9. Cassette Spence

CASSETTE SPENCE SHINES BOTH ON STAGE AND WHEN SHE’S BEHIND THE SCENES.

I have been a fan of Cassette’s band Vassals for years. We have shared band members and collaborators in Jeni Magana and Jeff Fettig, which meant Cassette became someone I was a fan of to someone I got to call a friend. We got drinks for this interview in Greenpoint, and her answers were deep and thoughtful, and in between the questions we talked about synthesizers, the creative hustle, and the importance of knowing when to take a break from that hustle. Below, Cassette shares some lessons she learned from an 8-track recorder and how time ties into her idea of perfect happiness.

Illustration by Emily Ohlrich (Ink+Oil)
This interview has been edited and condensed.

What do you do?
I’m a singer, songwriter and musician. When I’m not doing that, I work on set to procure and maintain the props of TV shows and movies.

How did you get into it?
When I first moved to New York, I worked in restaurants and bars and kinda fell into prop styling. I had a huge help from my then-partner’s parents; they are both veteran props and primarily work on commercials. They showed me so much, referred me for the occasional styling job, and pointed me toward doing permitted work with the local union.This meant I’d get a call once a month to help move furniture on the set of something or help inventory a warehouse full of set pieces. It snowballed and then I started working on different series as a member of the set dressing department. I then went from working major shows as an additional prop to larger roles on indie movies and shows. I walked backward into something that seems to work well for me.

Where did you grow up and how does that influence your work?
I grew up in South Texas. I don’t think it applies much to my production work, but I grew up the oldest kid of a middle class family and the music scene was really stagnant there. Musically, I had to look to the wider world for things. In South Texas, it was either Spanish language pop music or metal, and I was this softie musician. I grew up with some friends who were really musically minded too, and we would read Pitchfork 1.0 and listen to every single band they ever mentioned, and download their music on Limewire. We were this little indie band that would play with hardcore bands and Tejano bands wherever we could. Where I grew up was largely catholic or non-denominational new wave Christian, so I played at churches a lot. That led to playing as a session musician for people. Where I grew up gave me a good idea of where I didn’t want to be, so I left as soon as I could.

What project are you working on now or will be working on that you are most excited about?
Well, my band Vassals just put out a record last month. Geographically we haven’t been able to play a show because of schedules. I’m really excited to find a way to do some live shows to promote that record. I’m not sure if it will be full band or just me solo, but I’m really into the album, and it took us a while to put it out. I think it would be cool to play it out live.

How did we meet?
We met through Jeni Magana, or did we meet through Jeff Fettig? They can be such a one-two-punch it’s hard to tell. We met through the beautiful Brooklyn music scene!

What is one hope and dream you have for the next year?
I’ve been playing music my whole life, and I’ve never pressed a CD or made a physical album before. I really want to get the Vassals record out in a physical copy of some sort, either on vinyl record or cassettes.

What is your most treasured possession?
I have this multi-track recorder that my uncle gave me when I was 14. I have carted it from Texas to Boston to Los Angeles to New York. It’s in my bedroom now. It’s an 8-track cassette recorder. From my very first band in middle school to my current band and solo projects, I have used this thing for everything. I feel like I stole my name from it. It’s taught me so much, like how to not be too precious about takes because you literally can’t be. It’s really dear to me.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect happiness to me right now feels like all the hours in a day. Just being able to catch up. I had this idea the other day: If I could take a chunk of time off of work, I would give a day to every person I miss—like the people who I never get to see and I’m overwhelmed by how much I miss them. There are a lot of people I miss in my life, and it would be such a happy thing to book them and get to enjoy them for a day. Just to get to be with those people—that sounds like happiness to me.

What is your greatest fear?
I’m afraid of losing sight of the important things. I have a habit of tunnel vision. It’s really helpful a lot of times, like as a session musician. I can focus on playing my one part. As a prop master, I’m able to only see prop world when I’m in it. But, I’m afraid of losing sight of the bigger picture, or doing that too much and missing out on other things.

What is your greatest extravagance?
Oh gear, lately. Too much gear. I try to see it as investing in my art.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Generosity. I don’t think the act of giving is overrated, but sometimes the reasons for it are overlooked. I think generosity can be misconstrued because the exchange of anything - time, emotion, something physical - between the giving party and the receiving party, can be interpreted in such different ways. It can get too subjective.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
In my production work, I learned the word “amort” an abbreviation for “amortization” and it has been my catch all for everything in my personal life too, like that new toy sitting in my apartment right now—that’s an amort.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Oh my god, I have a song about this! It’s called “Jetsam” off the new record. I say “If I ever come back, if that’s something people do, let me be an oak branch or a lilac…” I feel like if I came back, I would love to take a step back from this consciousness, so I would like to be something that just kind of does its thing. I wouldn’t want to be the entire oak tree, but I would be like a branch of it that gets to experience life. The trunk exists, and these many lives come off of it. The branch of it seems like a nice life; you get to grow with it and interact with it. I guess a plant!

cassette spence lives in new york and is frontwoman to the fuzzy slacker band vassals. she previously lived in south texas, boston and los angeles, where she was a sad kid, a college drop out and a warehouse ghost, respectively. she mostly writes about her dog and the moon. she is trans, queer and, most importantly, left-handed.

Cassette also hangs out here: Bandcamp | Vassals Music | Twitter | Website