Cassidy and The Music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassidy_(musician)
'Cassidy and The Music' is the latest offering from an established and acclaimed musician—a singer, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur—it marks a new chapter in her career, and in her life. So rather than announcing the arrival of a rookie, Cassidy and The Music represents an artist reborn.

For eight years, Cassidy was the frontwoman and primary songwriter in Antigone Rising. After releasing four independent albums, the all-female rock band was signed to Lava/Atlantic Records, and its 2005 major label debut 'From the Ground Up' sold almost 1,000,000 copies. Celebrated for the excitement of its live performances, the group toured with the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Dave Mathews, and Rob Thomas.

"It was an amazing period of discovery and growth," says Cassidy. "I learned a lot about the business, and about being part of a team, since I was always a bit of a loner. But for many reasons, by the end I just wasn’t getting all that I’d hoped for."

When she decided to leave the band at the end of ‘08, however, Cassidy faced a conundrum. In the intervening years, a rapper known as Cassidy had hit the charts and, as she says, "kind of cornered the market on the moniker."

Really, though, the name issue wasn't the most immediately pressing matter for the singer (she’d later end up calling her first solo project ‘Bohème’). Since having struck back out on her own she found that she had lost the inspiration to make music. "It was like the voice was silent," she says. "I was disenchanted, bewildered. I didn’t have the desire to do it anymore, or know if I could ever get back there again."

She did some freelance journalism and some acting, wrote a book and screenplay, even tried writing a few songs—"but they felt like a chore," she says. Something more drastic needed to happen for Cassidy to find her fire for making music, her passion since singing in local New Jersey bands as a teenager before moving to New York, Los Angeles, and London to chase the dream.

"I needed to go back to the beginning, to who I was before the band," she says. "And I found that girl was still very much there, and had been progressing the whole time. As soon as I started to be creative without having to prove anything, the songs started to come, and it was like the floodgates opened."

Cassidy relocated to LA and contacted her old friend Don Boyette, best known as Michael Jackson's touring bassist, who agreed to co-produce her album, with all of the support a true friend can offer. "I've known Don forever, we have sort of a brother-sister relationship," she says.

The critically acclaimed albeit short lived, Bohème released one album titled, "Follow The Freedom". It was hailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Huffington Post and Music Connection Magazine as a strong reintroduction back into the music community.
Bohème was included in the coveted end of year issue of Music Connection as one of the best unsigned artists of 2013 in the country.

With its brave emotions, uplifting messages, and soaring soul melodies, Follow the Freedom offers a classic sound and a welcome spirit in the music landscape. "When I look into the abyss of the music business," says Cassidy, "I don’t see me out there. We need theatrics and slight of hand, we all want to be entertained of course! But we also need more voices of women who are real. There has to be someone else girls can look at and say, 'She’s like me.'

Follow The Freedom included tracks such as the breezy, buoyant "Everything Sunshine," its mood the furthest thing from the crisis she was facing. "That was the first moment I could see that the answers could possibly be in the songs themselves, if I could just let myself write them."
Next came "Even the Mistakes," a sentiment that was perhaps both more predictable and more necessary in her current state. "The song was giving me permission to screw up," she says. "I realized that the bad times in your life aren't forever, and they happen for a reason."
The powerful "Thank You for Breaking My Heart," and the tile track "Follow The Freedom" continue to be stand outs and have received placements in film and television.

The sound that Cassidy creates in front and behind the microphone, takes the singer back to her earliest influences. "I always wrote these little blue-eyed soul ditties—like some cross between Minnie Riperton and Rickie-Lee Jones, with some arena-rock sensibilities in the choruses," she says. "The radio was the only musical instrument in my house growing up, so I love those '70s and '80s melodies."

She even got to live out a true classic-rock dream. Mixer Niko Bolas, who has worked with everyone from Neil Young to Frank Sinatra to Keith Richards, invited an old friend to stop by and listen to Cassidy's songs.
"I walked into the studio one day to find Steve Perry hanging out in my mixing bay," she says, still with a certain degree of disbelief. "Before I knew it, he was there every day showing me tricks he used to get his voice to sound like that on his albums. Secrets I will take to my grave! He even came up with this cool idea for a backing vocal on the song Follow The Freedom. We threw a mic up and sang it together!"

Given an unexpected blessing from the voice of Journey, there was still the unresolved matter of the name. "Don said it would just come to me, and it did," she says. She settled on a word that has long evoked creativity and independence.

"Bohème was the name of the project," she says, "because it's also me. Who I am and how I feel—a gypsy, a free spirit, but I'll always be Cassidy. So, it took some time but I found a way to use my name again. That's why I'm calling the new project 'Cassidy and The Music'."

Cassidy says the new name with a joy for what lies ahead. She feels confidently that not only has she evolved as an artist and woman, but this music is among the best she has ever produced.

The self-titled album was a collaborative production between herself, LA-based pianist/producer Brother Sal, producer John Siket, best known for his work with Steve Lillywhite on U2, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads and Dave Matthews (to name a few), along with a young up and comer from Brooklyn, NY, Mike Swoop who offered his knowledge of sampling and urban music giving the album the hip hop infusion that Cassidy has always missed in her past work. "If you listen to some of the old stuff" she says, "you'll hear that I sometimes lean in a rhythmic, more soulful direction. Up to this point I haven't had the freedom or maybe the guts to take it fully there. But now or never, right"?

The songs were all written by Cassidy in Rickie-Lee Jones's former residence, although unaware of that fact until she started receiving her mail. "I didn't know she'd lived there when I rented it", says Cassidy. "I only found out later, maybe 2 months after I moved in when a letter came addressed to her. I thought, how weird someone else is also named Rickie-Lee Jones". Cassidy laughs. "No joke! I thought someone else had the same name and then my landlord told me it was her!" When asked if it helped the writing Cassidy replied, "Don't know if she left any good juju behind but I will tell you this, I wrote day and night and ended up with 26 completed songs for this record. And it was tough to choose the final 11. I was inspired as hell".

With new musicians, management and lease on life ‘Cassidy and The Music’ plans to support this album full-steam. "I'm ready now" she says. I want everyone to see this band and to hear these songs. I want to live up to the legacy I left behind of the live shows and the artist that was willing to give everything she had'. I realized it matters to people. It matters to me". She pauses. "Look, it was a process and do I wish it went faster, yes". (laughs) "What's that Don Henley lyric? 'It takes what it takes and sometimes, it takes way more than it should'. " That's that duet with Patty Smyth right"? 'Sometimes Love Ain't Enough'....."man ain't it the truth".

**Look for the new 'Cassidy and The Music' releases in early Fall 2013 and tour dates to follow. Local Los Angeles shows have already begun.

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**A quote from famed Rolling Stone and Spin Music critic Alan Light:

"Cassidy's performance at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe was really a pleasure—not only did Cassidy's voice sound as powerful as ever, but the band delivered the new songs with such confidence and flair. If this is what they sound like at a preview of the album, I can't wait to hear how strong the show will be when they're fully in gear".