INTERVIEW : JIM CASSADY

Jim Cassady is a french Dj and composer who comes from Paris. He agreed to answer some questions. 

WAS : First, can you describe yourself?

Jim Cassady : I'm Jim Cassady, born and raised in France. Now living in Paris. I'm a minimal/tech house DJ & composer.

WAS : Your first encounter with the music?

Jim Cassady : I first met music through my father's vinyls. It was mostly artists from the Woodstock era, the Doors and also a lot of jazz music. But I first caressed music when I was about 7: that's when I started taking piano lessons with a russian teacher. She thought I had a thing and I stayed hooked to classical piano for more than 10 years.

WAS : The first time you played in a front of an audience?

Jim Cassasy : Well I think I was 8, playing "Le petit poney" for the school concert...

WAS : Can you describe your music? Which artist(s) inspires you?

Jim Cassady : I guess my music has the bases of minimal/tech house but I've spent so much time listening and composing classical/jazz/rock that my music has all this printed as well, like a scar or a birthmark you know…Therefore she creates its own codes. My music is focused on the moment and all the sensations surrounding it. I don't want it to be technically perfect but to sweat out a lot of feelings and variations. I want it to be more organic than electronic. Some kind of "minimal garage" as they say …  My inspirations evoluate along with the periods of my life. I can exil myself for a month listening to the phantasmagoric solos of John Coltrane and the next day fly to Berlin to recharge myself with electricity. But it's human energy and life in its global sense that inspires me the most. Sudden wind, melancholic movie, good dinner with friends, … All that gets me into certain modes which will drive my creations. Of course a lot of artists also inspire me such as The Glitz, Stimming (and the whole Diynamic team), Coma, Sasha Funke, N.U and a few guys from Katermukke.

WAS : What feelings do you want to give to your listeners?

Jim Cassady : I basically just want them to FEEL. All sorts of emotions. That is already a big step! My music contains my own emotions but anyone has to feel it in its own way. I want it to be a trip. But not a passive one. And leave it up to free interpretation…

WAS : Your best musical memory : a personal one? one as Jim Cassady?

Jim Cassady : As Jim Cassady: It was when I finally made my mates trip on my compositions. We listen to a lot of very good music together so they have very high standards. For me, they were the toughest public. But that time they really connected to my music. That was the best feeling …  More personally now: It was when I discovered Berlin. I remember that night at the Kater Holzig. I witnessed something I had never seen before: some people could gather in a same space and party as well as meditate. I realized true feelings and true music were not completely dead yet. And there it hit me you know: I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

WAS : One thing do you listen to everytime?

Jim Cassady : There's this mixtape by N.U called Lluvia Bianca. It's been out for 6 months but the tracks haven t been on an album yet. So I basically just keep on listening to it at least twice everyday.

WAS : What do you do when you don't make music?

Jim Cassady : I read and write quite a lot. Mainly poetry. I'd like to turn my music and poems into a new sound creation. I'm actually working on it now. Apart from that, my group of friends and I have a lot of projects. They're all into art: cinema, painting, dancing, graphism, architecture, etc. We're now working on an event gathering all of our inspirations and creations. It's planned for may 2013.

WAS : Some projects for the future?

Jim Cassady : Fuck, I think I answered to that in the last question… But I forgot one thing : I'll play 2nd nov 2012 with Villanova and Mlle Caro at La Vilette Enchantée, Paris.

WAS : Anything to add?

Jim Cassady : What color are your dreams?