Cassette - The Jingle Kings are Back

Photo: Simon Wilson

Who is in Cassette at present and what do they contribute?
Tom: Apart from Craig and myself, there's Andrew Bain on bass - who we're incredibly lucky to have, he's very solid and dexterous. And there's Luke Buda on keys and vocals who adds another dimension with his tasteful playing and arrangements. Craig brings the most solid rock drumming this side of the Tasman. Any band is only as good as their drummer, and if we didn't have Craig, we wouldn't have the basis to the band. Its also been said that he sings like an angel, plus he's a bloody character.
Craig: Tom brings the songs, which I think is pretty important. And he also brings his guitars and his determination. Without kissing his arse - I genuinely mean this: a fantastic sense of humour. There's been so many times that if we didn't have Tom, it would have been horrible, doing what we do. I think all bands need a sense of humour.

How was Melbourne for the band? What made Cassette come back to Wellington?
Tom: When we landed in Melbourne we went through what I think most bands go through. We were really excited and felt pretty special. But before we knew it our five minutes of fame was up and we went with the last offer standing which was Infidelity. It seemed to be a really appropriate label for us however, with Bruce Milne and Steve Stavrokos at the helm. At the time, they had really good cred so it felt right. Our first EP was called 'Emo' but they called it the 'Nothing To Do' EP.
We then spent eons making our follow up record 'Cut for Summer'. It was the first time we'd decided to make a proper record. We bought a computer with Pro Tools and called in all our favours from friends, and went down a crazy garden path. At the end of it all, after exhausting all favours and spending most of our money, we still didn't know how to finish it.
Craig: It was also because a lot of the songs had been around for a while. The longer you have a song in your head and listen to it over and over - the more you have a preconception about how that song should sound. Anything less than that is a failure and instead of being pragmatic about it and forging ahead - all across the board, all of us thought about it too much and found it really hard to be happy with. When 'Cut for Summer' finally came out, it got good reviews and everything, but there was so much music going on it was hard to tell whether it made an impact or not.
I ended up feeling a bit rootless over in Melbourne and I came back to Wellington to relax. When I returned there was all this cool music happening, there was a whole new buzz. I fell in with Luke Buda and Sam Scott and they got me playing with them a whole lot more. I felt my confidence return and that made me stay. Playing on Luke's first solo album really restored a lot of faith in me - going into the studio and playing drums and singing and then seeing his album come out soon after was just awesome.
Tom: Just after playing our album release in Australia, our management came undone and I didn't know what to do about it. Unless you're gifted with the schmooze or you're tenacious, which I'm neither because I hate it, no one wants to really know you. It's hard to get your music listened to. I struggled on in Oz with Paul Trigg who was our other bassist/guitarist and we did some acoustic gigs. Craig would come over and do some recording but it was incredibly hard work and not very satisfying. Paul ended up going to the UK for a holiday and I was like; 'What am earth am I doing here?' With Craig playing music in Wellington and our best tours happening in NZ - it was totally natural to return and continue to get Cassette going.