So I know a lot more DJ’s than I thought I did, and that has turned out to be a wonderful thing since many of them are interested in playing my music. The most recent DJ friend of mine who volunteered to play my stuff was the lovely and talented DJ Gatsby.

This was very exciting because it was the first time I’d get to hear the music played live in real life, with the other listeners right there, not just over internet or terrestrial radio. DJ Gatsby has a weekly residency at the fabulous Diesel store on 5th Avenue in NYC, so on Monday I went there to hear him play my tracks live, and furtively taped the whole trip, so I’ll upload the video here soon. It was so exciting to be in a hip, upscale store, with shoppers from all over the world all around me, hearing my music over the booming sound system. And the great thing was, the music, which I’d made with my simple little home studio in my bedroom, really sounded fantastic. It was also really fun to listen to because DJ Gatsby mixed the ends and beginnings of my songs together and it sounded great, and that was the first time I’d heard anyone do that. I felt like such a rockstar. I really wanted to go up to a shopper and be like “excuse me, do you know who sings this song?” and then be like, “IT’S ME!!!” but that probably would have been weird and confusing for them, haha. Anyway, it was an awesome moment, and you’ll see the video here very soon! Now hire DJ Gatsby for your club or special event. He is very talented and a VERY sweet guy!

Lookin' fierce for Felipe's Droid phone

So Saturday was the Murphy’s Law show just up until the part where it really mattered. Here’s what went wrong leading up to the show:

1. Dan of Comandante Zero’s bass and vocal mic were stolen a week before the show.

2. Ken of Comandante Zero had a last minute trip out of town that came up and meant he wouldn’t be around for the show.

Result: no more double-header show

3. My band still wants to play the show but can’t provide a drum set or manpower to get everything up five flights of stairs.

Result: no more backing band for my newly solo show

4. Dan’s family gets a horrible stomach flu a few days before the show, which means that Dan gets a horrible stomach flu one day before the show. Dan is incapacitated the night before the show.

Result: Dan considers cancelling on the day of the show (but does not because he is INCREDIBLE)

5. The largest blizzard in recent memory is set to descend upon New York City when? The night of the show.

Result: Probably about half the audience that was going to show up is no longer going to show up

6. Dan sets up the sound system between bouts of trying not to die of stomach flu. Sound system starts loudly popping to the point where it sounds like someone is dropping a large amount of 30lb rubber balls onto the floor of the apartment from a height of 15 feet. Turns out a piece of the amp has fallen off during its trip to this gig.

Result: I am freaking out while pretending to focus on making mulled cider.

Despite all this, Dan managed to fix the amp before dragging himself back to Brooklyn just before he would have gotten stranded in Manhattan (oh the humanity!) because of the snow, and the show itself was a lot of fun. More importantly, it was ALL CAUGHT ON TAPE this time, and I will be uploading videos of it very soon! This means I will have videos of about eight songs being performed live to tracks to upload soon, which is very exciting. There are also some very funny moments caught on tape that you will have to watch for once they’re uploaded to youtube.com/jccassis. I made some new fans and friends at the show too, and one of the hosts of the loft took gorgeous professional photos of the show, and is willing to take more promo shots of me for my album cover etc, all for the price of me buying him a drink. Love it! Will upload the photos as soon as I have them. Can’t wait to have a free house party when there’s NOT a giant blizzard destroying New York so that I get all the audience I would have gotten in halfway decent weather.

So as you know, a while ago I wrote a PenTales short for the PenTales project, run by my ol’ college pal Steph Hodges and my new post-college pal Saskia Miller. Last night was the live event to celebrate all the PenTales pieces they compiled and have live readings, and after I and the others read our pieces, there was social time for everyone to meet each other. I ended up speaking to an awesome woman who’s a writer and knows some pretty amazing people, and we spoke about ways to get publicity. She told me that in her opinion there are basically two ways to get famous:

1. Associate yourself with someone famous

2. Do something so wild and crazy that people have to pay attention to you

In my short lifetime, I’ve definitely seen people be successful with both of those methods, but it was great to hear an experienced member of the media break it down so simply like that. We also clicked because we spoke about our frustration over how people’s life stories are always SO sugarcoated in the media, but they’re never true to life. Made me think perhaps one way to stand out is to tell my story as truthfully as possible and point out that I’m pretty much the only one doing it out there.

