Music in the Mind of Cast

[Music]

Zeke: I’d like to welcome everyone to another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast. I’m your host Zeke. In this episode I have my friend Cast who creates music. You can find his EP The Pavement on all streaming platforms and find him on Instagram. As TotallyNoCast. I like to give a content warning for any strong language used in this episode. Hope you have a nice day. Enjoy the show.  So the first question I always like to ask is what would your origin story be?

Cast: What would my origin story? Like if I could choose?

Zeke: You could choose give me fake?

Cast: I don’t know. I don’t know if I’d have an origin story. I mean, if, if it comes down to it, I’ve always thought about this kind of question. Like, actually, I have a piece called landing day that I wrote when I was like a senior in high school, about this kind of same thing. Essentially it deals with me. It says like I don’t have a birthday I have a landing day, which is the day that like, I can’t drop I got dropped off at Earth. And I write an origin story it’d be I wasn’t born I came from spacecraft and closed in my meteorite right off east coasts in the Atlantic Ocean. I swim in an open and damned is your planet cold kids, I faked my birth in Manhattan and found some family to roll with Spanish people more or less the same skin color I adapt the facial features to resemble my new little brother, Americanize a vow to be on top of the famous roster. And from that day forward, I went by the human name of Joshua. So it has to do with like me being an alien coming into the earth. Making my place here that’s probably what the closest origin story would be.

Zeke: So like the Joker, like you have like, no origin story, and then

Cast: Yeah, pop up. I just, you know, craft my own. Yeah, as I go along. Yeah.

Zeke: And what medium make a song movie?

Cast: Probably. I mean, movies are very interdisciplinary. So probably go with that. I think that that would encompass it. The best I could make a song about everything but it’d be a very long song.

Zeke: Like two days. Yeah.

Cast: Exactly. Breaking it all down. But yeah, probably a movie that would encompass it.

Zeke: So cool. So you um you make music everything so yeah. How do you like the sound of your voice?

Cast: How do I like? That’s a great question. Yeah. No one’s ever asked me that. I’m, uh, I don’t know. My voice has like it. It’s all pretty evident and it’s the same voice when you hear throughout different interviews and videos and stuff. But it has certain nuance differences. Some days it’s more nasally than others. Some days it’s more raspy. It all really depends. Overall, I’m fine. Like I never heard myself. Oh, that’s awful. I never related to that.

Zeke: That’s me every single time. Yeah, video. I’m the same. I can’t.

Cast: Yeah, no, it’s common. It’s if there’s a scientific reason for it. I forgot why. I know the scientific reason You hear it differently because you’re actually listening to how your voice vibrates to the bone and stuff. But there’s another reasoning for why you don’t like the recording of your own voice. You hear it and it’s kind of repulsive, but I’ve never really related to that. I guess that’s mainly because like, since I was young, I’ve always done videos and like voice memos.

Zeke: So you got you probably?

Cast: Probably got used to it at a young age. I don’t think that I can I curse on here. Yeah, I don’t think that I gave a shit when I was younger. So kind of leaked into this. Yeah, it’s whatever, you know, I don’t love the sound of it, you know? Yeah.

Zeke: You have yourself on your playlists?

Cast: Yeah. Um, so I do in the sense of critiquing myself like I always listen back. Mainly to understand where I was at the moment cuz songs for me are kind of like journal entries. Yeah. And I enjoy what I do, and I can listen to it to enjoy But for me, it’s it’s a very different experience than if you were to listen and enjoy it. Yeah, it’s more personal. It’s more like, man, I remember, you know, how much I was sweating while I was recording that or, you know, I was really hungry when I did that when I was really sad here so, you know, it’s more like, revisiting like, old photo book, looking back on it. But every time I make something, I don’t really listen to it much. I listened to it the most while making it Yeah. After that. I just enjoy it with people. So if someone plays it, I won’t tell them to turn it off. But I never like request myself like

Zeke: Like pay the DJ $100 here you go.

Cast: You know, I’ll throw my own party and I’ll play my own music. I’ll never come to DJ Yo, you gotta play my stuff. You know? I was never really like that. Yeah.

Zeke: And then also with that. Do you listen to it? Do you think of all the mistakes or do you just like this is a final piece

Cast: Yeah, I, I’m very careful about that. Because whenever you kind of go into making a music or like making a song or a video, I always go into it with the mentality of like, okay? When this is out, it’s out forever. So understanding that longevity is important to making a good product. Try not to lose focus on getting the product out there because you can totally lose yourself in that perfectionism. Oh, like, Oh, I can’t release this. Yeah, it’s not ready. It’s not, it’s not ready. You can do that for 40 years, you know, and you will never release anything because you have to be perfect about it. So you do have to have a fire under yourself to kind of get that out there. But with me when it’s out there, I don’t really focus on the mistakes, you know, because I don’t I, I prioritize putting it out over any little error that I made an editing. It’s not that serious. You know, especially now I’m still in the league, I consider myself in the beginning phases of my, you know, journey. So, in the beginning, it’s always more important to just put things out there than it is to make sure they’re perfect. And I think that’s a concept that a lot of people don’t understand. quantity over quality. In the beginning, at least, you know, just get yourself out there. Don’t ever worry about whether it’s perfect or not. Because you put stuff out you’re ahead of people who haven’t.

