How to properly use and respond to the phrase “Hey girl!”

Because people be actin’ like they don’t know!

Thursday at R Bar, Saturday in the Park!

The Classic American Nuclear Family

This past week was a busy one with two big shows. The first, at R Bar, was my first show with my live band in four months, so it was great to get everyone back together and rock the house. Problem was, the house was pretty small. I was glad to have a few new faces there, and everyone enjoyed the show, but the problem is, when your show is late on a weeknight with a $10 cover charge and your friends are either broke and available or have some money because they’re working past 10pm on a weeknight, that doesn’t make for a big audience. That will be my last weeknight, high-cover-charge gig for the forseeable future. I wish these small venues and bookers would be more flexible about door charges because they really hurt draws for small bands/artists just starting out. Thank god there are some venues that will do shows with no cover where you can pass a tip jar so the musicians still get paid. That makes more sense to me since the venue makes more money off the bar than anything else, and more people in the venue means more money for the bar! Oh well, at least some venue owners understand that. The other option we have is to do gigs at house parties and other spaces where we can control the audience’s experience. So, to that end, our next show will be Saturday, December 19th at a friend’s loft in SoHo, which means no door charge, prime timeslot, free drinks, food, relaxed atmosphere, and good times. Plus we’ll be playing with the amazing Comandante Zero, an excellent electro-funk band out of Brooklyn who are friends of mine, so there’ll be not one but two awesome shows in one spot! I’m really looking forward to that show. If it’s still hard to get a good crowd at a free show on a weekend night with six weeks advance notice, then, to be honest, I’m not really sure what I need to do, haha.

"I don't care what you think, gonna flip my hair and sip my drink!"

Everybody's Crazy in New York

Me post-show

The show on Saturday in Central Park had a much better draw because it was Central Park on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, with a mammoth sound system. I had so much fun! I’ve always wanted to perform at the Bandshell and indeed it was a great time. I had a guest spot between house music DJ’s as part of Art for Progress’ Sunset Jam in Central Park, and sang “Anything You Want,” “Dance Dance Dance,” and “Everybody’s Crazy in New York.” Now, if you frequent the Bandshell area of the park, you know the regular crazy people who are always there, and they were there in full force! There’s the guy with the green ‘fro wearing brightly colored women’s clothes with a poodle and a parrot that he dyes crazy colors who skips around as people frantically take his photograph, and then there’s the old guy who either leaps and spins in circles continuously for about ten minutes at a time and never gets tired, or he stands in one spot and shakes his chest up and down as if he were an old, male, crazy Shakira in sweatpants. It’s a sight to see. I go to that area of Central Park all the time and I’ve seen those guys a lot, so it was pretty surreal to have them dancing to my music as I performed it. And it went absolutely perfectly with “Everybody’s Crazy in New York,” LOLOLOLOL. I wrote that song because it’s true, and they’re the perfect evidence of it!

Posin' with a parrot on my head

Breakin' it down NYC style. That parrot has a great sense of balance.

The show was also great because a lot of little kids were there who really liked my music, and it always makes me happy when kids like my music. One little girl came right up to the stage and watched my set and would wave back to me and smile when I waved to her. Then later, she was like “I really liked your songs,” and SANG “Everybody’s Crazy in New York” BACK TO ME! SO CUTE AND AMAZING! Then this tween boy asked me for a hug and to have a dance-off, and this group of tween girls really liked my stuff as well. And another tween girl came up to me and was like “Did you go to Spence?” I swear, I cannot go anywhere or do anything outside without a Spence girl coming up to me! They’re everywhere! And I’d never know it if I weren’t always doing weird things outside! One lady asked if I’d come sing at her Christmas party. Not Christmas songs, my music. Everybody’s crazy in New York…

Me and my new favorite little fan! (in the pink jacket)

...and from her perspective!

