“The Wages’ were run out of North Carolina for stealing horses and other boorish behavior. We settled in North Mississippi and evolved into three groups: the preachers; the drunks and the outlaws; and then kind of a mid-range group. I came from the mid-range group.”

Cyrena Wages fell in love with music on the country backroads between Millington and Shelby Forest, two small towns just north of Memphis. Her father, the hometown judge, drove her to school every day in a 1967 gold Cadillac with the license plate “ROBN HD” on the back, an homage to the underdog ideology, and a conceptual through line of her debut
2024 album, Vanity Project. Wages tapped producer Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, St. Paul & the Broken Bones) to helm Vanity Project, a heavy hearted country soul meets indie pop confessional, at his Southern Grooves Studio in Memphis. Upon its release, Cyrena toured in support of artists like Lilly Winwood, Hailey Whitters, Maggie Rose, Lucero, and Chaparelle, and debuted in spaces like the Troubadour and SXSW.

Produced by Johnny Black, Cyrena's upcoming sophomore album may differ sonically (and emotionally) from her debut, but the delicately punk narrative remains intact: a woman raised in North Shelby County, relishing in the witticisms of the South, while fighting like hell to shake its "Bible Belt beauty pageant" conditioning.

"I didn't go in to make this new record feeling unheard or carrying unarticulated pain. I wrote Vanity Project from a wound, and I am writing this project from a scar. If Vanity Project was despair, healing, and truth telling, this album is swagger, boundaries, levity, fun, and a sense of humor that I lost touch with for a long time."

Slated for 2026 release.