Zeke: Who so think about the it. Mm hmm. I seen a video, like dude on skateboarding, the skate park in those skate park. It was like, waiting for the perfect time to be entrepreneur. Yeah, he was just running never put down the skateboard. Yeah.

Cast: Yeah, that was funny. Yeah, it’s, it’s like, if you are in a lab or if you’re in a studio, whatever, and you’re just working on this one piece that you swear is it? You’re just working on that one thing, all eggs in a basket on that one thing, not even one thing? Five things. Let’s say you’re working five songs that are amazing. And you really want them to be incredible. They really want to grow. But this other guy has put out 50 songs. And, you know, let’s say they’re not as good as yours, right? That guy’s further ahead of you, you know, further ahead than you in his career, like because he actually put stuff out.

Zeke: Yeah. Showing.

Cast: Yeah, he’s actually, you know, producing and putting things out because it’s what makes you better isn’t really making the stuff it’s making it then putting it out there letting time do its thing, letting the world you know, scrutinize what’s going on. And that’s, that’s important to progress be willing to share. You know, because if you just lock yourself in and just work on things, trying to be perfect, trying to be perfect before you put it out. It’s kind of like it’s counterintuitive because you always want to be moving ahead, but you’re not gonna you’re it’s like running in place. You know, I mean, it’s like just running in place running in place like can’t be doing that. You got to But the way that that happens is put it out there let people hate it. You know, let people love it. You got to share artists are very selfish.

Zeke: Yeah, I know. I’m selfish.

Cast: Yeah. Myself included. Yeah, I’m definitely definitely selfish with it. You know, I’m telling you I should be practicing what I preach I’m telling myself this knowing full well that I have, you know,buckets of material that right now are never going to see the light of day.

Zeke: So and when you go on a be like, Oh, yeah, all these songs. Oh, yes.

Cast: Like what you know. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s important to have that balance of being a sharer and keeping just because, honestly, the best thing is do come when you are to yourself. Yeah. When the audience isn’t a part of the process and you’re, you know, trying to make your vision as close to what you had as possible. Yeah.

Zeke: And have you ever had when you thought something was about to pop you like, this is gonna pop. Yeah. In the ups and also in that one pops instead. Hmm,

Cast: I don’t know, I’m not experienced enough. I don’t I don’t think that I can fully answer that. I do know when I have a hit on my hands. I do know when it’s like, yeah, people are gonna probably go crazy to this. It’s it’s only happened. The first, the first one you said yeah, that’s the only scenario I’ve never gone Oh, this is gonna be crazy. And I put it out and it like flops, it’s lost and this never happened. The only thing that’s happened is, I think, Oh, you know, a good amount of people are gonna like this. This is this is like a niche song and I put it out and it goes crazy. And it’s like, wait, I did not expect that many people to love this. You know, that’s the only thing that’s happened but I try to keep my you know, I try to keep a tune to the pulse of what’s going on and understand what people need if that makes sense. So I’ve never really put out anything that’s you know. I don’t plan on it. plastic. Yeah. You know, we’re like, yo, y’all are gonna go crazy. And I put it out and it is like, and it’s like, wow, that was the reception like

Zeke: You just got to walk out. No, I’m sorry, guys. Yeah.

Cast: I’ve always had an understanding of like, you know, okay, this will probably kill it or this is gonna be like this amount of, you know, love, you know, it’s but it’s so subjective. Because even if I am like, I might be wrong about what I’m saying, like, I might have gotten it wrong one time, but like I did. I’m not going to remember that like, I don’t know, you know? Yeah, exactly. I’m 12 and negative.

Zeke: I have learned that.

Cast: It’s important to understand where you are, yeah. But you got to know that it’s not a permanent place. You know, I believe in law of attraction, you know, good thoughts benefit good things. attract good things rather. Um, but if you can’t, like lose yourself in Damn, this didn’t get that many amount of likes. It’s like, whatever like Yeah, it’s all virtual, you know. So yeah, I think staying positive, it’s like, you might as well stay positive, because that’s the more productive thing to do. Yeah, you know, it’s better to be positive and wrong more than it is to be negative and right, you know, yeah. Just I don’t even know if that makes sense. Wait a minute. You got what I’m trying to say like, it’s better to be.

Zeke: Just think positive. And then you go, yeah, its better to think positive. So you’ll do more instead of  thinking negative.