One thing that drives me crazy is that no matter how much people like your music and want to take your info to look you up online after a show, people are SO hesitant to sign up for the mailing list, which everyone in the indie music world says is the one thing you HAVE to get people to do. I totally get it because even when I’ve gotten on people’s email lists, I often don’t have time or desire to read the emails, I’ve never bought their music, and I’ve never been to their shows, and I often don’t get on the email list in the first place because of all that. But it’s just hard to have people say they love your music or your show and then decline to ever hear about your shows in the future. You just have to hope they’ll remember to look you up later, which is where getting a song stuck in their heads comes in. But that’s why it’s ALL about getting publicity. If I were getting publicity and people were seeing my name over and over again, they’d start looking me up and having a context in which to think of me. When I hear of something once, I forget about it, but if I keep hearing about it, eventually I check it out. So I’m excited to start pushing for publicity once the album’s done so I can see if it helps the way I hope/think it will.

In New York City we dance to house music.

In New York City we dance to house music with babies and crazy people.

See you at that show on December 19th!

Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jccassis

All photos by Berette Macaulay except the fourth, ninth and tenth, which are by Kenny Bae. Thank you Berette and Kenny and Art for Progress!

Check out my new look!

A letter I wrote to a friend that will probably help you, too.

So, there are a lot of people of whom I am a huge fan. And I think it would be fascinating to read a long, heartfelt, personal email they wrote to a friend. I just wrote an email like that, and as I was writing it, it helped me cheer up from the crappy mood I was in. I think this letter contains a lot of helpful advice, and I often find myself doling out this advice to friends who appreciate hearing it, so I thought, why not give it a wider audience (by about 10 people) and put it on this blog. I hope it goes viral because I think it could cheer a lot of people up. Feel free to pass it on to your friends.

The Letter:

Hey girl, thanks so much for that beautiful email. I’m going to put it in my “nice things people have said to me” folder in gmail, but really it deserves its own folder entitled “life affirming, validating things people have said to me that help to put things in perspective and stop me from forgetting that I do matter to some people even if I forget it a lot” but I already have too many gmail folders and that title is too long, LOL. Anyway it was really really helpful and wonderful to read everything you said because I didn’t have the greatest birthday yesterday. It really wasn’t bad as birthdays go at all, and a lot of the reason it wasn’t the best was my fault that I could have corrected, but I just feel like I’ve been on a bullet train this whole month with not a second to stop and plan and prepare for the shit that’s important to me. Ugh. So I never asked people to hang out with me at night on my birthday, so I did the parade alone and got soaked to the bone in the rain and was freezing when I got to my friend’s party, and spent most of that party drying my costume with a hair dryer, then fell asleep before I could get to the party I wanted to go to, partially because I didn’t want to go to it alone, even though I really really wanted to go to it, and now I’m all upset that I’m already 26 and I didn’t go to that party and all my gay friends are moving out of the city and blah blah blah. So I’m glad that I give off this veneer of everything being great, but rest assured, I think it’s physically impossible for us to show everything that’s going on inside on the surface, so everything always looks simpler from outside. Don’t ever think you’re the only one going through some shit, and don’t ever think your shit is ever the worst, because it never can be. With all the horrific things that go on in this world, the fact that we have time and the ability to pity ourselves for our stupid little failures is a fucking miracle, LOL. I am laughing at myself right now for actually being sad about my stupid, meaningless, first world, upper middle class, well-educated problems. Fuck me, I am so lucky. And so are you. And so is everyone who isn’t in a war or a North Korean work camp or a Calcutta brothel right now. At least you are free to pity yourself in private, for god’s sake. What a bunch of idiots we are. Anyway.

I was able to cash the check, and seriously, don’t even worry about the whole thing! Money is just money. It comes and goes and we make it and spend it and lose it and it appears and it will never matter as much as friends and wellbeing.

