There is a lot of music in the world today and that is an excellent thing, but I will tell you the truth, the rarities are few and far between. The things I actually play over and over again, and learn, do not come often in the long term scheme of things. When I am listening to new music it is literally work, and that is the way with everything I suppose. When I find something I like it takes the drudgery out of the work, its a bonus, it makes my efforts fun and rewarding. Thank you to all who helped in this endeavor.
Recently I'd been going through more synthwave and cyberpunk selections found on the net. I swear some of them must be the promoters relatives. I can tell by listening there is no other way they could have gotten included at this point in their musical careers, except by being related to the person making the sampler selection.
Perhaps they were owed a favor or something, who knows? Maybe they are baby AIs, still learning.
One thing is sure, they need to practice a lot more. If they stick with it they will someday sound wonderful and not make my ears ache, but NOT YET. My revenge for these ear aches is my understanding that if the people do stick with their music, become adept, they will one day listen back, hearing themselves as I hear them now, and they will feel embarrassment.
Believe me, I know all about this. Writing is much the same. Some of the things I wrote when I was young make me want to go crawl under a rock. But those steps were necessary, so I just blush and try to forget the things that rang with inexperience and cliche.
Now back to our story. Recently I was outside doing some work in the greenhouse, and one of the new hour long MP3s came on the player. I kept busy but was kind of blown away with what I was hearing. It was really just awesome music to listen to while I was doing what I was doing. It was so distinctive that I could tell when it was over, when another selection came on the player. I did something irregular, I went back and played it again, and again...
It was so listenable that I played it for a long time. Being 62 years old makes "A long time" different from what I used to think of as "A long time". Now a long time is a very long time. The variety of the music was like anti-redundance, it took me longer than usual to learn it, and then I went looking for more material by the same artist.
And there was more.
The name of the Magician, I mean Musician, well, maybe both, is Cassetter, and Cassetter is Matt From Warsaw Poland. He chose the name Cassetter on the spur of the moment, because he used a lot of cassettes in his listening world.
Matt has only been making music for a few years. He utilizes electronic computer equipment for all aspects of production, and he is self taught. As I came to know the music more and more, several of the selections actually transported me away, and I really like it when that happens.
One day recently a song by Cassetter came on the player, 500th Floor Terrace. I was spraying water in the greenhouse again, when all of a sudden I was on Mars, it was near sunset and the sky was amazing. My spacesuit fitted perfectly and didn't even itch! I was walking along, there on the red planet, and the dirt was indeed a reddish hue. Then I came across some stone steps leading up a hillside. I walked up the steps and at the top was a wall with an alcove and in the alcove was a statue of a cat...
Wait! What is this? Where am I? Ah, back in the greenhouse south of Akela New Mexico, not Mars...but for a few seconds some truly mind bending stuff had occurred.
Yeah, I like it very much.
Later, a song came on named Giant Drill and I remembered one of the Klingon weapons in a Star Trek film I once saw, that giant drill had destroyed Vulcan, birthplace of Spock. Really it destroyed Vulcan in only some dimensions, and not the one WE inhabit. I think. It is a complex multiverse and Cassetter Music fits right into it like a puzzle piece.
Matt is a natural musical talent, and Cassetter is
an expression of that. His music is something that HAD to be born,
necessary celebrations. Matt is a very lucky guy, but his listeners are
most fortunate.
I wrote to Cassetter and Matt replied to my questions with an interesting and fluent manner.
Here are some comments from the Artist himself:
Hi Matt, how long have you been composing?
I've been making music for less than 3 years, so I ended up calling myself a beginner quite recently. I learned everything by myself (still learning), reading articles, watching videos and what's most important just by producing - I think I have a good workflow which allowed me to make a lot of music.
What music inspires you?
I had different periods in my life when it comes to music I listen to. I've been mainly listening to electronic music, with Vitalic, The Hacker, Infected Mushroom as one of my favorites. In synthwave I enjoy Perturbator and recent work of Daniel Deluxe. I've also listened to a lot of hip hop music in my life (like Mobb Deep or Dogg Pound), also had some period with rock music quite a long time ago (Fear Factory, Tiamat).
