The LIST: How'd you get into Music?
Casual Hearts: For three out of 5 of us we would say that watching and listening to greats such as Michael Jackson got us into music. Andrew (Guitarist) recalls seeing the Black & White video and being inspired to be a performer by looking at Michael Jackson dancing on top of the statue of liberty. Alex (Drummer) got into music by seeing oldest brother playing and just self teaching himself to be able to do it. Jeff (Bassist) remembers watching one of Blink-182's first videos and that inspiring him to become a musician. We all live in Long Island New York. All of us were born in New York with the exception of Jo (Vocalist) who moved to Long Island from California.
The LIST: Who are some of your influences?
Casual Hearts: Definitely Michael Jackson I think it's safe to a say he's an influence for all of us. Jimmy Page & Eric Johnson were definitely huge influences as for Andrew playing guitar. Jeff's biggest influence would be Brand New another long island band that has become successful and for Alex it would be Jon Theodore who is an amazing drummer who use to play with the Mars Volta.
Casual Hearts: Shows, promotion, making great music, & more promotion. We just recently started venturing out into Manhattan and playing shows at The National Underground and just working our way up into some of the bigger venues. The scene of Long Island isn't what it use to be when bands like Taking Back Sunday or Crime In Stereo got popular so after we did some shows out here including one with Patent Pending we just decided to start to hit the City in addition to local gigs. We've been extremely busy with just promoting ourselves through unique guerrilla marketing techniques. From surveys to just getting out stickers and CDs at colleges to going to NY cities hot spots like Union Square and just getting out to as many people as we can. Our series of Casual Hearts Update Videos can be found on our youtube page which shows a lot of our show and promotional journeys.
The LIST: What do you bring to the industry?
Casual Hearts: Casual Hearts is different because we're not playing the same music that anyone else is. We are creating our own market because our influences are so eclectic that when we write songs they can touch so many different lovers of music organically. We don't try to make music that has a wide appeal but that's how it comes out so we love to hear someone say I only like metal but there's something about you guys that makes me love your music. I definitely think we're edgy but as far as Rock and popular music goes I think we fill in a void in the industry it's that bridge between Rock and Hip-Hop in a fashion that still can reach a wide audience. Think about it when you listen to mainstream radio for the most part you don't hear any Rock bands or Hip-Hop artists in their purest forms you hear the Pop songs from those artists then you pick up the CD and they have songs that are great but aren't like the singles. With us the bulk of our songs are just that in it's purest form but are what you're getting out of an album it just so happens that we have songs that people consider catchy but are still us and I guess "cutting-edge" Andrew calls it the Third Heat.
Casual Hearts: Just in time for the summer we're actually recording some of our new material. We have this song called "Maybe, You'll Learn a Thing Or Two" that we're really excited about so we're going to get that onto itunes and pitch it to some college radio stations for a start. We're playing more and more shows. We're currently participating in Ernie Ball's Battle of The Bands for a chance to play at the Warped Tour which we're doing pretty well and we're negotiating to be a part of the Make Music New York Festival in June. As for a plug you can definitely keep up with us at www.casualhearts.com you can catch of all of the latest Casual Hearts Shorts and links to our facebook, friendsorenemies, youtube and all of the other Casual Hearts pages there. We want to thank any and everyone who has voted for us in competitions, supported us by coming to shows, buying CDs, telling their friends we appreciate the help and we love you and this is just the beginning. You can check out Primetime Trauma it's our first EP and it's available on Itunes, Amazon and CD Baby now.
MUSIC + CONTACT + BOOKING
This is a small step for Long Island bands and a big step for Casual Hearts sweet
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree , to see you guys even get this far is sweet , best of luck you'll be there soon!
ReplyDeleteExcelente musica muchachos! I really like your shows and music. Keep the inspiration going!
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