So, if you want to get famous, spend some time mentally sorting through your contacts and figure out who you know who knows someone famous, and find a way to get closer to that famous person yourself. (Not in an assholey-social-climbey way, of course, but by passing your work to them through your mutual contact or organically fostering a relationship. Disregard this important part of it at your own peril.) Aren’t you much more likely to pay attention to someone if someone famous is singing his/her praises, or at least talking about him/her a lot? Alternatively, spend some time thinking of something amazingly attention-grabbing that you could do, and do it. Just look how that worked out for Balloon Boy’s dad, haha! Of course you have to be pretty careful with what you do, because you don’t want the kind of fame that makes your life terrible, you want the kind that makes your life fun.

Another cool thing that happened at the party was that I got to talk to comedian and actor Seth Herzog (Role Models, The Ten, Stella, VH1, etc) at length and got to hear his story of how he got to where he is straight from him, with no media filter. One thing that was interesting was that he definitely made a point of talking about how he got lucky in multiple ways with his particular comedy career. For example, he’s very close friends with some members of the State, who started their careers with a popular show on MTV, and has continued to get various acting/writing/comedy/networking opportunities partially through knowing them, for many years. (Associate yourself with someone famous.) Also, he talked about how things really started to take off for him in 2002 or thereabouts, and he started his career in the early 90’s. So it was definitely not a fairytale, overnight thing. He worked and worked and worked, and finally, after about ten years, was able to live completely off of comedy-related work. So refreshing to hear a real, truthful success story straight from the horse’s mouth. It was also funny to find out how many of the same people he and I know. You don’t often expect that to be the case when you see someone on TV or the movies, but that’s the great thing about living in New York and being in the artistic community. You’re always closer to a prominent person than you think.

I also wanted to plug PenTales in this post. I wasn’t aware of how awesome of a project it truly is until I went to the live event last night. It was SO WONDERFUL to listen to other people’s stories and tell my own, and so great to speak with everyone afterwards. I met such great people and it was a wonderful atmosphere, and I cannot recommend getting involved with PenTales highly enough. Do it!!! Tell ‘em I sent ya.  www.PenTales.com

Also, based on all the value I got out of talking/networking at this one event that wasn’t even music-centric, I cannot WAIT to ramp up my networking time once the album and demo are finished! It’s going to be amazing!

So my parody video, “Party in the UK,” is doing really well so far, with over 300 views in just about two days. It’s so nice to be getting multiple comments a day on YouTube, almost all of which are really supportive. (Who would have ever guessed YouTube commenters are capable of being nice!??!?! Haha)

I got a google alert this morning telling me that the lyrics I wrote for the parody have now been posted on a lyric site, which is funny, but the really odd thing about that is that they copied my lyrics exactly, except for one little word that they left out… take a look at the page and tell me in a comment below if you can figure out which word is missing–isn’t that funny!? I’m baffled as to why they left it out. Who the hell is their audience that they think that word in that context would be a problem?

Here’s the site where the lyrics are posted: http://www.getalyric.com/listen/KJriUVGo71Q/party_in_the_uk_parody_of_party_in_the_usa_by_miley_cyrus_by_jc_cassis

So what’s the missing lyric? Please answer in a comment below.

So for weeks I have been wanting to make and upload a YouTube video of my parody of Miley Cyrus’ excellent song “Party in the USA,” called “Party in the UK,” and I finally did. Here it is! Enjoy and lemme know what you think by leaving a comment below!

I wanted to record some new vocals today because I’ve still got three more songs to record before the album’s done, but my voice is too tired from the party I went to last night (where I didn’t even shout! Not fair!) so I’ll wait till tomorrow when the ol’ voice should be back in full force. And I’ve still got two more new songs to roll out that I’ll be releasing soon so keep an eye on this space…

So for the last 8 weeks I’ve been in the Songwriters Hall of Fame song workshop and it has been a total blast. I’m SO glad I did it and I strongly recommend it to all you songwriters out there. You have to audition to get in so the quality of the other participants is high, the leader of the workshop, Peter Bliss, is wonderful, and the experience has just been really helpful and enriching. I’ve really loved it.

One thing that was a little tough about the workshop in the beginning was my songs weren’t getting quite as good of a reception with the industry folk as I thought they might, but of course this taught me what I need to work on to be more successful, which is the most important thing.

But tonight, I played one of the forthcoming songs from my album, Four on the Floor, called “My Ex is Delicious,” a super fun Britney-esque pop ditty about not being able to let go of an ex flame. I’m really proud of it and think it’s awesome so I was really excited to share it with the class, and sure enough, everyone really loved it and the feeling was unanimous among the leader and classmates that the song is a hit. Finally! It was such a wonderful feeling to hear them say that. I loved it. I can’t wait to get the recording done so you all can hear what I mean, and I really can’t wait to try to find a way to send it to Britney Spears’ people to see if I can get them to listen and pass it on to her. I think it could really work for her, and of course that would be such an enormous thrill. So yay.