How do you go about composing your pieces?
As for construction of my music it happens quite automatically - I have a general idea of the song, set the tempo, layer the drums, think about the theme and go with the flow. I don't compose in the traditional way - I don't know too much about music theory, so I do most of the melodies on instinct - a lot of them just play in my head. Sometimes I feel like the process of making a track is like the process of reminding myself how the track I already make in the parallel universe sounded.
What does the future hold for Cassetter?
My next album Robot Era (rel. in June 10th) will be quite diverse, but than I'd like to make music a bit more vibe-consistent. I have most of another album composed and it will be much darker overall.
How do you feel about the seeming surplus of music out in the world today?
There is a lot of music now and it's quite difficult to make money - but I work quickly, make a lot of music, and it seems it is starting to pay off. On one hand, the things in music are better now, because for sure 20 years ago it would be much more difficult to make anybody hear your music, you needed to have some buddies, know someone etc. and now there are tons of new music and the process of listening is quite different - I feel like even if you'd make one good album, you mean nothing, you need to go through the slow process of building the audience and do a lot of tracks because many people listen to something just a few times and then go on and listen to other tracks, there is a lot of new. Also you need to stay very active with social media, which is not the part I enjoy too much. Making music is my hobby but the other part (posting on socials, operational stuff) can be a bit exhausting, as I have a full-time job. Partly because of that I joined with FIXT, and I am quite happy with how things are going with them.
Do you do live performances outside of your home area?
I haven't traveled much, I had just a few gigs and then the pandemic came, though I had some others scheduled. I hope it'll come back, I think it's a really nice part of being a musician - meeting new people, seeing new places.
Where is home? Where is your studio?
I was born in Warsaw so I can say it's my city. "Studio" would be a big word in my case. I just work on a laptop with production monitors and that's it. I use software to produce. As for games there are some games with my music and also some streamers use it (as Dr. Disrespect for example), a lot of this stuff happens by FIXT. Producing is now consuming a lot of my free time.
What do you do outside of Music?
I am a boxing fan, and I've been an editor on Polish boxing portal for several years before I started producing. I played Oblivion during the pandemic and finished it.
How old are you?
I am 32 now.
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Among the collaborators listed with the music of Cassetter are Voicians, King Protea, Time Travel, Casey Desmond, Bunny X, Mari Kattman, Affire, and Megan Mcduffie. Matt says he has no favorites yet and he is completely happy with all his collaborators.
After I learned Cassetter -- Back To The 80s (Prime Thanatos compilation), which has nearly a million views on youtube and over 20 thousand likes, I went to FIXT and acquired The Fugitive. I listened to Entropy online. I have heard some selections off the new CD Robot Era, and none fail to please. The music is fun to listen to any time, even while performing other tasks or working. It will help order your matrix, and some will even take you away to unknown places.
What I am hearing is music that had to get out, it is true expression, and there is nothing that can hold it back. This is music Matt wanted to hear, needed to hear, and it wasn't on this world yet, so he brought it.
The only thing you can take from here is what is in your head, so LOAD UP, and don't forget to hear this. I intend to take this music where ever I go.
Cassetter rides the Synthesizer Wave with ultimate style, and he is hanging ten. Way up at the front of the surfboard he lets his toes feel the foam as his back arches and his arms thrust outward in a balancing act not easy to achieve.
And its just the first wave of the day.
Fin
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU8y7EzijNWUAPdAfae0rEg
Buy albums on Bandcamp (Its much easier than anywhere else):
https://cassetter.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/cassetter
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6rzOP8pWzUuXlniCGCtrcE
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/CassetterOfficial
Fixtstore.com
https://fixtstore.com/products/cassetter-entropy-instrumentals-digital-album?variant=32643237937230
Back To The 80s compilation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snBcA-AqVGk
500th floor terrace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1H7bAFnmA4
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