jacob Villarreal, Lauren’s brother, while he’s out of town. Villarreal also launched a GoFundMe page for medical costs, recovery expenses, and financial backup. With a $60,000 goal, as of this writing, the campaign has raised over $55,000.
People in Houston’s music community have also stepped up. Earlier this year, Cactus Music held a Record Store Day raffle that raised $1,500 for the Eddys. Last month, Axelrad held a “For the Love of Charlie” benefit concert where limited-edition, seven-inch remixes of Raudiver songs were sold with other merch. And there’s another benefit show happening August 30 at Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston. Says Charles, “I don't know what we would have done without all the support.”
At the moment, the Eddys don’t see live performances happening in the foreseeable future. “I'm worried about just taking him to a restaurant,” says Lauren. “He had a seizure at dinner at a restaurant and it was a 911 call and we shut down the whole restaurant. My anxiety is always so high with him.”
But the music of Raudiver is still available at your nearest record store or streaming platform. Even though they haven’t had a smooth, painless 2025 so far (and, honestly, who has?), they’re still proud of the work they made as a rock-and-roll couple.
“I hope that it’s something that maybe gives other people inspiration to do that thing that they're curious about trying creatively or taking a step in their life personally,” says Lauren. “Maybe take a risk that they hesitate to take and maybe give a little inspiration to do that, because you never know what's going to happen next.”
