MONDAY MORNING MUSICAL MAYHEM - featuring Casey Cuff
Updated: Apr 15, 2021
New interviews from people in the music scene every Monday, every week, every month!
Welcome to Monday Morning Musical Mayhem: a brand new series that will focus on musicians, bands, artists, and whoever else in the musical industry that reaches out to us! The goal is help spread the word about people doing rad stuff in the music world? Are you doing rad stuff? Email us at brutalrealitydigest@gmail.com to be featured! xoxoxo
Another Monday is upon us but as you've now figured out, BRD is bringing in a breath of fresh air for this normally garbage day of the week! That's right! Josh is back with a chat with his new pal, Casey Cuff, who not only plays in 3 killer bands out East but also co-founded a really cool cassette tape record label out of Barrie, Ontario called Tarantula Tapes! I think we can all say "Well Played" to that!
BRUTAL REALITY DIGEST: introduce yourself, your band, and weapon of choice.
CASEY CUFF: Hello! I'm Casey and I play guitar in Heavy Petter, Angry Spells and The Speed Humps.
BRD: Were you born and raised in Barrie? What should we call people from there? Barriers Barringtons? Bare-hugs?
CC: I was born and raised in Barrie however, I have also lived in Toronto and Vancouver. Now that I'm back home, I guess you could call me a Barrian.
BRD: How is the music scene in your neck of the woods (under normal circumstances?)
CC: It's lively around here. Barrie itself has a ton of musicians from multiple genres and being so close to Toronto we see a lot of touring bands as well. Newmarket is another town not far from us and our scenes have had a lot of cross-over for many years. Very few jerks, in my experience!
BRD: You also are the co-founder of a predominately cassette tape focused label. How did that come about and what do you say to people who scoff at purchasing a cassette tape in 2021?
CC: The Speed Humps were planning on putting out a cassette for our EP release last April but then covid delayed it. Cory and I had tossed around the idea of a label and when we started working on the EP cassette again we thought, let's just start a label and trial it with The Speed Humps. It was very spontaneous and not well thought out, haha. We scoffed once but now I say, it's a neat way to get a physical release out there, it's less than vinyl to produce, and about the price of a pint to purchase. If you don't have a tape deck, you have the download code and a collectible.
BRD: Since you, like many of us in the music scene, wear multiple hats, what is your favourite part of "the industry?" Playing shows, recording your own songs, the label part?
CC: Tough one!! Probably the label, mainly because it's new and exciting but also because I get my fix in a lot of other ways. I get to listen to new music all the time, develop my project management skills, interact with a ton of different people, and make new friends (I hope!).
BRD: Who is a surprising influence on your musical career?
CC: I feel like I was late to the game in terms of playing music. Around the time Heavy Petter started, I was meeting a lot of inspirational people and being introduced to music that was really standing out to me. The more I got to know these artists, the more creative I felt. In short, my band mates and others in the local scene have been very inspirational to me.
BRD: Who are some other female musicians people should be paying attention to right now?
CC: Hysterics, Witch Island, Angry Spells, Like A Girl, Which Witch is Which, Doors and Fours, Astral Witch, Prettyboy.
BRD: My band played Barrie once at a Hotdoggery (which I was sad to hear shut their doors due to COVID) and there was a huge brawl on Dunlop Street after the show. Is that pretty common for that area of town and if so, what's a funny story of your own experience in Downtown Barrie?
CC: HA. Totally normal for Barrie. It's all bars along Dunlop, plus a college town, so there's always some excitement downtown. I feel like I'm really dropping the ball on good Dunlop stories. I'm sure it was similar to yours though!
BRD: If you could claim one 90's hit song as your own, which one would you snag?
CC: I Will Deny by the Dwarves. Everything they do is a hit in my mind!
BRD: What are your hopes and aspirations for the bands/label/life as we continue to plow through 2021?
CC: I really hope that it'll be safe to play shows before the year is up but if not, continue to write and record a second full length for Heavy Petter. Label - we would love to be able to do more for bands so the plan is to continue growing organically and be able to expand our services for artists. In regards to life in general, travelling was a big part of our life, especially to see out of town shows so I'm looking forward to jumping in a sweaty, foreign pit.