Introduce yourself and where you’re from.
I’m Rob.
I’m Jake.
We’re Cassia from Macclesfield.
What do our readers need to know about you?
Rob: What they need to know about us is that we have an album which is coming out very soon. That's a very important thing - for us anyway. Any fun facts Jake?
Jake: Well there’s the Paul fact.
Rob: Oh yeah, all our dads are called Paul! … We should have called the album Paul.
Jake: We should only employ people whose dads are called Paul.
MITB: You could get Paul Dano for a music video!
Jake: What’s your favourite Paul Dano performance?
MITB: ‘Little Miss Sunshine’.
Jake: That’s a good one. I really like ‘There Will Be Blood', where he’s the twins. He’s also Brian Wilson in ‘Love and Mercy’. He’s actually probably my favourite actor.
MITB: He makes music too! Just in case you want to do a Paul themed tour.
What have you got coming up that you’re most excited for?
Rob: We’ve got a lot that’s coming up in the near future. We’ve obviously got the tour that’s gonna be really really good. We are going to America for the very first time, which is amazing. Back to Mexico, Lou hasn’t actually been to Mexico yet. Lou is sitting over there [...] He’s waving! That’s gonna be fun.
Jake: Lots of festivals. Lots of singles coming out. Bigger and better than ever!! We’re going to Europe as well,and Copenhagen for the first time.
Rob: I’m really excited to just go to Copenhagen!
Jake: Mexico is a bit of a home away from home now, they treated us so nicely last time we were there, so it’ll be nice to get back. It’d be nice to get really big in Mexico, it’s like a free holiday. “Oh no, back to Cancun again!”
What’s the best run-in you’ve had with a fan?
Rob: We’ve got a harrowing one, Jake got over excited at a gig in Nottingham and threw his drumstick in the crowd and it hit someone.
Jake: Her eye was bleeding! The boyfriend came up to us at the end and I was like “oh he’s gonna beat me up isn’t he…” He was a big guy and I’d literally just tomahawked his girlfriend in the face with my drumstick. I was like “shit, he’s gonna have me” but he was like, “can I have a picture mate?” That one’s pretty bad. The one that always stands out to me is when someone came up to us one time and were like; “me and my girlfriend met at one of your Glasgow gigs years ago. We’ve just had a baby and we’re gonna call it Cassia” It’s cool but it’s also kinda mad that a human is named after this thing that is essentially just us messing about. It’s crazy like a human’s gonna live their whole life…
Rob: With the stain…
Jake: Feel like we’re kind of god-parents in a way.
What’s been your biggest ‘I’ve made it’ moment so far?
Rob: It’s hard to pinpoint because there’s never been an “I’ve made it” moment for me, it’s always been like - “that was fucking sick!”
Jake: You always shout “I’VE MADE IT!.... FINALLY!”
Rob: There have been loads of things that have been pretty awesome. Koko, that was really cool. Truck festival 2019 was another,that was just amazing, it felt huge. The whole crowd was having a good time - it was insane! There’s always new surprises and things that happen which is one of the best things about doing this; you don’t really know what’s gonna happen in the future. It’s both good and bad but there’s things coming up this year that will be amazing.
Jake: Do you wanna know the feeling I have? It’s like - how the fuck did we end up here? We’ll do a music video somewhere like a desert and we’ll be dressed up to look like we’ve been there ten years, all burnt. We’ll be in the middle of nowhere, the directors shouting at us from miles away going “RUN DOWN THE ROAD”, and you’re just like, how the fuck did we end up here? Evaluating your life a little bit. It’s nice to not take anything too seriously though. Obviously we work very hard, we wanna make good stuff, but if we can keep doing it and not have to get another job that’s incredible.
Rob: You get to go to all these places you’d never ever think you’d visit like Monterrey and Mexico City. I think that’s the thing you can’t really do anywhere else - but it takes a lot of work to get to that point. Now it’s happening I don’t think about the work we put in it just kind of happens. I’ve never really had an I’ve made it moment.
What are your three “desert island” albums?
MITB: Picture this. You’re on a boat. The sea is getting rocky, it’s getting scary. You’re like; “Woah what do i grab? The boat’s about to crash!” Every record you own is on board the ship with you but you can only take three. Which three are you grabbing?
Jake: This is a tricky question. I’d probably take the ones with the most monetary value. Who gives a fuck about a re-release of something you could buy for fifteen quid…
Rob: You’ve got that Radiohead one haven’t you? First edition.
Jake: I’ve started to get into vinyl collecting now. I’ve got a few first editions of various things. I’ve got ‘Pet Sounds’ from the 60s. I’ve got ‘Pablo Honey’ first edition - they’re super rare! And then… hmm… maybe another old one. You see I don’t have much sentimental value for the new ones. If I was to lose it I could get it again. But there are certain ones that…
Rob: …Actually hold value.
