On the earth of Casi — the duo of Enumclaw bassist Eli Edwards and Xay Younger — punk, hip-hop, emo, and nü metallic are trusted mutuals. Nonetheless, for all of their spectacular genre-swerving, the band’s self-titled debut album, out final week by way of Carpark Information, expresses way more than huge style. On the very core of their band is a friendship that reaches again to childhood in Spanaway, Washington, the place they first met after Edwards’ mom gave him $20 and recommendation to “discover a pal” — they bonded immediately. As they received older, they had been pulled aside, with Edwards relocating to Los Angeles to place in hours with Enumclaw whereas Younger stayed in Washington. Nonetheless, even with a whole lot of miles between them, they continued making songs, each via file-sharing and each time Edwards would fly again to go to, amassing a pile of demos till they realized that what that they had been making all through the years had advantage.
From the second they dropped “JUMPER” within the spring, it was clear that this was a challenge with intrigue and urgency. Impressed by latest ICE raids in LA, the pair poured out their fury on the state of the world, backed by a beat that might flip any crowd right into a blurry tangle of our bodies. “We had been alleged to play our first present down in LA at a venue near downtown, and because of the curfew positioned across the ICE protests, we weren’t in a position to do it,” they clarify. “We ended up spending many of the day driving across the metropolis looking for one thing to do, seeing some actually upsetting stuff. You’re on the freeway, and a squad of 10 cop automobiles will fly by crammed with 4 guys with ARs, and we’re all considering, ‘For what?’ They had been placing individuals’s grandparents in cuffs and children getting teargassed — it was all so dehumanizing. We had been charged up, and it actually comes via on this observe.”
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As with its black-and-white video, boxing is a prevalent theme throughout the rollout, from the album art work to their press images. “Everybody thinks they know what they’re doing till they get punched within the face, and like a punch, Casi is coming full power,” the band say. Under, they take us via their explosive debut, tune by tune.
“TRIGGER”
This is likely one of the first ones we labored on whereas I used to be nonetheless dwelling in LA. I went over to Xay’s home in Spanaway, and we knocked out the core bones in a single night time, together with “SUBSTANCE” and “HUMAN STEREOTYPE.” Narratively, this one actually set the tone for what this album means to us, a snapshot of our lives proper now. I’m in LA, broke, with a long-distance girlfriend, waking up at 2 p.m. to go search for a job, whereas Xay is bussing tables again in Tacoma, making an attempt to determine monetary assist and shit. “What number of hits does it should take”? What number of instances do we’ve got to do the identical factor daily? How lengthy do we’ve got to attend till we will eat? How lengthy do we’ve got to attend till we’re completely happy? That is what starvation feels like. —Eli Edwards
“I’M HUNGOVER AND WENT TO CHURCH”
“HUNGOVER” is a response to “TRIGGER.” We may be mad about our scenario. We may be upset. However everybody offers with it. “You don’t gotta prefer it, however I wouldn’t have it every other approach.” It’s like calling ourselves out — when you can complain, you are able to do one thing about it. —Eli Edwards
“HOCKEY”
“HOCKEY” is portray the image of what it means to be from Spanaway. You bought people who find themselves enjoying Yu-Gi-Oh, and you bought people who find themselves within the discipline. You bought suburbs subsequent to entice homes. You bought lengthy bus rides to get to town. Typically it feels suffocating, however you study to embrace it. —Xay Younger
“D.O.A.”
Spanaway taught me the worry of wasted potential. “I received some homies who ain’t make it out.” I do know individuals who had been alleged to go to the league. I do know individuals who ought to have gone to the NFL or the NBA, and now they’re dealing with 20 years. That shit is actual. —Xay Younger
“INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS”
That is the primary time we had made a tune based mostly off another person’s demo. Our pal Hunnidkbaby gave us this observe that was simply his vocals, the bassline, and a kick drum. One thing about that bassline and the tempo actually introduced out this dirty feeling, and we rode that feeling when writing. That is the monster, that nasty facet you don’t speak about. —Eli Edwards
“JUMPER”
“JUMPER” was one of many final ones written whereas we had been ending up the album in LA. We had been alleged to play our first present down there at a venue near downtown, and because of the curfew positioned across the ICE protests, we weren’t in a position to do it. We ended up spending many of the day driving across the metropolis looking for one thing to do, seeing some actually upsetting stuff. You’re on the freeway, and a squad of 10 cop automobiles will fly by crammed with 4 guys with ARs, and we’re all considering, “For what?” They had been placing individuals’s grandparents in cuffs and children getting tear gassed. It was all so dehumanizing. We had been charged up, and it actually comes via on this observe. —Eli Edwards and Xay Younger
“ELEVEN87”
I used to be 20 and had simply skilled my first heartbreak. Eli was in LA, and I felt alone. I bear in mind being so depressed, I might get up at 3 p.m., go to work at 4, and smoke all day. One night time, I simply couldn’t sleep, and I used to be out of weed and wanted some type of remedy. I loaded up Logic and simply performed silently in my little room. “Is my coronary heart at risk, humorous how all of us received painful strangers.” I believe one of many worst pains we expertise as people is seeing ghosts which might be nonetheless alive and feeling grief for somebody who nonetheless breathes. In some ways, that’s worse than demise. I bear in mind after I completed this beat, I wrote my ex this lengthy message and despatched this beat, and I additionally despatched it to Eli. His response was, “You’re actually getting good at this rock shit,” and hers was a easy coronary heart. Each of these responses modified how I considered music, how I considered myself, and the facility of the human coronary heart. —Xay Younger
“SUBSTANCE”
This tune was made the identical night time Eli and I made “TRIGGER” and “HUMAN STEREOTYPE.” What I assumed was actually attention-grabbing about this tune was Eli had written his verse first, and I assumed it was the very best factor he had ever written on the time. It was so uncooked, and being his pal for thus lengthy, I felt all the lyrics as if I used to be there (which, for essentially the most half, I used to be). “They are saying I’m identical to my father. I take what’s good and dissolve it.” I’ve at all times felt like I’ve been cursed with by no means being glad and destroying good issues. Turning individuals into ghosts, whether or not by selection or negligence, was the one trait I felt I gained from my father. —Xay Younger
“HUMAN STEREOTYPE”
A standard theme I’ve observed about this album is the concept of ghosts, whether or not useless or alive, they perform as one and the identical. To at the present time, this tune is so painful to carry out as a result of I spoke about somebody very expensive to me on this album, they usually died shortly after the making of this tune. In some methods, it felt divine/esoteric in some unusual all-powerful approach. “It’s approach too cliche to die, the human stereotype.” I didn’t get what that meant till now, and in some methods, I want I nonetheless didn’t. —Xay Younger
“BRIDGES”
By itself, “BRIDGES” tonally touches on a whole lot of the identical themes as earlier tracks within the report, however the placement of the observe is what brings out the which means to me. We’ve lived the lifetime of this album, all of the ups and down, and that is the half the place you’re alleged to have some solutions, however you don’t. “Perhaps subsequent time.” —Eli Edwards
