An Interview With: Cassels

We had a chat with Cassels after their 2000 Trees Festival appearance to find out about their latest release and playing it live.

After your recent release of your debut album Foreword, how have you guys found playing the tracks live?
'Foreword' isn't actually our debut album, it's a compilation of past EP's and singles (or a 'pre-album' as we called it for marketing reasons). The idea was to draw a line under everything we've done so far ahead of our debut album which will be coming out later this year. We've been playing a lot of the tracks on Foreword live for a while now, and we'll still carry on playing a few in the live set, but we're looking forward to playing the new stuff - we think it's a big step up.

How did you guys find your set?
It was great! We didn't really have any expectations but there were quite a lot of people there and most of them seemed to like the noises we made.

Were there any bands on the line up you were determined to catch while you were here?
Yeah we watched loads of great bands. The Dirty Nil, Saint Pierre Snake Invasion, Petrol Girls and Doe were all highlights.

I've also seen that you've been recently recording, how have you found it?
Recording was ace. We did a couple of sessions with Rocky O'Reilley at Start Together Studio in Belfast for the album and it all came together really quickly and easily. I suppose it helps when there's only two of you, but it also helped that he's super easy to work with - so nice and chilled. We recorded everything live in the room without headphones too which was great.

Any teasers on what the fans can expect?
New singles, tour dates, and loads of other exciting shit will be announced in the coming weeks.

So at 2000 trees we have camp names such as Camp Ruben and Camp Turner, what would your camp name be and why?
Camp'n Jazz. Because Cap'n Jazz are really good and that's a good pun.

What is your must have festival essential?
Mates.

What is your worst festival experience?
We played T In The Park in 2015 and it was fucking dire. The set went well, but everything else was an absolute shit show. It doesn't surprise me it was cancelled this year.

Going off topic,if you had an elephant but you can't sell it or give it away what would you do with the elephant and why?
Put it down. It would be the kindest thing to do. Residential London is no place for an elephant.

Lastly, if you were to be latest edition to a crayon box what colour would you be and why?
I'd look like a red crayon but actually come out blue, just to fuck with people.

Interview by Heather Lowe