Whether it’s discussing her frustrations about online gatekeepers (“boring and really toxic”) or sharing her thoughts on dance music production (“fucking piss easy”) Cassyette is not someone who shies away from speaking her mind. It’s this candour and, let’s be real, no-fucks-given attitude, which has allowed her to emerge as a shape-shifter within the contemporary alt scene. With an ambivalence towards convention, she’s continuously played with sound and genre – fusing pop, rock and collaging an array of disparate genres, just like her idol Hayley Williams.
Put simply, Cassyette doesn’t have time for gatekeepers – she’s too busy immersing herself in the music. Below, she discusses the grief and catharsis of her forthcoming debut album, touring with My Chemical Romance and breaking out of the creative boxes which others have tried to impose on her.
You’ve had a lot of big moments lately. You’ve got your tour and upcoming album, This World Fucking Sucks on the horizon. How are you feeling?
Good. It’s been a really crazy year so far. To be honest, it’s been quite crazy since I wrote the album. So, since this time last year, it’s been absolute chaos. The best kind of chaos. But also, I’m so ready for a holiday. I’m staying in Amsterdam after the show tonight. I’m going to stay here for about 3 or 4 days.
What are you going to get up to in Amsterdam? What do you have planned?
I’m going to probably smoke some hash [laughs]. But to be honest, not all that much. I want to get a bike, and then I want to go and see the tulips. You know how they have the tulip fields. Yeah, I want to do that.
Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming album?
Cassyette: It’s called This World Fucking Sucks, which wasn’t the original title of it, but it fit perfectly after I wrote the intro song ‘This All Fucking Starts.’ Basically, I wrote this rant about how I was feeling… about how I am feeling. So I started writing it, or at least parts of it, even as far as two years ago. And then I just sort of started putting it together. When I decided I wanted to do an album, I went berserk and wrote a fucking ton of music, which was really nice. That’s my favourite thing to do as an artist, write. That’s always been my bread and butter. I’ve always written music for other artists as well. So it’s been quite nice to do my first-ever debut album. I’ve done a mixtape before. But with a mixtape, you can kind of fuck around and do whatever you want. But with [This World Fucking Sucks], I was like, ‘I only get one shot at doing my first album.’
I really poured my heart into it. I’ve never done as much work in my life, so I feel really proud of it. Also, the messaging throughout the album is very close to me and close to a lot of my friends as well. I wrote about going through grief after I lost my dad. And that was one of the big themes throughout the record. He was just everything to me. So, as soon as I lost him, my whole world literally fell apart,I ended up spiralling into the worst part of my drug addiction, the worst it had ever been.
I’ve always struggled with that throughout my life, which is just one of those things that you kind of have to sort of live with. And I’m very on the edge with it all the time, honestly. I wanted to write an album that shows that because that’s something that I know I and many of my friends who are addicts struggle with. You live with it, is what I’m saying. So it kind of infuses a lot of thoughts, feelings and situations. So anytime something shit has happened, I’ve often turned to that. This album was written mostly when I was fucked up, and then some of it was written when I got sober. So there’s definitely a few sides to it.
How did this album creatively challenge you?
Oh, that’s such a good question. I love that question. You know what? I feel like I never want to feel boxed in, and I feel like the album is about that. Originally, I called it Under No Influence because I didn’t want it to be boxed in. And I’ve always had a lot of grief from people online where people are fucking gatekeepers and want me to fit into some idea and say, ‘You’re this, or you’re not that.’ [And I’m like;] ‘Well, I never fucking said I was’. So, for me, this album was my chance to just fully let go and just show people what I’m about. I don’t think that boxing things in makes for a nice frame of mind. I think it’s nice to throw the rulebook out and be in more of a flow state. I like to think like that in general. I like to think like that about me as a human being, about my sexuality, about everything. I don’t think that anything should be bound as one thing. I’m so sick of genres. I’m so sick of having to be something or upsetting people because they only want it to be one thing. It’s boring, and it’s really toxic.
Is there a specific album that shaped your life, influenced your artistry and impacted you as a person?
You know what? Let’s speak about Paramore. Brand New Eyes was a massive turning point for me because I’ve just always loved Hayley Williams. I think she’s absolutely amazing. She can sing like no one else,I’m a massive fan. The one thing that’s really cool about that album is it’s a gateway between pop and rock music. She’s never been boxed in.
You’ve toured with Bring Me The Horizon and My Chemical Romance. What did you learn from those tours?
It was just insane. It was the wickedest thing ever. I kind of didn’t believe it until we were there. And I still didn’t believe it until I walked the stage. But it was amazing. The way I would describe it, it was like… because there were so many hair colours, like all the emos, all the scene kids were there. So it was like this beautiful rainbow of hair, and that’s all I could see because I got bad eyesight. It was beautiful, and the whole show had this really incredible energy to it. I think it was like it was just all of the elves, the emos, and it was fucking cool. It was the best. But I learned a lot. It was the first time I played anything that size. So that was eye-opening. It’s hard to explain that feeling. It was really inspiring, I guess, more than anything.
What’s one of the weirdest ways someone has found your music or heard about you?
Some people have known me since I was just songwriting. I was DJing while I was doing that, and I did mixes and just really random shit on SoundCloud. And there’s still people [from that time] who come to shows. There was one guy, actually, who came to one of my very first shows. He flew from Berlin to watch me, and he was at my recent Berli shown, and he’s so fucking cool. I did this shoutout on stage. And I was like, ‘I fucking love you.’ Like the fact he’s been there for that long. So I guess that stuff from back in the day on SoundCloud when I had like random shit I produced in my bedroom.
What kind of stuff did you produce?
It was more dance music. I can produce, but I’m not the best engineer, so I just picked dance music because it’s the easiest thing for me to produce. Dance music, no offence to dance music acts, is fucking piss easy.
What’s next for you?
We’re going on tour with Bryan Adams, which is going to be fucking jokes. He just randomly asked me to support him, so I’m buzzing. And then we’re playing some festivals, like 2000trees, which is one of my favourite festivals.
