Q & A with The Cassette Kids

The Cassette Kids are a band on the brink of greatest. They’ve just come back from some massive shows in the UK, and they’re on the bill for this month’s South by Southwest festival in the United States. Before they pack their suitcases for more jetsetting, lead singer Katrina Noorbergen and drummer Jacob Read-Harber to chat about their busy touring schedule and soon-to-be-released debut album.

You’re generating some major buzz in the US and UK and your debut album hasn’t even been released yet. How does that feel?
K: It’s amazing actually. I know this is a bit sad that I Google my own band name, but I get Google Alerts because I just want to see what’s happening in the blog world. And to see people blogging about the remixes and the film clip and the song and the fact that we’re doing South by Southwest, it’s such a good feeling. Our sights are really set. We’d love to go overseas and do tours overseas and major touring.

You’ve just completed a run of dates in the United Kingdom. How did the crowds there respond to your music?
K: Really, really well. We had no preconceptions about what it would be like. It was sort of a preliminary reach out for anyone that had heard of us, any sort of industry people, to try to create a bit of a buzz. And we ended up playing three shows to basically packed out rooms, especially the last night at The Barfly which is a really well known and established venue. We’ve got an agent now over there, and we were really, really stoked with the response. And we weren’t expecting it by any means.

Your new music video for “Spin” was picked up the American music site Pitchfork. How did that come about?
K: I’m not really sure. I think we had someone in the US, we got someone to try and create a bit of a buzz for us before South by Southwest. And the girl rang our A&R here at Sony and said “Pitchfork want to premiere the clip.” And we had like a Skype thing – we were in London at the time – and we had a Skype thing, and I was just jumping around the hotel on the couches and stuff. And everyone else was asleep. Apparently we’re the fourth Australian band ever to have their film clip premiere on Pitchfork. It was Wolfmother, Crowded House, and INXS I think.

Oh wow. That’s pretty good company!
K: Yeah, yeah. It was pretty big. A major deal for us.

“Spin” comes from your debut album Nothing on TV. What can you tell me about the record?
J: I think the record, it’s fairly eclectic as far as different styles of song go. “Spin” is definitely on the dancier, poppier end of the scale. That kind of stems from our love of dancing and just going out and having fun, and we just kind of wanted for people to have that track to grab on to.

K: It’s a big, festival party song.

J: Yeah, yeah. So that was the intention with “Spin.” The album altogether, we try to showcase a fairly big variety. We’ve got some pretty dark stuff on there as well. It’s not all kind of poppy and commercial. Hopefully we’ll appeal to a wider audience.

You worked with some amazing producers in Richard Wilkinson and Michael di Francesco. What did they bring to your sound?
K: Initially we had done a couple of co-writes with Mikey, and that’s what led to us coming and asking him to co-produce the album. Mikey is just a really great guy to write music with. He’s really quite charismatic, and you can just see things ticking over in his mind and suddenly he’ll just burst out and have an epiphany. And he’ll be like “Man, that’s probably it,” and you’ll be like “That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard!” We just fed off each other really well. And him having a great array of vintage things, he’s like the Sound Guy. He has so many different sounds and fun things for us to play with. So that’s why we got him on board, because of his library of sound knowledge I suppose. And definitely that’s what we’ve been about from the beginning is experimenting with pedals and different kinds of sounds.

And then Rich Wilkinson had done the Van She album, which we really enjoyed, and he’s worked with a few other bands that we really love like Hot Chip and The Magic Numbers. So when we found out it was a possibility that he could come on board we were really keen. He was really keen and we’ve remained really good friends after the whole process.

You seem to be always touring. What is it that you love about performing live?
K: It’s kind of like being alive. That really sounds kind of lame, but when we’re on tour life is really exciting and its fun. And it can be really exhausting as well, but every time you get on stage and you’re really giving it everything, it’s really quite an intense work-out for us. And it just feels amazing afterwards to know you’ve gone out there and given it everything, and the crowd’s feeding off your energy and you’re feeding off their energy and it’s just a really nice experience.

J: It’s a really different experience to spending time in the studio. It’s like you have these two alter egos almost, where you in the studio fall into a very antisocial sort of lifestyle, and I think having that opportunity to spend time being creative is so valuable in itself. But then to be able to tour the stuff that you spent time being antisocial and creative with is the real payoff.

Next up you’re playing South by Southwest which is such a prestigious festival. Has that always been a dream of yours?
K: It’s always been that thing that other bands do that would be the most amazing thing ever. And then when it turned out that we’d gotten on it, I couldn’t even believe it. I thought that our manager was joking. I was just like “Really? They want us to go over there and play?” We were really, really excited about it. And I think nothing can really prepare us for the intensity of it. I’ve just been told by so many people that it’s just amazing.

It sounds like it’s going to be a massive party with all the Aussies that are over there.
K: Massive party, but we’ve also got to play six shows and make sure that everything’s working, you know? I think the changeovers are like five minutes. It’s not like a show where you get booked and you rock up and you have a nice long sound check and make sure that your mix is perfect and that it sounds amazing out front. Kind of like rock up, plug it in, and just go. So in that way it’ll be a different challenge for us. But yeah, I think we’ve got it covered.

It sounds exciting! South by Southwest is such a massive stage. What other festivals or venues are on your wish list?
K: I think for me, we’d really love to go over and do some of the major UK festivals like Reading, Glastonbury.

J: T in the Park.

K: And we’ve got ourselves an agent now so fingers crossed it’s not too far out of our league.

And then at the end of the month there’s the Bacardi Express festival. That’s such a different kind of tour. What made you want to be a part of it?
K: Just everything about it! There are no tours where you sleep on a train, you get fed on the train, there’re bars on the train, you get to jam with other bands and get involved in the tour. I think really by the end of it we’re all going to be best friends. We’re going to be living in really close proximity to the other guys on the tour which is really nice, because sometimes even when you’re touring with bands sometimes, for whatever reason, your schedules just don’t match up and you don’t really get a chance to hang out. It sounds like a really nice social kind of tour, and one that’s designed specifically not just for the bands to rock up and play shows, but for the bands to have a really great touring experience themselves.

I hear that the train has all of these different carriages including the jamming carriage, the dining carriage, and the chill out lounge. Where are we most likely to find you?
J: Most likely you’ll probably find us in the jamming carriage. We just love getting in a rehearsal space and just playing. I would love to have a jam with the Miami Horror guys or even La Roux or whatever. Other than that, probably at the bar as well.

Sounds good. So after all of that excitement, what’s next for The Cassette Kids?
K: Well I guess after the album comes out we’ve got plans for a national tour in June. And in May actually we’re on the road for five weeks doing the Rock the Schools tour. We’re playing a different school every day and doing music workshops with the kids. It sounded like a really nice opportunity to bond with the kids and create a whole new fan base, and it’s really nice for them because we play a show for them and they get to hang out with the band.