By Sean Lawrenson, Co-Deputy Sport Editor
Following a busy few months touring in North America and Mexico, the band are preparing to take their new album on tour across the U.K. Having played Trinity Centre back in the winter of 2022, their show at SWX on 15th May feels both a big and natural step up.
Vocalist and lead guitarist Rob Ellis, bassist Lou Cotterill, and drummer/vocalist Jacob Leff sat down with Epigram to discuss everything from touring to their dream collaboration. At the beginning of our Zoom call, the boys quickly tell me about the impact of their North American tour.
'We had a bit of a heavy night last night,' Rob Ellis tells me, echoed by Jacob who informs me they only had a couple of hours' sleep. Despite this, they are in good spirits, each armed with a coffee close by, as our conversation drifts over to their new album Everyone, Outside.
I ask them how they came to settle on that name. 'We were just chatting about it one day, trying to figure out artwork ideas... it just seemed to make sense.'
'It’s an answer to our last album,' Jacob Leff tells me, referencing their 2022 album Why You Lacking Energy?. 'Because our last album was a little bit slow, and I think that it’s just fun to play live.'
'There’s still sentimental stuff, not necessarily overly positive stuff,' Rob adds. 'But when we wrap that in these really upbeat feelings, it really gets us, like a happy/sad thing.'
The balance they strike is evident in the first four singles released from this album. The seemingly upbeat 'Miles Out' is filled with melancholic reflections on a relationship turned sour.
Their music combines feet-tapping rhythms with catharsis, a collective experience close to healing. 'You’ve kind of got to reverse it,' Ellis says.
'It’s like 'Perfect Day' – you can’t tell if it’s happy or sad, and I think that’s really cool.' Within five minutes of the call, I can tell just how much the band get on.
'It’s kind of like therapy, because we don’t really chat to each other,' jokes Cotterill. Wanting to know a bit more about the people behind the band, I ask them about their favourite gigs they’ve been to as fans.
Their choices – Elton John, Tame Impala (playing Blackpool, naturally) and Vampire Weekend – highlight their love of the live experience. Whether it’s losing yourself in the audience or, in Leff’s case, chatting to Tame Impala while having a smoke outside, that feeling is hard to define but unmistakable.
Moving back to the album, I ask what can be expected from the rest of the record. 'There’s lots of different vibes,' they tell me.
'They exist in the same space, but there’s lots of newer, unexpected twists and turns.' The band seem so excited when speaking about the project.
They tell me the album is the culmination of a process that lasted just under a year and a half. 'Usually it was like, get in the studio three days after touring and you’re just like "what have you got?" and it’s just like "nothing",' Jacob laughs.
This extra time led to around 60 songs. 'It’s the classic band thing where it’s like yeah, 100 songs,' Jacob says.
'2000 songs,' Rob adds to the joke. Despite so much material, they didn’t feel overly sentimental when choosing what made the cut.
'We felt alright about bringing the scythe down on certain tunes,' Rob says. 'It should happen fairly insistently, for it to hit.'
The band describe the chopping and changing of songs with such freedom, and the album benefits for it. You move from upbeat, feet-tapping songs like 'here & now' to floating ethereality in others, such as 'fractured.'
The album is a fantastic piece of work from the band. I ask if there is any artist they’d be keen to collaborate with in the future.
'It would be good to have something that’s a really interesting mix, between us and them,' Jacob says. Rob’s immediate answer of 'Pitbull' cracks everyone up.
After a few Dijon mustard jokes, they settle on Djo as their dream collaboration. That’s the thing with Cassia: they genuinely reflect the music they create.
Their Spotify 'about me' section, reading 'Tropical vibes but not tropical guys,' shows their self-deprecating spirit. My final question is a classic: describe the album in a sentence.
This is met with adjectives such as 'musical prowess,' 'timeless' and, of course, 'genius.' It’s refreshing to see a band who don’t take themselves too seriously.
When Jacob jokes whether this was a hatchet-job setup, I can’t help but laugh. Cassia are a great example of a band steadily rising through the world of music.
Having already carved out an impressive career, their latest album is another brilliant addition to their catalogue.
Featured Image: @wearecassiaWhat do you think of the new album?