Damn girl, I am so glad we had that walk in Central Park!!! Of course I remember it too, and I’m so glad it was so helpful to you. As you know I care so much about you and I really sympathize with where you’re at emotionally right now and I’m so glad and grateful I was able to help. That’s the only comfort you have when a friend is not feeling well, is being able to help, and I want to help as much as I can! I’m glad you’re feeling a little better now, and please trust that things will continue to improve if you keep working at it. Life is one big mindfuck after liberal arts college and we just have to take it one day at a time and do the best we can with it. We have to remember to forget about the idea of “success” and whether we have it or not, and just do what makes us happy and take care of ourselves and our friends. Everything else is pretty well out of our hands anyway, isn’t it?

You really ought to start loving yourself the way other people love you. You are beautiful and wonderful and loving and caring and creative and talented and interesting, and you always have been. There is nothing in you to hate. And there are so many things about you that other people would love to have. From stupid superficial crap like looks to more important things like family and friends and education and opportunities. I prolly talked to you about the whole “The Secret” message of remembering to be grateful and express gratitude for all the things you have rather than fixating on what you don’t have. Start with the basics like the fact that you have a normal body that functions properly and allows you the freedom of being self sufficient and independent, and don’t forget all the other things that are going well, like the fact that you’re not isolated and you can choose what you want to do with your life and you live in a free country and you’re a citizen of another free country and you know what your options are and you’re not being forced to spend your time killing or oppressing others, etc etc etc. Once you start thinking about it you’ll see there are an infinite amount of things to be grateful for. Every single thing you have, there are lots of people out there who don’t have it. No matter how bad you feel mentally, gratitude can help that, and you still have a lot to be grateful for. If nothing else, this sadness will teach you to be grateful for happiness, and not take it for granted, and do whatever you have to do to find happiness and keep it. Also, something I try to remind myself of is that happiness is not dependent upon other things. It’s its own thing. No matter what you have or what you’re doing or where you are, you’re either happy or you’re not. Things and people and places can’t make you happy if you’re not. And you can be happy without things and places and people. You have to figure out how to cultivate happiness for happiness’ sake. Also living in the moment is helpful. Most people are sad because they’re regretting the past or dreading the future, but if you forget about that and focus on the present, the present usually isn’t that bad. I dunno, maybe also try to think of things thusly: if life is making you sad, it’s probably just because you’re missing the joke. Find the humor in every situation and you’ll see this is really just one long, absurdist, alt-comedy play with too many characters and poor staging that doesn’t allow for everyone to have a good perspective from which to view the lunacy such that it becomes funny. And in the end, there is no message and no meaning anyway. Just a chance to play your part to the best of your ability and wear the most feathers out of everyone on the stage.

Finished filming the ECNY video today!

So today we filmed the last two segments for the Everybody’s Crazy in New York video, and now filming is totally done! We filmed the second and last verses, and they were so hilarious and well done. I am so lucky to have such talented friends who are so generous with their time and talents. You will LOVE this video, it’s going to be so great and so funny and silly. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about filming the other videos since it will get too cold outside really soon, but we may just have to dance in ski pants and puffy coats!

My album is totally written now!

So the other night, I was trying and trying to write the track behind a lyric and melody I’d written and it was just not happening. The song I’d written sounded a LOT like another song by someone else that I really like, so that song was in my head when I was trying to make my song sound different, and it seemed really impossible to make my song significantly different and still really good. So I decided to write a new, totally different song to be the 12th song on my upcoming album, Four on the Floor (listen to the songs on it so far here), and man was that a good idea, because I came up with a really catchy, really personal song that was very easy to come up with instrumental ideas for. Now I’m really excited to finish it, because once I have, all the instrumental tracks for the album will finally be done, and I can start putting down all the vocals, and once that’s done, I can put the music out for you to hear! It’s way past my self-imposed deadline of the end of September, but better to have an album of 12 tracks I’m really proud of than a couple of great songs and a few I was hesitant to put out. So in short, I’m very excited about getting these songs out.