Cast: Yeah, exactly. Right. Aim high, school high, you know, and then if you’re short, you’ll still pretty high. Yeah. Whereas if you aim low, you know, backwards. Yes, exactly. Just go forward, think up. Think positive. It’s not worth, you know, dwelling on negative things. Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say.

Zeke: I just put on putting out.

Cast: Again, is it one word? It’s a gamer. Yeah.

Zeke: And then with your music do you use like your background? music?

Cast: Definitely.

Zeke: What is your background actually? Cuz? I don’t know.

Cast: Yeah, I’m Dominican. Both of my parents are Dominican. Yeah. I lived in New York City till I was like six, seven, moved into Jersey. Was there all throughout high school came back to the Bronx for college, and I’m here now. I have like a, you know, a blend of, you know, two different come ups. Yeah, in you know, city environments. And, you know, the suburbia aspect. And so, both of those perspectives kind of leak into what I do in a sense of it. I understand the importance of like mass appeal and you know radio airplay New York City. Diversity, XYZ, whereas with a suburban environment, things are a little bit more quiet, more intimate. They’re coming up in Jersey was a weird to say the least it was a lot of it had the diversity of like a city but it wasn’t something super I guess. vocalized.

Zeke: Like it was just it was just a known fact.

Cast: Yeah. In New York, it celebrated a lot more than diversity. I I went to high school. I went to a pretty diverse high school. It was a really unique experience. It was two campuses on one. My campus was extremely diverse. And the other campus right by us White Morrow, share the campus like 90% black and Latino before I went to High School though. I had gone to my town’s high schools and they were predominantly white. And coming up. They always told me, you know, oh, you’re black, you’re black. And I would say no, I’m not a Dominican. And in high school, even, you know, I’d be like, Oh, you know, I’m black. I’m one of y’all. But they’d be like, no, you’re not, you know, Hispanic, you, you know, you’re Indian, you know, I mean, like this, like, whatever. Yeah, it’s a it’s a matter of just where, I guess people saw me as and now I have my own understanding of my identity as an afro Latino. So, having both of those perspectives is definitely helped me because if I was just in one side of the coin, you know, I might be sitting here going, you know, I’m not black. I don’t relate to the black struggle. Black issues aren’t relevant to me, you know. So I’m grateful that I got that combination. makes me who I am. Yeah, definitely. For sure. So, you mentioned how does that leap into the music? Yeah. It doesn’t. I guess I’m very best way to put it. A hip hop is a remake of everything. Yeah. That’s like at the heart of hip hop is remix and reconstruction, ism, post post modernism, you know, and just destruction and rebuilding. It’s very much a it’s a very, you know, ever evolving, ever changing kind of thing. That is something that I grew up with very closely. There’s always hip hop in the house. I grew up on 90s rappers bass rapping. I grew up on Biggie Pac EPMD Nas Rakim. Do you know Souls of Mischief mapping, you know, Pharcyde I can A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, KRS-One like these are all people that I grew up listening to. And those I guess are that’s going to be a New York kind of influence. Because hip hop comes from the Bronx. And growing up with that, I’ve always had an understanding of, I guess, pockets, drum patterns, break beats. Yeah, you know, and that is definitely influenced by music. More specifically, I’m heavily influenced by J. dilla. And Madeline, their production, as well as Kanye West. And Timberland, Pherrell, who I consider three of the greatest producers of all time. Um, I’m just the product of studying so many greats, you know, yeah, I study the great. I respect I know my history. And I know who’s influenced by who, and where it falls back on. And that really just makes me who I am the is my secret my secret sauce is that I’m just such a student of hip hop student of the game. Yeah. And I love what it stands for, and what it’s done for me and helped me find my own identity. You know, and I make music off of how I feel, you know? And I think that that is what hip hop music is. Making what you feel in the sense of, like, not catering to mass appeal, and just being so it’s, it’s, there’s a purity to it. Yeah, you know, you might want to sit and say like, oh, hip hop is rapping. And it’s, you know, it has to be this one sound. It sounds like this. You know me but hip hop. expanded beyond that, you know, it’s packed and, yeah, I consider Frank Ocean a hip hop artist. You know, you might say that he’s like alternative r&b, but I genuinely consider him a hip hop artist because, you know, of the way that he writes what I was saying before about, like the combination of stuff. Yeah, he does that extremely well. And the interpolations and renditions one singular line from this other part over here, that’s a that’s a remix. That’s an interpretation. And that’s what hip hop is all about. It’s not about necessarily making a new thing. But remaking everything. Yeah, you know. Yeah. And I think my music is very much me having a feeling from things I experienced from growing up. You know, being in school now. Getting all of those feelings and channeling them into something that you can also experience I want you to feel not necessarily what I felt while making the song. But the inspiration that caused me to make the song. So channeling feelings is a really weird thing. It’s all about, you know, you have an understanding of your upbringing and what why it is that you react to certain things. Why do you have a temper? Why don’t you have a temper? You know, why are you scared of this one thing? Why do you love this other thing? You know, you gotta you got to understand those fundamental questions about yourself before you’re able to

Zeke: Channel it.