So far the workshop seemed to be most enthusiastic about My Ex is Delicious, Hold for Your Lovin’ and Dance Dance Dance, so I think those three will definitely be on my demo. I’m so glad I finally have a better idea of what should be on there. Now I just need to figure out what the fourth song on there will be, and then I can print it up and start passing it around!

Yesterday I spent three and a half hours singing lead on my friend’s song demos and it was such a blast. We recorded an R&B duet, a dance song, and a Josh Groban-style ballad, so I got to sing in some styles I haven’t sung in in a while that I love to sing in. That was a poorly written sentence but you know what I mean.

I really want to do more demo singing more regularly ’cause it’s so much fun. It’s great to have a song ready to go and just jump in the vocal booth, knock it out in a few takes, and have a great recording to listen to. I’ll try to post other peoples’ demos I’ve sung on on my site soon so you can hear what I’ve been doing for them.

If you have a demo you’d like me to sing on or know someone who does, please put us in contact because I looooooove singing on demos and everyone I’ve ever worked with has loved having me sing on their demos.

I’m very excited about all the comments I got on my last entry. Thanks for that guys, keep the comments comin’!

FINALLY I’ve released “Hold For Your Lovin’” one of my favorite and most popular songs of the set of new stuff I’m working on . Listen and enjoy and let me know what you think by leaving a comment please! This track is available for listening, downloading and sharing on my website’s music page, here.

I recently performed for the third time at my alma mater, the Spence School, where I went to Kindergarten-12th grade, and as usual, it was so awesome and was my best audience of the year. Each performance there has been better than the last, because the girls keep up with me online in between performances and know my music before I come perform it, so they’re really excited to hear it and I’m really excited to perform it for them.

I was a bit nervous about this performance because it was the first one consisting of my new dance-pop music and none of my old stuff, and I wasn’t sure how much they would like it, but a few weeks before the performances I spoke to some of the girls on facebook and they said they were keeping up with my new music and loved it, so that made me feel more confident.

The performance was not only tons of fun but also really boosted my confidence in the quality of my new music. It is really fuckin’ good. I worked hard on it and made it the best I could and it really paid off because people really enjoy it. Also, performing with tracks is a totally legit way to perform because people still really enjoy what they hear and they get to hear everything as I wrote it, with the same sounds and all the back up vocals, and I think that is really important. Every time I played a song the girls were dancing along and having a great time listening, and they really cheered loudly at the end of each one. I still get totally exhausted singing and doing minimal dancing when I perform a song, and I don’t quite know what to do about that. Run and sing on the treadmill like Fergie?

The only drawback of the show was that somehow the camera didn’t end up taping the show at all. Not one second. Which REALLY sucks because I was hoping to get SIX AWESOME youtube videos out of this performance that really could have helped my exposure and been an EXCELLENT resource to use for bookings. It is the PERFECT gig because it’s great sound, great lighting, and a REALLY large and enthusiastic audience who knows and really enjoys me and my stuff. It is SO LAME that the taping didn’t work OH MY GOD. Not to mention that it was a really special 35 minutes of my life that I REALLY would have liked to have on tape. GODDAMMIT! Oh well, next time. Barf. Will try to get some great video from the Dec 19th show, where of course the lighting will suck and therefore probably so will the video. Goddammit goddammit goddammmiiiiiiiiitttttt!

Whew. Anyway. Focus on the fuckin’ positive, right? I AM SO ANGRY. Ok. Here are the wonderful moments from the performance:

1. I didn’t chicken out about wearing weird stuff. I did the show in my bright pink wig, my new silver sequin jacket, my black sequin tank, my pink tights, and silver boots, and dramatic makeup. I was considering toning down my look for the audience and then realized–wait a minute, this is what I do, this is who I am, and my fans expect me to do it. So I did it up! And everyone was saying how much they liked my wig and outfit and asking where I got my clothes and shoes. Right decision made!

2. Had the fascinating realization that when 12 year old girls in middle school don’t know you and you’re an adult wearing weird things, the experience of them asking you about it is totally different than when you’re their 12 year old classmate wearing weird things. When I was 12 I would get really upset when people at school questioned what I was doing or wearing and didn’t get it. Today, I just told them I was dressed like that because I think it looks pretty and it makes me happy, and that was that. Realized I probably should have done that in middle school, too. Probably wouldn’t have worked though. That’s middle school for ya.