Jake: You know when you look at one and your like, fuck, this was made 60 years ago!
Rob: Let’s go with Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’. I’ve got a Talking Heads one which is really really good.
MITB: ‘Speaking in Tongues’?
Jake: That is a fucking good album. I think if we’re together, I’m quite happy with your selection as well. If we can have six between us I’m happy. I was thinking Moby’s album ‘Play'. It's a sick album!
Rob: That’s a great album! It kinda got ruined because we analysed it to death but it’s an amazing album.
Jake: Maybe Jeff Buckley, ‘Grace’.
Rob: I’m trying to think of what else I’ve got in the cupboard. I’ve got ‘Abbey Road’, but I don’t think I’d take that. Is that bad? I’ve got a Stone Roses one - I really like the cover.
Jake: I might ditch Radiohead and add Jeff Buckley.
MITB: It’s a good selection. It’ll help pass the time on the desert island you’re marooned on that has nothing but a functioning record player and electricity.
Rob: To be fair I’ve got an old reggae collection which is fucking sick! It’s all instrumental, it's an untitled album. I’d probably take that.
Jake: You’ll be having a fucking sick time on your island.
Rob: We could literally just have it on all the time!
Jake: What if we just took reggae? All reggae. Start making rum on the island.
MITB: That’s good because then you could have people come to you for business. Put a big sign up.
Jake: The footfall might be a bit bad but you never know.
MITB: You never know who’s going to go past! Speaking of first editions, has there ever been a first edition vinyl you’ve found in a record store that you've been super excited about?
Rob: Well I’ve never actually bought one myself but my girlfriend’s has loads. Her dad collects them and he has loads that are from like the 60s and 70s. He has thousands of them. He has these old Beatles catalogues which I’m almost certain are originals. Loads of cool stuff there!
Jake: You wanna find 90s stuff! Everyone stopped making vinyl in the 90s so that's the stuff that's expensive.
MITB: I once got a first edition of ‘Remain in Light' for 25 euros in Belgium and thought it was too good to be true!
Jake: 25 euros?? They need to get on discogs and realise what they’ve done. Me and my girlfriend go to vinyl shops quite often and it’s a really fun thing to do together because you never know what you’re gonna find. Obviously you could buy the new version online and get exactly what you’re looking for but there’s something about being surprised. Going “Oh! They’ve got this!” You broaden your horizons as well. I’ve got massively back into The Police recently just because of finding an old vinyl.
Rob: Love The Police!
Jake: You get to listen to album tracks that tend to get missed when you listen to things on streaming. Absolute corkers.
MITB: Going back to Talking Heads, what do you guys love about ‘Speaking in Tongues’?
Rob: I just really love that album. David Byrne just doesn't attempt to sing - at least it doesn't feel that way. There are certain bits where I would love to listen to just his isolated vocals. It’s so funny because I’m surprised no one thought “maybe we should pull the key down”. Some of it is so high, it’s just hilarious! I also really like the long intros with the synth hooks. Like some guy was just dicking around on the synths and they’ve just added it. It’s quite cool!
MITB: You guys have said before that a lot of your music comes organically from jam sessions. I made the parallel in my mind to Talking Heads because that’s the way they made ‘Remain in Light’. So I’m glad you like them because you have a lot of similarities.
Jake: That’s quite a compliment I’d say!
MITB: You can sense it in your music. They took a lot of inspiration from world music as well.
Jake: That’s something that we like about them.
Rob: They weren’t afraid to try and mix up different styles and make it work.
Jake: They only sound like them.
Rob: Which I think is so impressive. When you make music where it just sounds like that. It’s kind of the same with a modern band like Jungle. I feel like they’ve upcycled soul in a really cool way. They’re a band where they just sound like Jungle.
Sum up your sound in three words.
Rob: It’s quite hard…
Jake: That’s three! It’s quite hard.
Jake: How would you describe our music in three words?
MITB: Very funky songs. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a sentence.
Jake: Eye-watering… ly good. How about; profound yet understated.
Rob: I’m not offering up anything here… All I can think of is indie. Why is it the only word I can think of? Indie. How boring is that? We need feeling words… organic… we need things.
Jake: Sand.
Rob: Green.
Jake: This reminds me of Bob Mortimer doing an impression of the Burnley manager doing a big long speech. It was like “ENDEAVOUR WITHOUT PLEASURE!” This reminds me of that. Don’t really know what we’ve ended up with there.
MITB: We’ve got a few to pick from.
Cassia’s new album ‘everyone, outside’ is available everywhere on the 11th of April. Make sure to pre-save it here for a dose of very funky music that is not only profound yet understanded, but also eye-wateringly good.
Eylem Boz
Image: Tabeah Berler
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