Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Jay Christian - Vocals
Dustin Robertson - Drums
Lawrence Brown - Guitar
Sean Dolich - Guitar
Ryan Martinez - Bass
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Enjoy: Cassette? How long has the band been around?
We've had all pretty similar stories actually. Jay was previously the frontman for a metalcore band called 'Aye Aye, Captain'. Sean was in a relatively well known band called 'Silence' and another by the name of 'Aglacia' (which AAC had toured with a few times). Dustin played drums for a local metalcore band called 'Lost in Tides', and I (Ryan) played bass for a pretty much unknown metalcore band called 'A Study In Scarlet'. Enjoy: Cassette was started in February 2015, but things didnt start rolling until April 2015.
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
The band name was originally "Nomad", but was changed after our last show, in the fall of 2015. We wanted to have something a little more ambiguous, and we always felt we could come up with something better than just Nomad. Nomad eventually did hold a deeper meaning to it, due to the ways in how we all came together. We also are very big fans of anime. The name Enjoy: Cassette was originally conceived with the word "enjoy" being in Japanese, and the verbal pronunciation of the translation we chose was actually "enjoy". The
idea was to have a more anime/ video game influence. We have also been called just "Cassette" as the term "Enjoy: Cassette" loosely can be seen as
"We are Cassette; Enjoy."
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
We've always had the guitarist draft out rhythms first, and sometimes simple bass lines. typically everyone writes for their own parts. On occasion, other members will pitch in for lyrics, but its usually Jay on that. theres a nice flow to his lyricism that we cant copy too well. He's very nitpicky about word choice. We have since scrapped a lot of material, due to line up changes, but much of the old music had an overall theme of drug usage. We sometimes wrote conceptual songs entirely about video games. As far as where we see the lyrics going, we do hope to get a little deeper and more emotional. But references to things like drugs, sex, politics, and religion will most likely still be made. And we do hope to keep in line with a conceptual video game/ anime theme from time to time.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
One band that acts as an inspiration for us all is definitely Dance Gavin Dance. the first day we all met we talked about our influences, and their album, Happiness was the only one that every single member of the band mentioned. Lawrence is a big fan of bands such as The Fall of Troy and various J Rock acts and such. Jay gets a lot of his inspiration from Jason Butler, of Letlive, and many R&B artists, with Amy Winehouse actually being a big one for him. Dustin is typically driven by progressive/ metal bands like Erra, and Protest The Hero. Overall, Dance Gavin Dance, A Lot Like Birds, Letlive, and
The Fall of Troy are the big ones for everyone here.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
The details can get so murky, as we're all in our early 20's now, but we've all had big plans with music, for at least the last 10 years. A few examples; I fell in love with Black Sabbath and Metallica, which inspired me to originally play guitar. Dustin has older siblings who've always had a knack for playing music but i think he's the only one who plays a couple different instruments in his family, and Jay's father was an active musician at one point.
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Jay will down a huge mug of warm tea, and usually makes everyone else do the same. we really dont do anything at all to prepare for a show haha. you can find me stressing to make sure all of our stuff is in order and yelling at Dustin. Then with the exception of Lawrence, we hotbox a car or two with a few friends before a set.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
So far? oh boy. We've played with a number of touring acts and have gotten a lot of recognition from just about all of them. the first day we started bringing in actual money was great for us. But the biggest highlight for us so far is how our fanbase has grown, and how it continues to. Its a very humbling experience. We've made tons of friends and connections with important people. Although we've only release one track so far, even the feedback from that has been awesome. We hope to keep that momentum going.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
We'd like to hang with Letlive, The Fall of Troy, and earlier Dance Gavin Dance era (Probably DBM2). Letlive because of the vocalist' energy. Im excited to see where Jay takes his stage presence now that we're having a bit more of a "groovy" stylistic change, with Sean playing guitar for us, But Jay usually gets really wild. I try to keep up but its a little hard with a bass in my hands. TFOT makes the list simply because of the instrumental similarity. Same for DGD, but on the other end of that same spectrum, especially if we're talking Downtown Battle Mountain 2, or even Happiness. aside from of course, we all look up to these bands. Jay and I like to really sit down and study the dynamics of not only our music, but when setting up shows, band order, setlists, and things like that. Maybe if you throw in A Lot Like Birds, that just might get the line up blended up nicely.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
We would like to plug all of our social media outlets haha. And of course, a huge thanks to the cool ladies and dudes who jam our music and consistently come out to our shows. Namely, the Hemisphere music group on facebook. those dudes really like us, its kind of crazy. If you check out our social media pages, you can keep up with all the cool things we have coming up. we're hoping to release a music video soon, some other media here and there, and you can usually find us on Orlando dates for some bigger touring bands in the genre.