Cast: Yeah. And create off of those those colors.

Zeke: So how’s writing music help you with that? Or like reflection?

Cast: Yeah, I think that it’s because more so reflection than therapy because after I make a song, I don’t necessarily feel better. It’s not like I don’t feel like I just vented I don’t feel like it was it helped me heal. You know, you It did help me reflect though. And that’s a step in healing. You know, because I can write, you know, very, very fun things. But I can write some pretty painful stuff because of what I’ve experienced. And that’s always, that’s always something that that’ll help you with your process when you create based off of that. So it’s very much a balance that I maintain between entertainment and art. Because if I just speak how I feel, you know, it’s not something that’s that’ll be approachable to someone, let’s say like you if you know, you’re gonna just be like, well, that guy’s mad about something, but I can scream for five minutes and title it, you know, depression. You’re having x in depression, and it was a song scream for five minutes. You know, I mean, and yeah, I guess that makes sense. But you’re what I’m doing there is just showing you. I’m expressing myself, I’m just showing you exactly how I feel, you know? Whereas with the impressionistic side of things, I make words now, and I talk, I paint pictures off of the feelings that I get. So reflection is definitely key. I’d say reflection more than therapy.

Zeke: Cool.

Cast: Yeah.

Zeke: And then when you get like, more attraction more mainstream, do you want to  be super big? Or do you want to be like, you have your audience you have your core fan base. And you may not be like, Kendrick or J Cole or Drake. Yeah. But you’re still in the conversation of like, one of the greats.

Cast: Yeah. No, I want to be one of the greatest.

Zeke: Like a Drake like, we’ll have that. Yeah, we’ll have like a recognition and you want to have.

Cast: Yeah, I wouldn’t say that. I want to be like Drake

Zeke: Not like not like him but like on that level.

Cast: I want to have a very seminal impact. Yeah, on culture. And I think that comes from my desire to always leave things a little bit better than how I found them. Just how I was, you know, I was raised. It’s always been something that I’ve, I’ve kind of understood about myself. I’m a pretty intense person. And it shows in the music. But overall, by the way that people talk about what I do. I’m not at all the biggest, you know, artists in my area or anything, you know, I’d love to be but say again “hometown hero”, yeah, my hometown here or anything. But when people talk to me about my music, I understand that they’re feeling something. You know, there’s a very big difference between hearing something and feeling it and when they listen, you know, people feel what I’m going for, which is amazing and You can just look at it online, like the way that I like to do YouTube comments hold so much truth when when you look at an artist who’s doing things to just impress you, you’ll see just read the comments. Yeah, you’ll see oh my gosh, give me a name. Just a random name. Sam Buck. Oh, my God, Sam Buck, you’re so amazing that, like, if you’re watching this in 2019, but on that, right, and it’s a lot of comments, you know, along those lines, who’s here, first million views, and it’s just like, you’re talking about the hype that’s around it. But if you go to a true artists song, and a truly impactful song, you read those comments. You won’t see comments like that. Well, you’ll see the stories. You’ll see. You’ll see talk of people talking about. I miss her so much. And you know, this is the first song that played in my high school prom that made me think about you know, that you’re here in You know, it’s been 20 years since she passed away. And it’s like, you, you just scroll through and you’ll, you’ll see those experiences that people you know, contour off of off of that piece of art. And that’s the side of things that I want to fall on. So that that’s what I say that’s what I mean when I say I want to be an artist I want to be you know, one of the greatest you know, yeah. Right. Yeah, that’s that’s how I feel about things.

Zeke: And then when you’re making music,when somebody gives you a suggestion do you take it or do you like feel like you have to go with what’s in your mind first?

Cast: I’m pretty stubborn. But I always love hearing what people have to say always know. That being said, I take everything everyone said with a grain of salt. Because it’s always coming from somewhere, you know? So, just because you tell me now that bass is too loud doesn’t mean I’m gonna turn down the bass. You know, who are you kidding me? Unless I trust your opinion. But I always I like hearing input. And I always had to keep it pure to me like I gotta there has there has to be aligned between the song between us in the song right? So the song is definitely mine until I put it out, then you consider the basis loud or whatever, but while I’m making the song, not gonna, you know, tweak things based off of, you know, what you say you prefer to hear? I’m gonna just do it based on what I feel is necessary. If I ask for your opinion, you know that I probably value it. Yeah. You know, it’s still to a certain extent, though, because I have my own vision for the song and I’m not gonna probably compromise that just to appeal to one or two people. Yeah, yeah. I just I love the most fun part of this all for me is channeling when I have in my head into reality translating that with a high fidelity, you know not compromising quality just maintaining what i what i thought Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Zeke: Thinking aggressively

Cast: No, no, no worries. I can keep talking. Are you gonna edit all of this? gonna be one take

Zeke: There’s gonna be like one take or like if at any take out I’ll take out cool.

