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| Photo: Sunshine Rebel Records |
It’s been almost two years since I first interviewed
Cassidy Haley. Since then he and I have both come a long way and learned a lot. For me it was doing verbal interviews instead of by email. I now provide myself and my readers results that are more connected and offer a much wider range of motion.
As for Cassidy's life and career lessons? The attention he initially received in the beginning, set off more of an explosion rather than just sparking his ambition and
creativity. With offers of
management, promotion, etc. he immediately saw this huge picture of national
tours, album releases and big productions. However, he learned quickly that it wasn’t that easy.
My first question was, “what have you learned?”
CH: I learned to
take my time. I don’t need to be where I want to be right now. It is better to be me, where I am right
now and take small steps.
I’ve learned that, basically, my grand vision of what I want
to see happen is my best asset but it is also my worst enemy because sometimes
I lose sight of where I am right now. I’m thinking about a huge stadium concert
with fifteen back-up dancers and ten costume changes instead of about getting
thirty people to my next show. So
now the 'grand vision' is kept more in check."
Cassidy went on and broke the explanation down further. “To become a great artist you need that
grand vision of where you want to go so it’s not a bad thing. It’s just that you have to be really
aware that it can put you in the fantasy of where you want to be which then distracts you from where you are”. It was
very clear already in our conversation that he has adjusted his focus to a
sharper point.
From there I went back to our first interview where I was
introducing people to the many facets of this incredibly creative person. Does he still design clothes, draw, or
do performance art?
CH: Right now I’m really honing in on
the musical craft. I’ve set aside
the clothing company, the graphic novel,
and am zeroing in on the music.
Of course I couldn’t be satisfied with one facet of music so I am
creating three different live performances. They include all the same songs but each is styled for a
different audiences. The rock
& roll band of Cassidy Haley and The Sunshine Rebels remains. Then there is the new ‘boy band’ The
Mixtape Project which caters more to a queer audience with choreography and
very pop orientation. For the
acoustic angle there are performances of either just myself solo on guitar or
piano or may occasionally include other artists with acoustic instruments. “
Apparently there is a fourth performance option that Haley
went on to explain.
CH: "There is a solo show with a more theatrical tinge that
includes costumes for nightclubs and the underground scene."
Cassidy doesn’t liked being boxed in by styles or
genres. For him, even though it
may be the same story, there are many ways to tell it. Sometimes it needs to be resculpted to
speak a different audience. Still
a thru-line is there in that they are all his songs.
“Smart art” is risky though, especially in the music business’s
current state as far as money goes.
Cassidy is yet another musician who has taken advantage of
Kickstarter. This program offers anyone from fan to investor the
opportunity to work directly with artists.
CH: “It (Kickstarter) allows me to take
my own risks and for my fans to take those risks with me."
Over the last two years I’ve embraced my music career
whole-heartedly. There was so much
to be learned and now I have experience to produce an album, promote an album
and release an album in a way that will take me a lot farther. The Fool was a great album but I want
to reach a larger audience with The Lovers and I believe I have the tools to
accomplish that now.
Good things that came from Round One of Haley’s venture into
his music career were the recognition of his music videos by large media outlets
such as Logo TV and AfterElton.
Logo had Whiskey In Churches in rotation for many months. I asked, based on the insanely high
quality of the production of those videos, if that notice got him any calls to
work as a production designer, set artist, location scout or director.
CH: Thankfully no. Those were not areas I wanted to work in. They did, however, help to grow my
fanbase though.
Videos are a critical part of Cassidy’s concept for all of
his music.
CH: “Every video starts with my vision
and then I’m fortunate to be able to bring in very talented people who work
for practically nothing to produce videos that I’m extremely proud of and
that can stand up to any major artists' videos and do it on a shoe-string
budget. I would make music videos
all day long if time and money would allow. Every song I’ve written I have a music video in my head
for. If I could I would make all
those videos because I feel that the visual is integral to the story of the
song. The world is
multi-media. It’s not
limited. So I want to tell the
story in every way possible and use every sense that I can.”
Based on the fact that Haley has been putting out a steady
stream of songs over the past two years, I wanted to know if he thinks he’ll
ever run out of inspirations or lose touch with his muses.
CH: “No. The biggest inspiration I have is the experience of
life. When I look deeper into
smaller independent artists, there is so much going on and new artists coming
out every day. I’m so encouraged
by what I am seeing and hearing, really interesting new things. For me songwriting is a way I manage my
emotional state. I’m so crazy and
such a dramatic person. I’ll never
run out of material. I’ll spend my
whole life processing and trying to evolve as a person and be writing songs the
whole time.”
Cassidy did two performances over the Labor Day Weekend to
promote his Kickstarter project for “The Lovers”. On September 2, with The Sunshine Rebels, he performed at
The Mint. On September 5th he did a theatrical interpretation of
the new single “Champagne or Suicide” in San Francisco. September 12th is an
acoustic show at Bar Lubitsch.
You can learn more about Cassidy at www.cassidyhaley.com, keep track of his
upcoming performances at http://cassidyhaley.com/events/event/listUpcoming,
and contribute to his Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cassidyhaley/the-lovers . Listen to the music at http://cassidyhaley1.bandcamp.com/
then buy it at http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/cassidy-haley/id323191139
Cassidy Haley is also connected on all your favorite social networking options:
I owe Cassidy a big apology for not getting this posted in time to promote the 9/2 and 9/5 shows. Life got in the way and then came Irene who knocked out my power for two days. I hope anyone in the Los Angeles area that is available can make it to the 9/12 performance.
MamaKath-great article!
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