Interview Cassyette: World Of Her Own

Cassyette (real name Cassy Brooking) was born in Chelmsford, and grew up around Essex. Even though she would visit the infamous Sugar Hut on occasion, she also hung out with the emos, and immersed herself in the small local art scene where “everyone was a bit awkward, regardless of where you placed yourself”. Beginning her musical life as a DJ producing dance music, it was when she sidelined those early forays in favour of a return to her self-confessed ‘greebo’ roots, however, that things fully began to click into place.

The aim of the current Cassyette project is to foster a community that allows you to be the most authentic version of yourself. “It’s really important to not feel like you have to be someone else’s picture of you, or fit a narrative that someone else wants. I get it all the time,” she says of the confusion she’s faced from people for her nonconformist approach, which blends metal, punk, pop and more. Having blown up on TikTok after sharing covers of artists ranging from Billie Eilish to Ashnikko, 30 Seconds to Mars to WILLOW, Olivia Rodrigo, and an iconic screamo version of Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’, she’s always been an anomaly among a world that wants to put people in boxes. As such, she sees the social media platform as a double-edged sword.

“One side of it has been really cool because you diversify the audience that you’re trying to get your music out to,” she explains. A downside, however, comes with people gatekeeping cultures and genres, penalising others for not completely immersing themselves in just one thing. “Someone like me who is just doing it to entertain them online is a nice gateway into other genres,” she suggests, referencing a video that she saw of two older girls calling out people younger than them who were “dressing like punks, but not aligning themselves with punk values.” Cassyette understood what they were trying to say, but she didn’t agree with the way they went about getting their point across.

“It was like they were forgetting that everyone has a journey into understanding what punk values are, and why we’ve chosen to align ourselves with these values in the first place,” she says. “If people are being homophobic, racist, any of any of those kinds of things, of course they’re not welcome. But a young person trying on an outfit as a gateway into understanding what the politics are and understanding what their core values are? They need to be able to do that freely and happily.

“I still experience that as a person that makes music,” she continues. “I sit firmly in that lane and align myself with punk values, and I have done for a long time. So when people question my authenticity, I find it really sad. If you’re questioning my authenticity, then you’re obviously not fully aligning with what the core values of this scene are anyway.”

‘This World Fucking Sucks’ sees Cassyette battling through her addictions, while mourning the loss of her father who passed away suddenly in 2020, trying to pick up the pieces of a world that had been torn apart. ‘Four Leaf Clover’ finds her reaching her breaking point, unable to continue down a path of self-destruction. The power ballads of ‘When She Told Me’ and ‘Porcelain’, meanwhile, are Cassyette at her best – distilling her emotions and using her hoarse vocals to convey the pain she was in.

Yet, while the album is rooted in these emotive moments, another facet of the musician can be found in the cunty techno energy of ‘Sex Metal’ and ‘Degenerette Nation’. “Before this version of the Cassyette project, when I was DJing, I used to produce all my own music,” she reveals as to why she included the two curveball tracks. “This is my debut album, and I’m never gonna get another chance to do this, so it needed to be my blueprint: the full history of me as a person needs to be in this, and dance/ techno music is a whole area of my life.” 

Throughout her genre forays, community has always been key – from the one she’s steadily building with her fanbase, to the regular figures that she works with. She creates her music with a tiny team including musician Tylr Rydr, and alongside Rydr and WARGASM’s Sam Matlock, co-wrote her friend Bambie Thug’s celebrated Eurovision entry, ‘Doomsday Blue’.

“I think it’s the most beautifully berserk song ever,” she laughs, as she explains that the track is essentially four songs in one. “It was nice for that song to see the light of day, because objectively, it’s so chaotic. That wouldn’t be a radio song if it didn’t have that platform. It’s amazing to see something that is alt, and has been purposefully written to be chaotic, do so well on a commercial level.” Alongside Bambie, Cassyette praises Chappell Roan for the way that she’s providing safe space for queer people and “cultivating a beautiful space for her community”. “If you look at the way she’s done things, she provides escapism for young people, and I feel that’s what’s happening with my lot as well,” she says.

It’s a wholly unexpected high among a long list of them for the singer, however Cassyette has also had to navigate her fair share of personal lows over the past few years. While mourning the loss of her father, and in the middle of writing her debut album, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. “I’ve had extreme ups and downs forever but it got worse after then going through all of this traumatic stuff,” she says. “I got to the point where I was just completely desperate. The world around me was crumbling.”

Making the album became an attempt at trying to get things out that she wasn’t always able to say. “The reality of living with bipolar is that you’re not always in a stable mood,” she explains. “Some of the songs were written in mania, and you can hear it in ‘Ipecac’ and ‘Sugar Rush’. They were intense ups while ‘Four Leaf Clover’ was an intense down.” While she hasn’t spoken much about her diagnosis, Cassyette is now keen for people to understand that side of her – especially those who come at her for not having one specific sound. “Try living with bipolar. You’re not one thing, you’re three things. You kind of get what you’re given on any day, and hopefully I’m not a moody bitch,” she laughs. “It’s not to justify myself – it’s for people to understand it. My art is always going to be a reflection of me as a person.”

To finish the album, she had to shut herself away and go off the grid for six months, but Cassyette is proud of making it through. For now, the world does suck just a tiny bit less. “There were moments that were really tough, and obviously the subject matter is very heavy. There was a lot of reflection on top of daily life in my brain,” she reflects. “Going through recovery and grieving at the same time felt like I bit off a lot all at once, but I’m really proud of the past few years because I didn’t think I was capable of that, and I proved myself wrong. It feels really nice to be able to silence the imposter syndrome for a second.”


‘This World Fucking Sucks’ is out on 23rd August via 23 Recordings; preorder it here. 

Tags: Features, Interviews, Cassyette, From The Magazine, July/​August 2024