Cast:  I can keep talking about

Zeke: Almost every episode say I lose my thought.

Cast: Oh yeah, it’s like you have to it’s almost like a it’s almost like giving birth. I used to compare it to you know, Lego building. And you know, Build-A-Bear indoor puzzle piece. Yeah, you know, assembly. And it’s like, this word, but this thing because I was much more into the lyrical side of things, especially when I was you know, just rapping. And I still love the craft of just rapping and wordplay. But now, songs for me are like giving birth. It’s a process. It starts off there to see something is fertilized inside of my head. And it develops and it grows, you know? zygote, embryo fetus. Yeah, development. I hope.

Zeke: I don’t find you. Yeah,

Cast: It develops. And eventually it’s just like, Okay, my delivery date is on Friday. And Friday, going to the studio. That’s what happens.

Zeke: Now it grows full.

Cast: Right there. Yep. Just like you know, it’s like a you know, it’s all rush at the moment. Afterwards, I’ll be like, Whoa, that’s a whole lot. It’s not a whole lot of baby. No, mostly everything there in that moment. It’s not like building a car.

Zeke: It just comes out and whatever happens, happens,

Cast: Whatever happens happens, but sometimes it’ll come out. And I won’t expect it. You know, to come out that when it comes out, I’m like, Yo, what, you know, like what seed fertilize that egg? You know? It isn’t until like you said, reflection that I figure out. Oh, that’s what I was talking about. Yeah, that’s what I meant by this thing is like, oh, Yo, this is crazy. Or I’ll make a song and then later it’ll relate to me more like, like, that’s, that’s what I was talking about. Are you kidding me? You know, so it’s, it’s a lot of like foresight. That goes into what comes out.

Zeke: You said the puzzle thing about I seen on Facebook. It was like a puzzle of a horse. Yeah. You know, 5000 pieces like that, and the person was like, I’m not doing this. So he took like all the sky pieces and they just arranged Oh, yeah. And then based off West pieces order, like yeah, it was like the puzzle it was I said it’d be like a perfect picture. Uh huh. The like all the colors of the sky. Were just in pieces to state or something together the top and then the horse color. It wasn’t it was the shape of a horse.

Cast: Yeah, but it wasn’t like the actual original photo.

Zeke: No, really just like the shape of the color of the horse in the ground. That like how art and taking it your own way.

Cast: Yes, especially if you don’t like the photo to begin with. I was like, yeah, yeah. Art is inherent. I think it’s inherently political. The act of creating Yeah, cuz, you know, you’re disrupting something. You’re you’re going, you know, wake up, you know, you’re doing something almost abrasive, whenever you make something and put Get it out especially No. So those are my opinions on that. Yeah.

Zeke: And then has anybody ever like, came up with something? Or got a different meaning from the song you intended?

Cast: Yeah, definitely. I think that it happens often, especially when I’m talking about really personal experiences. Because I have to maintain a balance between conveying exactly what I mean. Yeah, as I mean it, but also giving you that ambiguity to play with your own experiences in the poking fun at, you know, what’s going on inside of your head. So, people have come to me like, Hey, you know, no, this video means this. I’m okay.

Zeke: I’m sorry.

Cast: I know what I’m mad by doing this. You know, this is all I met. You know,

Zeke: You do the interview with somebody like yell at the crowd. No, you’re wrong.

Cast: I’m not that’s the thing, but I can’t tell people that they’re wrong about their interpretations of ours, you can back it up. You know? Right. It’s like that. Yeah, exactly. I will say for the most part, it’s never just one. Yeah. Meaning, you know, there’s my stuff is very layered. There’s at least, you know, minimum three, three different ways to interpret the things that I do, you know,

Zeke: Triple entendre.

Cast: Say again.

Zeke: Triple.

Cast: Oh, yeah, for them. Like, I, that’s what I go for it. I do two for like, more when, when both concepts have like stories to them, but for the most part, it’s very surface level, you know, beyond the surface level, and then deep level stuff, you know, that’s why I say three. And most people get, you know, the surface level or they make their own surface level stuff. And it’s like, Yeah, do you you know, the deep stuff even I don’t fully understand it. Sometimes. It’s like, I have no clue where it comes from, you know, people always ask how to come up with the stuff that I do. I just

Zeke: Just happens.

Cast: It just happens. As best way I can, you know, succinctly put it. Yeah.

Zeke: And then if you like to make a song with Kanye or like Swizz and Timbaland, how do you think it will turn out?

Cast: How do I think it would turn out? I think it would turn out good. I think that I’m pretty versatile artist. I’m not a I’m a team player. I think it’d be good. I would love to hear what they have to say. I just want to see Timbo make a beat in person. It’s like a goal of mine, you know?

