The Cassettes, also known as The Cassettes Musical Explorers Society, was partly formed as a diversion from frontman Shelby Cinca’s other projects, which include punk group Frodus and electronic solo project Triobelisk. Shelby took some time out for the group’s US tour to tell us how it feels to be back on the road after time abroad.
Flavors: The Cassettes are defined as “Mystic Country/Steampunk” on Wikipedia. What do those terms mean to you?
Shelby Cinca: We tend to skirt genres between folk, rock, country, avant-garde and even krautrock. We never felt like a traditional alt-country/indie band, so we thought Mystic Country/Steampunk fit our music. Mystic Country since we have mythological/mystical lyrical elements and some Americana twang to our sound. Steampunk for us is a tip of the hat to the literary genre and our allegiance to punk since we all come from a Washington, D.C. DIY punk background, with bands such as Fugazi influencing our ethic. We also like railroads and rhythms of steam technology that we like to incorporate into our music.
F: Your current tour is titled The Return of The Cassettes. Do you have a different perspective on the group and playing live since being away in Sweden?
S: Yes, it’s the age-old wisdom of “you don’t know that you are missing until you don’t have it.” I appreciate playing music live and the opportunities in America because even though there are many institutionalized venues due to LiveNation, etc… there are a ton of DIY show opportunities everywhere, which is lacking in Sweden. Venues in Sweden can feel a bit stuffy with mandatory coat-checks and bad attitudes. Overall, though, I really missed the dynamic, the creativity and the struggle with a group of old close friends.
F: How has the tour been so far?
S: It’s been great! It feels like time hasn’t really passed when we all got in the same room again. Playing live in unique venues such as a the Irma Freedman Center for Imagination in Pittsburgh for the closing of the Geek Art & Green Technology Festival has been great along with our show at The Anachronism steampunk event in NYC. I have always enjoyed the unique shows that The Cassettes have always been able to play. What makes playing even more exciting for us is what we are bringing creatively to our set because of our explorations since our pause in Dec. 2008. I have written many songs for different projects and Stephen (accordion, banjo, moog, vocals) has been fronting his own band The(e) Torches and has honed his banjo and songwriting skills during that time so there is a renewed vitality and chemistry. Oh, and not to mention me becoming a board-game nerd whilst in Sweden, so Stephen and I have had Race For The Galaxy gaming sessions at 7am in the van driving to a show for some of the most epic morning-daze gaming experiences. I love it! We’re also excited to be playing more shows at the end of this month throughout the Washington, D.C. area and Virginia.
F: Your various music projects are quite diverse. What do you do to get “in the zone” for writing and performing these songs versus some of your other styles?
S: I guess it depends on the mood and the necessity. Usually I just go with the flow and feel like writing songs for The Cassettes or space-techno beats for Triobelisk for whatever random reason — an idea floating around in my head, a piece of art I see or even a great passage in a book. But if I am going to really get in the zone to consciously write for a specific project. it’s all about getting into character. So if I am writing for The Cassettes I do like to wear what I would wear on stage, drink some tea, write music while it’s daytime and sing while it’s nighttime.
F: Do you tend to have a specific audience or type of audience member in mind?
S: Not really. Like-minded people, perhaps. Dreamers, music nerds, board game geeks, escapists, inventors, coders, baristas, motorcycle racers, librarians, bakers… humans of all kinds!
F: What’s next for The Cassettes this year?
S: We have a new 7” that just came out, which was recorded by flinging files over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a concept 7” loosely about an adventurer returning back from his journeys to unknown lands. We were able to get some great colors for the vinyl too, such as Dijon Mustard and Steam, plus the record has a lock-groove on the b-side so it loops on a pertinent part. The record also comes with a digital download and a nice old-timey postcard.
We also have more shows planned — hopefully another Steampunk event put on by promoter extraordinaire Jeff Mach later this year, and then a recording session for a new album on Stephen Guidry’s family farm in Louisiana, which we’ve been planning for many years.
F: Why did you choose to use Flavors for the band’s site?
S: We found ourselves heavily scattered all over the web throughout the years, with accounts and content on Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm… you name it! So Flavors made our scatter-brained web presence organized by putting it in one place with a clean interface and easy content management. Without it, I think we’d be a bunch of messages in bottles floating aimlessly about in the ocean of information.