3. Before the performance I sat down on the floor with the girls in the front, joking like I was a student waiting for the assembly to start, and ended up chatting with a lot of them before the show. It was a nice way to break some ice and was also cool because I went on to blow them away with my show and they were all so excited to tell me how much they liked it afterwards.

4. I did a lot of new songs in the show, including “Friday Night Forever” and “Hold For Your Lovin’” which the girls really loved. Was great to hear that people are really liking my new stuff because I think it’s pretty great, too. The girls also insisted on singing Texas Boys a capella with me, which was really fun. Can’t believe I remembered all the words off the top of my head when I haven’t sang or listened to that song in at least 8 months. Was of course great to hear the girls singing along and knowing all the words.

5. When I performed “Dance Dance Dance” the girls sang along, and it was quite a funny thing to see these tiny 11 year olds singing “I don’t care what you think, gonna flip my hair and sip my drink!” I inserted the words “of juice!” after that phrase the first time I sang it. Very funny. One of the girls said that was her favorite song, which I love.

6. The girls chatted during my songs and at first I thought it was because they weren’t listening but when I asked what they were talking about, they said they were talking about how awesome I was. I told them to keep talking. Heeeeeeey!

7. Got the girls to do a big “Heeeeeeeeeeeey!” with me, which was funny. The girls also made a big banner with my name on it to hold up which was sweet.

8. At the end of the show the girls asked where Socrates was, to which I replied, “Well you know that’s funny, I mean, it’s funny that you ask, because the thing about Socrates is, well, he’s…he’s dead, haha,” quoting the line from Annie Hall when she says that about her grandma when Alvy asks about her. I then explained that that was a joke from Annie Hall which no one in that room has ever heard of BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL BORN IN THE MID TO LATE 90’s.

9. After the show the girls all took my business card and then ran over to me to have me autograph each one. I gotta say, I LOVE signing autographs! It is SO FUN! Hope to do a lot more of it in the future. Plus the nice thing is, hopefully since I signed all those cards they hung on to them and used them to look me up on the web! (A lot of them did–I’ve got a LOT of pending facebook friend requests from the girls and the song plays on my page are way up today. Yay!)

10. A couple of the girls asked if I would come and watch their choir rehearsal, which I did, and they sang the song they were working on for me there. I could tell it meant a lot to them and I was really happy to watch.

11. A lot of the girls were really excited to see me and were telling me that they were my biggest fans and they wanted hugs and to keep in touch and everything. Love that! It’s so cool to be on the other end of the fan love, cuz I know how I feel about the people I’m a big fan of, so it’s really cool to think I have people who feel that way about me. Hooray!

All in all it was a great success and a great experience and next time I will do everything in my power to capture it on film NO MATTER WHAT and share it here! The teacher who books the assemblies said she’d definitely like to have me back, so I’m already looking forward to next year’s performance! Gotta get in on the upper school assembly too, and should look into other school performance opportunities out there in case they exist!

So last night I rehearsed with my band, with the lovely and fabulous Dan Freeman of Comandante Zero on keys. It was soooooo fun and funny and I really want to take some rehearsal footage soon so you can see all the fun we have. Most of the songs were in really great shape on the first run through, which was awesome. The new ones are coming along too, which is exciting cuz I love them and I think you all will, too. There’s a song I wrote called “I Just Wanna Hold You,” that we’ve started putting together that I LOVE so much and every time John plays the bass line live I go nuts, it sounds SO good. Can’t wait for you to hear it, and you will if you come to the show on Dec 19th, where we’re performing it.

I now have 9 of 12 songs totally in the can, ready to go, and just have to record vocals on the last three as soon as I’ve rested my voice a bit, practiced the songs, and have a few hours free with a quiet house. I’m thinking that now I should just release the album in 2010, since I don’t want to be pushing it to bloggers in 2010 if it’s a 2009 record, since that will make it seem older. Ayayay it’s so much later than I’d hoped, but what can I say? Life has a way of intervening.

A wonderful British pop star/writer/producer in my songwriting class named Darren Ockert wants to collab with me, and I really want to work with him too, so we should be getting together soon to come up with some poptastic magic. Cannot WAIT for that cuz he is so talented and such a total sweetheart. Can you believe I’m the first one in his life to ever point out to him that the letters in his last name can be rearranged to spell “Rocket?” Neither can I!

So you’re aware of how great Comandante Zero are, please check out this video that proves that EVEN PARROTS CAN’T RESIST DANCING TO THEM!!!