Zeke: Just be like a student’s not even an artist.

Cast: I wouldn’t I wouldn’t do anything. I just be like, you know, I just watch what these people do because they lay the groundwork for so many other artists. So I want to see what what they’re doing, you know,

Zeke: Do you think maybe we’ll check a battle with them like have your beats against their beat.

Cast: I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to. I’m not I’m competitive with myself. But I don’t really. I don’t like compare my stuff with other people. Like I’m this this experience is my own you know? I’m not looking to be better than anyone you know my brother said this my brother says that that’s why I’m great you know I’m not looking to compare I’m not looking to beat is being you Yeah, you’re still gonna make my song The most me yeah yeah.

Zeke: Next Timbaland beats Yeah, his stuff is very much this is more of a more like experimental and Swizz is more like party Mm hmm. When they had that um the battle on that concert night concert that confident. Swizz and Timbaland.

Cast: I don’t know Right, yeah. Yeah, Swizz Beatz is there are more parties and work they tend to be for the most part upbeat. Yeah, whereas with Timbo, he has more of a range I think, yeah. And his, I always say that the, the, the superpower of being a producer is drum choice, because if you find a dope ass sample, and you put it in your beat, it’ll be Adobe for the most part. But if you make it from scratch, yeah, if you make it from scratch, you’re great, but like, a great sample and bad drums. It’s like you could get a sample could be amazing. 10 out of 10 if you don’t have the drums that do a justice. So whatever beat but Timbalands drum choice is phenomenal. asteroid like incredible. His drum choice is so good. You know, you know you have a good beat when you could just press play on the drums, just the drums and listen, and people will be like, yo, that’s something you know. Timbaland has incredible drum choice Konya. Incredible drum choice Pharrell outstanding drum choice. Just press just listen to the drums don’t listen to the most people go listen to the music. Yeah, and the vibe there is going just listen to the drums, the pockets, they’re there, they’re working with you know, Timbaland has that on lock, it’s incredible. And that’s what takes a beat from like, okay to like, amazing. Most people don’t have that natural knack for drum choice. You know, they got to work on their drum choice. Yeah, you know and become good at it. If that makes sense. They’ll have a rhythm but the sound that you need, because just a snare you know, a quarter second noise you know, What color should that quarter second noise have? The greats are all able to know what it is very picky, you know. Here Timbalands style is very much, like you said experimental. It’s also very much culture. You have some different, you know, places around the world and is able to make incredible music because of it. Yeah. That’s, that’s an example of of traveling. Having a larger what you do to traveling is money that I think you’ll never waste. Yeah. Yeah.

Zeke: Cool. Yeah. I’m gonna ask you about like the state of music in hip hop. We think we’ll go next, which I think is like the next. Next Big Thing. Yeah.

Cast: It’s anyone’s game. Only because things are moving so quickly now. Yeah. You’re hot this year. You’re not hot for the next year. It’s almost like labels do it on purpose, you know, just cash cow after cash cow saying it’s not good for art, you know? No. Cuz you’re gonna get mediocre support. mediocre support means mediocre artists. Yeah. You’re gonna get YouTube comments that say who’s listening to this? It’s not people really feeling with feeling the actual vibrations going on. So I think it’s important to differentiate between real from fake and like I said in a whoops fake don’t get long term respect. Time is going to be what tells what was real what was fake? Yeah

Zeke: You still got time are you go?

Cast: Yeah, definitely. You’re gonna cut this up or something?

Zeke: Probability not. I’m gonna have like pieces but like in terms of like the episode Yeah.

Cast: But like, there’s so much value in just keeping it natural. Yeah. Everything is edited nowadays, genuine candid conversations with awkward pauses and

Zeke: Also listen to the thing of questions, right? Also like three cameras, two cameras at the same time.

Cast: Yeah, you gotta be a manager, but also be the producer, like,

Zeke: As long as you focus on the question, right, make sure that’s gonna be cool. Yeah.

Cast: Definitely. It’s a challenge.

Zeke: And streaming how you think streaming has changed music?

Cast: That’s a good question. And I think that streaming is obviously the new medium by which everything’s consumed. And it always happens where when the medium changes, the art changes. Yeah, you know, An example of that is the changing between a well, what’s the word? album? No single. Whoa, I’m forgetting well. gramophone. Wow. The gramophone, the record player record. Yeah. Like a player with a, like a speaker installed into it. Yeah. You know, those couldn’t pick up certain low end frequencies. So, in songs what happened is around like the 40s. So what happened is they switched the lowest inch from from the base to the tuba, because it was a little bit brighter. Yeah. And they’d be like, Oh, you know, when this plays on record, it’ll sound better, you know? And that’s happening. Now with Spotify. You get one play. That counts for the first 30 seconds. And now everyone’s going Yo, how do we make people stay just those first 30 seconds. You know what I mean? And how do we Get that play after the 30 seconds over, we can do whatever we want. But those first 30 seconds are crucial. How do we keep them there? And that’s what singles are evolving into. Yeah, maintaining that Spotify sound for, you know, so to speak. And it’s, it’s affecting music in the same way that any other medium can affect any other art form. You know, it changes how people experience it, it inspires the the structure for what’s going on

Zeke: That can it force you to evolve. Yeah, you have to play by new rules and whoever doesn’t get left behind.