In other news, I finally signed up for Jango.com, an internet radio station that claims to have 7 million monthly users, and which will play my music alongside major label artists who have fans that would probably like my music as well, so I really hope that will be another boost to my exposure and fanbase. Now I’ve really got to sign up for Sound Exchange, which distributes royalties to artists and songwriters for internet airplay. My listens on Last.fm are starting to pick up, and with Last.fm, TheSixtyOne.com, facebook, myspace, youtube, Jango, jccassis.bandcamp.com and all the other places I’ll be putting my music to be played online, I have a significant amount of plays to get paid for. Hopefully it will provide a nice little chunk of pocket change.

I’m also really excited because I have my first rehearsal in 3 MONTHS with my live band tomorrow. I love them all so much and playing with them is SO much fun, so it’s sure to be a laughter-and-music-filled two hours. We’re getting ready for our next show, on November 5th, 10pm at R Bar, 218 Bowery, NYC. See you there!

The video for S. Swift’s “Obsessed” remix!

The fabulous S. Swift has made another video for his remix of my song, “Obsessed.” It’s nice and weird. Enjoy!

The video for the “Can’t Stop (Remix)” REMIX!

So, S. Swift is my hero because he keeps making awesome remixes of my songs, and then he makes cool videos to go along with them and puts them on YouTube! Check out this adorable animation he made to go with his re-remix of my remix of “Can’t Stop.” Enjoy!

Continuing the Everybody’s Crazy in New York video shoot

So today, after like 3 months, I finally filmed one of the last parts of the ECNY video that still needed to be shot. Now I just have two more little pieces to do (hopefully next weekend) and it will be time to start editing it! The editing should be relatively quick since I’ve storyboarded it out in my head. I hope it doesn’t look too weird that part of it was filmed in blazing summer heat and sunshine and part of it was filmed in freezing cold rainy fall, hahaha but too bad.

For the shoot today, I choreographed another piece to go along with the chorus, grabbed some friends to come dance in it, taught it to them in a few minutes in my room, then we headed out to film. It was another laughtastic day because it’s pretty impossible to teach people my silly choreography then watch them do it all together and not just bust out laughing. We had a lot of fun today and it was great to have my dancer friends meet and dance with each other. As young artists it’s really important to collaborate and help each other with our projects and get to know each other so we can lift each other up, so it was a great feeling to see my artsy fartsy friends chatting, laughing and networking a few minutes into knowing each other. We froze our asses off outside since it was about 42 degrees, with wind and rain, and we had a lot of standing around to do between takes. We did the dance so many times and even though I’m not much of an anthlete, somehow my dances always end up being really athletically demanding, so by the end of it we were all pretty exhausted. Then we all had some awesome burgers at The Burger Joint and called it a night. I have some great footage to work with and I can’t wait to put the video together and get it out there already!

But for now, it’s back to finishing these last two tracks, starting to record vocals, and a really really unhealthy amount of networking at any CMJ-related event I can possibly get into this week. Ayayay.

‘Nother video blog on how to write a great song

I’m really going to try to do these video blogs regularly since they’re fun, I have a LOT to say, and I think they’re a much better way to show my personality and let fans and potential fans get a feel for who I am as a person than just writing in a blog. I feel like people who meet me in person are far more interested in listening to my music than people who don’t know what I’m like in real life, so it’s important to let people I probably won’t ever get to meet in person know what I’m like through making videos. I know that my favorite artists are my favorite artists in significant part because I LOVE what I know of their personalities. By the same token, once I know something I don’t like about their personalities, it’s really hard to like them as much. Cases in point: Madonna seems smart, funny, thoughtful, and nice. I really like her and feel good about supporting her career. Kanye West did something really mean and rude to someone who didn’t deserve it at all (Taylor Swift). Though he makes great music and is not always like this, it’s hard not to think of how much that annoyed me when I think of him, which makes me less eager to support his career. Not everyone who sees these videos is going to like me, but that was never going to happen anyway. Some people will like me/these videos, and they’re the ones I’m going after. Enjoy!