Emerging from the buzzing music scene of Macclesfield, Cassia are a far cry from your typical indie band. Fiercely passionate and forever thinking outside the genre box, Cassia’s unorthodox songwriting process rapidly transcended the limits of the music community where they cut their teeth on the live scene. You’d be fooled into thinking that Cassia had a more exotic origin story, yet it was from their unassuming childhood homes on the edge of the Peak District that they found themselves dreaming up a nostalgic, warm-tinted and hazy realm and the characters to live within it. It was using this new-found vision that Cassia’s signature, euphoric soundtrack was created, as well as taking inspiration from the Zambian music that frontman Rob’s dad grew up with and the roaring indie culture of nearby Manchester - apart from this time!
Through each song, Cassia capture individual moments and stories within their sweltering envisaged realm; the precise feelings of intense, tropical-hued euphoria, blurry days of hedonism and youth, and the contrasting introspections of the sun setting while the mellow evening tide washing over sandy feet. Jacob explains: “Right as a song is being first written we get really strong visual scenes of where it’s taking place, it’s always been a huge part of how we make music: it could be an LA suburb (or what we imagine it looks like), friends in the park at night during the summer having a barbecue, or a desert at peak heat in the summer. We try to build a world around those scenes in the production and feeling of each song. For that period of time whilst we’re working on the song, I think we kind of feel transported; it's the ultimate escape for us.”
It’s a common misconception that Cassia originate from somewhere on the coast, perhaps because of the early summers spent on pilgrimages down to Cornwall as a fresh-faced young band, busking during the hot days and sleeping in makeshift tents by night. A formative experience, Cassia were seeing their perfectly-formed, sun-soaked sonic vision come to life for the very first time, and the townsfolk were catching on.
Before they had even released their first single, the trio had created widespread word-of-mouth buzz that would uproot them from the comfort of the Northern music scene and propel them into the studios of Berlin, where they’d end up living together and earning their stripes as producers within the thriving underground i think we should mention funkhaus scene. As their production skills became unignorable in the studios they were working in, Cassia found themselves ushered further afield into the alt-pop world, and the studios of London, South Africa and LA, lending their skill to the projects of other artists, from the rising and hotly-tipped to internationally touring acts.
Described by Wonderland Magazine as ‘sublime’, by Notion as an ‘ever-evolving auditory experience’ and an ‘indie dream’ by Clara Amfo, Cassia’s presence within the media is ever-growing. In the past year alone, Cassia have had constant BBC Radio 1 airplay (alongside a ‘Hottest Record’ for their single Circular Motion), recorded their second session at the iconic Maida Vale studio in London, and taken their sound to Mexico for the first time to play Corona Capital Festival, where the likes of Buzzfeed and Disney were queuing to have their moment with the band. It’s rumoured that a return to the Americas is on the cards, and fans across the pond would argue that it is long overdue. Amid the whirlwind of the past year, Cassia’s rise as producers has also skyrocketed, and their freshly-christened new studio has been a further game-changer, solidifying their reputation with bookings filled up months in advance to get in a room with the boys. With a stellar portfolio and their own creative space, the trio are diving into the minds of other artists whenever they can, as well as honing their own, deeply-personal project.
The fresh collaborations and projects that Cassia have shaped this past year have moulded new limbs onto their framework, and the boys have made their home across continents and expanded their initial world beyond all recognition. Cassia’s once pure and worldly sound is now infused with the glow and groove of funk and soul, the ruggedness and boyish charm of indie pop, and polished self-production: more addictive and refined than ever before.
There have been talks amongst fans of a new album ever since the release of Cassia’s breezy and iridescent ‘Home Soon…’ EP in February of this year, giving the band a chance to take a step back from the album cycle and inject fresh air and new inspiration into their own project. For the first time in their career, Cassia have also taken a step back from the white noise of digital life and chaos of touring to re-craft their sound from scratch and rewrite their own story, giving them the opportunity to look within before throwing themselves into the euphoria of festival summers and life on the road.