Cast: You got to move with the soundscape if you will. With me, I’m I’m very much a proponent for ponent of authenticity. But adaptability is very big. Yeah. If you want to To survive in the industry, because not being willing to adapt means being inflexible. And things that are inflexible. You know, they break, they break, they’re brittle, they become brittle, especially over time. So it’s important to know that you have to change with the medium, you know, if you want to do those numbers, if you don’t, do you, you know, go against every system there is that break every single rule do it all, you know,

Zeke: Like, also you could you see this person do something different.

Cast: Right, but it’s also it also won’t because that none of that is, you know, people who break every single rule without even knowing that rules aren’t, you know, successful? And they end up actually following some rules. There’s always like a what? Like it’s like it’s anti culture culture. Yeah, same thing as anti culture culture. Like, you find the culture. Yeah, you’re creating a culture of anti culture here.

Zeke: You’re running in place your running in a circle.

Cast: Yes, one step forward two steps back, you know, I fundamentally believe you got to know the rules. You don’t have to break them out you got to follow some rules, play along. See what’s happening. Just play along. Close right along. Do what people expect you to do. impress people that’s what I’m what I’m doing now these singles is I’m playing by the rules. I’m keeping a cool keeping a friendly keep nice approachable. Because when that album hits savasana, anything like this. I know that full well. We get an Associates no doubt, fully well. So yeah, exactly. I’m giving hints of what I’m going to be going for in the future like at the end of Whoo. What happens at that epilogue is extremely important but what’s going on there is very much it’s very different you know from everything else around in from oops, and you give them a false sense of security. Yeah,

Zeke: You not trapped them but like something do something different.

Cast: Yeah, exactly. You know, surprise them. Perfect word surprise them. When you come out of, you know, left field with just like, oh, and this, you know, like, here’s this, you know, this new single it’s got something like that to where it’s like, you know, oh shit Josh is playing with

Zeke: New at the time of recording.

Cast: Yeah, it’s like yeah, new, relatively speaking. So I’m trying to speak about the single like initiative. Already, because I guess by the time we put this out, it’s out already right?

Zeke: It’s coming out. Recording like next Friday. It’s out next Friday. Yeah, so definitely gonna be out by All right, so I’m just

Cast: Talking about Oh, all right. So Whoo, the andina, who is very, it’s so you know, different and I’m like, I’m playing with that sound. So, you know, don’t think I’ve, you know, completely compromised, that I’ll go for you why it’s saturated. And the beginning of same thing, the very beginning those first 30 seconds are, you know, I should is different that’s just unlike anything you’ve ever heard. And I am fully aware that, but then I switch right back into the old style, you know, so as soon as it drops you, you know, you get it. But when I when I got you for those 30 seconds at the end, or at the beginning of a song, you know, just know what my strong suits are just because I’m making it slap doesn’t mean you know, that I can’t express what I’m feeling and I can’t Make some you know, new new shit. Yeah. So just because the beat is something that reminds you of, you know, oh, this is early 2000s Timbaland production for I know, you know, Yeah, sounds like you know Vince Brockhampton that whatever, right like I know what I’m going for I know what I’m doing. There’s a plan there’s a method to my madness there always is. And it excites me talking about it because I cannot wait. I cannot wait for when this album is out to just totally for people. That’s exactly what it’s gonna do. I’m playing right into my sound. I’ve almost made a sound off of playing into that sound. You know, my style is very eclectic. I draw inspiration from so many different places. So I’m going to have different sounds that I can master. You know what’s happening with Ugh Whoo, aha, that kind of thing. I’m, you know, getting very good at that. Yeah. And I will continue to get very good at that it only goes uphill from here. I’ve hit every single nail on the head so far, you know. So I’ve only gotten better with time and I will I will only get better with time. Yeah, you know, so long as I’m tapped into what’s going on. And I’m excited for what the future holds. Definitely. So go stream Ugh. And you’ll know what I’m talking about here. Because that song is a is different. Hope that was good.

Zeke: Yeah, I guess.

Cast: Yeah. Family Just follow me at totally not cast. Totally, totally not cast. Totally as in Totally. Totally not like totally not, not totally not cast, like totally Not cast the best way I could put it.

Zeke: And then they say like the same music sounds the same. Yeah. Anything? Because I think this is like back in the day was competition I got sound like me. Mm hmm. It can’t tell anybody else. anybody’s influenced by like the same five people yeah.

