In Conversation With #203 - Cassia
Macclesfield band Cassia has just released their highly anticipated second album ‘Why You Lacking Energy?’.
A record that transcends genres, themes and ideas, packed with sun-drenched sounds - a labour of love from the trio who impressively self-produced the album in its entirety, after writing it whilst living together in Berlin during the pandemic.
Featuring the singles ‘Right There’, ‘Drifting’, ‘Motions’, and of course the title track ‘16-18 (Why You Lacking Energy?)’, the band’s new LP is rich with crisp, synth-driven anthems and tropical enriched sonics. Digging into the tension that exists in Cassia's music, these are songs that feel like living in the moment, but are caught up in thoughts of the past and anxieties for the future.
The band took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Cassia - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
We are good! We feel quite a lot of different things I think, obviously crazy excited as we worked so hard on it so its good to get it out. The album is pretty honest and very introspective so it feels like you are baring your soul to people which is kind of nerve wracking!
It is called 'Why You Lacking Energy?' - what is the meaning behind that?
So it’s a lyric from the song 1618, the lyric originally had a different context within the song however when we finished the album we realised that the short question really encapsulated the overarching themes and questions of the whole album. It felt like we were asking some version of that question in each of the songs.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
We recorded it all ourselves in a studio that we built in Berlin. We moved there just before covid hit and ended up making a ton of music. Because we had to figure out how take an album from start to finish we ended up going a little crazy getting stuck in the details and nuances of the grooves and all that kind of thing. There ended up being a lot of times where we wouldn’t sleep for 2-3 days. Im not sure if this helped the creative process or not, but I suppose we finished it in the end!
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
Well its very introspective, I think being in Berlin during covid really pushed us to look inward whilst writing. The idea of time and how you spend it comes up a lot, and also just unpicking your own thoughts and trying to understand yourself better. I think the stillness of the last few years really had an impact on that. looking back on the creative process behind this album, it almost feels like we were soul searching, and trying to figure out our place in the world.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
That's a really tough question. I think it’d have to be a coming of age film, maybe something like Perks of being a wallflower… There’s a chaos in the calmness in that film which I really relate to and I can kind of see that in our album.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
I really like ‘realness is bleeding out, dripping like oil on the road underneath our cars, got me wondering what to make of all this bad energy that we’re living in.’ It’s from the semi rapped section in Similar and I just love that way it flows over the melody.
Now the album is out there - what next?
Well we get to play it live finally which is something we’re constantly dreaming about when writing and making the album. That is a definite part of the process for us, a lot of the time we think about how the song would feel in a live setting when we write it. Because this album is so unwaveringly who we are right now, I’m excited for people who like our music to live with it for a bit, it makes you feel more connected to the people who listen to your music. And then, just more writing, that’s all we really do so just gonna keep making music. There are a few more collaborations coming up too which we’re excited about.