Cast: Regards everyone sounding the same. That’s just the result of people trying to be special. The problem with the game is that everyone is trying to be that special hot new thing. Yeah. And when everyone’s trying to be special, we all end up sounding the same, you know? Some but then they swear like it’s like Nah, I’m just doing mean like, that’s interesting because you sound awfully similar. ABCD XYZ Yeah. I think we’re to experience some sort of cultural shift in the next few years. Yeah, I definitely do think that almost like a renaissance.

Zeke: Yeah, I was thinking about because I asked my own friend in Episode Five about cultural like a cultural Renaissance?

Cast: I’d say weren’t the beginnings of it?

Zeke: Yeah cuz like everybody starting to do podcast anyways do me like me moving well automation starting to pushes out of like jobs and stuff like that Yeah. And like the only thing left was like do creative stuff right? So I think Yeah, I agree with you on that we’re in that class of Renaissance

Cast: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m, I’m pretty sure with the beginnings of it because of how things have moved politically and globally, you know, climate crisis. we’re realizing we do not have that much time left on this earth.

Zeke:  Every other countries. catches on fire yeah

Cast: All the fires. It’s still hectic right now. For sure.

Zeke: And with that in mind, like how do you feel like I know like, every generation artists are always like, well, I guess say back in the day all championship message about like more climates of chemists they changed like that. How do you feel like it’s a job or just do it? I’m always like, there aren’t It’s not like I don’t have all the answers.

Cast: Yeah. I don’t really have much to say on that.

Zeke: Yeah, like war. Right. Forget the name. And like John Lennon like, oh, would you? Give peace a chance? Oh, you had a song on What’s Going On? with Marvin Gaye?

Cast: Right. I think that it’s I think artists don’t have an obligation to talk about politics. They could do whatever they want. I think there’s a certain level of courage that it takes to, to do that.

Zeke: No one had a boss ASAP Rocky thing was just like everything. Yeah. And there’s a lot how you didn’t talk about policies beforehand. But like he said, like he’s not an expert. Exactly. So you probably do more damage even talking about we talk about politics. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Cast: Yeah, being a political artist. It’s a weird term for me. You know, people ask me if I’m a political artist, what do I consider myself one? But I don’t really consider. I don’t I don’t feel comfortable calling myself cast as a political artist. I know that’s true. Some feel right.

Zeke: Yeah.

Cast: It’s like a label within a label, artists, political artists. I’m an emotional artist. I make Yeah. Yeah.

Zeke: Rather than wondering well, people

Cast: Yeah, for sure. Hour bit our folder too long now.

Zeke: I don’t know wrap it up. So we then go to find the segment. Sure. You got anything else to say? No. Oh, final segment. Do you have anything else to say? Oh, my gosh, anything. Yeah,

Cast: I’m dropping Madden music. It’s not over yet. I got a lot of stuff in the vault I’m gonna be putting out. Make sure to follow me. The easiest way to keep up with what I’m doing. Just turn on post notifications. can I talk about this for a little bit. All right. So when you turn on post notifications, you’re doing a couple of things. First of all, You’re getting an immediate, really quick Instagram notification that I’m doing something. Second of all, you’re providing me insight on like, who actually cares about what I’m doing? Because I see who engages first with the content that I put out. And I see okay, these people, I’m very much a I’m a people person I, I see, okay, this person, this person are genuine. They’re giving me genuine support. And I see that. And lastly, I do not post that often. Yeah, whenever I do post, it’s an important thing. It’s like a substantive thing. So when you turn on post notifications, you’re just getting, you know, you’re just getting the goods. Yeah. Right when they right as they come, you know? So it’s just, it’s just easier for all of us. And it just it clutters out all of the fields. That way you don’t stumble across. Oh, by the way, yeah, that’s what I saw. And then every new thing, it’s just a direct thing. Hey, I’m doing this, you know, it’s much more clean. Yeah, direct and up. Front about what I do and you getting it just easier for everyone. It’s a cool it’s a good feature. Yeah. And I think that it should be utilized so turn on post notifications. I don’t post that often. I’m not I don’t think I’m annoying. Hope so. Yeah.

Zeke: What? How would you would you name your origin story?

Cast: What would I name my origin story? Probably the thread that thread. Yeah, like word was the string. The string? Yeah, something like that. Because it’s all connected. Yeah, cool. That answer? Yeah, bro. Thank you for having me on here. No problem. This is a pleasure to see you soon. Let me know when this is out so I can judge myself. Wow, watch it. Yeah, yeah. Totally not Cast. Yes.

Zeke: You’re on the podcast.

Cast: Are we good? Yeah.

Zeke: That brings another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast to a close. Again you go follow Cast at TotallyNotCast on Instagram, and EP, The Payment on all streaming platforms. Next week Matt makes a return from the first episode right before he moves to Spain to talk about sports. I hope you continue to have a nice day and hope to see you there.

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